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CNN International: Parliament Begins Voting on Bill to Weaken Supreme Court; Russian Missiles Damage Historic Ukrainian Cathedral; Mass Evacuation Underway in Greek Tourist Spots; Officer Unleashes Police Dog on Unarmed Black Man. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired July 24, 2023 - 08:00   ET

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

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MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to CNN "Newsroom", I'm Max Foster in London. Just ahead, tense scenes in Israel. Head of a major vote happening today on parts of Benjamin Netanyahu's controversial judicial reform plans.

We live in Jerusalem with the latest, thousands of fleeing raging wildfires in Greece right now creating chaos in airports amid peak tourist season. What you need to know? And drones hit Moscow overnight, as Ukraine claims the attack, live report from the ground.

Voting is now underway in the Israeli parliament on the first part of a sweeping judicial overhaul bill, which would severely weaken the power of the country's Supreme Court. Thousands of protesters are gathered outside the Knesset right now, as you can see were earlier police dragged one group of demonstrators away.

At least 12 people were arrested. Critics say the overhaul will put Israel on the path to dictatorship. The Prime Minister, who's out of hospital after being fitted with a pacemaker yesterday, says it's needed to prevent judicial overreach. Hadas Gold joins us live in Jerusalem. Just explain what's happening today, because isn't the overall plan going through Parliament today?

HADAS GOLD, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, in the next few minutes, actually, Max, we may be seeing those second and then the third final vote for this bill, this legislation that's being debated right now. It's just part of the judicial overhaul.

But if it passes, it will be the first part of the digital overhaul that will pass the parliamentary process what this bill specifically says it's trying to strip away the Supreme Court's ability to cancel government actions to prevent them from taking action that the Supreme Court says is unreasonable.

Now, the protesters here we're just outside the Supreme Court, this road leads down to the Israeli parliament. And that's why you're seeing these thousands of protesters walking by because they want to be as close as possible to the Israeli parliament. They want those lawmakers inside to hear their shouts to hear their chants. They are fearful that if this legislation passes, that is the beginning of the end of Israeli democracy. They feared that it would get unfettered access to do what it pleases. So their Supreme Court here is essentially the only check on the Israeli government because of the parliamentary process.

Now that they are seeing lots of reports of some last minute deal making that people are trying to, Ministers are trying to make to potentially delay this vote. But all indications are pointing to the government and Benjamin Netanyahu who arrived to the Parliament assembly straight from hospital after getting that pacemaker that they are going to be pushing ahead.

This despite the concerns of thousands of military reservists who said they will not heed the call to serve as the circulation passes a lot of concerns about what that means for Israeli military preparedness. And we just heard from President Joe Biden once again, in an overnight statement, calling on Israeli leaders.

He said not to rush into this to come to a consensus on this. This is the second statement we're hearing from President Biden on this judicial overhaul in the span of just about a week. And yet Benjamin Netanyahu, you know, he's facing a lot of pressure from his own governing coalition.

And listen, they have the votes they have the majority in parliament. They say that they were voted in November and this is their right to do so and this is what the voters want, Max.

FOSTER: OK, Hadas Gold in Jerusalem. Thank you back with us to get updates on how that bill progresses. Russia says it down to a pair of Ukrainian drones over Moscow. Authorities, there see the drones damage to non-residential buildings but were suppressed by electronic warfare.

In a rare move, a Ukrainian Defense Intelligence Official tells CNN, Ukraine did carry out Monday morning's drone attacks on the Russian capital one eyewitness described exactly what happened.

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POLINA, MOSCOW RESIDENT: I was asleep and was woken up by an explosion. Everything started to shake. It felt like the whole building had come down. But it sounded worse than it looked as it seemed like the whole mall had exploded.

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FOSTER: The attacks come after Russia missiles badly damaged and historic orthodox cathedral in the Southern Ukrainian Port City of Odessa. The strikes there killed at least one person and injured several others. Alex Marquardt is at the damage Cathedral in Odessa and it's a World Heritage Site, isn't it, Alex?

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: It is, in fact this whole area is, Max, and it is extraordinary to see the level of damage after what has been almost a week of strikes almost daily by the Russians on this city. At least 25 different monuments have been damaged in one of the latest Russian strikes, including this cathedral where we are this is the Transfiguration Cathedral.

We've been asked by the church to wear these hard hats because there's a lot of work going on here. I just want to show you some of the damage as these workers tried to clear the debris over here in the corner. This is the worst of it. This is where we've been told that a missile or a rocket came a shooting down through the roof.

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You can see that the sky and the sun is pouring through you hear, that rocket going down at least two floors were told, there are pock marks in this marble floor from the debris. You can see how strong that blast was. And then over here, Max, is the altar, that the pillars they're leaning over.

