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CNN International: Mission Strike Targets Kryvyi Rih in Central Ukraine; Pre-Coup Protesters Descend upon French Embassy; Trump Employee Carlos de Oliveira to Appear in Court; U.K. Using High Tech Surveillance to Track Migrant Boys. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired July 31, 2023 - 08:00   ET

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

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MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, welcome to CNN "Newsroom", I'm Max Foster in London. Just ahead missiles slammed into the central Ukrainian City of Kryvyi Rih hitting two civilian buildings and killing at least two people rescue operations are ongoing.

A third person indicted in the classified documents case against Former U.S. President Donald Trump heading to court in just a few hours, we'll have a live report. And the death toll in Pakistan is rising after a suicide bombing at a political rally.

Ukraine's Interior Minister says up to seven people may be trapped beneath the rubble in the central City of Kryvyi Rih after twin Russian missile strikes. At least four people were killed in the attacks and 40 others injured. It comes as Kyiv announces upcoming peace talks hosted by Saudi Arabia.

That includes Western nations and several developing countries. Russia though won't be involved. Meanwhile, a key ally of the Russian President says Moscow may be forced to use a nuclear weapon if Ukraine's counter offensive succeeds. A lot going on Clare's here with details. First of all, these trap people in Kryvyi Rih.

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we're getting images out of the scene, Max. It was two buildings. It was one residential building where the local officials are saying that several floors were wiped out and then an educational institution as well. So they're still cleaning up.

They say that as of now. The death toll stands at for more than 40 people injured. But still, those numbers have been rising all morning. This is of course Presidents Zelenskyy's hometown. He's been speaking to local officials saying that they will not be cowed by this violence.

But look, Russia is clearly making it clear that it can hit anywhere at any time. We saw two killed in the northern Sumy region. Over the weekend strikes on Kharkiv overnight, you know a death there is still reeling from that more than week long barrage. And in fact, we've heard from the Russian Defense Minister this morning saying that they have intensified attacks on Ukraine in the wake of those drone strikes that have been on the flip side intensify on Russian soil and of course Russia claiming it's hitting military targets which of course, these are not.

FOSTER: No, OK. I will have to leave it there. Thank you, Clare. Pakistani officials are still trying to figure out who was responsible for a terrorist attack at a political rally at least 54 people were killed and more than 100 injured after a suicide bomber set off an explosive this.

The rally was being held by an Islamist party that is part of Pakistan's coalition government. We'll get more now from CNN's Ivan Watson.

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There was an evening of death and carnage in a small Pakistani town not far from the border with Afghanistan. On Sunday, Pakistani police say a suicide bomber detonated eight to 10 kilograms of explosives near the stage of a political party gathering.

At least 54 people were killed 12 of those victims under the age of 12 and many more wounded. The Gathering involved a right wing Islamist political party that goes under the acronym JUIF. It is part of the governing coalition in the national government. Up until now there has not been a formal claim of responsibility.

Here's what one man had to say who arrived on the scene of this deadly blast shortly after it took place.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was in close proximity when the blast occurred. Upon arriving at the scene I was confronted with a devastating sight lifeless body scattered on the ground while people cried out for assistance amidst the bloodstains surrounding people were picking up bodies on their own.

Around 4 to 500 individuals had gathered here to attend the convention, organized by the JUIF party.

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WATSON: That deadly act of political violence tragically, they do take place in Pakistan. And there's a whole range of different organizations and ideologies that have been affiliated with this kind of violence in the past. For example, in January of this year, there was a suicide blast that targeted a mosque in a police compound in the Western City of Peshawar.

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Scores of people killed and that was claimed initially by the Pakistani Taliban which then denied responsibility for the attack. One of the deadliest suicide bombs in modern Pakistani history was back in 2018. It targeted another political party in Baluchistan province, and the Pakistani branch of ISIS claimed responsibility for that terrible attack.

The Pakistani Prime Minister has denounced this act of violence and expressed his regrets. And there are concerns that there could be more violence on the horizon, as Pakistan is expected to hold national elections this -- . Ivan Watson, CNN, Hong Kong.

FOSTER: Thank you, Ivan. The political crisis continues to grow in the West African nation of the year. The presence of nearby chat channel Tunisia has Capital to meet with the country's ousted President Mohamed Bazoum. And cue leaders hoping to find a peaceful solution.

