Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Leaders Of US, Japan And South Korea To Meet At Camp David; U.S. Commits To Approving F-16s For Ukraine As Soon As Training Is Complete; Mass Evacuation As Wildfire Sweeps Across Spain's Tenerife Island; After Backlash, NATO Chief Says Only Ukraine Can Decide On Talks To End War; Information of Purported Grand Jurors Circulate Online; Brazilian Hacker Speaks Out; More than 60 Migrants Feared Dead Off West Africa; Hardline Border Policies Under Fire; Growing Concerns Over Chinese Economic Slowdown; Russia and India Days Away from Planned Lunar Landings. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired August 18, 2023 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:00:24]
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone, I'm Michael Holmes. Thanks for your company. Coming up here on CNN Newsroom.
The leaders of Japan and South Korea traveled 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 still be months before they joined the fight. And cruise in Canada and Spain, Canary Islands battle major wildfires which is sending thousands to escape to safety.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from CNN Center. This is CNN Newsroom with Michael Holmes.
HOLMES: The leaders of South Korea and Japan are expected to arrive at Camp David on Friday morning for their first ever trilateral summit with U.S. President Joe Biden, both allies among America's most strategic relationship in the Indo-Pacific and yet, they've never been particularly friendly towards each other due to a complicated history or sometimes 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 US.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
YOON SUK YEOL, SOUTH KOREAN PRESIDENT (through translator): So 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 MINITER (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 has reportedly condemned the three-way partnership as in their words an Asian version of NATO, and it's widely expected to make a military show of force and protests, as Will Ripley explains that could include the imminent launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): 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 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 UN Security Council, the first meeting and more than five years on North Korean human rights.
CHA CHING (ph), NORTH KOREAN DEFACTOR: Good morning. My name is Cha Ching (ph).
RIPLEY: 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.
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 covering this for us joins us from Hong Kong. Good to see you, Anna.
[01:05:01]
So tell us more about just how significant this meeting is in the first place.
ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Michael, a few years ago this would have been unthinkable considering the historical grievances and at times hostile relationship between South Korea and Japan.
These are America's two most important allies in the region and yet South Korea's president, Yoon Suk Yeol and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan, they are putting those grievances to the side to attend this summit at Camp David with President Biden, in Maryland.
We've heard from U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, he said that this meeting would give the three heads of state a chance to talk about concrete steps towards maintaining peace and stability in the region.
But at its core, you know, this summit is about dealing with yes and erratic and missile threatening North Korea but more importantly, how to deal with a rising and aggressive China, Beijing is making its military presence felt, you know, very firmly in the region. Look at Taiwan, the territorial disputes in the South China Sea. And then you know what's happening over the Senkaku Islands with Japan.
We heard from the U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel. He spoke on a panel hosted by the Brookings Institute earlier this week. He said that China assumed that South Korea and Japan would never resolve their differences and basically get on the same page. He believes that by embedding this mechanism of cooperation in the DNA, as he calls it, of the three governments to create a new normal, this will be a major deterrent for China. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAHM EMANUEL, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO JAPAN: I think it doubles down not only in our strength about alliances, but more importantly, it doubles down on the fact that we've created something that exactly what China was hoping would never happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COREN: But Michael, Beijing will be watching this summit very closely. The fear obviously, is that it could retaliate economically if it sees this summit as a threat. And that is a serious concern to both South Korea and Japan. You know, China is of course their largest trading partner and 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. so they know they are walking a tightrope.
But look at the end of this Camp David summit, you know, we are expected to hear from the leaders that they will announce an expanded cooperation not only in joint military drills and military information sharing, but also in artificial intelligence supply chains and cyber and economic security.
Michael, the hope is that this tri lat which has happened, you know, on the sides of other summits, the G7, NATO Summit, that this will become an annual meeting on its own.
HOLMES: All right. Anna, thanks for that keeping an eye on up for us. Anna Coren in Hong Kong.
