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BRICS Leaders Meet in South Africa to Tackle Possible Expansion; Former Thai PM Back in his Home Country after years of Self Exile; New Report States that Ethiopian Migrants were Killed by Saudi Border Guards U.S. President Assessed the Maui Wildfire Impact; Japanese officials to Push through with the Fukushima Plant Water Release, Protesters Opposing the Move; British Child Serial Killer Finally Sentenced to Life Imprisonment. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired August 22, 2023 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. You are watching "CNN Newsroom" and I'm Rosemary Church.
Just ahead, Russia claims to shoot down more Ukrainian drones near Moscow, the latest in a recent spate of drone attacks around the Russian capital.
Leaders are gathering in South Africa for this year's BRICS Summit. We will break down what to expect as the pro-Russia bloc's gathering gets underway.
And as Maui continues to mourn those lost in this month's wildfires, native Hawaiians of voicing concerns they could be shut out of the rebuilding process.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Rosemary Church.
CHURCH: Thanks for joining us. Well, Russia says it's defending itself from several new Ukrainian attacks, some of them coming very close to the capital city. This dash cam footage shows the orange glow from an apparent Ukrainian drone that crashed outside Moscow. Russian defense officials say it's one of four drones they intercepted Tuesday. Aviation authorities temporarily closed all of the airports in the Moscow region.
And Russia's Defense Ministry says it destroyed a Ukrainian reconnaissance boat on the Black Sea, which was spotted near a Russian gas production facility. For its part, Ukraine says it carried out a successful attack on a Russian military base on Monday, claiming one of its drones damaged at least one aircraft.
And CNN correspondent Clare Sebastian joins me now live from London. Good morning to you, Clare. We are seeing a rather dramatic uptick in drone attacks on Russia. What is the latest on this strategy?
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Rosemary, it is a dramatic uptick. All but a handful of days in the month of August have not seen Russia accuse Ukraine of attacking its territory with drones. And Moscow in particular has become a target. This seems to be about two things, one, causing disruption, angst, anxiety. Airport disruption, for example, seems to be one of the hallmarks of this now, as we saw today in Moscow.
And that, I think, is what these attacks in Moscow today represent, obviously Russia is saying they shot down these drones, but you can see those images there, a high-rise apartment building in the suburban town of Krasnogorsk just outside Moscow was damaged. This was in not only the same town, but really the same area of that town where the government buildings of the Moscow region are based.
So unclear if that was an actual target, but certainly that will have, you know, put people on edge. I think, look, there's also military targets here. You talked about the Sheikhovka air base that Ukraine is now claiming responsibility for hitting on Monday, claiming to have destroyed or at least damaged a plane there. That is also part of what we're seeing. Russia says that on Saturday another airbase was hit.
So this is sort of the SAS style tactics of going as far as possible behind enemy lines and trying to disrupt military installations, logistics, things like that, all trying to ease pressure on the front lines, and in that vein, the Russian Ministry of Defense is also saying that it destroyed a Ukrainian reconnaissance boat in the Black Sea near Russian gas production facilities.
The Black Sea also has emerged really in the last month as a much more active front in this conflict, really ever since Russia pulled out of that grain deal. Rosemary?
CHURCH: All right. Our thanks to Clare Sebastian joining us live from London.
Well, meanwhile, Ukraine's president is meeting with allied Balkan leaders in Greece for security talks. Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying Greece will help train Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets and the sooner they're trained the sooner the jets can join the counteroffensive. Denmark and the Netherlands have committed to sending some of the U.S.-made F-16s to Ukraine. Ukrainian Air Force officials say that could change the course of the war providing troops on the front lines with critical air cover.
As Ukraine's counteroffensive drags on, death and despair taking a toll on the survivors of Russia's brutal invasion. CNN's Nick Paton- Walsh reports on the personal tragedies of a fireman living on the front lines.
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NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The aftermath is not always easier. These are the firemen of the most bombed city on earth, Orikhiv, in the throes of the counter-offensive. And this is a normal day for them.
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Here's the story of one we've gotten to know, Dima.
DIMA, FIREMAN AND SURVIVOR OF THE CONFLICT (translated): In the two hours there were 200 incoming. We were in the basement saying goodbye to life.
The fire moved through the balconies. (expletive) a bomb just landed!
PATON WALSH (voice-over): Pain here doesn't just come from the flames. Away from the front lines, Ukraine is suffering in ways we don't see. Dima has lost nearly all his family since the war began. His wife left for Europe as a refugee just days after the war started with his son, and he doesn't know if they will ever come back. The emptiness of their family home is a crippling constant weight on him.
