Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Protesters Vow To Fight On Despite Passage Of Key Law; Shekel Fails To Three-Year Low Versus Dollar; Wildfire Burns In Southern Europe And North Africa; Ecuador President Declares State Of Emergency In Prison System; Chinese Foreign Minister Replaced. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired July 26, 2023 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:00:00]
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM. At what cost? Protesters dig in, military reservists refuse to report for duty while Israeli stops and the shekel continue to fall, as Israel's far right government holds the line on its widely condemned judicial overhaul.
Greece is again at the epicenter of Europe's heatwave, as firefighters struggled to contain dozens of wildfires as temperatures saw again this Wednesday.
And before there was an armistice, there was the Battle of White Horse Hill, one of the bloodiest of the Korean War seven decades on. The memories of a soldier who survived.
ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with John Vause.
VAUSE: Great to have you with us for this hour. We begin in Israel where the stock market continues to plummet. The currency the shekel is at a three-year low. Moody's has downgraded the country's sovereign credit rating to dislike, tens of thousands continue to protest in the streets. Thousands of military reservists are refusing to report to duty posing a threat to national security.
There's been widespread international condemnation. And now Israel's far right coalition government is warning they've only just starting with the attempt to weaken the authority of the Supreme Court.
The legislation has sparked multiple legal challenges to the court itself. But if the court strikes down this law, gutting its own power, it will create what could be a constitutional crisis. Here's what one Israeli minister told CNN.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RON DERMER, ISRAEL MINISTER OF STRATEGIC AFFAIRS: I have no idea whether or not the Supreme Court would make such a decision. It would seem to me a very strange decision for the Supreme Court to make. To put it in American terms, imagine that --
ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: We're almost out of time, sir. So, would the government heed that ruling? Yes or no?
DERMER: The government will always obey and abide by the rule of law in Israel because we're -- we have in Israel the rule of law. What we don't have is the rule of judges.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: The passage of the bill has rattled the Israeli military and national security. Officials say there's been an increase in reservists asking to end their service. They've threatened to stop volunteering if the bill was passed. More details now from CNN's Fred Pleitgen reporting in from Jerusalem.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): As protests continue to grip Israel, among those taking to the streets, many military reservists angry at the Netanyahu government's moves to weaken the country's Supreme Court, even some who are just getting ready to serve saying they feel alienated.
PLEITGEN: What do you think this means for the Israeli army because there's so much division right now in society? Unity is so important for Israel.
ETHAN LAZAL, PROTESTER: We want to serve the values of the country and not some prime minister that does whatever he want. We need to have a democratic country if we can -- if we want to serve this country.
PLEITGEN (voice over): Both men and women perform mandatory military service in Israel and many later continued as often highly skilled reservists, crucial for a small country under constant threat.
But now, around 10,000 reservists have vowed to refuse service saying they believe that judicial overhaul would undermine democracy and the balance of power.
RON SCHERF, ISRAELI RESERVIST: This is a very sad day for me. I'm volunteering for 23 years already in the reserve army only. All my life volunteering and fighting for Israel. We feel we're doing the right thing, and that we are fighting for the democracy of Israel.
YIFTACH GOLOV, ISRAELI RESERVIST: They stop the madness, stop the destruction of the army to make sure that Israel will remain a democracy.
PLEITGEN (voice over): The move led to backlash from both the military leadership and the government. The chief of staff pleading with the reservists.
LT. GEN. HERZI HALEVI, CHIEF OF GENERAL STAFF, ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES (through translator): Even those who have made a decision with a heavy heart not to report, the IDF needs you.
PLEITGEN (voice over): Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu critical of the dissenters. BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): We all know that the Israeli Defense Forces rely on dedicated reservists who love the country. The call for refusal harms the security of all the citizens of the country.
PLEITGEN (voice over): Concerns about the future of Israel's military are so grave, even opposition politicians fighting hard against Netanyahu whose efforts to curtail the Supreme Court's powers are calling on the reservists to reconsider.
BENNY GANTZ, FORMER ISRAELI DEFENSE MINISTER (through translator): Even in this very difficult hour, I call upon my brothers who were serving and volunteering continue to guard our safety, our security. Give us a strong country to be able to amend things.