Moscow's mayor says Russian air defenses shot down a drone over the city a few hours ago, debris from the drone allegedly falling there Moscow's Expo Center.
This marks the third time in the past month that this district of the Capitol has been hit 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 drone boat late on Thursday. One of the vessels that thought of the attack is actually the Vasiliy Bykov, that ship also participated in Russia's attack on Ukraine Snake Island at the very beginning of the full scale invasion.
Meanwhile, Ukraine one step closer to receiving the F-16 fighter jets from NATO, the U.S. indicating it will support transferring those planes to Kyiv. Ukraine has been pleading for them for more than a year with some pilots calling those planes a potential game changer in the war. But as Oren Liebermann reports, it will still be a while before those jets see any action in Ukraine.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (on camera): The U.S. has committed to approving the transfer of F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, just as soon as Ukrainian fighter pilots finished training on the fourth generation fighter jets according to a U.S. official. That assurance came from Secretary of State Antony Blinken to his Danish and his Dutch counterparts, and it came in a letter that he sent to both.
Part of that letter says you have my assurances that we will expedite approval of the requisite third party transfer requests in time to enable delivery when the training is completed, including required notification to our Congress.
Now this letter is in line with what we've heard from senior administration officials before.
[01:10:00]
For example, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the U.S. would not be an impediment to F-16 fighter training for the Ukrainian Air Force and fighter pilots and the transfer of the fighter jets to Ukraine.
So the U.S. following up on that promise, saying, look, as soon as you complete the training for the Ukrainian Air Force and the pilots there, we'll approve the transfer of the jets. But there are still a lot of questions here, especially about the timeline here. And that's because European countries led by the Netherlands and Denmark, who will carry out this training program have not yet submitted a formal training plan for approval from the US. Because this is a U.S. fighter jet, the U.S. has to approve the training program, the manuals, the transfer of the fighter jets, the transfer of simulators, and that hasn't happened yet.
So, how long this take remains an open question. A Ukrainian official, the spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, in fact, said on Wednesday, they don't expect to get the F-16 until sometime next year, the training could take six months or perhaps even longer, so that two has to be factored in here.
And according to a spokesman for the National Security Council, another challenge making sure those Ukrainian fighter pilots are trained up on English so they can fly the jet and read the training operations manuals for fighting with the jet.
So a lot has to be done here before the U.S. has to approve that transfer of fighter jets and the F six teams will end up in Ukrainian Air Force. Oren Liebermann, CNN in the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: The head of NATO is doing some damage control after controversial remarks by his office director earlier this week. Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stressed on Thursday that only Ukraine can decide when to hold talks with Russia to end the war. That clarification required 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 it is the Ukrainians themselves who must decide when they are willing to sit down at the negotiating table. The initial remark about ceding territory drew sharp criticism from inside Ukraine, a top adviser to President Zelenskyy calling the idea ridiculous, and warning that if Vladimir Putin doesn't suffer a crushing defeat, Russia would be emboldened to do this 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, you know, as we saw walking back those comments from his own office, what did you make of that coming from Stoltenberg office in the first place potentially damaging?
MAJOR GEN. MICK RYAN, AUSTRALIAN ARMY (RET.): Well, good day, Michael, it's good to be with you again. I was surprised initially, I mean, Stoltenberg has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine throughout the war. And these kinds of comments haven't passed his lips, certainly.
So, you know, they're, they're not good and not productive comments, but he'll 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 kinds just by being raised risk inserting 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, their Vilnius communique was very clear on this. It certainly provides a wedge for Russia and 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 kinds of things really unproductive for them.
HOLMES: Yes. Okay. 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 end up with some level of compromise, but as Zelenskyy has repeatedly said, not an inch of Ukrainian saw would be given up.
RYAN: Well, that's hard to see either side compromising moments certainly after Boucher (ph), a peace deal looks like Russia out of all of Ukraine, including Crimea, a peace deal for Russia. It 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 all countries like Latvia and Lithuania cannot accept that because they are small neighboring countries then Russia shall rule over them.