DIMA (translated): I'm going insane. Silence. The silence is killing me. When I'm working I feel better than here. I got so used to being there. I can't sleep at night when I'm here at home. Sometimes, I might sleep one hour in the day. At work, I feel more at home and I can sleep despite the shelling.
PATON WALSH (voice-over): The gaps between the horror harder than the horror itself. And sleep when it comes is sometimes worse.
DIMA (translated): These days I can barely sleep. When I fall asleep I dream about my family. I'm coming back from my shift and my family is here waiting for me. My wife is back, we are together again. I'm so happy to see them after such a long time. I didn't see my family for nearly a year. It's a painful subject.
PATON WALSH (voice-over): Orikhiv has been ground to dust in the last two months. But Dima's grief here came immediately with last year's invasion. His father died in its first days just before his wife left from a heart attack, he says, because of shelling. In that chaos, Dima had to bury his father himself.
DIMA (translated): His heart just stopped from fear. When it explodes, everything shakes inside you. So he died in my mother's arms.
PATON WALSH (voice-over): Now he only has his mother left. She won't leave the house where his father died and where Dima was born, and where the flames may strike again.
DIMA (translated): One day I will just tie her up and bring her here. Because I only have her. As soon as I see an air-raid alert "Oriki Hiv - Gliding Bomb" As soon as I see Orikhiv, I call her: "Mum hide! Mum hide!" She says she's hiding but I don't know. My mama is a tough one.
PATON WALSH (voice-over): Nearly every Ukrainian home has holes in it from people who won't come back and emotions forged in a war with no end in sight.
DIMA (translated): I want all the Russians to live in a place like this after all they did to my town. Make them live in these conditions to the end of their lives. I don't want them to exist at all as a nation. I agree, there are normal people everywhere on each side. But I will hate them at the end of my life.
PATON WALSH (voice-over): Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Zaporizhzhya, Ukraine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Months after his failed coup on Moscow, Yevgeny Prigozhin is turning his attention to Africa. The boss of the Wagner mercenary group says he and his fighters are on the continent right now, quote, "making it freer." And he says Wagner is also making Russia greater around the world.
This clip of Prigozhin claiming to be in Africa made the rounds on pro-Russian military blogs Monday. But CNN can't verify where it was filmed or its authenticity. Wagner fighters have been active in African conflicts for years.
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A CNN investigation has uncovered the group's involvement and complicity with atrocities in places like Mali and the Central African Republic.
The U.S. is telling American citizens to avoid traveling to Belarus and is urging those already in the country to leave immediately. The U.S. embassy in Minsk is issuing that warning after Belarus closed two of its six border crossings with Lithuania. Embassy officials warn that more border crossings could be closed. They also say Belarus's facilitation of the war with Ukraine and its arbitrary enforcement pose a risk to U.S. citizens in the country.
Well, the heads of state of the five BRICS countries are set to launch their summit in Johannesburg in the coming hours. The grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa brings together the world's top emerging economies. They hope to counterbalance what they view as the West's domination of the world's finances, economy and politics.
Expanding the group will be a top agenda item with dozens of other countries expressing interest, including Iran and Venezuela. China's Xi Jinping arrived Monday for pre-summit meetings with his South African counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa. China favors expanding the bloc, and so does India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi flew in several hours later.
But Brazil wants to take a slow approach to expansion, a position that could lead to tensions at the summit. And one BRICS leader is conspicuously absent. Vladimir Putin will participate virtually because he could be arrested in South Africa on a warrant from the International Criminal Court. CNN Beijing bureau chief Steven Jiang is focusing on what China hopes
to achieve at the BRICS summit, but first let's get an overview from senior international correspondent David McKenzie who joins us live from Johannesburg. So David, what are the key issues to be covered at this BRICS summit and of course what are the expectations?
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rosemary, I think it's an important meeting. And these are strange bedfellows in some sense. You have the world's largest autocracy in China, the world's largest democracy in India, and then, of course, Russia and South Africa and Brazil rounding out the BRICS nations.
I think one of the key issues is that Vladimir Putin will not be coming in person. This was something that was speculated over for months, but because of the International Criminal Court warrant for Putin's arrest, because of alleged war crimes in Ukraine, he is attending virtually. I think that removes a large headache for the South African organizers. You've had diplomats walking into the summit behind me for some time now.
