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North Korea May be Preparing to Launch Missile to Protest Trilateral Meeting; U.S. Pledges to Approve Supplying F-16s to Ukraine; NATO Chief: Up to Ukraine to Decide When to Negotiate; Maui County Mayor: 45% of Burned Area Has Been Searched; Growing Concerns Over Chinese Economic Slowdown; Blockbuster Film Opens in Saudi Arabia to Wide Acclaim. Aired 12-12:45a ET

Aired August 18, 2023 - 00:00   ET

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

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Michael Holmes. Appreciate your company.

[00:00:55]

Coming up here on CNN NEWSROOM, the leaders of Japan and South Korea travel to the U.S. Historic rivals hoping to unite against North Korea and China.

Plus, the U.S. pledges to allow the transfer of F-16 jets to Ukraine, but it could be months before they join the fight.

And crews in Canada and Spain's Canary Islands battle major wildfires, which are sending thousands to escape to safety.

ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Michael Holmes.

HOLMES: Less than 12 hours from now, the leaders of South Korea and Japan will arrive at Camp David for their first ever trilateral summit with U.S. President Joe Biden.

Both allies are among America's most strategic relationships in the Indo-Pacific. Yet they've never been particularly friendly towards each other, due to some bitter history between them.

President Biden is hoping the tranquil setting of Camp David will be conducive to putting that mistrust aside in the face of China's growing dominance in the region.

Both Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol expressed optimism as they prepared to depart for the U.S. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YOON SUK YEOL, SOUTH KOREAN PRESIDENT (through translator): The Republic of Korea, U.S., Japan summit that will be held at Camp David will set a new milestone in trilateral cooperation, contributing to peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula and in the Indo-Pacific region.

FUMIO KISHIDA, JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER (through translator): As the international norms built on freedom and openness are shaken, our bilateral relationships with the United States and South Korea will be the foundation of this historical opportunity to bolster the strategic relationship between the three countries.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: North Korea reportedly has condemned the three-way partnership as a, quote, "Asian version of NATO." And it is widely expected to make a military show of force in protest. As Will Ripley explains, that could include the imminent launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): All eyes on the skies over North Korea. South Korea's spy agency telling lawmakers in Seoul, Pyongyang is planning a provocative show of force, including an intercontinental ballistic missile launch.

The military is detecting signs of possible ICBM launch preparations, monitoring the active movement of ICBM launch-related vehicles in Pyongyang. Expecting drills, including tactical nuclear-capable missile launches in the coming days.

The latest intelligence as North Korea faces growing international pressure. U.S. and South Korean military exercises begin next week. North Korea considers the annual drills a dress rehearsal for war.

Those drills coming as President Joe Biden prepares to host the leaders of Japan and South Korea on Friday at Camp David. China and North Korea high on the agenda.

At the U.N. Security Council, the first meeting in more than five years on North Korean human rights.

IIHYEOK KIM, NORTH KOREAN DEFECTOR: Good morning. My name is Iihyeok Kim.

RIPLEY (voice-over): A North Korean defector telling the council, "The government turns our blood and sweat into a luxurious life for the leadership and missiles that blast our hard work into the sky."

The U.N. high commissioner for human rights says many North Koreans face extreme hunger, acute medicine shortages, claiming the U.N. and NGOs remain barred from the country.

Two nations not barred from North Korea: Russia and China. Two patrons with power to veto biting Security Council sanctions. Both sent high- level delegations to Pyongyang last month.

Leader Kim Jong-un showing off his latest ICBMs and drones analysts say bear striking resemblance to U.S. military models. Suspicion is growing North Korea may have plans to secretly provide

weapons for Russia's war in Ukraine. So far, no hard evidence, but South Korea's spy agency expects growing military cooperation, warning of the possible transfer of Russia's core nuclear and missile technology to North Korea.

[00:05:09]

For nations trying to contain the North Korean nuclear threat, analysts say the worst may be yet to come.

Will Ripley, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: And CNN's Anna Coren is covering this for us; joins us now live from Hong Kong.