[01:15:09]
I think 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 nation. So I'd suggest the NATO Secretary General is 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 wonder if you do before we let you go when you look at advances, incremental as they are in the south, around places perhaps like Robotyne (ph), do you see a real challenge 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 an extraordinarily tough fight a very bloody fight 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, sir. Good to see you, Mick. Thank you.
RYAN: Thanks, Michael.
HOLMES: Just ahead on the program, wildfires raging in Spain forcing thousands to leave their homes we'll have the very latest on efforts to get people on one island to safety. And Hurricane Hilary is getting stronger heading up the western coast of Mexico and could bring heavy rain, very heavy rain to the southwestern US. The latest Hilary when we come back
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: In Spain, thousands have been forced to flee as wildfires rip through the island of Tenerife, one regional leader calling at the most complicated fire the Canary Islands have seen in 40 years, about 2,600 hectares have burned so far.
On Thursday, officials reporting the fires were out of control and they were not rolling out more evacuations. Nearly 400 personnel and more than a dozen firefighting aircraft have been dispatched to help contain the fires.
And thousands of people fleeing their homes or preparing to get out as wildfires race across northern and western regions of Canada. Have a look at the scene in the Northwest Territories where flames are within 17 kilometers of the capital Yellowknife.
Evacuations are well underway as the entire population of 20,000 people has been ordered to get out of the city within the next 11 hours.
[01:20:00]
And with a heatwave hitting the western province of British Columbia evacuation alerts are 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 tried to reach a safe destination.
In Hawaii, the Maui Emergency Management Agency Administrator has resigned citing health reasons. This coming one day after he defended the decision not to activate warning sirens when the wildfire started there 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. Now the FBI is asking the families of missing people to provide DNA samples to help identify those who lost their lives. CNN's Gloria Pazmino with more from Maui.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): On Maui, hope giving way to despair, as some of the missing are moved to the list of those lost.
JOHN PELLETIER, MAUI POLICE CHIEF: You know, have we found remains that are maybe smaller than other remains. I'm going to sit here and sensationalized that what I'm talking about his children.
PAZMINO: The official death toll from the wildfires is now well over 100 with possibly more than 1,000 people still missing. Josue Garcia lost his 15-year-old brother in the fire. After trying in vain to run home to save him.
JOSUE GARCIA, LOST 15-YAER-OLD BROTHER IN THE FIRE: Everybody was saying get out, get out. Don't go that way. Not that way. Even though I was or five miles away, I could feel the heat.
PAZMINO: After the fire, his father found his brother's body in the burned rubble of the family home.
GARCIA: And what we saw was where he always slept. What we what he had seen was not just a body but the body of a 15-year-old kid who had way more life ahead of him.
PAZMINO: Then they took his remains to authorities. Josue is now turning his pain into poetry.
GARCIA: Oh could I do no power on hold? I'm lost. And I'm found. I'm lost all around. We're losing our town.
PAZMINO: The sheer scale of the devastation has impacted everyone on the island.
PELLETIER: No one has ever seen this that is alive today. Not this size, not this number, not this volume and we're not done.
PAZMINO: Identifying the dead remains a difficult task. There are often no fingerprints, and many remains are unrecognizable. Relatives of the missing are being asked for DNA samples. The search teams are also deeply affected.
PELLETIER: We have to do this right. And realize that the responders that are going out there are recovering their loved ones and members of their families.
PAZMINO: Those search and rescue teams now scouring the burn zone of more than 2,000 homes and businesses as the magnitude of the loss sinks in.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's hard to sink in.
PAZMINO: And even as authorities delicately searched the rubble for human remains, some residents say they've been approached by real estate speculators, reawakening memories of historical wrongdoing including colonization and overdevelopment and further stoking locals fears of losing their land.
