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Typhoon Doksuri Made Landfall in the Northern Philippines; LeBron's Brother Now in Stable Condition; Russian President meets with African Leaders to Discuss Grain and Ukraine Conflict; Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang Sacked, Wang Yi Replaced at the Last Minute; Sexual Harassment Now Felt in the Metaverse; Sarina Bolden Contributed the Philippines' Historic Win at the Women's World Cup. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired July 26, 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]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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. In Italy and Greece, firefighters struggle to contain deadly wildfires amid a brutal heat wave. We live in Athens.
Israel's government pushes through its controversial judicial overhaul plan despite nationwide protests and warnings of significant economic risks.
And Russia seeks to fortify ties with its allies in Greece. In Africa, Vladimir Putin is preparing to host a summit to discuss everything from food security to the war in Ukraine.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Rosemary Church.
CHURCH: Good to have you with us. Well, right now some of Europe's hottest tourist destinations are burning. Out of control wildfires are tearing through parts of Italy and Greece and the weather is only making things worse.
In Sicily this week temperatures reached 47 degrees Celsius or 117 degrees Fahrenheit, creating the prime environment for those flames to spread. Fires killed at least four people in Southern Italy on Tuesday. All of the victims were elderly. One minister called it the country's most difficult days in decades.
And in Greece, firefighters are working 24 hours a day to contain blazes on the islands of Rhodes, Corfu and Evia. Two Greek Air Force officers died when their plane crashed while conducting a firefighting operation over Evia.
Let's get the latest now from Elinda Labropoulou who joins us live from Rafina in Greece. So, Elinda, what is the latest on efforts to fight these wildfires?
ELINDA LABROPOULOU, JOURNALIST: We understand that things are looking a little bit better today, Rosemary. We just spoke to the fire service again, who are giving us an updated picture of the situation in Rhodes, where the biggest fires are raging. They're saying there are. There have been rekindling, but things seem to be a little bit more under control this morning and there are no houses or hotels in danger. The same goes for the island of Corfu as well.
In the island of Evia, which you can see a little bit behind me, the situation is also improving. There are firefighting aircraft flying on all these islands. Perhaps again you can hear them above as they fly above my head.
We expect a very hot day ahead of us here in Athens and all of Greece as well with temperatures expected to reach 46 degrees Celsius. That will be the hottest day of the summer, close to 115 Fahrenheit, which of course means that there's a lot of caution in the optimism that the situation is improving.
What we're seeing at the moment is an increasing amount of questions of what this new normal means, these heat waves. We're getting all these reports out that the Mediterranean is likely to have more and more of these phenomena in the years ahead. We're looking at a country that has a massive tourism industry.
For example, Rhodes, one of the oldest tourist destinations, where over 50 percent of its economy is completely dependent on tourism and a country that about a quarter of its economy is completely dependent on tourism. So just having a look at the destruction in these tourist islands to begin with the questions arise of what the new future for Greece will be Rosemary.
CHURCH: All right, our thanks to Elinda Labrapoolou who joins us there from Rafina in Greece.
Well back here in the United States, the extreme heat wave is unrelenting and expanding. Tens of millions of people are under heat alerts as the extreme temperatures continue to shift to the east. This is what people in the southwestern U.S. can look forward to over the next few days.
CNN's Stephanie Elam takes a look at how people across the U.S. are trying to cope.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Excessive heat warnings from Nevada's Valley of Fire State Park now heading toward the Midwest.
UNKNOWN: We're certainly more attuned to looking for those signs of heat illness.
ELAM (voice-over): All across the country, people are looking for ways to beat the heat. UNKNOWN: Very hot.
UNKNOWN: Really, really hot.
UNKNOWN: This is like the hottest it's ever been.
ELAM (voice-over): Even more so in Phoenix, Arizona, where they are headed for a month straight of record-busting extreme 110-plus high temperatures.
[03:05:00]
It never really cools off. Even nightly lows haven't fallen below 90 degrees here for more than two weeks.
Shoes melting on sidewalks. The blistering heat sending people to cooling centers.
UNKNOWN: But these high temperatures, it's hard to breathe.
ELAM (voice-over): Temperatures are also searing in El Paso, Texas, where it's been at least 100 degrees for more than a month.
In Miami, the heat index has been above 100 degrees for 45 days and counting.