Let's talk about the significance of a meeting like this at all. I mean, unthinkable a few years ago.

ANNA COREN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the significance, Michael, cannot be understated. A few years ago, such a summit would have been unthinkable, considering the historical grievances and fraught, and you know, at times, hostile relationship between South Korea and Japan.

And at the end of the day, these are America's two most important allies in this region.

And yet, you know, President Yoon Suk Yeol Japan from South Korea and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan, they're putting that aside to join President Biden at Camp David in Maryland for this one-day summit.

We heard from U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier in the week, and he said that the meeting would give the three heads of state a chance to talk about concrete steps towards maintaining peace and stability in the region.

You know, this summit, Michael, is about dealing with the -- the rising and aggressive China, plus an erratic North Korea and its persistent threat of launching missiles. Beijing and Pyongyang are both very closely aligned with Russia.

Seoul believes that North Korea is preparing an intercontinental ballistic missile launch and other provocations, perhaps around the summit, or the joint U.S.-South Korea military drills, which will start next week.

Now, one of the key goals of this summit is to embed mechanisms of cooperation in the DNA, if you like, of the three governments. And to create a new normal.

That's according to Rahm Emanuel, the U.S. ambassador to Japan. And that this trilat then becomes an annual meeting. More practically, Michael, it's hoped the leaders will announce expanded cooperation not only in joint military drills and military information sharing, but also in artificial -- artificial intelligence, supply chains, and cyber and economic security.

Now, China, of course, will be watching very closely. If it perceives that this summit is anti-China, it could certainly retaliate economically, which is of great concern to both South Korea and Japan.

China, of course, is their largest trading partner. They do not want to get into an economic war with China.

And, Michael, I think it's interesting to note that we heard from China's top diplomat, Wang Yi, last month. He warned Japan and South Korea against aligning themselves too closely with the U.S.

Let me read to you what he said: "No matter how yellow you dye your hair, or how sharp you make your nose, you'll never turn into a European or American. You'll never turn into a Westerner."

So, certainly, a lot to consider for South Korea and Japan, but you know, they are walking a tight rope in how to position themselves. But this summit certainly incredibly important, Michael.

HOLMES: All right. Thanks, Anna. Anna Coren there in Hong Kong for us.

And Moscow's mayor says Russian air defenses shot down a drone over the city a short time ago. Debris from the drone allegedly falling near the Moscow Expo Center.

Now, this marks the third time in the past month that this district of the capital has been struck by drone debris. State media says authorities closed the airspace over one of Moscow's major airports, delaying arrivals and departures.

It's one of two incidents officials reported in recent hours. The Russian defense ministry says two of its patrol ships in the Black Sea repelled an attack from an unmanned Ukrainian gunboat late on Thursday.

One of the vessels that thwarted the attack is the Vasily Bykov. That ship also participated in Russia's attack on Ukraine's Snake Island at the start of the full-scale invasion.

The U.S. says it will give the greenlight to sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine as soon as its pilots are trained. The U.S. secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has made that comment in letters to European allies.

But on Wednesday, Ukraine made it clear it does not expect to actually get those jets until next year. Its pilots haven't started their training in Europe, and it's unclear how long that training will last.

As Nick Paton Walsh explains, transferring those planes is no simple task.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Getting Ukraine's F-16s was always going to be an ambitious, complex task.

[00:10:03]

You have to provide technicians inside Ukraine, who are Ukrainian, to do the vast amounts of servicing that these complex jets need between their flights to keep them operational.

You need to train, in English, F-16 pilots. That training project was supposed to happen in NATO European ally nations. The program for it was complex. It didn't move as fast forward as people necessarily hoped.

So, the initial ambition from the Biden administration to see F-16s flying in Ukraine by the end of the year clearly has been stalled. And that's been recognized by Ukrainian officials in the last hours here.