Governor Josh Green reacted Wednesday to those fears and mounting frustration over reports of unsolicited calls from outsiders looking to buy damaged properties.
JOSH GREEN, HAWAII GOVERNOR: My office will work to block any of those kinds of predatory transactions.
PAZMINO (on camera): Now, as you can see, there are signs of some improvement here in Lahaina. We have been watching as electricity crews tried to put the power back on and we have also been seeing cell phone towers being repaired. So that's some good news. Some return to normalcy.
But the reality is that recovery here is going to take a long time, likely several years. And as a tension begins to fade away, it's important to remember that there are going to be thousands of people here in the high now who will still need the help of the federal government, by Hawaiians and the people of the high net will do what Hawaiians do and that is band together, support each other and help one another move forward. Reporting in Lahaina, Gloria Pazmino, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Ad we're keeping a close watch on hurricane Hilary. It's now a category three storm and gaining strength, located more than 600 kilometers south of Cabo San Lucas in Mexico and heading west northwest. But it's unclear just where Hillary will make landfall know how strong it will be when it does. Meteorologist Chad Myers is tracking the storm for us.
[01:25:08]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST (on camera): Quite a few things going on with Hilary at this hour stormy and very warm water here off the southwest coast of Baja California, just to the west really have Cabo San Lucas, but in very, very hot water, gaining strength rapidly on Thursday. But it's going to try to squeeze its way between a low to the west and a high to the east. And that's where things really get interesting.
This rarely happens. And so we rarely get tropical systems into Southern California or Arizona because of the perturbation that this is a very, very difficult pattern to get. But with this storm, we actually do have it and eventually the low will be somewhere Southern California or possibly into southern Arizona.
I'll show you the different models here in a second.
What we're dealing with down here now, it's temperatures in the water are well into the 80s and even upper 80s in some spots, but by the time we get closer to San Diego, we're only in the 60s. Hurricanes, tropical storms don't like 60s. The storm will rapidly die off when it gets into that colder water.
How quickly will it die off, that we don't yet know. The water is still warmer by a degree or two than normal, but it is significantly colder than any type of tropical system we'll live in or certainly will grow in.
So here are the models taking up into Southern California some a little bit farther to the east, some a little bit farther to the west, this thing is still four days away. So we're -- it's going to take a couple of days for the computers to figure out what's going on.
I do think we'll probably gobble in quite a bit of dry air off of Mexico proper that will begin to loosen the spin of the storm itself making it less of a tight little system right there in the middle. And then eventually even though there are going to be some very gusty winds maybe 60 miles per hour for parts of the Southwest.
I think that's when we're really going to see the threat of being a rain event. The rain will be very heavy with this system, possibly four to six inches of rainfall, especially in these higher elevations, possibly washing down the hills. And obviously the flash flood potential here with this is still going to be very strong even as a dying tropical system.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Thanks to Chad Myers there. And residents of Northern India reeling from heavy rains and deadly landslides in Himachal Pradesh state. Vedika Sud is in New Delhi and has more now on the devastation and the search for victims.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VEDIKA SUD, CNN REPORTER (voiceover): Home swept away lives destroyed. Since Sunday, more than 70 people have died and more than a dozen are missing after heavy rainfall led to landslides and flooding across India's northern Himachal Pradesh state.
In this video man is heard repeating or Lord, Oh Lord, shocked as this is flood water gushing through valley. Search and rescue operations have been underway since a desperate attempt to locate survivors buried under mud and debris. For those who were lucky, the weight has been excruciating.
SUDESH SHARMA, FAMILY MEMBER OF LANDSLIDE VICTIM (through translator): We should get the missing members of our family back. We should get a glimpse of them for the last time and set their souls free. We have no doors left open for us now. We should get them back.
SUD: With more heavy rain on the way according to forecasts, Himachal Pradesh remains alert sending residents to relief camps. This monsoon has been devastating for the state. Since the start of the rainy season in June 300 people in the region have died according to Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu.