[00:05:02]
PLEITGEN (voice over): But many Israelis are clearly not betting on politicians amending things. Instead, taking to the streets to voice their anger.
Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Jerusalem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Moody's credit rating warns the judicial overhaul is posing a serious threat to the economy. Across the country, businesses have closed in protest, others shut down by the ongoing demonstrations.
Moody's have projected economic growth in Israel of three percent this year and in 2024. But now warns the country faces significant risk of political and social tensions that will harm the economy, as well as security.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says any negative economic consequences will be momentary.
Yannay Spitzer is an economist at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He joins me now from Boston, Massachusetts. Thanks very much for being with us. We appreciate your time.
SPITZER: Hello, John. Thank you for -- thanks for having me here.
VAUSE: OK, so let's start with the basics. Let's look at the stock market. And for a point of reference, we have the S&P 500 on this graph, it's in a blue line. And the blue line here is compared to the TA-35, which is the 35 biggest companies in Israel, and the TA-125, the 125 -- that's the one, companies by capitalization.
And for almost all of last year, these three indices were moving together, once we get to the election of the right wing coalition government back in November 1st last year, you see, the TA -- can we go back to the graph, please. The TA and the TA-125, they start heading south. Yes, can we go back to that graph? Thank you.
Yes, we see the blue line, the S&P gains in value, the total of the TA-35 and TA-125 losing value.
So, cause and effect arguments can often be misleading. But in the past eight months, has there been any other ongoing factors which could explain the widespread differential between Israeli stocks and U.S. stocks.
SPITZER: So, it's very hard to come up with any such events that would create a 26 or 27 percent underperformance of the Israeli stocks that in normal times, really trace the S&P 500 like a shadow. It's kind of a peculiar feature of the Israeli markets.
Now, those things have happened in the past, but not to such an extent, and are pretty rare.
So, it's hard to prove things. But we also have strong evidence from exchange rates that have depreciated way and above beyond what markets would explain.
We can estimate an excess depreciation of the shekel on the order of 17 percent. This two pieces of evidence indicates that simply put the Israeli financial assets are diminishing in value.
And local investors, the -- what we call the institutional banks, pension funds, are trying to send out their money. By doing that, the value of the Israel financial assets are diminishing.
VAUSE: Is there a number on that? Can we put a dollar figure on or a shekel or figure or percentage of GDP?
SPITZER: So, I would be -- I would be very careful in stating figures. But if you take it as on face value, this looks like a loss just on the stock market of something approaching or exceeding 300 billion shekels, which is just about $80 billion, or between 15 and 20 percent of Israeli GDP. This is a huge wealth loss. And this is after just one law has been passed.
VAUSE: And so, one particular in particular, one sector of the economy, which has been hit hardest by all of this.
SPITZER: Yes. So, that will be the high tech sector. The high tech sector with Israel is disproportionately large in per capita terms and in terms of the share of the economy, Israel is the most high tech country in the world.
And this is a huge asset. This is what has been driving Israeli growth over the past 30 years. And it's also the most fragile sector of the economy.
And we are deeply worried about what's going to happen in it. And we all know this is terribly worrying signs.
So, we know that although globally, there has been a decline in investments going to the high tech sector, but the decline in Israel has far exceeded the decline -- the global decline in this sector.
Also, yes -- VAUSE: Sorry to interrupt. But when Netanyahu -- Benjamin Netanyahu says any hits to the economy will be simply momentary and the economy is strong. Is he right?
SPITZER: Far from it. Far from it and we're deeply worried. We're less worried about the short term damage, what we're forecasting is long, deep and painful deterioration of the Israeli economy. We're talking about not days and weeks and months, we're talking about decades to come, at the end of which Israel is going to be a backwardness.
VAUSE: Here's part of the reason why Moody's downgraded Israel's sovereign credit from stable to disliked status. It reads, we believe the wide ranging nature of the government's proposals could materially weaken the Judiciary's independence and disrupt effective checks and balances between the various branches of government, which are important aspects of strong institutions.
