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Aired July 26, 2023 - 08:00   ET

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

[07:59:29]

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to CNN Newsroom. I'm Max Foster in London. Just ahead, extreme weather in Europe as deadly fires continue to rage in the south. Northern Italy is battered by severe storms.

Also ahead, Ukraine reports advances near Bakhmut, saying Russian forces have taken heavy losses there. And a troubling account of sexual harassment in the Metaverse. Will bring you one woman's alarming story that shows the dark side of virtual worlds.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN breaking news.

[08:00:01]

FOSTER: And it's breaking news out of Israel, where the Supreme Court says it will not issue an injunction to temporarily block the so- called reasonableness law passed by the Knesset on Monday. In a ruling, the court said it will instead debate the law in September.

Israel's parliament says the law, which strips the High Court of some of its power, has officially been published in the records and has now entered into force. Multiple groups have filed petitions to throw out the law.

CNN's Hadas Gold joins us from Jerusalem. I mean, we're in the weeds here on this, but ultimately, it has at least temporarily avoided a constitutional crisis.

HADAS GOLD, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, it just delaying it until September. But mainly what this means is that this law, which stripped away the Supreme Court's ability to block government actions or decisions, if the Supreme Court says that they are unreasonable, strips that power from them and now this law is enforced.

This means that if the government wants to take on any sort of action, if the Supreme Court has lost that ability to block that action by declaring it unreasonable. Now, several petitions had been immediately filed as soon as this law had passed. The Israeli Parliament on Monday asking -- some had asked for a temporarily freeze, but also for the Supreme Court to hear and debate, this law debate petitions on this law.

That injunction obviously has not been granted. Now, we do know that actually the Supreme Court, several of the senior justices, including the president, they were actually in Germany on an official trip. They cut that trip short to immediately rush back to Israel in order to hear those petitions. Instead, this will be a full debate in September. This is after the court's recess, and it's still setting everything up for potential legal constitutional crisis.

Now, Israel has no written constitution. It has a set of basic laws that sort of form up a quasi on a written constitution. And this law is actually amending one of those basic laws. Now, the Supreme Court has never nullified a basic law. It's discussed basic laws, but has never nullified them.

And added to that is the fact that they would have to be hearing and ruling about their own party or about their own power, which will set up a very interesting battle. So essentially now, though, the law is enforced. Now, there are some critics of this law are fearing that one of the first actions that this government may take might actually be targeting the Attorney General of Israel.

The Attorney General of Israel a little bit different than in other places like in the United States. It is an independent sort of legal role, not somebody who's necessarily on the side of the ruling party in government at all times. And this particular Attorney General has clashed with Benjamin Netanyahu's government. She's been a fierce critic of the judicial overhaul and she is overseeing Benjamin Netanyahu's corruption trial.

Now I should note Benjamin Netanyahu has decried his corruption trial as a witch hunt and has denied all the charges against him. But the critics of this law do fear that now she will become a target, because before this law passed, it would have been much harder to fire her. The Supreme Court could have blocked that decision. Now they fear the door is open for her to be fired. Max?

FOSTER: Hadas, thank you for that update.

Now firefighters in parts of Europe and northern Africa are facing raging wildfires during this exceptionally hot summer. In Algeria, wildfires have claimed at least 34 lives. Local media report people in 11 provinces had to evacuate. However, officials there say the fires are now contained.

Southern Italy and Sicily are facing fires as well. Four deaths there are blamed on the fires. Temperatures are expected to dip, but climb again by the weekend. And firefighters in Portugal have rushed to the resort of Cascais to battle a wildfire there. High winds are managing to make the task a lot more difficult.

Let's get an update on the fatal fires in Italy with our Nada Bashir. Nada, thanks for joining us. I mean, it is spreading, isn't it? And without rain, there's always going to be a risk of fire because it doesn't really matter about the temperatures. It's that dryness of the land that's a real problem.

NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER: Absolutely. That is the concern. Although temperatures are beginning to dip now across Italy, but, of course, we've heard from the civil protection agency here in Italy. They confirm that they are still battling 10 fires across the country's southern region, including in areas such as Calabria, Apulia and crucially, Sicily, where we saw those devastating flames across the island of Sicily yesterday.

At one point coming dangerously close to Palermo Airport, bringing the airport to a standstill and forcing thousands of people across Italy southern region to evacuate their homes. And, of course, this is something that has been reflected across the Mediterranean. It's already proved deadly.

