Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

CNN International: U.S. Lawmakers Call for Transparency on Flying Objects; Israeli Supreme Court to Take Up Controversial Law in September; North Korea Welcomes Russian and Chinese Delegations; Netherland and U.S. Battle It Out in rematch of 2019 Final. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired July 27, 2023 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Wall Street has been on a roll recently with the Dow racking up 13 straight days of gains for the first time since 1987. Investors shrugged off yesterday's quarter point hike by the Fed. But the U.S. Federal Reserve is still unsatisfied and inflation is out of control. And on Wednesday raised its benchmark rate to the highest level in 22 years. It is the 11th time the Fed has raised the prime lending rate since March of last year. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said inflation numbers have improved but not enough.

Still to come, a retired intelligence officer claims the U.S. has the intact bodies of aliens and their spacecraft hidden away. We'll have details of the hearing.

Plus, Israel's Supreme Court sets up a showdown with the Netanyahu government over a newly passed judicial reform law. But it won't happen right away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster.

U.S. lawmakers are pushing for more information and transparency on UFOs, or as the government calls them unidentified anomalous phenomena or UAPs. Three retired military veterans testified in Washington on Wednesday, calling the issue an urgent matter of national security. CNN's Oren Liebermann reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[04:35:00]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a f*****g drone, bro. There's a whole fleet of them. Look on the SA.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The videos of mysterious airborne objects have captured the public's attention.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're going against the wind. The wind is 120 miles to the west. Look at that thing, dude.

LIEBERMANN (voice-over): And perhaps it's imagination.

REP. GLENN GROTHMAN (R-WI): There lies a pressing demand for government transparency and accountability that cannot be overlooked.

LIEBERMANN (voice-over): As Wednesday's hearing focused on the threat they may pose and whether the government has been too secretive about what it knows.

RYAN GRAVES, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, AMERICANS FOR SAFE AEROSPACE: UAP foreign drones is an urgent national security problem. If it is something else, it is an issue for science. In either case, unidentified objects are a concern for flight safety.

LIEBERMANN (voice-over): David Grusch, a former Military intel officer, claimed the U.S. had alien bodies and spacecraft, a statement for which he admitted he has second-hand info and no proof.

REP. ERIC BURLISON (R-MO): You've said that the U.S. has intact spacecraft. You said that the government has alien bodies.

DAVID GRUSCH, FORMER AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE OFFICER: I have to be careful to describe what I've seen firsthand and not in this environment.

BURLISON: Have you seen any of the bodies?

GRUSCH: That's something I've not witnessed myself.

LIEBERMANN (voice-over): The House Oversight Hearing was a rare moment of bipartisanship in a sharply divided Congress.

REP. TIM BURCHETT (R-TN): We're not bringing little green men or flying saucers into the hearing. We're just going to get to the facts.

REP. ROBERT GARCIA (D-CA): We should encourage more reporting, not less, on UAPs. The more we understand, the safer we will be.

LIEBERMANN (voice-over): One of the witnesses was former Navy Pilot Ryan Graves, who now runs Americans for Safe Aerospace, a group that encourages pilots to report incidents of UFOs, officially known as UAP -- Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon. The vast majority of sightings he says are never reported.

GRAVES: This is an approximation based off of my personal experience, speaking with a number of pilots, but I would estimate we're somewhere near 5 percent reporting perhaps.

LIEBERMANN (voice-over): The three witnesses, all retired military veterans, warned the threat these objects posed is real.

REP. ANDY OGLES (R-TN): Based off of your own experience or the data that you've been privy to, is there any indication that these UAPs could be essentially collecting reconnaissance information -- Mr. Graves?

GRAVES: Yes. OGLES: Mr. Grusch?

GRUSCH: Fair assessment. Very possible.

OGLES: Mr. Fravor?

LIEBERMANN (voice-over): David Fravor, a retired U.S. Navy Commander, picked up this on his aircraft sensors in 2004, a reading he claimed was something far superior to anything the U.S. had.

CMDR. DAVID FRAVOR (RET.), COMMANDING OFFICER U.S. NAVY: You're talking something that can go into space, go some place, drop down in a matter of seconds, do whatever it wants and leave, and there's nothing we can do about it.

LIEBERMANN (voice-over): In April, the Head of the Pentagon's office looking into this these incidents told lawmakers there were about 650 potential cases of UAPs, about half of which he said may be of interesting value. The White house said Wednesday it is still working on figuring out those answers.

JOHN KIRBY, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL COMMUNICATIONS COORDINATOR: If your question is, you know, do you think we need to be transparent with the American people? Of course, we need to be as transparent as we can be. But the truth is, gentlemen, we don't have hard and fast answers on these things. We are trying to get smarter on it.

LIEBERMANN: The White House points out that when these UAPs -- these unidentified aerial phenomena -- have been spotted near training ranges. They have disrupted military training. And that's part of the reason that went into the U.S. standing out the arrow, all domain anomaly resolution office, to try to figure out what these are and how serious a threat they pose to national security. Of course, we're all watching this very closely to see whether these are harbor or a risk to national security in some way for whether they are benign or simply sensor readings or errors.