[00:10:15]
So, to be clear, what they're saying here is the reason why the rating was lowered, not essentially because of the protests or the industrial action or the strikes, but specifically because of the law itself and the Democratic consequences, is that correct?
SPITZER: So, let me just be clear that this is not a downgrading of the credit rating of Israel. This is a warning against investments in Israel.
Basically, Moody's is calling the international investors, step out, this is not the right time to move in.
But in their explanation, they're really hitting the nail on the head. The problem is the constitutional setup that Netanyahu coalition is designing for Israel.
So, from decades of research in economic history and political economy, we know that institutions matter, and the constitutional setup of the country matters for its long run economic outcomes.
And specifically, countries that are wealthy and prosperous, are countries in which there are inclusive institutions where the Constitution's set up is sharing, inclusive, and there are checks and balances. And the executive is not free to do whatever it -- whatever it wants.
And if you look at the common denominators of all of the components of the judicial overhaul, it's just one. It's about concentrating power at the hands of the governing coalition.
Right now, the Supreme Court and to some degree, also the bureaucracy are the only real guarantor of checks and balances in the Israeli system. And all of those laws in many different ways are trying to neutralize them and to subdue them to the governing coalition.
And if ever everything is going to pass, we're going to have a government, the coalition that governs the country without checks and balances. And it's very clear what the problem is. It's pretty scary, to be honest.
What's going to be it's going to be a coalition government that serves the interests of a small majority, the ultra-orthodox, the extreme right wing, the settlers, and the populist right wing and the rights of the minorities and of the liberal, secular or moderately religion Israelis are going to be jeopardized. This is a recipe for long term economic backwardness, unfortunately.
VAUSE: Yannay, thank you so much for being with us. Your work is fascinating. It is an insight which we hadn't really seen before. Thank you so much for being with us. We really appreciate your time, sir.
SPITZER: Thank you very much.
VAUSE: Wildfires burning out of control in parts of Greece and efforts to battle the blaze on one island has ended in tragedy.
The country's defense ministry says two Greek Air Force officers died while conducting a firefighting operation and a warning, the video you're about to see is graphic. The plane was dropping water on a fire in the Greek island of Evia when it crashed into the hillside. Pilots on board 27 and 34 years old. Greek officials have announced three days of national mourning.
The Prime Minister says firefighters are working 24 hours to try and put out that place. But he says the dire situation will likely get worse because of rising temperatures, strong wind and ongoing drought conditions.
Main battlefront on the islands of Corfu area and Rhodes. More than 20,000 people have been evacuated from Rhodes alone, most of them are tourists. Red Cross volunteers says these fires do of anything the country has seen in recent years.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARLA FEGGOU, VOLUNTEER, HELLENIC RED CROSS: The fire that we have at the moment is we cannot describe what is happening. Half of the island is in flames and it seems uncontrollable and we are deeply sorry for that. We felt deeply hurt about that situation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Across Greece, many tourist organizations are pleading for tourists not to abandon the country. Tourism is a crucial industry there. And many have fled and they now need those tourists to return for the economy to survive.
Greece is not the only country which is dealing with wildfires. They're also burning across southern Europe and in North Africa as well.
CNN's Nada Bashir has our report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER (voice over): The night sky over Sicily, illuminated by flames, a devastating series of wildfires spreading across parts of the Italian island. At one point, even bringing Palermo airport to a standstill.
Europe's southern coast has been gripped by wildfires for days. On the Greek island of Corfu, more than 2000 people have so far been forced to evacuate. Teams from Turkey, Croatia and Egypt have even been flown in to help tackle the relentless blaze.
[00:15:05]
On the Greek island of Evia, no end to the tragedy. A Canadian firefighting plane crashed on Tuesday with two people on board and in Rhodes where fires have been raging for a week now, residents scramble to find safety.
ARTEMIS PAPAVASILLIOU, RESIDENT: We evacuated the village. Now some houses are on fire. And we came down here. We don't know what to do.
LANAI KARPATAKI, RESIDENT: It's very very bad, the situation, we need help, send us help from everywhere.