Meanwhile, thousands of protesters took to the streets to show their support for the coup leaders in front of the French Embassy tents and sometimes violent scenes played out while others shouted support for the Russian President Vladimir Putin. CNN's Larry Madowo joins us from Nairobi, Kenya.

Not a very popular amongst leaders in the region. But it does seem to be well there does seem to be a lot of popularity for the coup leaders within the country.

LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. A lot of people in Nigeria support this go to the pier and States television last night Reina 16 minutes segment showing voices from across the nation supporting the council to safeguard the homeland. That is what these coup leaders are calling themselves.

I shall want to go friends responding to claims on the military junta that it plans military strikes to release President Mohamed Bazoum and reinstate him France now saying according to a French Foreign Minister spokesperson, that it only recognizes President Mohamed Bazoum in the democratically elected institutions as the legitimate authorities.

And its only priority is the safety and well-being of its nationals and its holdings in the country. So that is a denial in some way in some form. But this comes after these huge protests, Sunday, anti- French protests that we're seeing in the capital Niamey, the trashing of the French Embassy.

In fact, embassy security had to use tear gas to dispel the protesters to Purdue disperse them, after they broke some windows and try to gain access into the building. But this anti-French sediment is not new in the region. But these are the biggest forces we've seen specifically in Niger.

And also interesting, all the Russian floods we saw around long lived in Niger, long live Russia, they said again and again and down with France, here's one protester.

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MAMAN SANI, PROTESTER: We also came out to tell this little Macron from France that Niger belongs to us. It's up to us to do what we want with Niger what we want. We deal with who we want, and how we want. We are for me support for Niamey.

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MADOWO: Niger got independence from France in 1960. And these people out on the streets reject what is known as France of fake that is the influence that France exerts on his fallen colonies in Central and West Africa. In neighboring Chad, the President that Mahamat Idriss Deby has been traveling has traveled to Niamey.

He has met with the deposed President Mohammed Bazoum, as well as his Former Head of Presidential Guard now claiming to be the leader, General Abdourahmane Tiani. He said that in depth discussions and talked about a way to find a peaceful resolution to the crisis, but they didn't exactly say, what that path is and if there is any progress towards getting there.

So right now, the only real threat here is from ECOWAS, the regional body that said, unless President Bazoum is reinstated, within one week, they will use all measures including the use of force in Niger, Max.

FOSTER: The criticism of France might seem obvious to a lot of people because it's this formula, former colonial power, but it's less clear why there's so much support for Russia. Can just explain that?

MADOWO: So that's the interesting kind of subtext here as anti-French sentiment has grown within not just in Niger, but in neighboring countries in Mali, in Burkina Faso, really across all of what is known as Francophone Africa. There's been a warming up to Russia, so many Russian flags, and we saw Russian flags also, Max, after the coup in neighboring Burkina Faso.

The Wagner group, that private military contractor is already active in Mali, and in the Central African Republic. These are also places where friends has been and they're also you see this attraction to Russia and across the wider African continent. For instance, there's a lot of positive vibes, so to speak, around the Russia-Africa summit that just concluded.

Many people see Russia as a true partner to the continent and so much less without the colonial baggage of, say, the U.K. or France or many of these other countries.

FOSTER: OK, Larry thanks for explaining that. Tens of thousands of people were forced to flee their homes in Beijing after one of the strongest storms to hit China in years.

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At least four people were killed including two in the Chinese capital since Typhoon Doksuri made landfall on Friday, two others remain missing. This dramatic video shows a car being flipped over by the floodwaters in Hebei Province. Heavy downpours are expected to continue through Tuesday.

Forecasters warn another hurricane level storm is on its way. Let's bring in Jennifer Gray from the CNN's Center in Atlanta to explain what people have got to come.

JENNIFER GRAY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right. So the first storm, Doksuri is now headed to the north. So the rain has pretty much stopped for the region that we saw all the flooding. However, we do have another storm right on its heels a lot of uncertainty with this storm, and where it's going to go.

But this could be another player for additional rainfall. So here's some 48 hour totals with the storm. And we saw anywhere from say 200 to 350 millimeters of rain in the hardest hit area in just two days' time. So that's why you saw incredible flooding, the rivers just rising out of their banks.

This is in Beijing, and just incredible amounts of damage. Here you can see small sheds just floating down the river we saw cars in reverses as well. And so incredibly dangerous scenario that unfolded there. So here's the forecast accumulation. This is over the next five days.

So you can see around Beijing, we're really not going to see a whole lot more rain from the storm, maybe about 50 millimeters or so. But areas to the north will see more rain from remnants of the storm. And you can see anywhere from 150 to 200 millimeters of rain yet to come.