Oren Liebermann, CNN, in the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Apologies for just losing my earpiece.

And Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was in the hot seat on Capitol Hill on Wednesday as House Republicans grilled him over the Biden administration border policies. They accuse him of losing control of the border and failing to stop illegal immigration. But while border crossings remain high, they dipped to their lowest levels in about 2 1/2 years.

Meanwhile, a feud between the federal government and Texas over floating barriers in the Rio Grande has escalating. The Justice Department is asking a court to block the construction of any new buoys and remove existing barriers within ten days. That's on top of the lawsuit it filed earlier this week. Mexico is also weighing in writing in a diplomatic note that the barriers violate two treaties and that many of the buoys are actually in Mexican territory.

Israel Supreme Court has agreed to take up one of the most contentious laws in the country's history. Setting up a major legal battle between the government and opponents who warn that democracy itself is at stake.

The judicial overhaul would weaken the Supreme Court's oversight of government decisions. Stripping its ability to block those it deems unreasonable. Elliott Gotkine is live this hour in Tel Aviv with the very latest. We talked a bit about this yesterday but it continues, doesn't it, potentially for months?

ELLIOT GOTKINE, JOURNALIST: It does, Max. Because this hearing isn't going to take place until September.

[04:40:00]

And even then, it could take weeks or months for the Supreme Court to actually make a decision. And if it were to decide that these seven groups that have petitioned the court -- if it sided with these seven groups that have petitioned the court to strike down this so-called reasonableness bill, then it would be unprecedented. Because this reasonableness bill isn't just any other law. It's actually what's called a basic law in Israel, which is one of Israel's quasi constitutional laws. And the Supreme Court has never in its history struck down a basic law.

In fact the head of the Supreme Court said in 2021 that they would only ever do so if, in her words, if there was a blow to freedom and fair elections, core human rights, the separation of powers, the rule of law and an independent judiciary.

Of course, the opposition and those groups that petitioned the Supreme Court would have liked the Supreme Court to impose some kind of injunction on the reasonableness bill. Preventing it from coming in to effect until it had held a proper hearing.

However, it didn't do that and this bill came into force just yesterday. So kind of mixed emotions one imagines among the opposition and opponents of this bill.

Now the other question of course is, if the Supreme Court strikes down this reasonableness bill, would the government abide by it? Because of course this bill is designed to prevent the Supreme Court from striking down decisions or rules based on reasonableness. So it's kind of an ironic situation. But the government's minister for strategic affairs, Ron Dermer, speaking with CNN, said that the government will always obey and abide by the rule of law. Indicating that the government would abide by any decision that were to strike down this basic law. More protests later as well, Max, and those protests continue until they have some kind of victory, it you like, from the Supreme Court perhaps -- Max.

FOSTER: OK, Elliott in Tel Aviv, thank you.

Still ahead, it's been decades since the cease-fire that halted the fighting in Korea Peninsula. How North Korea is marking what it calls victory day.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:45:00]

FOSTER: North Korea is rolling out the red carpet for the allies Russia and China. Who sent high-level delegations to Pyongyang. They are celebrating the 70th anniversary of the armistice agreement that ended the fighting on the Korean Peninsula. An anniversary North Korea falsely refers to as Victory Day.

According to state media, the leaders of the Chinese and Russian delegations presented the North Korean leader with letters from President Vladimir Putin and President Xi Jinping. Meanwhile, Kim Jong-un has been showing off his country's weaponry as these three allies bolster ties and put on a show of unity as well.

Let's bring in CNN's Marc Stewart live from Tokyo. What do you make of the optics -- Marc?

MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well optics is a key word, Max. This is a chance for North Korea to once attempt to establish itself as a power broker and the best way it knows how to is through pageantry. In fact, over the last few hours we've been getting a lot of pictures and video from Pyongyang. In fact, let's take a look.

We have video of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un with Russia's defense minister touring what has been described as a military expedition. State media says this is basically new types of weaponry and equipment. North Korea and Russia for that matter have been strong supporters of each other. We have seen North Korea show its support of Russia and vice versa. In fact the Russian defense minister making the statement to the effect of the People's Army, the Korean People's Army, became the strongest army in the world. So that's the kind of verbiage that Kim Jong-un is certainly wanting to see.

We should point out that it is not alone. There's also a delegation from China during this momentous occasion, this anniversary in North Korea. As one analyst pointed out to CNN, this is really an interesting trio to see China, to see Russia and North Korea together at a time when a lot of world has been condemning them. Especially for support of the war in Ukraine.

In fact, if you look at North Korea, it has been accused by the United States of providing weaponry to Russia. Russia on the other hand has not condemned necessarily Vladimir Putin taking a more sideline approach. But it goes to show that these three nations have really been isolated at a time when a lot of world has been united against Ukraine. Max, there is always a possibility we may see a bigger military parade perhaps in the hours ahead, we'll certainly keep you posted.