BASHIR (voice over): But it's not just Europe that is feeling the heat. In Algeria, dozens of people have been killed as a result of wildfires across 16 provinces in the country. Local officials say more than 8000 firefighters are working to contain the spread of the fires.
But across the border in Tunisia smoke fills the sky as both emergency teams and residents do whatever they can to stop the blaze from scorching more land.
Parts of North Africa and the Mediterranean have already exceeded 40 degrees Celsius or 104 degrees Fahrenheit over the last week. Temperatures which according to experts, would have been virtually impossible without human induced climate change.
In any report, the World Weather Attribution initiative says extreme heat events are expected to worsen in both severity and frequency unless the world rapidly stopped burning fossil fuels.
One lead researcher even warning that this year's sweltering temperatures could be considered cool in the future. This as E.U. officials warned that wildfires are becoming the new normal, with heat waves across Europe growing even longer and more intense with each passing year.
Nada Bashir, CNN, Rome.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Typhoon Doksuri is now starting to weaken after making landfall in the Philippines Tuesday, now heading towards Taiwan with the threat of heavy rain, strong winds and flash flooding.
The second landfall is expected Friday in southern China likely be the most powerful typhoon to hit China so far this year, at least the mainland.
And forecasters believe it will move pretty far inland. Fishing roads have been worn to seek shelter and those who own them have been told that as well and farmers to speed up their harvests.
The International Monetary Fund has extreme weather warnings -- weather rather like typhoons and political events, like the war in Ukraine will drive up food prices as well as inflation.
The IMF adds that extreme temperatures connected with El Nino could exacerbate drought conditions that will raise food prices as well. The reason suspension of the Black Sea Grain initiative could result in further increases in the cost of wheat and other grains.
Delicate and dangerous operation underway at the coast of Yemen to avoid more than a million barrels of oil from a converted supertanker. The FSO Safer has been abandoned in the Red Sea since 2015. And has not been in service since 2015. It is deteriorating to the point that experts say it could leak or possibly explode and unleash an oil spill in a maritime environment. That oil spill will be four times as large as the oil which was spilt in 1989 during the Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTONIO GUTERRES, U.N. SECURITY-GENERAL: The ship to ship transfer of oil which has started today is the critical next step in avoiding an environmental and humanitarian catastrophe on a colossal scale.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: The U.N. says permission from Yemen's warring parties to empty the tanker has taken years of often difficult negotiations. The coordination -- the salvage effort is now being coordinated by U.N. officials and could take 19 days if all goes according to plan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID GRESSLY, U.N. RESIDENT AND HUMANITARIAN COORDINATOR IN YEMEN: Right behind me you can see the FSO Safer itself and just beyond that is the Yemen. The formerly known as the Nautica, the vessel that is currently receiving oil to offload from the FSO Safer.
ACHIM STEINER, ADMINISTRATOR, U.N. DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM: But as of this morning, we are very pleased to report that the pumps are on, the pipes have been laid between the FSO Safer and the Yemen, the replacement tanker, and the first gallons of oil have in fact been pumped off the Safer onto the Yemen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: What's not clear is who will get to sell the oil. What is clear because the U.N. will then actually sell the oil and then the proceeds from that oil will hopefully then be put back into the Yemeni economy.
Still to come, Ecuador's president declares a state of emergency in the country's prison system and rising violence, the latest on those clashes in a moment.
And in Argentina combining art with artificial intelligence, a program helped to track down children or people who disappeared during a brutal military dictatorship.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:22:00]
VAUSE: On Tuesday, a court in Brussels convicted six men in the 2016 suicide bombings that killed at least 33 people and wounded more than 300 others. They were found guilty of terrorist murder and participating in a terrorist organization. One of them was also convicted last year in the 2015 Paris terrorist attacks.
The Brussels attack took place in Belgium, counterterrorism officials were focusing on the country. That's because a large number of Belgian fighters had traveled to join ISIS and other terror groups in Syria and Iraq. The verdict Tuesday brought an end to the country's largest ever criminal trial.
In video out of Haiti shows many fleeing from an area around the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, driven out by what appears to be tear gas.