And so here is the second one that's right on its heels with 250 kilometer per hour winds, gusts of 260 moving at about 17 kilometers per hour, quite a bit of certainty for the next 48 hours, it's going to cross over Okinawa. It is going to start to lose some steam as it gets a little bit closer to China.

But we really don't know where it's going to go beyond there. We know it's going to stall out. But how soon that stall happens we'll determine how close it gets to the coastline of China. And then eventually it's supposed to take a turn to the north. So if that happens later, rather than sooner, you're going to feel far more impacts along the coast of China in areas to the north.

If it happens, quite a bit sooner, then you will have more impacts to Okinawa and some of the southern islands of Japan. So while there's a lot of uncertainty with this storm, we'll continue to watch it over the next several days, Max.

FOSTER: OK, thanks for that Jennifer Gray at CNN Center. Coming up we'll be live in Miami where a little known employee of Donald Trump will appear in federal court in the coming hours as part of the criminal investigation into the Former U.S. President's alleged mishandling of classified documents.

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FOSTER: In the next few hours a Property Manager Donald Trump's Mar-a- Lago resort will appear at a federal courthouse in Miami as the third defendant in the Former U.S. President's classified documents case. Carlos de Oliveira is charged with making false statements to the FBI when asked about the movement of boxes at the Florida Resort.

He's also accused along with Trump and aide Walt Nauta of trying to delete Mar-a-Lago security footage resources they do. Oliveira is not someone close to Trump or his inner circle even. Also today, Trump's political action committee is expected to report to the Federal Election Commission that it has spent more than $40 million on legal fees.

The first half of this year, the committee raises most of his funds through small donors from Trump's support base. CNN's Randi Kaye joins us live at the courthouse in Miami and I mean, a huge moment for this guy who you know, had a backroom role at Mar-a-Lago.

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely Max, this is a guy who from what we understand was this sort of low level maintenance worker. He had been at Mar-a-Lago for 20 years started out as a valet worker worked up, worked his way up in various maintenance jobs before becoming the Property Manager as he is listed in the official federal indictment.

But he is now accused, as part of this plot to try and delete security camera footage from the Mar-a-Lago club where Donald Trump lives and that footage apparently allegedly included video of boxes of documents, some of them were found to be classified. So he's going to appear in court here shortly in Miami, Florida.

He is officially charged with Conspiracy to obstruct justice, making false statements and two counts of concealing or destroying an object. He apparently went to an IT worker at Mar-a-Lago according to the indictment, and told him that the boss wanted to delete the server and ask this IT worker how long the video would remain on the server.

He's going to appear here in court, Max, with his lawyer from Washington D.C. His name is John Irving. But Carlos de Oliveira will need a Florida based attorney in order to enter a plea today. It's unclear if he has that attorney. If not, then this case for him could be delayed, which of course is very important here, because that could impact whether or not Donald Trump could go to trial for his alleged role in this case before the U.S. presidential election, Max.

FOSTER: And is another employee speaking to investigators as well isn't there?

KAYE: Right, this is a man named Yuscil Tavares. He is the IT worker, he's been identified as the IT worker, according to CNN sources, who Carlos de Oliveira was allegedly speaking too to try and get this video footage deleted. And he was an IT worker at Mar-a-Lago. He's now at the center of these new allegations.

And sources are telling CNN that these new allegations against the Former President Donald Trump are based at least in part on what Yuscil Tavares is telling has told FBI investigators. So he now is also at the center of these new charges and these new allegations he has not been charged with anything, but certainly it does seem he is playing a key role, Max. FOSTER: All of these cases costing Trump and his team a huge amount of money. We've got a sense of that, didn't we from some of the accounts that have been revealed today?

KAYE: I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you. There was an aircraft overhead.

FOSTER: I just asked you about this amounts of money that we've learned is being spent by Trump and his team on lawyers. It's an extraordinary figure.

KAYE: Absolutely millions of dollars is being spent to try and help fight these court cases. In fact, John Irving, who is the lawyer, the Washington D.C. based lawyer I mentioned for Carlos de Oliveira. His firm received nearly $200,000 in 2022, from Donald Trump's super PAC save America.

So there is a lot going on behind the scenes to try and finance some of these legal fees that these employees have his are facing.

FOSTER: OK, Randi Kaye in Miami, thank you so much for bringing us, all of that. Still to come, I look at new surveillance technology used by the U.K. to monitor and deter migrants crossing the English Channel. Stay with us.

