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CNN International: Rescue Underway For 8 Trapped In Pakistan Chairlift; BRICS Leaders Gathering In Johannesburg For Summit; Ukraine: Zaporizhzhia Region Struck 96 Times In 24 Hours; Parliament Picks Srettha Thavisin As New Prime Minister; Exiled PM Thaksin Returns Home, Faces Corruption Charges; Japan To Begin Releasing Wastewater As Soon As Thursday; Trump To Surrender Thursday; Bond At $200K. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired August 22, 2023 - 08:00   ET

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

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[08:00:35]

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome to CNN Newsroom. I'm Max Foster in London.

Just ahead, eight children and two adults are trapped in a chairlift dangling above a canyon in northwestern Pakistan. The latest on the urgent rescue efforts.

Then, leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and Brazil -- Brazil again, are meeting for a summit that could attract more countries to join the so-called BRICS economic bloc. We'll discuss the implications. And a real estate tycoon with relatively little political experience to become Thailand's new Prime Minister.

While we begin in Pakistan, where an extremely risky mission is underway to rescue eight people, including six children trapped in a chairlift in Pakistan's mountainous northwest. Two army helicopters have rushed to the scene. Video shows the cable car stranded nearly 275 meters above a ravine. Officials say the children were heading to school in the Gondola when one of the cables snapped.

CNN Sophia Saifi joins us live from Islamabad. An extremely difficult operation in a very remote area. What progress are they making, Sophia?

SOPHIA SAIFI, CNN PRODUCER: Max, the entire country's eyes have been on this operation. We're not broadcasting it live on local television at the moment because it's such a precarious and risky rescue operation. These children were going to school early morning in that part of the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and the roads in that region, it's a beautiful region of the country, but it's also incredibly impoverished.

So the children and the communities that connect each other to those valleys, they make their own sort of hokey cable cars that they use to commute from one valley to the next. So these children were on their school run in the morning when one of the cables detached. And so they've been hanging inside this almost cage like situation above this precarious valley, where below there's only rocky terrain and some streams 900 feet below them.

An operation has been underway. But there is a lot of precariousness regarding the rescue operation. There are SSG commandos who have arrived there. They're in two helicopters. The helicopters themselves have to be incredibly careful because the movement of the helicopters is, according to rescue officials on the scene, causing the one cable that this cable car is hanging on to move rather precariously. So it's a very fragile and sensitive operation.

Those children and their two teachers have been hanging up there since about 9:00 in the morning. It's going to be a sundown in about two hours from now, which is going to make this rescue even more difficult as the sun sets. So a lot of concern, a lot of efforts underway to make sure that they are rescued, but again, not being broadcast live, but the prayers and hopes of the entire country are with those eight people stuck in that cable car in Battagram in Khyber. Max?

FOSTER: You're must hideous. Sophia, thank you so much for bringing us that update and back with you as we hear more on that.

In the last hour, the African Union announced that it was suspending Niger. The West African nation has been engulfed in political chaos since late July, when the democratically elected president was deposed by a military hunter. The African Union, which consists of 55 member states, says the suspension of Niger will last until the country restores constitutional order.

Global leaders from the BRICS emerging economies are gathering in Johannesburg for a summit that could determine the future of the bloc and how hard it pushes back against the west. Chinese President Xi Jinping is among the leaders who arrived just a short while ago. He's joining leaders from Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa with a three-day event.

Leaders from all five countries are expected to speak in the coming hours. The bloc's member's account for more than 40 percent of the global population, and discussions on whether to expand the group are expected to rank high on the summit's agenda as they entertain formal bids from nearly two dozen countries.

Russian President Vladimir Putin attending virtually since he has a warrant out for his arrest from the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes. For more, let's bring in CNN's David McKenzie in Johannesburg.

[08:05:11]

FOSTER: There's general agreement that perhaps the bloc should expand, but there's a lot of disagreement about who should be included.

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I think that's well put, Max. Yes, there is a general sense from most countries. Brazil kind of potentially on the fence that BRICS will be benefited by expanding. And there's a long list of countries who are trying to draw -- join, including Saudi Arabia, Democratic Republic of Congo, the Emiratis, are all trying to join this grouping.

And you do get a sense just being here. I was at the last brick summit in South Africa. There is a lot more frigging here at this one. And I think part of that, to be honest, is because of the war in Ukraine. This is seen as a potential alternative for countries that may not be wholeheartedly criticizing Russia and are more sitting on the fence.