On Wednesday, Sukhu carried out an aerial survey of some of the worst affected areas. Like in many parts of the world, sites like these due to extreme weather are becoming more common. Sukhu estimates the damage has caused losses over 1.2 billion U.S. dollars and could take a year to rebuild infrastructure. But for some residents, it's more than just infrastructure. Lives will also need to be rebuilt. Vedika Sud, CNN, New Delhi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Donald Trump reacts to the latest indictment against him as some of the purported grand jurors in the case of being threatened online. We'll have the latest in Trump's criminal cases when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL RBEAK)
[01:32:10]
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Michael Holmes. Appreciate you sticking with us.
Donald Trump facing 91 criminal charges in four separate jurisdictions. And some of his followers allegedly causing problems in at least one of them. Purported names, photographs and home addresses of the grand jurors who voted to indict him in Georgia are being circulated online.
CNN senior legal affairs correspondent Paula Reid looks at the security risks facing that jury as well as the judge in a separate case.
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Because I have four of them now, if you look.
PAULA REID, CNN SENIOR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Former President Trump reacting to his Georgia indictment for the first time on camera and calling for his party to come to his defense. TRUMP: They have no idea the anger they cause. 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.
REID: This call to action comes as the Georgia residents who served on the grand jury that indicted Trump for trying to overturn the 2020 election are facing threats and even getting doxed online.
JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMTNE AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: These people were called to serve and do their civic duty by serving on that grand jury. And now they've been basically put on the X by these disclosures.
REID: Names, pictures, profiles and even home addresses, purporting to belong to the grand jurors, are now circulating on far-right Web sites, their names were published on the indictments, a public document as is the practice in Georgia.
But experts say --
MILLER: This is really a quirk of law in the state of Georgia that the names of grand jurors come out with the indictment. So this is really the first time we have seen this kind of thing come out in a national case.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What I'm going to do now --
REID: CNN cannot independently verify the details, and it's unclear if the information circulating online is that of the actual grand jurors or just people of the same name.
Former Georgia state senator and attorney Jen Jordan testified in this case, and she says that these threats might impede prosecutors' ability to find a trial jury.
JEN JORDAN, FORMER GEORGIA STATE SENATOR: Everyone is going to know who they are. Their lives will be turned upside down. And so just to be able to sit a jury of people who would be even willing to put, you know, their lives on the line is going to be really, really difficult.
REID: And it's not just the grand jury under threat, Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the federal election interference case against Trump received a threatening voice mail earlier this month.
[01:34:50]
REID: According to court documents, a Texas woman called Chutkan's chambers on August 5th, and left a message threatening to kill anyone who went after former president Trump.
She also allegedly threatened to kill Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, as well as people in the LGBTQ community. She is now in custody.
TRUMP: Thank you very much.
REID: Over the last week, Trump has repeatedly posted to social media, speaking directly to the Fulton County grand jurors and Judge Chutkan, saying will someone please tell the Fulton County grand jury that I did not tamper with the election. And saying that Chutkan obviously wants me behind bars, very biased and unfair.
Trump was scheduled to hold a press conference to amplify his baseless claims of averting fraud. But now we've learned that's unlikely to happen after his advisers who are currently negotiating his surrender in Georgia told him that an event like that could just add to his increasing legal problems.
Paula Reid, CNN -- Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: A Brazilian hacker testified Thursday that former president Jair Bolsonaro asked him to hack into voting machines last year. Walter Delgatti Neto (ph) spoke before a congressional inquiry investigating Brazil's election results and the storming of government buildings in January.
Delgatti testified Bolsonaro said he would pardon him if he got caught. Bolsonaro's defense team denied the allegations including Delgatti's claim that Bolsonaro told him they had wiretapped a supreme court justice who was investigating the president's attacks on Brazil's voting system.