CNN cannot verify who deployed the tear gas. Video shows man carrying a firearm wearing what appears to be the uniform of Haiti's National Police. It's not known if he is actually an official police officer. This comes after local violence drove residential on their homes to an area around the embassy. Now they are pleading for their government's help.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't know the reason, they just shoot and they asked for the area. They took our house and we're in the street. We want help to go back home. To the Haitian government, we send this message because we want to come back home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: CNN has reached out to the Haitian National Police, Haitian Civil Protection and the U.S. Embassy to comment. We have not yet heard back.
A standoff in a prison in Ecuador has ended in the release of more than 100 prison employees who had been held hostage. At least 31 people have died, more than a dozen injured after clashes between inmates and police according to Ecuador's Attorney General.
Now, the country's president is taking steps to make sure a crisis like this doesn't happen again. Stefano Pozzebon reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STEFANO POZZEBON, REPORTER (voice over): The president Guillermo Lasso has declared a 60 day state of emergency across the entire penitentiary system seeking to regain control of the prisons which in Ecuador often appear to be run by the inmates themselves.
The state of emergency allows for police and the armed forces to be deployed inside the cells and shortly after the expedition of the decree, the prison Security Service confirmed that at least 106 service members who had been held hostages by the inmates in at least five prisons across the country were finally being released.
The authorities are blaming international criminal organizations who are fighting for control of drug trafficking routes across Ecuador for the violence and while these securities violence escalation is causing greater worry among the population. According to recent poll, crime is the number one cause of concern for Ecuadorians ahead of the economic crisis or lack of jobs.
The country is holding its general election on August 20. For CNN, this is Stefano Pozzebon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: An artist in Argentina is using artificial intelligence to create images of the children of kidnapping victims during the country's military dictatorship.
[00:25:05]
Santiago Barros combines photos of mothers and fathers who disappeared between 1976 and 1983. The results show what their sons and daughters might look like today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANTIAGO BARROS, ART DIRECTOR (through translator): Generally speaking, people contact me about an isolated case. And the response was always the same. Well, I can't believe it. It's so moving. I made clear to everyone this is one of the many possible results. In some cases, they recognize themselves in the A.I. generated image. There was a case in particular, in which the image result was very similar to one of their brothers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: More than 30,000 people were killed or disappeared after Argentina's military coup in 1976. Relative searching for survivors say they appreciate the project, but DNA evidence is the only real way to find their loved ones.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ESTEBAN HERRERA, SON OF MISSING OF WOMAN (through translator): It's an artistic view that uses an artificial tool for imagination, but it's not conclusive. These images could be touching, but they could generate a person different from the one we're searching for.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Still ahead here on CNN, remembering the Korean War 70 years after fighting ended on the Korean peninsula. We'll hear from a South Korean War veteran and see how the North is marking the anniversary.
The first China's Foreign Minister has been mysteriously missing for a month now. He's been fired and replaced.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I have no information to provide in regard to your question.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Welcome back, I'm John Vause, you're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
China's foreign minister has been mysteriously missing for a month and now he's out of the job. Beijing has announced that Qin Gang has been sacked from his high profile posts will be replaced by China's top diplomatic adviser, Wang Yi. It's a fall from grace for Qin who a man who recently was one of the president Xi Jinping's most senior aides. CNN's Will Ripley has details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): What is the current situation with Foreign Minister Qin Gang?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I have no information to provide in regard to your question
WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Out of sight for 30 days, questions circulating on his whereabouts. China's Foreign Minister Qin Gang replaced by his predecessor Wang Yi, rubber stamped by China's top decision making body a surprise shakeup at the very top of China's diplomatic leadership. A dramatic fall from grace for one of China's star diplomats, as ambassador to the U.S., Qin was combative and controversial.
QIN GANG, FORMER CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTER: We are fully justified to do what we must.
RIPLEY (voice over): Polarizing, persuasive, performing under pressure. A patriotic poster child of China's wolf warrior diplomacy for an assertive new era under Xi Jinping, China's powerful president promoted his loyal aide to foreign minister last December.