This July is well on its way to becoming the hottest month in recorded history. In all, more than 45 million people are facing heat alerts across the West, the Plains and South Florida.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That heat is going to make it all the way to the eastern half of the U.S. where New York is going to be 92, Atlanta 97 on Friday. In fact, over the next seven days, 85 percent and even more than that, percent of the population of the U.S. will see high temperatures over 90.
ELAM (voice-over): Nearly all of the lower 48 states are facing heat waves. And so far this summer, more people are suspected to have died from heat-related causes in national parks than in an average entire year. And August, the deadliest month, is just around the corner.
UNKNOWN: It's hot. The South Florida weather is no joke.
UNKNOWN: Some days it's too overwhelming.
ELAM (voice-over): 18 people have died from the heat this season in Maricopa County, Arizona. In Clark County, Nevada, home to Las Vegas, there's been at least 16 heat-related deaths so far this year, and the temperature is still rising.
And the heat is extending beyond our coastlines. The Florida Keys are facing an unprecedented heat wave with ocean temperatures of 100 degrees, now threatening coral reefs.
Stephanie Elam, CNN, Las Vegas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Officials in the Philippines have reported at least one death from typhoon Doksuri, which made landfall on Tuesday. Since then, it started to weaken on its way toward Taiwan, with the threat of heavy rain, strong winds and flash flooding.
A second landfall in southern China is expected by Friday. It would likely be the most powerful typhoon to hit that country so far this year. And forecasters believe it will move far inland. Fishing boats have been worn to seek shelter and farmers to speed up their harvests.
Economic concerns in Israel after the government pushed through the first part of a controversial judicial overhaul plan. The stock market continues to stumble and the Israeli currency is close to a three-year low.
Moody's is warning the country it faces significant risk of political and social tensions that could harm its economy and security. And Morgan Stanley has downgraded Israel's sovereign credit rating to dislike.
Well meantime, thousands of reservists are refusing to report for service. The contentious law passed on Monday would strip the Supreme Court of its power to declare government decisions unreasonable. The legislation has also sparked multiple legal challenges.
CNN's Fred Pleitgen has more on how Israeli army reservists are reacting to the judicial overhaul plan.
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FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SR. 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.
(on-camera): What do you think this means for the Israeli army? Because there's so much division right now in society and unity is so important for the defense of Israel.
ETHAN LAZAL, PROTESTER: We want to serve the values of the country and not the prime minister who does whatever we want. We need to have a democratic country if we want to serve in this army.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): Both men and women perform mandatory military service in Israel, and many later continue 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 the 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: To stop the madness, to 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.
[03:10:03]
PLEITGEN (voice-over): Concerns about the future of Israel's military are so grave, even opposition politicians fighting hard against Netanyahu's 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 are serving and volunteering, continue to guard our safety, our security. Give us a country to be able to amend things.
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)
CHURCH: And for more, let's go to journalist Elliot Gotkine. He joins us live from Tel Aviv. Good to see you again, Elliot. So what's been the economic fallout so far and how bad might this get for Israel?
ELLIOT GOTKINE, JOURNALIST: Rosemary, I think the big problem for this government and the Israeli economy as a whole is that as momentum builds and this bad news just keeps on coming, it kind of builds up a momentum of its own and it's something that's very hard to turn around.
And so, you had, you mentioned earlier that downgrade from Morgan Stanley, we heard from Moody's, one of the three big credit rating agencies in the world, also expressing its concerns about the civil unrest and certainly talking about the potential for more negative consequences for Israel's economy and security situation, the security situation as a result of reservists refusing to serve.
So we've got as a result of that, we've seen the shekel, the Israeli currency, close to a three-year low against the dollar. We've seen the Israeli stock market declining, underperforming other stock markets around the world. And we've also seen a bigger decline in investment in Israel's fabled startup tech, high-tech sector than we've seen globally as well.
The concern there, of course, is that about half of all Israel's exports are high tech. And so if investment starts going down, if as many startups have said, they will start moving funds or they will start moving operations to other countries, that could have a very serious effect on Israel's economy as well.
So there are a lot of concerns that are out there. That said, it's not all bad news in the sense that Israel's economy is forecast to grow by about 3 percent, which is not too shabby by any standards of a modern developed economy. You've also had just on Tuesday the French aerospace and defense company, Taliz, announcing that it was buying an Israeli-founded company called Imperva for $3.6 billion. You've also got major investments coming into Israel's gas sector as well. So, it's not all bad news.