WALTER DELGATTI, BRAZILIAN HACKER (through translator): Bolsonaro said in a phone call that this wiretap was carried out by agents from other countries. He said that I would've been promised a pardon. And even said if someone arrests you, I'll have the judge arrested.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Delgatti said that the hacking plan didn't move forward because he couldn't get access to the source code for Brazil's electoral system.
Texas has long taken a tough stance on immigration, but the state's Republican governor is now getting pushback over some of his most aggressive policies.
You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Dozens of migrants are believed to have been killed in a boat disaster off the coast of West Africa. The International Organization on Migration says the boat left Senegal last week with 101 people on board. Some were able to be rescued, but most remain unaccounted for.
Our Larry Madowo with more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There is a lot we don't know about this boat carrying the migrants like where it was heading, and what exactly happened.
[01:39:56]
MADOWO: The International Organization for Migration estimates that at least 63 people are presumed dead. It says there were 101 people on board, all from Senegal except one from guinea.
It's a dangerous route, considered one of the world's deadliest, and this path coming from the coast of West Africa through to Cape Verde is something that we've seen a lot this year.
And the health minister in Cape Verde has been talking about it.
FILOMENA GONCALVES, CAPE VERDEAN HEALTH MINISTER: It comes with a lot of pain, yes, but we know that migration issues are global issues, which require international cooperation, a lot of discussion, and global strategy.
Given what the world is going through right now with migration issues, it means that we, all the nations, have to sit down at the table and see what we can do so that we don't lose any more lives at sea.
MADOWO: This boat is believed to have left a fishing village about 90 miles north of Dakar in Senegal on July 10th. And the migrants who were rescued were rescued on August 15th. So having been in the high seas for this long, the risk of dehydration and hypothermia is very high.
The Spanish Agency for Migrant Tribes (ph) working borders says at least 778 migrants have died in the past from the west coast of Africa trying to make it to the Canary Islands in Spain and enter European territory.
It's another reminder of the risks so many Africans take to try and run away from war and poverty in their countries, hoping for a better life in Europe.
Larry Madowo, CNN -- Nairobi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: A bus filled with 40 migrants has been sent from Texas to Los Angeles. On board, a dozen children, the youngest of them just nine months old.
This is the eighth bus of asylum seekers to enter California by the Hardline Republican governor of Texas. However, he's coming under fire back home for a crackdown at the southern border that even some of his supporters say is too extreme.
CNN's Rosa Flores explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MAGALI URBINA, TEXAS RESIDENT: No one's backyard should look like this. ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Magali Urbina is a Republican small
business owner who has riverfront property in Eagle Pass, Texas --
URBINA: Who got cut?
FLORES: -- where scenes like these of migrants screaming that they've been cut by razor wire in the water, this time a six year old girl --
URBINA: Oh, my God.
FLORES: -- have poked holes in her support for Governor Greg Abbott's border security initiative known as Operation: Lone Star.
Is that part of your frustration with Operation: Lone Star?
URBINA: It is. I just hate to see someone screaming saying that they are cut.
FLORES: Urbina says that while she has always supported Texas securing the border --
URBINA: We need Operation: Lone Star in our community. There are cartel members taking advantage. There is human smuggling, there's trafficking, there's death.
FLORES: She's against the state deploying razor wire, barricading her gates, blocking access to her own property and refusing multiple times to remove the barriers.
Texas officials have said the purpose of the wire is to deter smuggling between the ports of entry and not to injure migrants.
Do you think all of this is political?
URBINA: Yes.
FLORES: Does it bother you?
URBINA: It does, it does bother me. Like I said, where is the truth? You just put these wire here and making people believe that you stopped what's happening at the border. It has not stopped.
FLORES: Urbina's property is in border patrols Del Rio sector, the busiest area of the U.S. southern border in June, with more than 24,600 migrant apprehensions.
Even one of Operation Lone Star's staunchest supporter, Democratic Eagle Pass Mayor Rolando Salinas has dialed back his support.
MAYOR ROLANDO SALINAS, EAGLE PASS, TEXAS: Things have changed, things that obviously I don't like.