It's a huge deal, really, for Ukraine, because while they wouldn't really necessarily impact the frequency of sirens that you hear in a population center like this -- that's mostly because of long-distance missile attacks -- they could have a big impact on the Southern counteroffensive frontline, where Russia has air superiority, and the half-metric-ton bombs that the Russians drop on Ukrainian positions have been slowing that offensive and causing enormous casualties.

So the F-16's were a chance of Ukraine redressing that balance. The idea it could happen this year, it's fair to say that was ambitious. That fact that it's not happening, well, possibly that's a reflection of how long these tasks have been taking inside of NATO itself.

We've seen ourselves, when we're in the outskirts of Urozhaine, the town most recently captured by Ukraine, how important air superiority could be for Ukraine to push the Russians back, to speed up that particular advance.

Urozhaine, important, certainly, because it enabled him to keep moving South. At the same time, we've also been hearing from Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko, talking about how they will not attack Ukraine. And if they were attacked, they could potentially resort to nuclear weapons.

Important to put that in context. Belarus has already been used for the invasion of Ukraine last year. Belarus doesn't have its own separate nuclear arsenal. It relies on Russia for that.

And so Lukashenko often making these statements to suggest they don't want to be part of this war, but they shouldn't necessarily be considered to be weak at this stage.

He enjoys minimal domestic report, but was seminal to Putin in turning around the Wagner coup a few months ago.

But still, a deeply complex day for Ukraine, where the thought of F- 16s being delayed will be poorly accepted by so many here.

Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Dnipro, Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: The head of NATO is doing some damage control, meanwhile, after controversial remarks by his office -- office director earlier this week.

Secretary Jens Stoltenberg stressed on Thursday that only Ukraine can decide when to hold talks with Russia to end the war. That clarification necessary after one of his top aides said Ukraine ceding territory to Russia could be one way for Kyiv to achieve peace and join NATO.

The secretary-general now saying, quote, "What is important is that the Ukrainians themselves must decide when they are willing to sit down at the negotiating table."

The initial remark about ceding territory drew criticism from Ukraine, as well, unsurprisingly. A top advisor to President Zelenskyy called the idea "ridiculous" and warned that, "If Vladimir Putin does not suffer a crushing defeat," Russia would be emboldened to act the same way again.

Now for more on this, let's bring in Mick Ryan. He's a retired army major general and -- in the Australian army, and the author of "War Transformed: The Future of 21st Century Great Power, Competition and Conflict." He joins me now from Canberra.

Always good to see you, Mick. Again, Stoltenberg essentially, as we saw, walking back those comments from his own office. What did you make of that coming from Stoltenberg's office in the first place? Potentially damaging?

MAJ. GEN. MICK RYAN (RET)., AUSTRALIAN ARMY: Well, good day, Michael. It's good be with you again.

I was surprised initially. I mean, Stoltenberg has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine throughout the war. And these kind of commons haven't passed his lips, certainly.

So, you know, they're not good and not productive comments, but he will be minimizing the damage, and potentially, that office director may be finding other employment elsewhere in the near future.

HOLMES: Yes, I guess when you look at the potential harm to the overall arc of the conflict, I mean, do those comments, just by being raised, risk inserting, you know, a splinter into the broader unity conversation?

RYAN: Well, I think they do. Certainly, for a NATO that has been remarkably unified and focused on supporting Ukraine. The Vilnius communique was very clear on this. It certainly provides a wedge for Russia in its misinformation operations. Whether it's a reality or not, it will seek to wedge any disunity. Finally, it's a real distraction for the Ukrainian leadership. They

are very, very busy indeed, fighting a war, defending their country. And these kind of things really aren't productive for them.

[00:15:09]

HOLMES: Yes, OK, so when it comes to the substance of those comments, what might a peace deal look like? I mean, most or many resolutions of war and up with some level of compromise. But Zelenskyy has repeatedly said, not an inch of Ukrainian soil would be given up.

RYAN: Well, it's hard to see either side compromising at the moment. Certainly, after Bucha, a peace deal looks like Russia out of all of Ukraine, including Crimea. A peace deal for Russia looks like them retaining what they have.