In Italy, at least four people reportedly killed so far, according to authorities, as a result of those fires. In Greece, the emergency services there, as well as international teams that have been flown in to support that effort, are still working to battle fires that are still raging out of control, particularly on the islands of Corfu, Evia and Rhodes.

Again, thousands of people forced to evacuate their homes, many, of course, fearing that they will lose their homes forever. Many, of course, losing their livelihood as well. But this is happening further afield. You mentioned the fires taking place in parts of Portugal and southern Spain as well.

[08:05:07]

We've seen fires in Algeria, in Tunisia, now fires raging on -- in parts of Turkey as well, in the southern Antalya region. And this is a huge concern, this is a climate emergency. We've heard from experts warning this could become the new normal unless the world stops burning through fossil fuels rapidly. And that is the message that we have been hearing from experts today.

New data focused on Greece, from Copernicus showing that the wildfire emissions for July alone in Greece are the highest on record in two decades. Now that is, of course, a stark warning. We've heard from E.U. officials, they say they are making preparations, they're doubling the number of firefighters available to member states.

They are getting their city prepared for what is expected to be a very difficult future when it comes to the prospect of further wildfires. Experts warning that this is only going to become more severe and more frequent in the coming years. Max?

FOSTER: OK, Nada in Italy, thank you.

Italy facing multiple kinds of extreme weather. Conditions all at once really. As we reported, the southern regions are battling record breaking temperatures and wildfires, while severe storms, including tornadoes, have ripped through the north.

In Milan, strong winds have torn off roofs and uprooted hundreds of trees, causing millions of damage. Two people are reported killed by falling trees as well there.

CNN's Derek Van Dam joins us live from CNN Center. Hopefully, with some positive news for people out there.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Look, I don't want to be the bearer of bad news, but we got to talk about what's facing us, this climate emergency that -- with the wildfires to the south in Italy, but also the extreme weather that's happening in the northern sections of Italy. You showed some video a moment ago leading up to this weather hit talking about Milan, and we actually had a reading there of 110 kilometers per hour.

That's just shy of a Category 1 Atlantic hurricane. It wasn't a hurricane, but it was strong winds that brought down those trees and toppled the power lines. And also this is interesting as well in northern Italy. They had reports of hail in excess of 10 centimeters.

There was one report that's still being cooperated of a 19 centimeter hailstone that fell from the sky. That rivals some of the largest hailstones ever recorded coming out of South Dakota. That is just incredible. Think of it, it's like a soccer ball literally falling from the sky.

Here's some of the imagery of the hail coming out of northern Italy and that really piled up and accumulated very quickly in the streets there. The other big story, of course, the record temperatures. This is really confined to the southern sections of Europe, particularly across the Mediterranean, and that is where we are tracking wildfires.

You see all these wildfire hotspots. Here's Sicily, here's Corfu, the island of Corfu off of Greece coast. And then here's Rhodes. We're monitoring these closely because these wildfires continue to approach populated areas. Copernicus, the European climate monitoring agency came up with this incredible image.

Look at the wildfires burning on the island of Corfu in Greece. You can see them tumbling down the hillside towards the coastline there. This is amidst record breaking temperatures across the south. Athens at 37 degrees today. That is about 5 to 6 degrees Celsius above where we should be this time of year.

Some relief, but as they mentioned in the report before me, you know what? You don't need the temperatures really to be the factor. It's really the dry, dry air mass that's in place that's igniting these wildfires or helping ignite the wildfires.

So with that collision of air masses, cooler weather to the north, the heat to the south, we get the chance of severe weather once again. And for the day today, we're monitoring the potential for more tornadoes, more strong wind gusts, and large hail, Max, across the Balkans, extending all the way into southern Russia.

FOSTER: Oh, my goodness. OK, thank you, Derek --

VAN DAM: -- at CNN Center. Turning now to Russia's war on Ukraine, where Kyiv says its forces are advancing in the east but encountering fierce resistance near Bakhmut. This video appears to show Ukrainian forces taking over Russian positions south of the besieged city. CNN unable to independently confirm the details.

Ukraine, meanwhile, is denying losses in the northeastern part of the country. CNN's Nic Robertson has been trying to make sense. Of all the messaging we're getting from both sides and, you know, a vacuum of information in some areas, too.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, a vacuum of information surrounded by propaganda. What we understand that's happening around Bakhmut. We know that since late spring, the Ukrainians have been trying to go around the north and around the south of the city because they don't want to fight their way through the city. And the idea would be that they can surround it.