That's something the South African president has spoken about frequently. How these countries join and who exactly join is still very much under intense debate. It is also an odd grouping BRICS. You have the world's biggest autocracy in China, the world's biggest democracy in India. But the question is, what holds them together? And I asked an analyst that exact question.

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MICHAEL BOCLURKIW, SENIOR FELLOW, ATLANTIC COUNCIL: I think the common theme here is that the countries are sick and tired of the U.S., the E.U. dominating the global picture. I think a lot of the countries here feel that they're not getting a fair economic shake. There's -- especially the talk about the BRICS currency, because they're very, very tired of trade being conducted with the U.S. currency.

In terms of what they have in common, I mean, you have a lot of different interests.

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MCKENZIE: Those interests are different because in the instance of China, of course, they are in this great power competition, it seems, with the U.S. But countries like South Africa and Brazil are playing a more -- a game where they are looking not to ostracize Western nations and the European Union and U.S. in particular, but at the same time are looking to gain more leverage on the world stage.

I think there will be talk about possibly currencies here expanding the BRICS Development Bank, Max, but I do think it has taken on more importance. And in one sense at least, some analysts believe, because the G7 and the G20 seem to have faulted in terms of having a unified voice on topics outside of Ukraine, that there is an opportunity here for the, quote, unquote, "global south". Max?

FOSTER: OK, David McKenzie in Johannesburg, thank you.

Turning now to Ukraine, where the southern part of the country is coming under relentless bombardment. A regional official says Russia struck the Zaporizhzhia area 96 times with shells and missiles over the past 24 hours. One man was killed, another wounded, and nearby homes were damaged. Ukraine says Russia also attacked multiple frontline towns using artillery, multiple rocket launchers and jets.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh joins us from Zaporizhzhia. How bad is it compared to other days, then, Nick? NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, look, I mean, the numbers are often hard to gel with what they mean in terms of reality on the ground and changes to daily lives. But the numbers from Zaporizhzhia are a reflection of how Russia is dealing with Ukraine's bids to edge forwards in territory here. This is the key part of the southern counteroffensive.

Now, I give you a slight flavor, though, of what it can be like. We're not far from Zaporizhzhia city and we can often hear rumblings in the distance. You can feel the slight pressure waves of blasts landing in areas round here. We never know really what's being hit. There's never really full transparency for obvious operational security reasons from the Ukrainian military as to whether their targets are indeed hit.

But another taste of it, too, Max, last night, after dark, I was listening outdoors to what I thought was a motorbike, but its noise became very persistent. Never found an interruption. Got a lot louder right over our heads and then continued straight on towards somewhere else. And then we saw a glow on the horizon, potentially yet another strike that may have been a drone passing nearby.

And so that's just sort of a slice of daily life, frankly, for Ukrainians dealing with these relentless strikes that often hit civilian areas, sometimes seen indiscriminate. The rationale behind them very hard to understand. But a lot of these strikes, too, are along the frontline villages here, because there is a particular part of Russia's defenses that Ukraine is now very heavily trying to push into.

They have today talked about some success in a village called Robotine, tiny, frankly. 20 years ago, the census there suggested there were short of 500 people living there. But it's become the focus of a lot of the fighting over the past month.

[08:10:08]

And today, Ukrainian officials suggested they had managed to get their troops inside and indeed had managed to affect an evacuation, an evacuation of civilians who'd managed to live out through the past weeks of intense fighting around that village.

So another sign of incremental success by Ukraine in that counteroffensive, but the counter side of that is that Ukrainian significant cities get hit a lot. Max?

FOSTER: OK. Nick in Zaporizhzhia, thank you.

A real estate tycoon has been elected as the new Prime Minister of Thailand. Srettha Thavisin has relatively little experience of politics, but still won the backing of both houses of Parliament in a vote just hours ago. His election came just hours after former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra returned to the country after 15 years in exile.

Thai courts have convicted Thaksin of corruption and he was promptly arrested upon his arrival back in the country. CNN's Paula Hancocks is here to explain all that's going on in politics and quite a scene to see Thaksin come back to the country.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It has been an extremely busy day in Thai politics, Max, to be certain. So what has happened in the parliament is, as you say, a new prime minister has been voted for. Now, this is not the party that actually won the election, it's the party that won the second most votes. And this is causing some concern within the voters of Thailand as well.