And later on, the leaders will be coming here for a business forum. I think another key issue here is, as you mentioned, whether BRICS will be expanded. That is something in particular that China is looking for. And it could mean that this group, which doesn't necessary have a lot in common on paper, becomes a de-facto voice for a kind of non-G7 voice.
It already has most or much of the world's population and at least a quarter of the world's economy as its members. So it could be a powerful voice and I think finally the so-called global south could become a bigger player, they think, if they could expand BRICS and expand things like the new development bank or BRICS bank, which has, you know, in fits and starts try to replicate what the World Bank often does as a lender and also to potentially, I think that will be a very slow process, is chip away at the all-powerful U.S. dollar when it comes to international trade.
It will be interesting to see if some of those tensions come out into the open. These are normally highly scripted events but with the leaders of Brazil, India, the rest of the continent around the world. This will be something to watch very closely if they come up with any concrete plans to solidify BRICS. Rosemary?
CHURCH: And Steven, what is China's President Xi Jinping hoping to accomplish at this summit?
STEVEN JIANG, CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF: Yeah, Rosemary, the fact that this is only Xi Jinping's second international trip after the pandemic. The first one was actually back in March to Moscow to see his quote unquote "dear friend" Putin. That kind of dynamic really underscores what you and David have been saying. That is, despite these countries' vastly different political and economic models, these leaders are really bonded over their shared grievances, if you will, but also desire to change the current global order.
[03:15:09] And that, of course, is why they were discussing not only the potential expansion group but also as David said the plan reduction on their reliance on the U.S. dollar for example all of that of course could potentially increase the impact of the BRICS group but also by extension the leadership role occupied by Xi Jinping at a time when tensions remain high between Beijing and Washington.
That's why we have seen Chinese officials and state media here really drumming up this narrative of emerging nations around the world coming together to counter what they describe as the U.S. policy of unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdictions. But Xi Jinping also arrived in South Africa at a time when the economy, China's economy, the world's second biggest face strongest, its strongest headwinds in decades when they have a myriad problems here at home.
So that in a way is why he's seeking new markets for China, new supply chains for China. But also that could also make some more constraint in terms of the projects he can invest and finance in the global South, particularly in Africa. That's why some experts say that Beijing leadership is now switching gear to focus more on so-called low-cost, high-impact strategies by, for example, improving party-to- party relations by touting the superiority of the Chinese system, by also bringing more African military officers to China for training, not to mention expanding China's soft power.
CCTV, the state media outlet here, for example, debuting the second season of a show called Classics quoted by Xi Jinping across Africa and, Rosemary, undoubtedly Chinese officials hope that is going to be a huge hit. Rosemary?
CHURCH: Steven Jiang, David McKenzie, many thanks to you both. I appreciate it.
Well, Donald Trump has announced on social media that he plans to turn himself in at the Fulton County jail in Georgia on Thursday. His lawyers have agreed to a $200,000 bond for the former president and Trump's release conditions prohibit him from communicating with his co-defendants, witnesses or unindicted co-conspirators or using social media to target them. Trump has been indicted on 13 felony counts in the 2020 Georgia election subversion probe. Several of his co- defendants have also agreed to the terms of their bond agreements with the district attorney's office.
Meantime a source tells CNN that the Fulton County Sheriff's staff who operate the jail where Donald Trump will surrender are facing threats. Since last week the FBI has also been looking into threats against other Fulton County officials including district attorney Fani Willis who led the investigation into Trump and his allies.
With Thailand's parliament set to vote on a new Prime Minister, a former Premier returns home to cheers and an arrest after years in exile. More on this just ahead.
Plus Human Rights Watch accuses Saudi border guards of killing hundreds of Ethiopian migrants. You'll hear harrowing accounts from the survivors. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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CHURCH: Welcome back everyone. Well, North Korea says the possibility of thermonuclear war is rising as South Korea and the U.S. carry out their annual joint military exercises. State media said Pyongyang would punish hostile forces and was waiting for the right time to strike. North Korea also condemned the summit last week between leaders of the U.S., South Korea and Japan at Camp David.
Thailand's former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, has returned home after 15 years in exile to an arrest and a prison sentence. A short time ago, the country's Supreme Court gave him eight years in prison for corruption. Thaksin was ousted in a 2006 military coup, which he attended, while he attended a UN meeting in New York. He was convicted of corruption during his self-imposed exile.
Let's turn to CNN's Paula Hancocks. She joins us live from Seoul. for us. So Paula, why is he returning now? What is the significance of the timing of this?