[00:30:00]
A meteoric rise, making Qin, China's second most powerful second diplomat. Guarding around the world. Welcoming allies and adversaries to Beijing. Just last month, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. Qin's last known meeting was on January 25th, with Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister. After that, he went missing for a month. Absent from high-profile visits by top U.S. officials, Janet Yellen, John Kerry and most recently, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
DENG YUWEN, FORMER EDITOR, CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY NEWSPAPER (through translator): It is very rare for a senior Chinese diplomat who have gone missing more than 20 days ago. In my memory, that has never happened before.
RIPLEY (voice-over): China saying he was unable to attend meetings due to health reasons. But even that, official explanation, later deleted from the Chinese Foreign Ministry website. The Ministry often leaves out content it deems sensitive from its transcripts. Qin's public silence, also not mentioned in Chinese state media, fueling intense speculation online. On Chinese social media, one Weibo user said, We can't guess what happened to him and now they're asking, is this how our wolf warriors end up?" China's diplomacy on a busy schedule, driven by a stream of high-level exchanges between Beijing and Washington.
YUWEN (through translator): The fact that the Chinese foreign ministers disappeared at this particular time has created a lot of attention and discussions.
RIPLEY (voice-over): China's authoritarian system, centered around man, Xi Jinping, China's most powerful leader in decades. A few outsiders know what is on his mind, or what happened to his former foreign minister. And what the future might hold. Will Ripley, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Russia's president is planning to visit close ally China in October. The Kremlin says Vladimir Putin will attend the Belt and Road Forum for the third time. The event, held in Beijing, is meant to increase cooperation among Eurasian states. Chinese President Xi Jinping issued the invite during his visit to Moscow, earlier this year. Meantime, Russia and Chinese delegations are arriving in the North Korean capital to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Armistice Agreement, which ended the fighting on the Korean Peninsula.
The Russian delegation, led by the defense minister. which welcomed by a North Korean honor guard. These are the first high-profile visitors to North Korea since it closed its borders during the pandemic. Well, North Korea refers to the armistice as Victory Day. The Korean War never officially ended. For the past seven decades, the two Koreas have largely honored what is a ceasefire agreement signed July 27th, 1953. CNN's Paula Hancocks spoke to a South Korean veteran who lived through one of the bloodiest battles of the war and what is now the demilitarized zone.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Kim Jae- soo walks among the tombstones of fallen comrades. Young lives cut short during the Korean War, more than two and a half million killed during the brutal three-year conflict.
KIM JAE-SOO, KOREAN WAR VETERAN: [speaking in a Non-English language] HANCOCKS (voice-over): Kim joined the military just before North Korea
invaded its southern neighbor in 1950. A war that ended, not in a peace treaty, but in an armistice on July 27th, 1953. Kim stayed in the military for 17 years. He said memories of the sheer number of dead bodies during the war has never left him.
He recalls intense fighting at the Hill of the White Horse in 1952 where Chinese troops supporting North Korea, battled for control of a hill that now lies within the DMZ, the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas.
KIM: (FOREIGN LANGUAGE])
HANCOCKS (voice-over): The battle lasted ten days, killing thousands on all sides. Kim says all he could do for those who fell was to cover their bodies with straw blankets. Efforts continued to bring all those lost back home no matter which side they fought on. This ceremony was to repatriate remains of Chinese fighters. The United States says they have just under 7500 Americans still unaccounted for. North Korea's cooperation is sporadic at best and dependent on relations with Seoul and Washington.
HANCOCKS: This monument in the U.N. cemetery is for those who were lost during the Korean War, but have yet to be found. There were 13 of these slates filled with the names of U.N. troops, and the inscription said it is for those who have no known grave.
[00:35:00]
CHUN-IN BUM, FORMER SOUTH KOREAN ARMY GENERAL: It really brings to heart that during the tragedies of war, there are some really great things, such as sacrifice from individuals.
HANCOCKS (voice-over): Soldiers from 21 countries fought in South Korea's defense when the war broke out 73 years ago. Those who fought and survived are shrinking in numbers, making their memories all the more precious. Kim pays tribute to soldiers from all over the world, in a poem he wrote, saying he is alive today because of them.