FOSTER: OK, thanks for that, Marc in Tokyo.

Two of the world's top teams go head-to-head in the Women's World Cup. How the defending American champions faired. We're live with the highlights for you.

[04:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: Portugal and Vietnam are facing off right now in the Women's World Cup with the Portuguese side leading by two goals at the halftime mark.

But the big focus was the clash between the defending champions the U.S. and the Netherlands of course who took an early lead. This was the rematch of the final 2019, wasn't it -- Amanda?

AMANDA DAVIS, CNN WORLD SPORT: It was. And I have to tell you, when I was there helping to conduct the draw in Auckland in October, this was the tie when the balls came out of the pots that really did bring the biggest reaction in the room. It's two of Women's World Cup heavy weight teams. And arguably the tie of the group stage of this tournament, and it was tight.

The U.S., as you said, having to come back from a goal down. The Dutch taking an early lead on 17 minutes. And the game really changed when Rose Lavelle came off the bench for the U.S. She was one of the goal scorers in the final four years ago. And she was the person who combined with the U.S. captain Lindsay Horan for the goal that gives the U.S. a point.

But I have to say, there's been sort of a criticism for the U.S. in this one. But they're not as clinical as they have been in years gone by. They're not taking the chances that we perhaps would have seen from them being ruthless as we've seen from them in years gone by. They have won 14 matches in a row at the Women's World Cup over three tournaments. So historically, as you well know, have been the team to beat.

But this is a side in transition. They've got 14 tournament debutantes. It's Vlatko Andonovski in charge. Whereas Jill Ellis was the person who led the U.S. to their last two world cup titles.

And there really is a feeling that they are finding their feet. They're finding their identity. And I have to point out, we're sitting here in London, the European teams recently are the sides that have troubled the U.S. They have lost to Germany, lost to England. And the Dutch here. But if you speak to the U.S. captain, Lindsey Horan, she is still fairly positive. Have a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LINDSEY HORAN, SCORED GAME-TYING GOAL FOR U.S.: I felt the momentum the whole time. I think in the first half we could be disappointed in how we played, but I think that we fixed things right away. The pressure that we got on and the amount of chances and opportunities that came from it, so proud of the team and their response. It's against a -- against a really good opponent. Very competitive team. You know, one that we saw last World Cup do such good things. So, I think for us, it's going down a goal and coming up and getting able to tie. And again, the chances that we got on goal. We got to finish a few of those, but we keep moving forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DAVIS: Yes, so it's U.S. who are still top of the group. Level or ahead of the Dutch on goal difference. So it will be interesting the next round. U.S. is up against Portugal. Netherlands of against Vietnam. You know, who will score more goals and take that top spot heading in to knockout stages.

FOSTER: And I want to ask you about Mbappe. Because you're the expert on all -- I mean, there is so much briefing and counter briefing between Saudi Arabia and all these, you know, different clubs. What on earth is going on? Is he going or not?

DAVIS: I mean, it's a great headline, isn't it? Kylian Mbappe, one of the world's best, most talented players going for a world record feat to the Saudi Arabia side Al-Ittihad.

[04:55:00]

Nothing official has been said by Al-Ittihad. Nothing official has been sent by Kylian Mbappe. Nothing official has been said by PSG. But we do understand that PSG were happy for Kylian Mbappe to speak to Al- Ittihad. But Kylian Mbappe does not want to speak to them. That is what we know. We know his contract is up at the end of next year. We know PSG don't want to let him go for free. So we'll see what happens.

FOSTER: We have the facts from Amanda. Stick with them.

Stories in the spotlight this hour. Seven major auto makes are joining forces to create a vast network of charging stations for electric vehicles. The plan envisions at least 30,000 fast discharge facilities across the U.S. and Canada. But the first one is slated to open next year. Right now there are only about 35,000 charging stations in the U.S.

Car makers are betting that demand for electric vehicles will go up once there are enough places to charge them quickly. That's a chicken and egg.

NASA's Webb Telescope has captured new images of stars in the making. They are located about 1,500 light years away. But in the process of their creation, they ingest and eject gas and dust over thousands of years which is what makes the orange material in that image there. NASA says the stars will take millions of years to fully form though.

And how's this for a kicker? This pair of ultra-rare Apple sneakers is being auctioned off by Sotheby. The white trainers with the classic rainbow Apple logo and the tongue on the side were custom made for the company's employees as a one-time giveaway at a national sales conference in the mid 1990s. Size 10 -- my size -- and half trainers are new in their box but show some signs of aging. And starting at $50,000, the shoes are fetching a higher price tag than any current Apple products. Only Amanda can afford them on his desk. She's the fashion person.

Thanks for joining me here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster in London. "EARLY START" with Christine Romans is next.

[05:00:00]