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rosemary, Thaksin Shinawatra has really dominated Thai politics in some form or other for about 20 years. The Pheu Thai party, which has been winning recent elections, not the most recent one, of course, has been backed by him. His daughter is in politics. It's a real political dynasty.
So the fact that he is back in Thailand is significant. It is something that he has been saying he would do for some time. He repeatedly put that on hold and postponed his return. But he has returned today and he has been greeted by supporters at the airport and he was then taken to the Supreme Court where he was sentenced to eight years for previous corruption charges. He was convicted while he was in absentia. He has said that he believes in the past that those charges were politically motivated.
But what this timing tells us is that it's the very same day as a new Prime Minister could potentially be voted in the government. Now we know that in the coming hours there will be a vote. There is only one candidate that will be voted on. And that is a member of the tax and affiliated party, Pheu Thai, Srettha Thavisin. We know that this is a party that also has his daughter involved, but it is Srettha Thavisin that is the candidate, potentially the next Prime Minister.
And he has also tweeted just this morning when Thaksin returned, saying he congratulated Thaksin and his family for returning to Thailand. So that shows the relationship between Thaksin Shinawatra and the Pheu Thai party still. The controversy as well comes when you look at what Pheu Thai is doing. They announced on Monday that they would form an alliance of 11 parties.
Worth mentioning though, they were not the party who secured the most votes in the May election. That was the progressive party Move Forward who was unable to create a government as it was blocked by the conservative and military-backed parties.
So Pheu Thai has now said that they will form this alliance not including the party who won the most votes, but also including two military-backed parties, which is something during campaigning. They said they would not do it'll be interesting to see what the progressive and the youth vote makes of that, Rosemary?
CHURCH: All right, our thanks to Paula Hancocks, joining us live from Seoul.
Human Rights Watch claims Saudi authorities have killed hundreds of Ethiopian migrants crossing the border from Yemen. CNN's Salma Abdelaziz has details.
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SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A deeply disturbing report released on Monday by Human Rights Watch alleges that Saudi border guards killed at least hundreds of Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers attempting to cross the border from Yemen into Saudi Arabia between March of 2022 and June of this year.
The more than 70-page report, again released by Human Rights Watch, is based, the organization says on interviews with more than 40 individuals, some 38 of them themselves, migrants, asylum seekers who attempted to cross the border, Human Rights Watch says it also conducted a review and assessment of some 350 pieces of video and imagery and also assessed extensive satellite images from the region.
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Together, Human Rights Watch says that this work found or paints a pattern of widespread and systemic violence by Saudi border guards against groups of migrants. Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers attempting to cross into Saudi Arabia again from Yemen.
The accounts are absolutely harrowing. More than two dozen individuals describing explosive incidences, so the use of rockets, mortar fire, gunfire by Saudi border guards. Some survivors describing Saudi border guards asking them which limb they would prefer to be shot before shooting them at close range.
To give you an understanding of just how deadly these crossings are according to Human Rights Watch's findings is work again interviews with 10 individuals who were describing multiple crossings that totaled to some 1200 individuals trying to cross that border. Of those 1200, 655 resulted in death. That is less than a 50 percent survival rate again according to Human Rights Watch's work.
Now Human Rights Watch says that if these killings are committed as part of an intentional Saudi government policy to murder migrants, it could amount to a crime against humanity. We do also have a statement from an anonymous Saudi source. This is a source that requests to anonymity citing long-standing norms around the government's communication with the media. But this is what the statement from the Saudi official from the Saudi government source says. The allegations included in the Human Rights Watch report about Saudi
border guards shooting Ethiopians while they're crossing the Saudi- Yemeni border are unfounded and not based on reliable sources.
Now the route I'm describing known as the Eastern route. It essentially connects the Horn of Africa across the Gulf of Aden and then sees migrants, asylum seekers cross into Yemen and eventually try to get to Saudi Arabia. That is among the most dangerous routes in the world. It has been for many, many years but it has come under increased scrutiny in recent years with a conflict in the Tigray region forcing many vulnerable families out in civil war in Yemen, making that place ever more hostile.
Human Rights Watch says that the violence along that Yemeni-Saudi border region is ongoing.
Salma Abdelaziz, CNN, London.
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CHURCH: Still to come, U.S. President Joe Biden visits Hawaii for a first-hand look at the devastation left behind by the deadly Maui wildfires.