Well, they're not really making particularly fast gains, but because the gains that they do make are really hard fought and have been difficult to hold their positions, it does appear to the south as if they've managed to advance over the past couple of months, maybe a few kilometers.

And oftentimes we were there earlier in the year. One unit will say, well, we took that ground, and then another unit was handed off to them, and then they lost it, and we've had to come back in to take it again. So it's been that kind of offensive.

[08:10:06]

To the north of Bakhmut, the Russians are claiming that they are gaining a little bit of the ground, pushing the Ukrainians back along the side of a reservoir to the north of the city. Again, looking back, comparing that with the lines as they were in late spring, perhaps not moved so much, but this is an area where the Ukrainians think they're making or taking some advantages on the battlefield. The Russians, they say, are reinforcing heavily.

I think we're hearing something interesting is from the Russian military bloggers who, you know, whose word can't be taken necessarily at face value. Very hard to verify, but it becomes sort of a barometer of what's happening on the Russian side of the lines.

On the southern front in Zaporizhzhia, south of the town of Orikhiv, and some of the others along that sort of stretch of territory there, the Russian military bloggers are saying that there's been heavy barrages of Ukrainian artillery and they say that the Ukrainians are having another big push in that area.

We're yet to see if there are gains there, but that's the narrative emerging from the south. And of course, we know that that's where the Ukrainians want to go, but have been very slow about achieving gains there. And as far as the east, as you say, around Kharkiv in the north, again, very, very hard to verify. And again, the moves there along the front lines are not massive. This is not what Ukraine has been looking to do, to make massive gains. Are these Russian military bloggers accurate in the south? Is there a new push there? We don't know yet.

FOSTER: OK. Nic, thank you so much for bringing us that.

The U.S. State Department now confirming that a former Marine released in a prisoner swap with Russia last year, Trevor Reed, has since been injured fighting in Ukraine. The U.S. Secretary of State says that it shouldn't affect negotiations over two other Americans who are wrongfully detained in Russia, but one U.S. official acknowledged there are concerns the revelation could stand to complicate those efforts.

CNN's Natasha Bertrand joins us from the Pentagon. I mean, what was the reaction there when they heard he was fighting out there?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Well, Max, the initial reaction from the administration has been to emphasize that Trevor Reed was acting of his own volition and not on behalf of the U.S. government. That's really important in their minds because they need to emphasize to the Russians, of course, that after getting Trevor Reed out in a prisoner swap back in April of 2022, they didn't just send him to the battlefield in Ukraine to fight against Russian forces, right?

So they have emphasized that this is not a U.S. government operation, that he was fighting there as a private citizen and, of course, reiterating to U.S. citizens that they should not go to Ukraine at all, let alone to participate in the fighting there.

Now, of course, this is a bit of an awkward situation for the administration because, as I said, he was released as part of a prisoner swap in April of 2022, where the U.S. actually released a convicted Russian drug smuggler back to the Russians to get Trevor Reed, who is a former Marine back home.

But Reed, he was on our air as recently as May. He was tweeting in late June. So it appears that he traveled to Ukraine sometime over the last several weeks to a month, and he was injured there, we are told. He was then transported to a hospital in Kyiv and then he was evacuated by an NGO to a military hospital in Germany.

And so, the administration here really seeking to drive home that they have not played a role in any part of this and emphasizing that, yes, there are concerns potentially about how this could impact ongoing negotiations with the Russians to get other Americans who have been detained there back home.

But also saying that these two issues need to be treated completely separately because, again, they say they had absolutely nothing to do with Trevor Reed going to fight with the Ukrainian military there in Ukraine, Max.

FOSTER: OK, Natasha, thank you for joining us for that. Alison Rose, the CEO of NatWest, one of the U.K.'s biggest banks, is stepping down. Rose resigned after admitting that she was the source of a previously story on the finances of former Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage. Farage has called for casualties after producing evidence that appeared to show the bank had closed his account, partly over his political views.

Still to come, Hunter Biden is expected to plead guilty to tax crimes in just a few hours. We'll be live outside the courthouse in Delaware with the latest on a year's long investigation.

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[08:16:39]

FOSTER: In the coming hours, U.S. President Joe Biden's son, Hunter, is expected to plead guilty to two federal misdemeanors for not paying his taxes on time. Also entering a deal with prosecutors that allows him to avert a conviction related to a gun charge. It's a major step towards the conclusion of a years long investigation into his finances.