But, as I say, the big problem here is that the more this bad news comes out, and we haven't yet heard from Standard & Poor's and Fitch, the other two big global ratings agencies, who will probably come out with similarly negative news. So, the more negative news that comes out, it builds momentum, and this drumbeat just gets louder and louder. And, ultimately, sometimes, it's the perceptions, it's the comments by these analysts of the Israeli economy that then have another impact, a deeper impact on the real economy as a whole.
And we just heard from the -- the head of the main umbrella union, the Histadrut, Arnon Bardavin, the chairman, saying yesterday, calling on the prime minister and minister of finance to, in his words, come to their senses to show responsibility and immediately stop the damage to the economy. Some of that damage has already been done. How much more will be done to Israel's economy, of course, very much depends on the outcome of the further judicial overhaul plans that this government has in store. Rosemary?
CHURCH: And we'll continue to watch that. Elliot Gotkine, joining us live from Tel Aviv. Many thanks.
Bronny James, the highly touted 18-year-old son of NBA superstar LeBron James, is said to be in stable condition a day after suffering a cardiac arrest during a college basketball practice. It's a frightening turn of events for the father and son who have long dreamed of playing side by side in the NBA.
CNN's Natasha Chen is in Los Angeles for us.
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NATASHA CHEN, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The James family is not releasing a lot of detail except to confirm that Bronny James, 18 years old, did have a cardiac arrest during practice here at the Galen Center on Monday morning.
Their statement said that medical staff were able to treat him and take him to a hospital where he is now out of ICU in stable condition. The family released a statement saying in part LeBron and Savannah wish to publicly send their deepest thanks and appreciation to the USC medical and athletic staff for work and dedication to the safety of their athletes.
Now the USC basketball team had announced earlier in the year that they were preparing to go on a tour to Europe this summer to start on August 5th. That's likely what they were practicing for. The James family was actually seen just in public a couple weeks ago at the ESPY Awards where LeBron James was accepting an award standing on stage with his wife and children whom he called his greatest blessing. He even mentioned how proud he is of their two sons and their own basketball journeys.
[03:15:05]
LeBron James told "The Athletic" last year that he wanted to stay in the game to be able to play in the NBA alongside his son, Bronny. Of course, Bronny James committed to USC this spring and is expected to be drafted into the NBA before finishing all four years of college. Of course, that calculation may now be affected by what happened here on Monday.
It's worth noting that another USC basketball player also suffered a cardiac arrest last July right here at the same Galen Center where athletic staff were able to treat him. That player took about six months to recover and wasn't cleared to come back to play basketball until this January. So we will be tracking and monitoring to see how Ronnie James is doing in his recovery.
Natasha Chen, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: A former U.S. Marine once detained in Russia has been injured while fighting in Ukraine. Coming up, how this may complicate efforts to bring other Americans home.
Plus, African leaders are heading to St Petersburg for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Grain from Ukraine is their main concern. We'll take a look at that.
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CHURCH: Welcome back. Well, Ukraine says its military is advancing toward the Russian-held city of Bakhmut, the scene of some of the war's most intense fighting.
Ukraine's deputy defense minister claims Russian losses have outnumbered those of Ukraine by a ratio of eight or nine to one. The Ukrainian military has been trying to encircle the city, but acknowledges the situation is more difficult north of Bakhmut. They had also made further gains on cities along the southern battlefront. Meanwhile, the U.S. warns Iran is helping Russia build a drone
stockpile orders of magnitude larger than its previous arsenal. Analysts from the Defense Intelligence Agency say Tehran is aiding in the construction of a new drone manufacturing facility in Russia. Iran, for its part, denies providing drones for Russia during the war.
U.S. officials tell CNN they are concerned about negotiations with Moscow to free two detained Americans after revelations a previously released former Marine was fighting against Russia in Ukraine.
CNN's Clare Sebastian joins us now from London. So Clare, what more are you learning about Trevor Reed and how his efforts to help Ukraine on the battlefield may complicate plans to bring other Americans home?
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CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Rosemary, this was really the first that we heard that Trevor Reed, who only 15 months ago was from a Russian jail and a prisoner swap by the United States was actually in Ukraine fighting, it seems, on the side of Ukraine. We now know that he was injured.
We don't know how severely. We don't know the circumstances or where this happened, and that he has been moved now to the Landstuhl Medical Facility, which is just next door to the Ramstein Air Base, an American air base in Germany. That's where we understand he is now.
But again, we don't know the severity of those injuries. But as I said, this is a former U.S. Marine who had spent almost three years in Russian detention after being convicted in 2020 for assaulting a police officer while drunk.