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CHURCH: U.S. President Joe Biden is promising government support for Hawaii for as long as it takes after witnessing firsthand the devastation left behind by this month's deadly wildfires.
He and First Lady Jill Biden toured the affected areas in Maui on Monday, including the historic town of Lahaina, and met with first responders and survivors.
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JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: Our country grieves with you, stands with you, and will do everything possible to help you recover, rebuild, and respect culture and traditions when the rebuilding takes place.
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CHURCH: CNN's Bill Weir has more now on the President's trip to Hawaii.
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BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: President and Dr. Biden spent several hours, both over Lahaina, on the ground here, and meeting with both first responders and victims of this tragedy at the big shelter, the War Memorial Shelter in central Maui.
And he said the right things in many cases. When he came to the microphone to give his statements, he said the thing that a lot of folks I've been hearing from for two weeks have been saying, that he wants Maui, the people of Maui, to help determine how this place is rebuilt.
There is a question asked, who will have the most influence in that conversation going forward? Locals here, working class Native Hawaiians and multi-generational locals are worried of disaster capitalism, people moving in to exploit this and buy up as much land as they can in this paradise and rebuild it for their interests as well.
The president says, promises that won't happen. It remains to be seen. There's a lot of forces at play here right now. He did serve as empathizer-in-chief after five days of being mostly silent on the issue publicly, but the governor said he was working behind the scenes to assure first responders that the feds had their back on this.
He shared the stories we're familiar with of losing his daughter and wife and wondering if his sons had survived a car accident early in his political career. And that's what so many people here are going through now. The list of the missing, according to the mayor of Maui, was whittled from over 2,000 by the FBI and authorities down to around 850 now.
That still seems impossibly high this many days, almost two weeks now after the fire broke out. Forensic anthropologists, though, say historically, scenes like this can take months or even years to sort out the missing. You can hope there's still some confusion as to who's on that list.
But the real heartbreak is to think about the children who were left home that day. There are parents in this town who lost their kids. There are kids who lost their parents. We're unclear if President Biden was able to meet with any of those. We know he did meet with Archie Kalepa, historic figure here. Uncle Archie, as he is known, a hall of fame waterman who led relief efforts from a sort-of a cul-de-sac command post we went into as well.
Some of those who have been very active on social media were at the table at least with President Biden for the few hours he was here. But now, all eyes are on this place to see how soon they can find the huge number of missing. And make peace with the families. And how exactly they will rebuild.
Bill Weir, CNN, Maui.
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CHURCH: Joining me now from Honolulu, Hawaii is Kaniela Ing, National Director of the Climate Advocacy Organization, Green New Deal Network. He is also a seventh-generation Indigenous Hawaiian from Maui. Thank you so much for talking with us.
KANIELA ING, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, GREEN NEW DEAL NETWORK: Thanks for having me. CHURCH: So in the midst of agonizing grief for so many residents of
Maui, yourself included, there's now this added concern that native Hawaiians and locals will be shut out of the rebuilding process as developers threaten to swoop in and buy up land in Lahaina. Apparently mindful of this during his visit Monday, President Joe Biden offered support and resources, adding he wants to honor sacred land, culture, and traditions. How much comfort does that offer you and others?
ING: Well, the community has banded together even before the state issued an emergency proclamation and FEMA was able to come here. That took days. So the community set up their own relief hubs, their donations being accepted and deployed, and that community has stayed band together and have made these demands as a united force.
So, you know, these comments are definitely a response to the community effort and that activism and organizing. But you know, now we got to make sure that we hold them accountable that they'll follow suit. It's already the case that disaster capitalists and land grabbers are hovering above the carnage like vultures.
[03:34:58]
Governor Green actually took an action. That's a good start through a moratorium of land grabs. But you know as we saw in other disasters like Harry, Katrina, Maria, and Sandy, this isn't a sprint, but it's a marathon. And these land grabbers actually strike the hardest months or even years down the line in regulatory, legislative and political fights. So we're gearing up for that.
We know, especially Kanaka Maoli, native Hawaiians, we've been forced off our land for centuries. My mom got forced to sell our home without any fire. So the fire was a tragedy to be sure. We lost a lot of our loved ones, but it's just a continuation of the injustices against Hawaiian people. It accelerates the trajectory we're already on. So this is an inflection point that if we band together, we can transform our islands to something that's more accountable to the people.
CHURCH: Right. And as you mentioned, tensions over land and water rights in Maui, they're not new, but of course these deadly wildfires in the aftermath of the devastation have exposed the issue. And advocates, as you've pointed out, are now pushing for a native and local-centered rebuilding process.