There's a massive gap in between there, and at least until the Ukrainian presidential elections are over, it's very difficult to see compromise.

HOLMES: Stoltenberg also spoke about the threats to smaller neighbors of Russia. I'll just read what he said. He said, "Small countries like Latvia and Lithuania cannot accept that because they are small neighboring countries, then Russia shall rule over them."

I mean, that was important clarification that he made. Do you think it was related to that initial comment out of his office: a reassurance. I mean, having to make clear NATO's positions on those other neighbors?

RYAN: I think it's absolutely related to those comments. Those Eastern countries, not just in the Baltics, but countries like Poland, would have thought, Well, if parts of Ukraine can be given up to appease Russia, why wouldn't parts of our nations?

So I suggest the NATO secretary-general has probably spent a lot of time, and probably has a lot more time to spend in the near future, reassuring Eastern European NATO allies.

HOLMES: I want to ask you, too, before we let you go, when you look at advances, incremental as they are, in -- in the South around places perhaps like Robotyne (ph), do you see a real chance Ukraine could cut off Russia's land bridge? And what impact would that have on the war?

RYAN: Well, I think there's certainly a good chance. The Russians are under a lot of pressure. We're seeing a lot of anecdotal evidence of this.

But that doesn't take away the fact that this has been in extraordinarily tough fight, a very bloody flight for the Ukrainians. But they're determined, and I think they should be able to do that in this fighting season.

HOLMES: Major General Mick Ryan, always a pleasure. So good to see you, Mick. Thank you.

RYAN: Thanks, Michael.

HOLMES: Still to come this hour on the program, wildfires raging in Spain, forcing thousands to leave their homes. We'll have the latest on efforts to get people on one island to safety.

Also, Hurricane Hilary has strengthened to a Category 3 storm, and forecasters are warning it could bring significant impacts to Mexico and the Southwestern U.S. We'll have details after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:20:11]

HOLMES: In Spain, thousands are being forced to flee as wildfires rip through the country's island of Tenerife. One regional leader called it the most complicated fire the Canary Islands have seen in forty years.

About 2,600 hectares have burned so far.

On Thursday, officials reporting the fires were out of control, and they were not ruling out more evacuations. Nearly 400 personnel and more than a dozen firefighting aircraft are being dispatched to help contain the fires.

And thousands of people are fleeing their homes or preparing to get out as wildfires race across Northern and Western regions of Canada. Have a look at these images here.

These are from the Northwest Territories, where flames are within 17 kilometers of the capital city, Yellowknife. Evacuations are well underway, and the entire population of 20,000 people has been ordered out of the city within the next 12 hours.

The scramble to get out isn't confined to Canada's North. With a heat wave hitting the Western province of British Columbia, evacuation alerts also in place for thousands of properties there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLIFF CHAPMAN, BRITISH COLUMBIA DIRECTOR OF WILDFIRE OPERATIONS: This weather event has the potential to be the most challenging 24 to 48 hours of the summer from a fire perspective. We are expecting significant growth, and we are expecting our resources to be challenged from North to South in the province over the next 48 hours.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Back in the Northwest Territories, residents are snarling the roads as they try to get to a safe destination.

Now, in Hawaii, the Maui Emergency Management Agency administrator has resigned, citing health reasons. This coming amid criticisms that he didn't activate sirens to warn residents when that wildfire started last week. Those fires, of course, devastated the historic town of Lahaina,

killing at least 111 people, with more than 1,000 residents still unaccounted for.

The mayor of Maui County telling CNN 45 percent of the area scorched by the deadly fires has been searched. That's a lot more left to search, now.

CNN's Bill Weir has more on that ongoing search.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL WEIR, CNN ANCHOR/CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Here on Maui, as that fatality count ticks up a little bit at a time, day by day, it's the number of missing that weighs so heavy on the hearts of people here and, really around the world, watching this story.

WEIR (voice-over): Over 1,000 missing, according to the governor, his last statement on that. And given the fact that a lot of power is back up on the island, a lot of the communication is back up, you'd think we would have heard from those folks by now.