He then, amid rapidly escalating concerns about his poor health from his family, was freed in April of 2022. He's been pretty active since then. He's been on social media, he's been on television advocating in fact for the release of his fellow Americans who remain detained in Russia and that is really now where the focus shifts.
There is concern voiced by a U.S. official that his appearance in Ukraine could complicate those efforts. The U.S. has been fairly open that they are working on potential prisoner swaps there. There's concern that Russia may try to exact a higher price now or may sort of slow ball the process.
Antony Blinken, the Secretary of State, saying officially though that they don't think it will affect things, that they are continuing with this process. There's also the concern that Russia may try to spin this to try to reinforce its rhetoric, that the U.S. is somehow involved or playing an act outside its role in the war in Ukraine. Rosemary.
CHURCH: All right. Our thanks to Claire Sebastian joining us live from London.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will discuss the situation in Ukraine with the leaders of African countries this week in St. Petersburg. The Kremlin says Russia appreciates the efforts of its African partners to resolve the conflict. But Mr. Putin has previously dismissed their peace proposals.
A number of African countries are feeling the impact of Russia's withdrawal from the Black Sea grain deal with Ukraine. Global wheat prices have spiked 15 percent in the past week. President Putin is promising free Russian grain to replace Ukrainian supplies. Still not everyone thinks the St Petersburg meeting is a good idea.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RALIA ODINGA, KENYAN OPPOSITION LEADER: I don't think that at this moment in time is really time for a summit between Russia because Russia is involved in a war, a conflict. Ukraine-Africa Summit does not be welcome at the moment. This is a war situation and Africa needs to take a very firm stand on this issue. It's a question of right and wrong. And therefore, my view is that it cannot be neutral in the place of an aggression. We must take a stand one way or the other.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Cameron Hudson is a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies Africa Center and he joins me now from Roaring Gap, North Carolina. Good to have you with us.
CAMERON HUDSON, SR. ASSOCIATE FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES, AFRICA CENTER: Thanks for having me.
CHURCH: So Vladimir Putin will host a two-day Russia-Africa summit in St. Petersburg on Thursday, and no doubt top of the agenda for African nations will be the Black Sea grain deal that Russia's president recently ended. What impact will his actions likely have on these talks, on this overall summit?
HUDSON: Well, I think what we're going to see is the Africans coming to this summit with their own agenda. We've seen African heads of state travel to Russia in recent weeks, trying to propose their own peace plan for ending hostilities between Russia and Ukraine.
And we've heard from them that they're going to reinvigorate that peace plan by coming to St. Petersburg this week. So I think that they have a vested interest in seeing that conflict brought to an end to a return to normal essentially of world grain markets, world fertilizer markets.
They have been acutely affected by the sort of secondary and tertiary effects of that war. And so they're very much not gonna sit on the sidelines, but they're going to Russia to try to advance their own interests in this.
CHURCH: So how might Putin placate African nations most affected by the loss of Ukraine grain imports?
HUDSON: Well, Vladimir Putin is not going to want to alienate his African partners. He is using this summit as a way to break his diplomatic isolation and essentially to show the rest of the world that Russia is open for business and that it's business as usual. And so he's going to have to do something to give them what they need.
I think it's very likely to see Russia trying to propose bilateral grain deals or even grain deals on a humanitarian basis coming directly from Russia.
[03:25:02]
So Russia bypassing the U.N. brokered system, leaving Ukraine out in the cold and trying to cut deals directly with African states so that it creates a kind of dependency relationship which is exactly what Putin is trying to create with countries in the global south.
CHURCH: And one Kenyan official tweeted his displeasure with Russia's withdrawal from the grain deal saying this. The decision by Russia to exit the Black Sea Grain initiative is a stab in the back for global food security prices and disproportionately impacts countries in the Horn of Africa already impacted by drought. So those of course are valid complaints aren't they, but other African leaders have failed to speak up on this. So where do you see this going?
HUDSON: Well, Africa has really not tried to take a strong position in the war in Ukraine. I think that's one of the things that make it such an attractive audience for Vladimir Putin, because he has sensed the kind of ambivalence coming from Africa. There hasn't been the resounding condemnation. As a matter of fact, they've been open to hearing out Russia's concerns about Ukraine. And so, he sees it as a right opportunity for him to advance his own narrative about why the war in Ukraine started, blaming the West for aggressive behavior. There's a welcome audience for some of that rhetoric in Africa right now. And he's trying to peel back some of those states into his corner.