How do you make sure that happens, that accountability that you talk about, and stop powerful and wealthy developers buying up land from under those who have lived in Lahaina for generations?
ING: Yeah, that's right. Lahaina was once a lush wetland that nurtured human and environmental flourishing. It was, so this disaster is anything but natural. It was caused by neglect, by our utility, the colonial diversion of public streams, and the pollution that overheated our planet and made these hurricanes more frequent and severe.
And this could happen anywhere. Like, when we talk about climate change, which I care about deeply, I find myself talking about 10 or 20 years on the line, will our kids have a livable planet? But this disaster completely upended my outlook. Like, I -- tomorrow when you wake up, your kid's school, the grocery store you shop at, your church could be flattened. Tomorrow. So we need to wake up and take it upon ourselves to demand change, paper straws, paper bags, that's not the solution, that's not going to cut it.
If you're wondering what you can do as an individual, it's to take political action, not just vote, but call or write your elected officials, protest, testify, organize your community. only government can end fossil fuels. We need to invest $3 trillion a year to accelerate clean energy and realize my generation's call for a Green New Deal.
So we need to become unignorable to elected officials, more powerful than the pollution industry. So, you know, that work is unfamiliar to many, activism. But if you care about climate and your life, then you have to do it. I promise it is more important than whatever the heck your day job is.
CHURCH: And given President Biden did offer support and resources Monday to help rebuild the island, what would you tell him is needed at this time?
ING: Right now there's some confusion about whether Maui is open for tourism. A lot of our shops even outside the industry rely on that visitor dollar. But we also need the hotel rooms to house survivors. So we're stuck in this conundrum. COVID has shown us that you could actually pause the economy and provide direct relief to small businesses and workers. So that's something that he could do immediately. He could also put a pause on like a moratorium on foreclosures, a pause on mortgages and rents.
There's a lot of actions that I think we've learned through COVID and if we don't like in the longer scheme of things create an economy that's more flexible because there will be more pandemics, there will be more disasters. We're gonna be caught up in this mess time and time again.
So, you know, this is, we're still kind of oiling the wheels but we know that this structure of unfettered global capitalism isn't working in this new world where we're seeing so much of these climate disasters.
CHURCH: Kaniela Ing, we really appreciate you joining us and talking to us about what needs to be done in the aftermath of these deadly and devastating fires. Thank you.
ING: Thanks for having me.
CHURCH: Well, parts of the southwestern U.S. are facing a lengthy recovery after a tropical storm Hilary. The system brought heavy rain, strong winds and destructive flooding across much of southern California. While the worst has passed, the flood threat remains in many cities where crews are working to clear roads. Some people in Palm Springs had to be rescued by a bulldozer, one of the only vehicles capable of navigating the muddy waters. The city got almost an entire year's worth of rain in just one day. It's one of the city's rainiest days on record.
[03:39:58]
Clean up may take longer in other cities like Yucaipa, where entire roads were washed out and floodwaters burst through barricades meant to protect homes. Here's how one resident described it.
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STEVE MARKHAM, YUCAIPA, CALIFORNIA RESIDENT: We set up sandbags over the weekend thinking that would be sufficient, but it blew right through them. There's boulders in the backyard that I don't know how they got on that side of the garage, but there's boulders the size of a Volkswagen that are just sitting over there. So strange.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Spanish officials are set to declare areas affected by wildfires on the island of Tenerife a disaster zone. Once the flames are under control, but that moment has not happened yet, the situation is said to be improving, but more than 12,000 people have been evacuated from their homes as the blazes continue.
CNN's Laila Harrak has more now.
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LAILA HARRAK, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Plumes of smoke and orange flames illuminate the sky over Spain's Tenerife island. Impatience growing among residents over the weekend as they wait for firefighters to gain control of the flames.
UNKNOWN (through translator): We hope and we trust. We ask God that this will end because the fire will move down and reach the houses as it's already near the houses.
HARRAK (voice-over): Regional authorities say the fires burning since last Tuesday have destroyed thousands of hectares of forest. More than 12,000 people were evacuated from their homes.
UNKNOWN (through translator): We had to run away with our clothes on and that's all. The police gave us just 20 minutes to take a few things.
HARRAK (voice-over): Spain's acting prime minister Pedro Sanchez visited the fire affected areas on Monday.