And what's especially grievous is when you think about how many children were home that day. I'm hearing again and again from kids there was no school when the fire hit. A lot of young ones were with their grandparents or someone else while the parents worked.

So you can imagine the agony in those families, if they haven't found their children.

WEIR: I spoke, actually, to a veteran urban search-and-rescue officer from FEMA in Hawaii from the Houston area, and he says of the some 90 disasters he's addressed in his career, this is unlike anything else.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's been really powerful is the fact that there's a number of local local firefighter NPDs that have lost their homes, lost their everything. And they're out there working side by side with us. So this is something very personal for us. Because this could easily have been our community. And so to be able to help them and to see them working in their own destroyed community is really powerful.

WEIR (voice-over): e told me how they're searching, sort of square foot by square foot, with these dogs. They're trained to detect human remains, even down to cremated ashes.

And they want to be reverential. And standing alongside them, in a lot of cases, are Maui fire and police department faculty, who have lost their loved ones, as well, and are digging through that ash, trying to find anything to put some people's minds at ease right now.

WEIR: The winds are kicking back up again. Nothing as strong as the firestorm tropical gusts that we saw last week. But a concern for the hotspots still in the upcountry Kula Fire. There are two Chinook helicopters, according to the National Guard,

ready to go to put those out if they should flare up. But so many concerns still playing out here. So much trauma.

Bill Weir, CNN, Maui.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Now, we're keeping a close watch on Hurricane Hilary, which is now a Category 3 storm and gaining strength.

The storm is located some 690 kilometers South of Cabo San Lucas in Mexico, and heading West-Northwest. Hillary is expected to reach Category 4 status in the hours ahead, but it's unclear just where the storm might make landfall and how strong it will be when it does.

[00:25:05]

The U.S. National Hurricane Center predicts heavy rain will spread into California and the Southwestern United States late this weekend.

Still to come here on the program, a Chinese property giant goes bankrupt, exposing new cracks in China's economy. We'll have a report on the impacts that's been having in Beijing and beyond.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Michael Holmes.

Now, a Chinese titan, the Evergrande Group, has filed for bankruptcy in New York. Evergrande was once China's second largest property developer by sales, but borrowed heavily and defaulted on its massive debts in 2021.

It owed some $340 billion by the end of last year. That's about 2 percent of China's entire GDP.

And it seems a restructuring plan unveiled earlier this year has not gone so well.

Evergrande struggles have sent chills through the world's second most powerful economy and have fueled global fears about a China slowdown. Chinese officials have been slow to respond to stagnation and have done little to bolster confidence.

Concerns over China and future interest rate hikes have been tugging Wall Street down. U.S. stocks notched their third straight day of losses, the Dow falling 0.84 percent on Thursday. The NASDAQ, S&P 500 both also taking a hit.

Simon Baptist is chief economist for the Economist Intelligence Unit. He joins me now from Singapore. And thanks for doing so.

You know, seeing the Dow dipping Wednesday, in part over fears of economic slowdown in China. What are those fears, primarily? SIMON BAPTIST, CHIEF ECONOMIST, ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT: If the

strength of China's downturn has been gradually building in investors' and analysts' minds over the last few months.

China has got a mix of weaknesses. Some long-term trends, such as a shrinking workforce and an aging population, that are inevitably slowing the economy down as it matures.

But then also some trends that are much more under the control of the government. For example, around the FDI (ph) environment and the productivity slowdown.

The property sector at the moment is also a key factor in the slowdown, given how much of household wealth is tied up there.

HOLMES: And so how do weaknesses in the Chinese economy then flow onto other countries and impact their economies?

[00:30:03]

BAPTIST: China's economy is actually a bit less internationally exposed than most others. It's the same for the United States. When you just have a massive domestic economy, that tends to be relatively more important for you.

But some of the main channels for China. One is around commodity exporters, so that countries like Australia, Brazil, Indonesia, are sending things that end up in China's construction section, such as iron ore, or cement, or electricity generated through -- through coal.

And as the property sector declines, those commodity exporters are finding things hard.