You can see that structure there is only really being held up by the fact that it is leaning against the wall there and then I'm going to ask my cameraman Scott McWhinney to pan up to the dome, that beautiful gold dome with all of those windows blown out. There is an extraordinary amount of damage in here, Max.

These workers have been working around the clock since this strike early on Sunday morning to try to clear it. They clearly they certainly have weeks if not months of work ahead of them. Now in the wake of these strikes here in Odessa, President Zelenskyy has said that what you pray now needs is more air defenses, what he called a full-fledged sky shield.

And I sat down for an exclusive TV interview with Ukraine's Defense Minister Oleksii Resnikov. And I started off by asking him if he was surprised at the ferocity of these Russian attacks on this city, take a listen.

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OLEKSII RESNIKOV, UKRAINIAN DEFENSE MINISTER: Honestly not, because after the February of last year, it's very difficult to surprise me.

MARQUARDT (on camera): But it was night after night of drones and missiles, all kinds of different targets. They say it was in response to the attack on the Kerch Bridge.

RESNIKOV: They every time trying to find the reason for the behavior, the reason how to explain the massive attacks. They try to explain that it's response for some explosives in their territories, but they fighting with the civilians. That's why I call them looters, rapists and murderers.

MARQUARDT (on camera): You have also issued a threat saying that you will turn other Russian ships into the Moskva, which was the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet, which you famously sank last April. Are you planning to escalate attacks against Russian ships in the Black Sea? RESNIKOV: We have capacity. We have weaponry as we did with the cruiser Moskva. And if they will, threatening us in the Black Sea. We'll have to response.

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MARQUARDT: And Max, I also asked the Defense Minister about recent attacks on Crimea by Ukraine and on the Kerch Bridge which connects Russia with Russian occupied Crimea in the past when we've seen these attacks. In both places, the Russians had been rather coy not really admitting that they were responsible.

But now they're openly saying that these attacks will continue because these are valid military targets. They're logistical lines, logistical nodes, so Resnikov, making clear Ukrainian attacks on that bridge. The Kerch Bridge and the Crimean peninsula are set to continue as this war drags on, Max.

FOSTER: OK, Alex, thank you so much for bringing them up from the cathedral. Now, officials are scrambling to evacuate tens of thousands of tourists from several Greek islands where wildfires are burning out of control. The fires are touching all corners of the country.

But are especially worrisome in Rhodes and Corfu two very popular tourist spots, the most significant evacuations taking place in Rhodes, where nearly 20,000 people have been moved out around 2000 people have been evacuated in Corfu, Journalist, Elinda Labropoulou tracking this story for us.

And so pretty desperate stories coming out of there not just from tourists, of course, but also from the residents are having to help deal with all of this.

ELINDA LABROPOULOU, JOURNALIST: Well, yes, absolutely. I mean, you're looking at the absolute peak season and for tourists in all the Greek islands. So what is happening in Rhodes means that thousands of people have now left to the island. And it's very likely that thousands more will not be coming in, a number of flights have already been suspended.

And a number of flights are being only used for repatriations. So as you understand this is really a big hit also for the tourism industry on the Island of Rhodes. The same goes for Corfu, where there's another large fire raging there. So authorities in Greece are trying to tell tourists to stay calm.

They are helping them out, they have put a number of mechanisms in place in order to get them out safely. The Greek Prime Minister said today that the country is actually at war with the fires. He said that there are a few more difficult days ahead, because Greece is facing a prolonged heat wave at the moment.

And temperatures are expected to rise again as of tomorrow for another few days before temperatures cool down later in the week. But in the very affected area so far, luckily we had no loss of life, no severe injuries of any kind. Just a few people with respiratory problems are taken to hospitals.

But as we understand, you know people having to flee with just their passports were just very few of their belongings in hand is not really anyone's idea of a holiday where I am which is greater Athens right now.

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Basically, there have been fires here for the entire week all of last week rekindle links throughout the weekend. Now things are calm, but some houses have burned and basically what we're dealing with now in Greece is every once in a while there's just news of yet another fire, another fire, another fire, simply because the country is so dry.

It's like a tinderbox right now with temperatures expected to raise beyond 40 degrees Celsius again in the next few days ahead, Max.

FOSTER: OK. Elinda in Greece, thank you. Now stuck in an impasse, Sunday's snap elections in Spain were meant to choose new leadership for the country. But with almost all of the votes counted, it remains far from clear, who will actually take power next, the center right Partido Popular, is set to come in first with the 136 seats in parliament.

But in order to govern a party of a coalition might have a working majority of 176 seats in the 350 seats legislature, but because no single party won enough seats to form a government on their own. The tough task of trying to build a coalition must begin. Journalist Al Goodman joins me now from Madrid. How's it looking as if this even can shake out, Al?