PEDRO SANCHEZ, ACTING SPANISH PRIME MINISTER (through translator): Let's hope that the weather helps us so that we can consider the fire stabilized in the next few hours or days. Hopefully the weather will be on our side.
HARRAK (voice-over): He added that the government would classify the affected area as a disaster zone to free up more aid.
Regional leaders say the situation has improved since Sunday, but some residents allowed to go back home. But difficult terrain and a heat wave in Europe have made it difficult to extinguish the fire, which authorities say was most likely man made. According to Reuters, most popular tourist destinations in the island are so far unaffected by the fires, and the two airports remain open.
Laila Harrak, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
Coming up next, Japan is pushing forward with plans to release wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear power plant in just a matter of days, despite concerns. The details in a live report, just ahead.
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CHURCH: Welcome back everyone. Well officials in Japan now say they will begin releasing treated radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean as early as Thursday.
[03:45:07]
Now this comes despite pushback from neighboring countries and amid heightened public concern especially among those in the fishing industry. The head of Japan's fisheries association says while the group has a better understanding of the plan it still opposes the move to release the treated wastewater.
And CNN's Anna Coren is tracking developments. She joins us live from Hong Kong. Good to see you again, Anna. So what's the latest on this controversial move by Japan?
ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Highly controversial, Rosemary. The decision has obviously outraged people in Japan but also its neighbors. However, you know, the Japanese government has basically run out of options on how to dispose of this treated radioactive water. As of Thursday, if there is no issues with the weather or sea conditions, Prime Minister Kishida, the Japanese Prime Minister, said that they will begin releasing this treated water from the Fukushima- Daiichi nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has said that this meets with its international safety standards and that it would have a negligible radiological impact on the people and the environment, but as we know, not everyone is convinced.
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COREN (voice-over): A toxic blight on Japan's coastline rising like a monument to the memory of nuclear disaster and bottling up its dangerous legacy.
Just over 12 years ago, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake off Japan's coast triggered a tsunami. Power was cut at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Its cooling systems stopped working, and the plant went into meltdown. Water was pumped in to reduce the temperature of the reactor cores, becoming radioactive. 1.3 million metric tons has been kept here ever since. It's been
treated to remove and dilute the most dangerous elements.
On Thursday, Japan will begin to release that water into the Pacific Ocean.
FUMIO KISHIDA, JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER (through translator): The offshore discharge of ALPS treated water is an issue that cannot be postponed in order to advance the decommissioning of the plant and the reconstruction of Fukushima.
COREN (voice-over): The International Atomic Energy Agency backs Japan's plan to slowly feed the water into the sea. But not all the dangerous elements can be removed. A level of the hydrogen isotope called radioactive tritium will remain in the water. Japan and the IAEA says it's safe in small amounts.
RAFAEL GROSSI, DIRECTOR GENERAL, INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY: Tritium is present there in a very low concentration and it will be diluted even further to a point that it will be negligible.
COREN (voice-over): The concentration of tritium released is set to come under the World Health Organization's regulatory limit. But such assurances have not been enough to assuage the fears of many in Japan and around the region.
UNKNOWN (through translator): I don't believe it at all. It's very dangerous. It contains very radioactive substances. It would become a serious problem once it's released into the ocean. We won't be able to eat fish anymore.
COREN (voice-over): Protests have been a constant since Japan announced its plan to release the water two years ago. Many worry about the potential for bioaccumulation of dangerous elements in the ecosystem, while neighboring countries like China have accused Japan of treating the ocean as a dumping ground.
But the disaster of 2011 left Japan with few options.
GROSSI: This would not happen in a normal operation of a nuclear reactor. Here you had all this accumulation and then you had to deal with it. You had to take a decision.
COREN (voice-over): Many difficult decisions will need to be made at Fukushima in the coming decades. Part of the reason to release the stored water is to free up space to safely decommission the plant. The legacy of the Fukushima nuclear disaster will be a lasting one.
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COREN (on-camera): Rosemary, in an attempt to reduce people's fears and to be as transparent as possible, the IAEA has set up an office at the Fukushima plant. It says that it will publish data for the public in real time or as close to as the water, we're talking about more than a million tons, is being discharged into the Pacific Ocean. Rosemary. CHURCH: We will of course continue to watch this story very closely. I
Appreciate your report, Anna Coren in Hong Kong.
Well Britain's most prolific child serial killer in recent times will spend the rest of her life behind bars. Lucy Letby was sentenced on Monday to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The nurse was found guilty of murdering seven babies and trying to kill six more.