KIM: (FOREIGN LANGUAGE])
HANCOCKS (voice-over): Paula Hancocks, CNN, Busan, South Korea.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: The opening ceremony for the Summer Olympic Games in Paris is exactly one year from today. See how they're preparing for the big event, that's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Countries around the world are losing out on a lot of money from companies of people who don't pay their taxes. The Tax Justice Network estimates $4.7 trillion would go uncollected over the next decade. The group blames illegal tax avoidance strategies, illegal tax evasion schemes, and creative accounting that rarely gets challenged. So who is not paying what they owe? Sixty-four percent is paying to multinational corporations, 36 percent is from wealthy individuals who benefit from rules that make it easy to shield assets in offshore havens.
The Tax Justice Network wants the United Nations to take over global tax rules. A report from the secretary general is due in September. New U.N. members could vote on a plan to start the process by the end of the year. We are just one year a year from the start of the Paris Olympic Games. CNN's Melissa Bell shows us how the city's famous river will take center stage.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MELISA BELL, CNN PARIS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With a cheer, Paris had won its bid. One hundred years after the Olympics first came to the City of Light, they would be back.
ANNE HIDALGO, PARIS MAYOR (through translator): A city that managed to transform itself, overcome the challenges of the century, and thinking, of course, of the environmental challenges.
BELL (voice-over): With an opening ceremony like no other. Held, not in a stadium, for the first time ever, but on a river.
BELL: What the opening ceremony will allow is not just more than 10,000 athletes to make their way down this extraordinary waterway. It will also, say the organizers, allow more people to watch it than any other opening ceremony in history. They expect some 600,000 people to be able to watch from the banks of the Seine.
BELL (voice-over): For the athletes, as well, the Seine as scene is expected to provide an unforgettable experience.
YANNICK BOURSEAUX , EX-PARALYMPIC ATHLETE (through translator: The Seine, for me is something mythical that represent Paris. And for an Olympic, or Paralympic triathlon, we absolutely had to swim in it.
[00:40:00]
BELL (voice-over): But swimming in Parisian waters is nothing new. Here to the north of the French capital, this basin was created in 2017\. And ever since, people have been swimming, the waters are tested every day.
Cleaning up the Seine, however, required much more new reservoirs, tunnels and a lot of testing.
HIDALGO (through translator:) Seventy five percent of the work is done. The Seine is clean. These games had an accelerating effect, so we are ready, but of course more needs to be done.
BELL (voice-over): But even as the infrastructure has gone up, unexpected challenges, the offices of Paris 2024 raided in two investigations into financial irregularities. Yet, the head of the organization, himself a three-time gold Olympian, is confident. TONY ESTANGUET, PARIS 2024 PRESIDENT: There is a control. It is just a
control step. And we will see what will be the next phase. But, at the time that we speak, now, today, there is no evidence of any wrongdoing.
BELL: Hey, what would you tell the world? What will they are going to see?
ESTANGUET: The main power of the games is to provide a motion. And we strongly need, after COIVID, after the war, after all of these social tensions, just to share a positive moment altogether and demonstrate what France is able to deliver to the world.
BELL (voice-over): Including already, say Parisian authorities, something that would've sounded like science fiction, only a few years ago. A swimming pool River Seine. Melissa Bell, CNN Paris.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: For Inter Miami, which is languishing in last place in the MLSE's, Lionel Messi is proving to be quite a game-changer. The Argentine legend lead his club to a four nil win over Atlanta United Tuesday. Messi scored two goals and assisted in another. That is after his game winning extra time goal in his debut match last week. The fans are hoping to purchase an Inter Miami kit with Messi's name on it. But wait until October.
Adidas who makes a jersey, says demands for the $160 shirt is truly unprecedented. October is not that far away. Thank you for watching CNN Newsroom. I'm John Vause. Back with more news at the top of the hour. In the meantime, WORLD SPORT starts after a short break. See you in 18 minutes.
[00:45:27]
(WORLD SPORT)
[01:00:00]