AL GOODMAN, JOURNALIST: Hi, Max. Well, we're told that the backroom dealing has already begun even hours after the results are in but one result and the results of how this coalition might play out are not quite clear. But one result it does seem clear is that Spaniards who voted not to allow the far right Vox party into Spanish government, which would have been the first time in about 50 years not since the end of the Franco dictatorship with his death.

Those far right units were far right elements for in the Spanish government. The voters for the main Conservative Party, they were 40 seats short on their own from the parliamentary majority and even added with Vox, they still came up about seven seats short. So that has breathed a sigh of relief into many, especially on the left who warned of this.

The far right has been coming up across Europe, its governing in Italy, it's gotten into the government in Finland, Spaniards decided not here, not now, as far as the coalition there already is one with socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has had a coalition for the last four years.

An aide to him a senior leader at the party, tell CNN earlier this day that trying to do this again, will be even tougher because nationalist parties in Catalonia that's the area around Barcelona and in the Northern Basque region, because of the vote results and their increased value for a potential left coalition.

They're going to extract, try to extract a higher price. So the backroom dealing has clearly already begun. We may not have a sense of where this is going, Max, until Parliament sort of reopens its doors in mid-August, Max.

FOSTER: OK Al, thanks for bringing us that. Now the United Nations Command says it is talking with North Korea about U.S. soldier Travis King. U.S. military says the Army Private willfully and without authorization crossed the border from the south into the north whilst on a tour last week. He hasn't been publicly seen or heard from since.

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ANDREW HARRISON, DEPUTY COMMANDER OF U.N. COMMAND: The conversation has commenced with the KPA through the mechanisms of the armistice agreement.

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FOSTER: The U.N. Deputy Commander says the case is still under investigation but the major concern is Private King's welfare. Goodbye Twitter, Hello X the social media giant has begun radical rebranding replacing the iconic bird logo with an X. Owner Elon Musk shared a picture of Twitter headquarters lit up by the new logo.

Since Musk took over in October the company has faced steep losses in ad revenue, massive layoffs and according to Musk has teetered on the brink of bankruptcy. Still to come, a vacation nightmare, I'll be speaking to tourists who were forced to evacuate from Greece when wildfires came just a bit too close.

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FOSTER: Why are airlines still flying tourists to Greece was hundreds of desperately trying to escape the fires there? Airports on the popular tourist Island of Rhodes are packed with people sleeping there being forced to evacuate waiting for flights but some airlines are continuing to bring people to the island.

A Greek official say around 20,000 people have got out since Saturday calling it the largest evacuation in Greek history. Fires are also threatening popular tourist resorts in Corfu. The officials say the situation there isn't nearly as alarming as in Rhodes with a thousands of tourists there. Their vacations have turned into utter nightmares.

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HELEN PICKERING, TOURIST FROM LEICESTERSHIRE AT ENGLAND: It was chaos. Absolutely, the surge is towards the two or three buses that arrived and everyone screaming and shouting and crying because people couldn't even get on the flights yesterday and we're desperate to get home.

(END VIDEO CLIP) FOSTER: Our next guest has just arrived back in the U.K., lucky for her after a hellish few days in Greece. Jess Bailey and her family were on that Island of Rhodes. Thanks for joining us what happened when the fires came in?

JESS BAILEY, EVACUATED FROM RHODES, GREECE: Well, we didn't know anything about it until we landed at about half past 10 on Saturday night. And they were just huge amounts of TUI customers coming in on flights. And obviously, there were issues with the lack of hotels.

So, there was nowhere for people to go. So the hotel I was due to go to was effectively cut off from the fires from the rest of Rhodes. So there was no way that we could get there. So it was just a scene of total chaos and lack of reps from TUI to help us and a kind of a lot of hanging around.

And then we got sent off in a taxi to the evacuation center in the basketball arena. But by the time we got there, that was actually full, so we were sent to a school nearby.

FOSTER: And I have been hearing stories about people being told to leave their hotels still in their swimwear, they weren't allowed to pack so they haven't got passport. So that's only adding to the chaos.

BAILEY: Yes, I mean, it was a real sense of chaos. And what was really noticeable to me was the fact that it was the local volunteers who were helping the tourists. I didn't see Terry at the evacuation center anybody when we arrived, and the word people I believe without their possessions.

I mean, I was in a room of in school classroom with about 20 other people. And mostly they were people who literally just flown in, but I think there were other people as well who'd come of other nationalities who'd come from resorts where they tapped to flee.

FOSTER: So TUI is the package holiday company, that's who you're flying with. Is that right?