Sangita Lal has our report.
[03:50:03]
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SANGITA LAL, ITN JOURNALIST (voice-over): Lucy Letby arrived in court to face her crimes, but she wouldn't face her victims' families.
The 33-year-old child murderer refused to leave her cell and refused to listen to the families who bravely described what she took from them. The mother of Letby's first victim, a twin boy who she murdered in June 2015, said, never could we have imagined that the most precious things in our lives would be placed in such harm in the care of a nurse.
Another mother of a girl born prematurely also spoke. Letby killed her child when she was two days old by injecting air into her veins. She described what Letby took from her family. Clutching a small teddy in her hands, she said her daughter's ashes were buried in a tiny box on her actual due date. She said, my arms, my heart, my life. felt so painfully empty.
And the mother of a baby boy, who Letby murdered, shared how she felt when she first saw her child. It was like nothing I'd experienced before. The way he smelled. My tiny, first born son.
(on-camera): She went on to say how she will never forget the touch of his hand and how every day she used to wear his hand and footprints in a necklace until she heard Lucy Letby had been arrested because it was Letby who took the prints. For years she couldn't wear this memory of her son until now, now that she has justice for her child.
(voice-over): Letby always denied every charge she faced. Instead she claimed she was bullied by doctors, and used as a scapegoat for poor care on the unit.
In a trial that lasted 10 months, it took the jury more than 110 hours to reach their verdicts. She is guilty of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder six others in what the judge described as cruel, calculated and cynical attacks. For sentencing, he addressed the court as if she was in the dock.
JAMES GOSS, JUDGE: You acted in a way that was completely contrary to the normal human instincts of nurturing and caring for babies and in gross breach of the trust that all citizens place in those who work in the medical and caring professions. LAL (voice-over): The parents of twin boys say they can in some ways
now move on. Letby attempted to murder one of their sons by poisoning them with insulin and his brother by injecting him with air.
UNKNOWN: It provides a bit of closure, not completely, but at least a bit of closure that they've got the right person, and she's going to be punished for it. But it's not going to do justice, no matter what. She's taken lives. She's tried to take other babies' lives. So whatever sentence she gets, it's not going to be enough.
LAL (voice-over): Today was, for some parents, the first time they shared how they felt in hospital along these corridors when their babies were attacked. One mother described how she walked in on Letby murdering her son, but left him alone with her because she was a nurse and she trusted her.
She and others shared how they now live with their own guilt and how they are traumatized that the person they trusted to care for their babies betrayed them in the most brutal way. But she used her position to manipulate everyone around her so she could carry out her sadistic and malevolent acts.
Escorted from court, Letby will never leave prison. Now serving a whole life sentence, a serial killer who deliberately inflicted pain on the most vulnerable babies.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
Sangita Lal with that shocking report. And British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says an independent inquiry will be held into the circumstances behind the murders.
We'll be right back.
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CHURCH: Very happy, the Spanish team celebrating in Madrid after winning the nation's first Women's World Cup Championship in Australia and you can see them dancing on stage while throngs of fans wave flags from the crowd. Cheering supporters also cramped the streets to welcome the team home. Spain defeated England one-nil in the finals on Sunday, capping off a tournament that had record attendance and resulted in a surge in interest for the women's tournament.
Well, American sprinter Sha'Carri Richardson has won the women's 100 meter race at the World Track and Field Championships in Hungary. It was a close finish but Richardson prevailed in 10.65 seconds, a championship record. In the final meters she managed to edge out two Jamaican sprinters who finished second and third. This is Richardson's first major global event since the Olympics. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHA'CARRI RICHARDSON, U.S. SPRINTER: I feel amazing. I feel like hard work pays off. I've been dedicating myself. I've been keeping my faith strong this season and just believing and knowing whatever you practice is what you put forward and I'm grateful. When I celebrated it was because I felt like I did my best. No matter what the result was going to be I felt like I did my best.
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CHURCH: Well done. Well, Loch Ness Monster fans are gearing up for the biggest search in 50 years. About 100 amateur sleuths will keep a lookout on the banks of the loch itself this weekend. And dozens more from around the world will tune in to a live stream. They'll also use thermal drones, infrared cameras, and a hydrophone to pick up signals underwater. The monster, affectionately named Nessie, shot to fame back in the 1930s after a number of reported sightings.
And thanks so much for your company. I'm Rosemary Church. Have yourselves a wonderful day. "CNN Newsroom" continues with Max Foster and Bianca Nobilo, next.
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