So I think Africans, though, are really being affected in their own pocketbooks. The price of energy, fertilizer, food have all gone up. And that's something that can't be ignored in the domestic political context that many of these African leaders face right now. So I think this is going to be a real potential turning point in the relationship between Africa and Russia.
CHURCH: And overall, what is expected to come out of these talks and how much of the discussion might be devoted to the Wagner Group's connections in some African nations?
HUDSON: Well, again, this is the second of these summits. And I think just by having Africans show up will serve Putin's purpose of demonstrating that he's breaking out of that diplomatic isolation, that he isn't the odious figure that Washington has tried to make him out to be.
So I think he'll have already accomplished a great deal just by having the summit pulled off. I think that what he's most concerned with, though, right now is making sure that the partnerships that he's tried to establish with African countries remain secure. He's going to have to give them something for that. I don't believe that he or the Africans are going to bring up Wagner in any considerable way during these talks. I think that Washington has done a lot to shame African countries for
using the Wagner group. At the same time, I think there's a bit of embarrassment on the side of the Russians for the kind of mutiny that we saw. So he's been trying to get a handle and reassure African partners that Russia will continue to carry out the obligations that Wagner has committed to. So I think it's probably a topic that is going to be avoided, at least in front of the public lenses.
CHURCH: Cameron Hudson, many thanks for joining us. I Appreciate it.
HUDSON: Thank you.
CHURCH: Just ahead, a shake-up in the highest levels of the Chinese government. Beijing's foreign minister has been missing for a month and suddenly has been replaced. The details in a live report next.
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[03:30:00]
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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: China's foreign minister has been mysteriously missing for a month, and now he's out of a job.
Beijing has announced that Qin Gang on the left has been sacked from his high-profile post and will be replaced by China's top diplomatic adviser, Wang Yi. It's a significant fall from grace for Qin, a man who recently was one of President Xi Jinping's top aides.
And CNN's Marc Stewart has been tracking Qin's mysterious disappearance and this abrupt change of leadership. He joins us now from Tokyo. So Marc, this was sudden and shocking. Take us through what happened over the past month.
MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, Rosemary, so much intrigue because it was just one month ago that we saw Qin Gang meeting with officials from Vietnam, from Sri Lanka, from Russia, in Beijing. He was very much acting as that global diplomat.
And then he suddenly disappeared and has not been seen since. In fact, he missed key meetings with officials from the E.U., from many Southeast Asian nations, even was absent when Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen came to visit from the United States.
So, this has been going on for now a month, and even though he has now formally been removed from office, there are some lingering questions right now, including where is he at the moment, why was he removed, and what are the next steps?
And this removal from office is not just physical. It is also, in many ways, virtual. A lot of online references to Qin Gang have been scrubbed away, including on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website. His presence has been completely removed. In fact, within the last hour or so, we heard from a spokesperson from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who basically said that removal was very much in response to relevant regulations. And that's the line that we are being told about that departure.
As far as where things go now, Wang Yi is now in this job for the moment as China's foreign minister. When asked about how this will relate to the global international stage, the minister of foreign affairs spokesperson said that China will continue to continue relations, especially with the United States, based off -- of mutual coexistence, mutual respect and win-win cooperation.
We've heard a number of global leaders express that similar sentiment, saying that they view that their relationship with China will move as normal proceeding forward. So that's where we stand, Rosemary. And again, still no sign of Qin Gang.
CHURCH: Indeed. Marc Stewart, joining us live from Tokyo with that report. I Appreciate it.
Well, Russian 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 was 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. Meantime, the North has launched a flurry of ballistic missiles over the past week. The most recent tests on Monday, all of them banned under U.N. Security Council resolutions.
Patrick Cronin is the chair for Asia Pacific Security at the Hudson Institute. He joins me now from Washington. Appreciate you being with us.
PATRICK CRONIN, CHAIR FOR ASIA-PACIFIC SECURITY, HUDSON INSTITUTE: It's my pleasure.
CHURCH: So a high-level Chinese delegation is set to visit North Korea and a Russian military delegation arrived in Pyongyang Tuesday led by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. What might this signal and how significant are these two high-level visits at this particular time?
CRONIN: Well, it signals that North Korea is leveraging the 70th anniversary of the Korean War Armistice, or Victory Day, as they call it, to solidify ties with two major powers who share a revisionist agenda, a revisionist narrative, one that pushes back on the U.S.-led order, if you will, but also pushes back on the South Korean-U.S. narrative about the Korean War.