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FOSTER: Here in the U.K. the government is ramping up measures to deter migrants crossing the Channel from France. So controversial new law has been passed that will include criminalizing anyone who seeks asylum there this way or in the U.K. this way.

To aid this, the country has invested millions in high tech surveillance to spot small boats. But despite this, a CNN investigation found no evidence. It was used during the deadliest incident in the channel last year as CNN's Katie Polglase reports.

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KATIE POLGLASE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It's 3 in the morning on the 14th of December 2022 in the middle of the English Channel. A fisherman has spotted multiple people in the water and is trying to haul them out.

RAYMOND STRACHAN, FISHERMAN (ph): It was, pitch dark. It was a very cold night, minus one, minus two. And there was a lot of screaming.

POLGLASE (voice over): In total, they rescue 31 people from the sinking vessel, including two Afghan boys just 12 and 13 years old.

STRACHAN (ph): This is not an area that we fish in a lot, and if we weren't there, everyone there would have probably drowned.

POLGLASE (voice over): U.K. authorities arrive later and rescue eight more. Four die in what becomes the worst migrant tragedy in the channel that year. But officials have been informed of the incident nearly an hour earlier.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please help. We have children and family in a boat. Please, we are in the water.

POLGLASE (voice over): At just before 2 am, the boat has made a distress call here to Utopia 56, a French migrant charity that passed it on to the French and U.K. authorities. The French Coast Guard say the boat is undetectable on shipping radar, but estimate it will shortly cross into British waters.

Now CNN has found that at the time of the incident, the U.K. government had expensive AI technology designed to spot these boats and knowing that the vessel was soon entering their territory, and that there were people freezing in the water including children they could have sent this.

Tekever AR5 drone drone designed to detect small boats and capable of deploying a life raft. It's licensed by the U.K. Government, even the British Prime Minister proud to show it off. CNN has established it flew over the same area where the distress call was made on multiple previous journeys.

And even flew the day before and after the incident, but not in the hours the vessel was sinking. Instead it took more than an hour for the first U.K. lifeboat to arrive in which time a fishing crew rescued the majority on board.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We must stop the boats.

POLGLASE (voice over): This tech forms part of a campaign of deterrence and hostility by the government towards those attempting to reach British shores. Millions of pounds have been spent on AI cameras trained to find rubber dinghies, some able to see beyond U.K. waters drones with Automatic Identification abilities.

And while the company's tout their life saving capabilities, footage from these drones has also been used to identify those driving the boats and prosecute them for human trafficking. A new bill will take it even further criminalizing anyone who seeks asylum in the U.K. this way.

PETRA MOLNAR, HUMAN RIGHTS AND MIGRATION LAWYER: Yes, technologies could very easily be used for search and rescue for finding votes faster for preventing these horrific disasters. But unfortunately, the reality on the ground is the opposite. It's assisting powerful actors to be able to sharpen their borders make it more difficult for people to come and again, you think surveillance for these kinds of ends.

POLGLASE (voice over): And it follows a global trend in digitizing border security.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These towers operate 24/7, 365.

POLGLASE (voice over): The same century tower was made by the American tech startup Anduril that line the U.S.-Mexico border have recently been installed along the British coastline to identify and track boats. Another company serious insight AI, whose technology is also available to the U.K. authorities, insisted that tech is used for saving lives.

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But stop short of talking about how the government uses it?

MALCOLM GLAISTER, CEO OF SIRIUS INSIGHT AI: Our equipment shows any vessel that's in the U.K. territorial waters where it is and where it's going. And if that vessel is in distress, it allows the lifeboat to get to that precise location because we're tracking it.

POLGLASE (on camera): And so we've been following some of the incidents that have unfortunately led to fatalities in the channel. If we have this technology, why are people dying?

GLAISTER: I don't think I can comment on those instances, because of the commercial nature of their relationship with the home office.

POLGLASE (voice over): The Home Office declined to comment on the incident on the 14th of December. In response to a freedom of information requests submitted by CNN, U.K. Border Force said revealing the text capability might aid the criminals facilitating the crossings and increased risk to life at sea.

The Coast Guard declined to comment citing an ongoing investigation into the incident and a court case underway to prosecute the alleged driver of the boat. A new record was set for June with nearly 4000 people detected arriving to the U.K. But for those that do make it, they face an increasingly hostile welcome. Katie Polglase is CNN London.

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

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