FLORES: Salinas went from signing an affidavit giving Texas full access and authority to arrest migrants at this public park to rescinding the measure with unanimous support from city council.
SALINAS: All those in favor? Unanimous.
The concern that I had is allegations that there might have been excessive force or anything done to intentionally hurt people I'm against.
FLORES: The Texas office of the Inspector General is investigating allegations made by a Texas state trooper working under Operation: Lone Star that he was ordered to push migrants into the river and deny them water. Texas officials have denied that any troopers were given such orders.
Other members of this border community with Mexican American roots have this message for the governor about Operation Lone Star's continued presence in their public park.
JUANITA MARTINEZ, MAVERICK COUNTY RESIDENT: Get the hell out of our park -- plain and simple. Get the hell out of our park.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We can border security without cruelty.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would like to see Operation Lone Star out of the park, and everything out of the river.
[01:44:57]
FLORES: Urbina drove us along her riverfront property.
URBINA: Here they are.
FLORES: To catch up with the little girl hurt by the razor wire while trying to cross illegally. But as she approached --
URBINA: I'm the landowner, Mrs. Urbina from Heavenly Farms.
FLORES: Texas state troopers questioned her before letting her through.
URBINA: You want to tell them I'm out here on my property.
FLORES: And there she was.
The six-year-old walking along the banks of the Rio Grande. Her mother saying her daughter's feet got caught in the razor wire but appeared ok.
What gets you every time.
URBINA: Just hearing a human being crying that they're hurt. It's not easy.
We reached to Governor Greg Abbott's office about the story and we have not heard back about the controversial border buoys. There is a set of buoys that is staged on land here in this public park. This is the same park that we showed you in our story.
And what is shocking about this (INAUDIBLE) when you see it up close is the piece of metal that is between the buoys. If you take a close look you will see that it looks like a saw blade. It even has teeth.
The latest regarding the legal battle over these buoys is that according to a federal filing about 80 percent of the nearly hundred thousand feet of buoys that was installed by the state of Texas was actually installed in Mexican territory.
Rosa Flores, CNN -- Eagle Pass, Texas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Still ahead, a race to the moon. Russia and India just days away from landing on the moon but they are not the only countries with ambitious lunar plans. We'll have that story after the break?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Chinese real estate 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 debt in 2021. It actually owed some $340 billion by the end of last year which, to put it in perspective is about 2 percent of China's entire GDP.
And it seemed a restructuring plan unveiled earlier this year has not gone so well. Evergrande's 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 the stagnation. And have done little to boost confidence. Concerns over China and future interest rate hikes have been tugging Wall Street down as well.
U.S. stocks notching their first straight day of losses. The Dow falling 0.84 percent on Thursday. The Nasdaq and S&P also taking a hit.
Simon Baptist is chief economist for The Economist Intelligence Unit. He joins me now from Singapore. Thanks for doing so.
And saying the Dow dipping Wednesday in part over fears of economic slowdown in China, what are those fears primarily?
SIMON BAPTIST, CHIEF ECONOMIST, THE ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT: The strength of China's downturn has been gradually building in investors and analysts minds over the last few months.
[01:49:51]
BAPTIST: China's 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 (INAUDIBLE) under the control of the government who dance around the FBI environment and the (INAUDIBLE) slowdown. The property sector at the moment also being 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 under other countries and impact their economy?
BAPTIST: China's economy is actually a bit less internationally- exposed than most others. It is the same for the United States where 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 countries like Australia, Brazil, Indonesia, sending things that end up in China's construction sector such as iron ore or cement or electricity generated through coal.
And as the property sector declines, those commodity exporters are finding things hard. And because Chinese households have such low level of confidence, the outbound travel rebound has been very, very bleak. That of course, is affecting mostly countries nearby in Asia, places like Thailand and Vietnam that will be really counting on a boom in Chinese tourism once the COVID restrictions ended.