BAILEY: That's right. So --

FOSTER: -- I mean it's a wonder, isn't it? That you were allowed to fly then knowing that your hotel wasn't available?

BAILEY: That's what I just cannot understand. I mean, it was clearly already an emerging crisis. And actually, I think just flying in hundreds, or possibly more than 1000 people. I mean, there were so many airlines coming in to the airlines from all over the country from Glasgow, from Bristol, from Luton, from Manchester.

And then it just created even more of a problem for the Greek authorities, because then they had to manage all of us as well and find us places to go on top of evacuations from the hotels themselves.

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FOSTER: And we just had a statement from the Prime Minister here in the U.K. saying is his Paramount priority. The safety of British nationals is the priority for him in Greece, urging them to contact their tour operators. But you're an example of the problem, aren't you, because you're trying to contact your tour operator, and you couldn't. So what do you think about the fact that they're still flying people out?

BAILEY: Well, I think it's absolutely outrageous that people are still being flown out. I think that, you know, my concern was the safety of everybody, the fact that actually additional tourism, a tourist is putting more burdens on the people who are on the ground struggling to feed everybody.

And I think the tour operators in this day of modern communication and the internet, there's absolutely no excuse for poor communication. And I think, you know, when I left the hotel yesterday, which was not the hotel sorry, I wish I'd got to the hotel. When I left the school yesterday, about five o'clock in the afternoon, there was no information, there was still no information.

And I think that the people that I was there with, many of them will have spent another night in the school. So I think bringing people in an emerging crisis is just completely the wrong thing to do. And I think that when there is a crisis, I think large operators like TUI have a responsibility to look after their customers and they certainly didn't look after us.

FOSTER: OK, we'll try and get a response from TUI today because a lot of people are coming up with exactly the same criticism that you've suggested there. Thank you very much indeed for joining us Jess Bailey.

BAILEY: Thank you.

FOSTER: I'm so sorry about your -- holiday.

BAILEY: Thank you very much.

FOSTER: Now, an Ohio police department under scrutiny after an officer unleashed a canine on an unarmed black man who was surrendering his hands in the air. And look at what led to that disturbing encounter.

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FOSTER: The NAACP America's largest civil rights group is slamming an Ohio police department after an officer unleashed a canine on an unarmed black man who had his hands in the air or the encounter happened on July the fourth. The law enforcement officials just released the body cam video. CNN's Polo Sandoval takes us through what happened.

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POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The footage provided by Ohio State Highway Patrol is disturbing but now under scrutiny after a man was mauled by police officers canine. Live for Jackson County, Ohio. A case report shows a highway patrol officer in a marked vehicle tried stopping the driver of this big rig for missing mud flap.

The man behind the wheel later identified by authorities as 23 year old Jaddarius Rose drives on and a chase begins, about 20 minutes into the pursuit the big rig is seen rolling to a stop. But that lasts only a few seconds the driver continues to flee and officers stay on him for another eight minutes.

It wasn't until police use tire deflation devices that the chase came to slow but dramatic and disturbing stuff. That's a Circleville, Ohio police department K9 unit rolling up to the scene after repeated orders from state troopers to driver eventually steps out of the rig his hands in the air as requested.

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A patrolman is heard asking the canine to not be released though it's unclear if he could be heard by all officers on scene. That's when the canine is deployed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're not released the dog with his hands up. They're not released the dog with his hands up. They're not released the dog with his hands up.

SANDOVAL: After the canine takedown an officer approaches then quickly walks away, her hands covering her face is, Rose, screams and pain, the frustration audible and the voice of another state officer. After the dog is removed, officers move in to arrest Rose and administer first aid.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They've got a dog bite all you do is come to me. I was coming out to go as coordinator Heidi's able to respect you. You got to call upon him. It's like 20 --

SANDOVAL: A spokesperson for the Ohio State Highway Patrol tell CNN as troopers were attempting to gain compliance by providing verbal commands to the suspect. The Circleville Police Department deployed their canine, which resulted in the suspect being bitten.

CNN has reached out to the Circleville Police Department for comment. Police say Rose was taken to a local hospital where he was treated and released before being taken to jail. His attorney declined to comment.

SANDOVAL (on camera): Per that case report that was filed, Rose, reportedly spoke to troopers while he was at the hospital being treated for his injuries maintained that he had no idea why they were attempting to pull him over that he was simply trying to haul a delivery to Grove City, Ohio before making his way home.

Meanwhile, the Head of the Columbus, Ohio chapter of the NAACP saying that she is appalled by what she saw in this video and is calling for an investigation into the actions of that K9 unit, Palo Sandoval, CNN, New York.

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FOSTER: Thanks for joining me here on CNN "Newsroom", I'm Max Foster. "World Sport" with Amanda is up next.

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