[03:35:17]
CHURCH: And China's president has very close ties with Kim Jong-un, but how much influence does Xi Jinping actually have over North Korea's leader, and how likely is it that Beijing will try to reign in Pyongyang, given its recent ballistic missile launches?
CRONIN: Well, China has a huge bit of leverage with respect to the economy of North Korea, which is almost entirely dependent on China. But North Korea doesn't tend to listen to others. North Korea follows its own counsel.
But North Korea really needs China right now, needs Russia. And therefore, everybody is going to be putting on a very brave face here in Pyongyang for this celebration. But you will not see China reigning in North Korea. You may see North Korea not conducting a nuclear test over the next couple of months before Xi Jinping holds a summit meeting with President Biden, but it's not at all clear that China is interested in denuclearization.
In fact, China is mostly interested in showing solidarity and strength among Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, that they can represent what they call a democratization of international relations. That is, power going to countries other than those that are allied with the United States.
So don't look for China to rein in North Korea's nuclear program. Just the opposite. North Korea is using this parade to give, essentially win tacit support from China for its ICBM and nuclear program.
CHURCH: So given that, how concerned would the United States be at this time with the apparent strengthening of Russia-North Korea in military ties and cooperation, as well as this consolidation of an already strong relationship between North Korea and China?
CRONIN: Well, I think the United States, South Korea, Japan have all been increasingly worried about North Korea's nuclear buildup and the fact that China is unwilling to do much about it.
As a result, you see the nuclear consultative group moving forward with strengthening extended deterrents. You have seen three nuclear- powered submarines visit South Korea here in the last few weeks. And you're going to see a continuation of live-fire exercises and other drills between the U.S. and South Korea and also with Japan as a way of saying to China and North Korea, either you're going to have to reverse course, or we're just going to keep strengthening our allied forces. And that's going to be a threat to the region and to not just to North Korea, but also to China.
So, there's a competition going on in this region. Nobody wants to throttle back. They're all throttling forward.
CHURCH: And meantime, the U.S. is trying to establish dialogue with North Korea to enable the return of U.S. soldier Travis King, who fled across the border a week ago. What do you expect the outcome will likely be of that issue?
CRONIN: Well, so far, North Korea has said nothing. And I doubt they will say anything until after the celebration is over this week. But I do think they will use Travis King as a bargaining chip eventually. Whether the United States wants to compensate North Korea to return an American soldier who voluntarily fled over the demilitarized zone, we will have to see.
I do think they will probably release him after a period of weeks or months. And there will be at least a chance for direct engagement between the United States and North Korea. That's something we have not seen in recent years. So that in itself could actually be a benefit for starting up some dialogue.
I do think Pyongyang and North Korea want some relationship with the United States. They just want to be accepted as a nuclear power and as an equal. They don't want denuclearization to be on the table. That's a nonstarter for U.S. politicians. But ultimately, North Korea thinks that the next U.S. administration, perhaps, is going to have to accept this eventually.
CHURCH: Patrick Cronin, I appreciate your analysis. Thanks for being with us.
CRONIN: Thank you.
CHURCH: North Korea refers to the anniversary of the armistice as Victory Day, even though the Korean War has never officially ended for the past seven decades. The two Koreas have largely honored the ceasefire side on July 27, 1953.
CNN's Paula Hancocks spoke to a South Korean veteran who lived through one of the war's fiercest battles in what is now the demilitarized zone.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Kim Jae-soo walks among the tombstones of fallen comrades. Young lives cut short during the Korean War, more than 2.5 million killed during the brutal three- year conflict.
[03:40:01]
KIM JAE-SOO, KOREAN WAR VETERAN (translated): Everyone was deployed and people were being sacrificed, and no one knew where the commander was.
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 27, 1953. Kim stayed in the military for 17 years. He says 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.
JAE-SOO (translated): We always thought we would die. We could not think about surviving or anything like that. We could not think about going home. It was only about fighting. That was it.
HANCOCKS (voice-over): The battle lasted 10 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 continue 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 7,500 Americans still
unaccounted for. North Korea's cooperation is sporadic at best and dependent on relations with Seoul and Washington.
(on-camera): This monument in the U.N. cemetery is for those who were lost during the Korean War but have yet to be found. There are 13 of these slates filled with the names of UN troops and the inscription says it is for those who have no known grave.
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.
JAE-SOO (translated): Silent mountains and streams, don't you also hold pain? Sleep well my comrade. Let's meet again, ride the white horse and fly over Baekma Mountain.