There is a silver lining for the rest of the world though in China's slow down as there is too much capacity in China's manufacturing sector relative to soft domestic demand. We are seeing deflation, particularly in producer prices. Much more so than in consumer prices.
Those falling factory prices mean lower export prices. That has actually helped if you're the rest of the world and you're in a country that's suffering from high inflation right now. So exporting with deflation now won't hurt for 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 what are the main internal concerns for Chinese citizens? How are they being impacted?
BAPTIST: The number one is the property market. Because China still controls capital flows in and out of the country, Chinese households do not have many options on where to put their savings. They can 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 fund cheap credit for investment, really the stock market and property market have been the only two options.
And since the big stock market crash in 2015, property sector has been where Chinese households put all their cash. Now as property prices are falling and start coming down, of course, the number of big developers like Evergrande are in financial difficulties.
Projects are not getting completed, households are (INAUDIBLE) and seeing their saving rates tick up in China. And that is causing the consumption rebound that we were expecting as the COVID restrictions got lifted even through this year has not really materialized to the extent that we wanted it.
Property is by far the biggest downturn but there are also some issues around unemployment especially amongst the youth as well.
HOLMES: And our thanks to Simon Baptist in Singapore for that.
Now China has announced that President Xi Jinping will make a state visit to South Africa next week where he will be attending the BRICS summit in Johannesburg. This year's summit will mark the first time since 2019 that the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa have met in person. Russia's Vladimir Putin, who is facing an international arrest warrant, well he won't be there.
According to China's foreign ministry, President Xi will arrive in South Africa on Monday which is one day before the summit starts.
Now the world is witnessing a new era of space exploration. India's lunar lander is in its final stage before it attempts to touch down on the surface of the moon in the days ahead.
But another country might beat them to it. Russia says its new spacecraft could land on the moon as early as Monday.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: The race is on to explore the far reaches of the moon. Russia launching its first lunar lander in 47 years, with the hopes of beating out the competition and becoming the first country to make a soft landing on the south pole of the moon.
[01:54:53]
HOLMES: If successful, the Luna 25 mission would be an astronomical comeback for Russia, reclaiming some of the glory from its Soviet-era space heyday.
And putting it at the forefront of a new push by several countries to explore the deep craters of the shadowy part of the moon that's believed to contain water ice.
The liftoff was delayed for nearly two years, partially because of the backlash over Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The European Space Agency pulling key camera equipment from the project.
And even though Luna-25 is now aloft, it is not alone in its endeavors. The Indian spacecraft Chandrayaan-3 (ph) is already in lunar orbit and on Thursday, India's space agency announced the lander module had successfully separated from the propulsion module, even quoting the lander as saying, thanks for the ride mate.
They are now eyeing a soft landing spot on the moon on August 23rd two days after Russia's ambitious target landing date. But both missions will have to avoid the fate of the Chandrayaan-2 in 2019 which crash landed on the moon's surface.
Other nations are in the moon race. Earlier this month the crew of NASA's Artemis-2 mission inspected the Orion spacecraft that is set to orbit the moon with astronauts on board late next year.
Artemis-3 will follow, with plans to land a crewed spacecraft on the lunar south pole that NASA says this mission could be changed or delayed, if a landing system created by SpaceX isn't ready on time.
China also says it plans to land astronauts on the moon by the end of the decade, something NASA says is worrying if they get to the moon's south pole first and claim it as their territory.
BILL NELSON, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: So naturally, I do not want China to get to the south pole first with humans and then say this is ours, stay out.
HOLMES: Both the U.S. and China in collaboration with Russia have advanced plans to build bases on the moon and finding water ice which could be used to make fuel, oxygen and drinking water will be important to sustain those sites and the long term ambitions of several space agencies.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Thanks for watching CNN NEWSROOM.
I'm Michael Holmes.
The news continue on CNN with my colleague Kim Brunhuber right after a short break.
[01:57:31]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