And in a new development overnight, Hunter Biden's legal team is denying they lied to court officials in order to get filings from a Republican lawmaker removed from the public docket.

CNN's Kara Scannell joins us live from outside the courthouse in Wilmington, Delaware. So will we hear from him today?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN REPORTER: Hey, Max. That's right. So we're waiting for Hunter Biden to arrive. And as you can see, there's a bit of a line forming of reporters to get inside of the courtroom. He's expected to arrive in just under two hours from now. And this is when he will plead guilty to those two tax demeanor charges for not paying taxes on more than $1.5 million in income for the years 2017 and 2018.

He also resolved the gun charge that was a felony possession charge of having a gun well addicted to a controlled substance. And Biden has been very public about his issues with cocaine. So what we expect to play out today is that the judge will then hear from the prosecution exactly what these crimes are, that Hunter Biden's pleading guilty to.

The gun charge is going to be resolved where it will be through what's known as the diversion program, and that Biden will not face any jail time for that if he abides to certain perimeters that are defined by the court. Now, the judge here will also ask Hunter Biden questions. That's when we may hear what he will have to say if he responds to the questions that the judge poses.

It's unclear if he's going to make any broader statements in court, but this will be the opportunity for the judge to ask him about the crimes that he says he committed and will be pleading guilty to. Now, this judge is a Trump appointee, although she was confirmed unanimously in a bipartisan way by the U.S. Senate.

You know, it's unclear how long this hearing will last. They usually don't take too long, but as you said, there were some hiccups overnight in this case, so we're waiting to see how that will also play out. But this is a first in a year of many firsts where a U.S. president's son will be pleading guilty to criminal charges. Max?

FOSTER: And pressure on the U.S. President as well, coming from Kevin McCarthy, the House Speaker.

SCANNELL: Yes, that's right. So now, McCarthy has been under pressure from some of the more right-wing of his party to seek impeachment against Biden, in this instance, you know, saying that, why are you looking at some of these lower level officials, such as the Department of Homeland Security or the Attorney General looking to try to focus this on President Biden?

The House Republicans are looking into the Biden family. They're also putting pressure on the Department of Justice and their investigation. They want the judge to take up this issue today, asking the judge to consider testimony from two IRS whistleblowers who say that there was political interference in their investigation into Hunter Biden.

This investigation has been going on for numerous years. It began under the Trump administration. This today, could resolve this investigation, but it will not resolve it in the halls of Congress where there is a lot of interest by Republicans to make this a much bigger issue for the Bidens. Max?

FOSTER: OK, Kara Scannell in Wilmington, Delaware. Thank you very much for bringing us that. We'll be back with you later as we get those announcements.

[08:20:05]

Now, online harassment is unfortunately nothing new. So with the growing popularity of virtual reality, could it be a safe space for everyone? We'll take a look.

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FOSTER: Sexual harassment of women and girls can be common on social media and in chat groups. And there's growing evidence it's already a problem in the digital world's newest frontier, which is virtual reality.

CNN's Anna Stewart has a story in this edition of As Equals.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NINA JANE PATEL, METAVERSE CONSULTANT: I put my headset on, I created my account, selected my avatar. And 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 detailing her experience 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 3D Metaverse as well. So I know I'm not alone.

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. We found that in these VR spaces, people seem to be pretty aware that they're pretty anonymous, 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 users in a way that they wouldn't if it was a social immediate account in the same name or in the real world.

STEWART (voice-over): Callum and his team recorded hours of interactions in the Metaverse and found that in VR chat, 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.

HOOD: 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 recognize their voice as female.

STEWART (voice-over): VR chat told CNN they have put measures in place to address harassment such as personal space tools. The company told CNN, "We're working hard to make VR chat a safe and welcoming place for everyone. Predatory and toxic behavior has no place on our platform".

[08:25:15]

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 fits a purpose and does more good than it does damage.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Anna Stewart reporting there. Meta did not respond to our request for a comment. Just the thought of doing them may stress you out, but a new study finds that planks and wall sits are actually some of the best ways to help lower your blood pressure.

According to media reports, a group of British researchers compared different types of exercise and found that isometric ones which involve engaging muscles without movement, were almost twice as effective as aerobic activities like cycling or running that are suggested under government health recommendations. The study calls for a review of those guidelines to help prevent and treat hypertension.

Thanks for joining me here on CNN Newsroom. I'm Max Foster in London. World Sport with Amanda is up next.

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