HANCOCKS (voice-over): Paula Hancocks, CNN, Busan, South Korea.
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CHURCH: Sexual harassment can happen anywhere, even in the metaverse. Just ahead, we will see how big tech companies are addressing the problem in our "As Equals" report.
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CHURCH: A standoff in a prison in Ecuador has ended in the release of more than 100 prison employees who had been held hostage.
[03:45:06]
Now the country's president has declared a state of emergency in the nation's prison system to make sure a crisis like this does not happen again.
Stefano Pozzebon reports.
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STEFANO POZZEBON, JOURNALIST: Violence continued to rage inside Ecuador's prisons on Tuesday. The country's attorney general confirmed that dozens of people have been killed in recent days in clashes among inmates inside the Litoral Prison in Guayaquil, which is Ecuador's second largest city and its economic powerhouse.
Several more have been injured, including a police officer. The president, Guillermo Lasso, has declared a state of emergency across the entire penitentiary system for 60 days, seeking to regain control of the prisons, which in Ecuador often seem to be run by the inmates themselves.
The state of emergencies allows police and the armed forces to be deployed inside the cells, and shortly after the expedition of the decree, the prison service has confirmed that 106 prison guards who had been held hostages by the inmates across at least five prisons in the country were finally being released.
Authorities blame international criminal organizations who are fighting for control of drug trafficking routes to be the cause of the violence, while the security situation is causing concern among the population. According to a recent poll, crime is the biggest worry for Ecuadorians ahead of lack of jobs or the economic crisis, and the country is holding its general election on August 20.
For CNN, this is Stefano Pozzebon, Bogota.
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CHURCH: Video out of Haiti shows people fleeing from the 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. The video shows a man carrying a firearm, wearing what appears to be the uniform of Haiti's National Police, but it's unknown if he's an actual officer. It comes after local violence drove residents from their homes to the area around the embassy. Now they just want the Government's help.
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UNKNOWN (through translator): 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.
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CHURCH: CNN has reached out to the Haitian National Police, Haitian Civil Protection and the U.S. Embassy for comment but has not yet heard back.
Sexual harassment of women and girls can be common, of course, on social media and in chat groups. And there's growing evidence it's already a problem in the digital world's newest frontier, virtual reality.
CNN's Anna Stewart has the story in this edition of "As Equals."
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NINA JANE PATEL, METAVERSE CONSULTANT: I put my headset on, I created my account, selected my avatar. Within about 30 seconds of being in the communal area, I had three male avatars come towards me and start verbally harassing me and sexually harassing me and then proceed to sexually assault my avatar. I asked them to stop, they refused to, and then a fourth avatar came to take photos.
ANNA STEWART, CNN REPORTER (voice-over): In 2021, researcher Nina Patel published a blog post of sexual harassment in the metaverse. Since then, she says she's received death threats and hateful messages.
PATEL: They were relentless in following me and were very quick to stay very close to my avatar to be able to, you know, continue the verbal and sexual harassment.
STEWART (voice-over): Hate and harassment can be traumatizing for many victims online. But what happens when harassment follows you to the metaverse, an online space where the lines between the virtual and the offline world are meant to be blurred?
PATEL: My experience of sexual harassment in the metaverse is the very tip of the iceberg. I know that many women have experienced some form of misogyny through digital experiences and now in the 3D metaverse as well. So I know I'm not alone.
STEWART (voice-over): Callum Hood is the head of research at the Center for Countering Digital Hate. His team studies and monitors online hate and misinformation. But the metaverse, he says, poses its own unique challenges.
CALLUM HOOD, CENTER FOR COUNTERING DIGITAL HATE: If we listen to people who have been harassed in VR, they say it's much more like a real-world experience of harassment than, say, receiving messages on social media. But we found that in these VR spaces people seem to be pretty aware that they're pretty anonymous, and that there's not much enforcement of the rules. So there was a sense that people were behaving perhaps much worse and by default being abusive to other abuses in a way that they wouldn't if it was a social media account in the same name or in the real world.
[03:50:17]
STEWART (voice-over): Callum and his team recorded hours of interactions in the metaverse and found that in VRChat, one of the most popular social VR apps, an instance of harassment occurred roughly every seven minutes.
In Meta's Horizon World, they recorded incidents of abuse directed at minors by adults including sexually-explicit insults, racial, misogynistic and homophobic harassment.