And because Chinese households have such a low level of confidence, the outbound travel rebound has been very, very weak. That, of course, is affecting mostly countries nearby in Asia, places like Thailand and Vietnam, that were really counting on booming Chinese tourism, once the COVID restrictions ended.

HOLMES: Yes.

BAPTIST: There are some silver linings for the rest of the world, though, in China's slowdown. As there's too much capacity in China's manufacturing sector, relative to soft domestic demand, we do -- we are seeing deflation, particularly in producer prices, much more so than in consumer prices.

Those falling factory gate prices mean lower export prices. That's actually a help if you are the rest of the world, and you're in a country that's suffering from high inflation right now. So exporting, a bit of deflation won't hurt more countries in Europe and North America.

HOLMES: And within China, you've got, you know, a lot of job insecurity these days, particularly among the young, high unemployment. Low consumer confidence, or lower. We mentioned the massive property developer filing for bankruptcy in

the last 24 hours.

So -- so what are the main internal concerns for Chinese citizens? How are they being impacted?

BAPTIST: The No. 1 is the property market. Because China still controls capital flows in and out of the country, Chinese households don't have many options of where to put their savings. They could put them in the domestic stock market, or they can put them in domestic property, or they can put it in fixed deposits.

But because interest rates for consumers are artificially held down in China, in order to funnel cheap credit for investment, really the stock market and the property market have been the only two options.

And since the big stock market crash in 2015, the property sector has been where Chinese households have put all their cash.

Now, as property prices are falling, and new starts are coming down, and of course, a number of the big developers like Evergrande are in financial difficulties, and you know, projects are not getting completed, households are deleveraging. And we're seeing the savings rates tick up in China.

And that's causing the consumption rebound that we were expecting, as the COVID restrictions got lifted through this year, has not really materialized --

HOLMES: Right.

BAPTIST: -- to the extent that we wanted it. So the property is by far the biggest downturn. But there are also some issues around unemployment, especially amongst the youth, as well.

HOLMES: Right. So how much of what is happening in the Chinese economy can be laid at the feet of Xi Jinping, who was a big pusher of the real-estate sector?

And what are the chances of a meaningful policy shift, as you know, authorities there become increasingly worried about, you know, social instability caused by the economic slowdown?

BAPTIST: What we're really seeing in China now is a coming home to roost of some of the trade-offs that they choose to make in their domestic policies.

So, I mean, Xi Jinping, but I mean, the Chinese Communist Party more broadly, of course, do have a very strong focus on stability and control, especially things like the control of information and also the maintenance of party primacy in business government. I mean, all sorts of areas of Chinese society.

And it's just not possible to maintain fast rates of economic growth if you want to continue things like controlling the flow of information, not being so open to foreign direct investment, not allowing people to migrate freely within the country.

So a lot of the -- a lot of the slowdown can be put down to domestic policy settings, and that is due to Xi Jinping and the party's activities.

There are some big factors that are not. I mean, one large one is demographic change, aging population, shrinking workforce. Now, the policy choice there is around do you have immigration or not? Some countries like Canada and Australia have dealt with aging populations by increasing their immigration rate.

Others like Japan and China have not. So there's different policy choices around -- around that kind of inevitable aging.

But the one that's really concerning for China in the long term is productivity growth. With the reemphasis of importance of state-owned firms, which have lower productivity than private sector firms, particularly in the tech industry, we're getting more of China's capital tied up in low-productivity sectors.

[00:35:07]

HOLMES: Right.

BAPTIST: And that is going to play out not just this year but for decades to come.

HOLMES: All right, yes. Fascinating stuff. Simon Baptist in Singapore, really appreciate it. Thanks so much.

Donald Trump is reacting to his fourth criminal indictment for the first time on camera. He is dismissing the charges brought against him in Georgia as a witch hunt, of course, and calling for Republicans to come to his defense.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Yes, I have four of them now, if you look. This is not even possible, four, over the next -- last couple of months. And frankly, it discredits everything.