CALLUM: Young users are very common in these VR spaces, but when it comes to young girls in particular, they're often targeted with a sort of virtual harassment purely because people recognise their voice as female.
STEWART (voice-over): VRChat told CNN they have put measures in place to address harassment, such as personal space tools. The company told CNN, welcoming place for everyone. Predatory and toxic behavior has no place on our platform.
After Nina shared her story, Meta implemented default safety bubbles in Horizon Worlds. These bubbles prevent other avatars from getting too close to your own. The Metaverse is still in its infancy, and Nina, for one, wants to
make sure that it matures into a safe space.
PATEL: We have an opportunity today in 2023 to shape this new technology system differently. So that it's not yet another technology or system that silences women and objectifies their bodies, but becomes a technology that's fit for purpose and does more good than it does damage.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: CNN's Anna Stewart with that report, and Meta did not respond to our request for comment.
Japan and Spain have had strong starts to their World Cup campaigns, but can they keep up the momentum? The latest showdowns and highlights just ahead.
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CHURCH: Spain and Zambia kicked off just minutes ago in the Women's World Cup and a win for the Spaniards would secure their spot in the knockout round. They've already taken an early two-nil lead. Spain could be the second team to land in the round of 16, with Japan arriving there first. About an hour ago, the Japanese overcame Costa Rica two-nil, and later today Canada will take on Ireland in Group B.
The tournament is now in full swing with all teams entering the second round of the group stage. Here's CNN's Don Riddell with a look at Tuesday's action.
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DON RIDDELL, CNN WORLD SPORT: Tuesday at the Women's World Cup was historic and there was no shortage of drama too.
Let's begin with the Philippines, one of eight teams making their first appearance in the tournament, becoming the first of those sides to win a World Cup game. And they really gatecrashed the party, beating the co-host New Zealand with the first half goal from Sarina Bolden in Wellington.
Look at that, what a feeling, what a moment for Bolden and her teammates, but New Zealand didn't take it lying down. They took the game to the Philippines, hitting the post there just after the hour mark, and they had other chances too, including a goal that was disallowed, but it just wasn't a beat.
[03:55:04]
So think about this, New Zealand needed 16 games to win for the first time at the World Cup, and the Philippines did it at only the second attempt, which will explain their exuberant reaction at the final whistle. And these scenes on the field were replicated back home in Manila.
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Just wonderful. This was the scene of a shopping mall in the capital as Filipinos all over the country celebrated an historic achievement.
SARINA BOLDEN, PHILIPPINES MIDFIELDER: I literally can't put it into words. This has been a dream of mine as a little kid to just be here at the World Cup, let alone even score. So I couldn't have done it without my teammates, the staff, the fans, the Philippines as a whole. It's just amazing right now to feel this wind and this energy in this stadium right now. So it's just amazing.
KATIE BOWEN, NEW ZEALAND MIDFIELDER: Obviously it was pure elation against Norway feeling pretty down now, but there's still another game. So we can't rest on this for too long. We got to pick ourselves up because we need to get three points in the next game.
RIDDELL: Elsewhere another surprise is the Group A favorites Norway really labored against Switzerland. Norway are former world champions boasting some of the best players in the game but look at this scene from the pre-game huddle. You're looking at the former Ballon d'Or winner Adda Hegerberg returning to the locker room just before kickoff.
The six-time Champions League winner had warmed up and lined up for the anthem but then she suddenly disappeared down the tunnel having apparently suffered a groin injury. Norway had lost their opening game and they really needed a result here. They had their chances, but the Swiss goalie kept them at bay, meaning they had to settle for a goalless draw.
This Norway team has promised so much, but this isn't the first time they've struggled to deliver on a big stage, and their group table now makes pretty grim reading. They do still have a chance, despite recording only one point from their first two games. Norway could still progress. Anything could happen in this group. Everyone has a chance, but Norway must beat the Philippines in their final game.
And in the other match on Tuesday, Columbia beat South Korea, two-nil, meaning that we've now seen every team in action at least once. Back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Thanks for that. Well for Inter Miami, which is languishing in last place in the MLS East, Lionel Messi is proving to be quite the game changer. The Argentine legend led his club to a four-nil win over Atlanta United in a CONCACAF League's Cup match on Tuesday. Messi scored the first pair of goals and later added an assist. That's after his game-winning extra time goal in his debut match last week.
How about that? Well thanks for your company. I'm Rosemary Church. Have yourselves a wonderful day. "CNN Newsroom" continues next with Max Foster.
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