Republicans can't get -- let them get away with it. Republicans have to be tough. The Republicans are great in many ways, but they don't fight as hard for this stuff. And they have to get a lot tougher.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now, in the 41-count indictment, Trump is accused of being the head of a criminal enterprise to overturn the 2020 election in the state.

Meanwhile, members of the grand jury that indicted Trump are now the focus of online threats. Names, photographs, social media profiles, and even home addresses purportedly belonging to the jurors are being shared on far-right websites.

CNN cannot independently verify if the information online actually does belong to the jurors, but it's out there.

The Fulton County Sheriff's Office says investigators are working to track down the origin of the threats.

One of the biggest blockbusters of the year opens in Saudi Arabia, but not everywhere in the Middle East is feeling Barbie fever. We'll have that story when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: An international chess organization is under fire for forbidding transgender players from taking part in women's events. The International Chess Federation says players who have transitioned from male to female have, quote, "no right to participate in women's events."

That's until the organization can analyze the situation further, it says.

In response, the National Center for Transgender Equality, based in the U.S., fired off a tweet: quote, "Really? Chess? This is so insulting to cis women, to trans women, and to the game itself."

Saudi Arabia is saying, "Hi, Barbie." Locals packing theaters now that the global blockbuster as arrived. But it isn't Barbie mania everywhere in the Middle East, as Becky Anderson now reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR/CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Scenes like these were unthinkable just a few years back: Saudi women packing cinemas to watch "Barbie," an empowering movie with feminist themes.

[00:40:02]

But Barbie mania is alive in the kingdom, which only ended its decades-long ban on cinemas in 2017, as part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's plans to transform the country.

JAMAL MOUSSA, EGYPTIAN LIVING IN SAUDI ARABIA (through translator): I asked people coming out of the screening. They told me it is an excellent film. It is a romantic film, the Barbie movie. It has a compelling story. So I thought to book for me and the children to watch it, and they were happy about it. An advancement we are witnessing every day. We can now see movies and a lot of things that we don't see year before.

MARGOT ROBBIE, ACTRESS: Do you guys ever think about dying?

(RECORD SCRATCH)

(CRICKETS)

ANDERSON (voice-over): However, the film will not be delighting audiences in every nation across the region. Despite showing "Barbie" at cinemas for several weeks, Algeria took the decision to remove the blockbuster from screens for promoting homosexuality.

Oil-rich Kuwait also banned "Barbie" to, quote, "preserve public ethics and social traditions."

Social media, awash with Kuwaitis joking about driving to Saudi Arabia to see the film, and some even posting guides on the theaters closest to the border.

The irony of the reversing cultural norms not lost on Kuwaitis, who have been used to Saudis making that journey in the past.

And in Lebanon, a country generally regarded as being more progressive towards the LGBTQ community, the culture minister moved in to ban the movie from theaters, saying it, quote, "promotes homosexuality."

JEAN CLAUDE BOULOS, LEBANESE FILMMAKER (through translator): The movie is being shown in Saudi Arabia and in the Arab world, while we here are banning it. It started with all of us postponing it, but at the end, they chose to run the movie, and we decided to ban it. This shows that we want to stay still. We don't want to develop.

ANDERSON (voice-over): While Saudi Arabia's socio-economic liberalization is moving apace, there is still criticism of certain facets of that transformation.

Former head of Human Rights Watch, Kenneth Roth, tweeting that, while "Saudi women find much to admire in 'Barbie,' they still need guardians' permission to marry, and there is yet no appetite for activism in the country."

Despite the progress still to be made, that this film is being shown in Saudi Arabia, a nation traditionally reinforced by the patriarchy, is a sign that bin Salman's vision is rapidly changing the country.

Becky Anderson, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: And we should say, Warner Bros. Pictures, which is distributing the "Barbie" movie, is also owned by CNN's parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery.

I'm Michael Holmes. Thanks for spending part of your day with me. I will be back at the top of the hour with more CNN NEWSROOM, but first, WORLD SPORT after the break.

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(WORLD SPORT)