The fact is that the Move Forward party who won the most votes has been sidelined. They are not even part of this coalition which Pheu Thai, the ruling party now has created. It has also come under controversy because Pheu Thai has decided to align themselves instead of -- with the progressive parties, with two military-backed parties.

They had been campaigning, saying that military needed to be taken out of politics in Thailand and presumably that's why some people voted for them. But they have said that they needed to form this coalition to break this political deadlock that had been going on for about three months in Thailand. So that's the political situation at this point.

And as for the former prime minister who was ousted in a military coup back in 2006, he is in a correctional facility at the moment. He has been sentenced to eight years in prison, although there is speculation he may well serve less than that and speculation that he may have comeback to Thailand to ask for a royal pardon. Experts say that certainly is a possibility.

Now we understand from doctors who examined him once he went into this correctional facility that Thaksin Shinawatra does have underlying health issues and that he will be kept in a separate room to the regular inmates and he will be under 24 hours observation. So that's the latest situation with Thaksin Shinawatra as well.

Of course, there are millions of voters who are disappointed this evening that the party that they voted for and the party with the most votes was not the one able to form a government, move forward, had tried to form a government, but was blocked by the conservative military-backed parties.

And certainly there is some disillusionment from the younger voters who wanted to see more structural change within Thailand and who voted for that party. Max?

FOSTER: OK. Paula in Seoul, thank you.

Lots of unease both in Japan and neighboring countries after a controversial announcement. Japan plans to begin releasing treated radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant as early as Thursday. This sparked protest outside the prime minister's residence. China called Japan selfish for going ahead with the plan, despite assurances from the International Energy Agency that this will have a negligible impact on the environment.

Still to come, a $200,000 bond and a mugshot. Why President Trump isn't looking forward to his stop in Georgia. We'll explain.

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[08:16:13]

FOSTER: The first U.S. Republican presidential debate taking place tomorrow night. But there's one candidate who has two things on his mind, the frontrunner, Donald J. Trump. Trump has announced on social media that he plans to turn himself in at the Fulton County Jail in Georgia on Thursday. The former president has been indicted on 13 felony counts in the 2020 Georgia election subversion probe.

There are 18 co-defendants in the case, but unlike the other defendants, the terms of Trump's release comes with a lot more strings attached. So could Donald Trump actually go to jail?

Let's bring in CNN Senior Legal Analyst and former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Elie Honig. Thank you so much for joining us. We now have bond agreements in place for some of the 19 defendants. What exactly does that mean and how do these bonds work?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: So, Max, there are two conditions, really, on each of the people who have agreements right now. First of all, there's a cash component where the person is responsible if they fail to show up for a set amount of money. In Donald Trump's case, that's $200,000. That doesn't mean he has to go write a check for $200,000 right now. It means that if he fails to show, he will be on the hook for that.

The second part of this, and this really relates most strongly to Donald Trump, is restrictions on what the person can do or say. Now, this is a complicated issue because Donald Trump, of course, he has First Amendment rights as an American citizen, and he's running for president. But the restrictions that the judge has set here is that Donald Trump cannot threaten or intimidate any of his co-defendants, any known witness, or any known victim.

And if he violates any of those conditions, then the judge can either increase the bail conditions, make them more severe, or in extreme cases, can send the person to prison. I think it's virtually impossible, very, very unlikely that will happen here because Donald Trump is a leading candidate for president.

FOSTER: In terms of that question, you know, could he go to jail, I mean, he could in theory, couldn't he if he doesn't pay the bond?

HONIG: Sure. Well, he will post the bond. He's agreed to do that. But Max, it's important to understand, in the American system, people do get remanded sent to prison because they violate their bail conditions all the time. It was a fairly routine occurrence.

When I was a prosecutor, we just saw a high profile example here in the United States when Sam Bankman-Fried, who's been charged with a massive fraud relating to his crypto trading platform, he violated the terms of his bails and he was locked up. So now he will wait his trial in prison.

So this does happen, not infrequently, but I think it's very unlikely that we see a candidate of the stature of Donald Trump remanded just because that's going to pose such political and First Amendment issues.

FOSTER: He's had some court appearances already, of course, but this time there will be a mugshot because of the nature of this particular case.

HONIG: It does appear there will be a mugshot. Under Georgia state law, anyone charged with a felony, as Donald Trump is here, is required to have their mug shot taken. The prior cases, as you say, they've decided not to take a mugshot. But here it looks like the Georgia authorities will do that.

And it's important to note, if there is a mugshot, the laws really vary state by state. But under Georgia law, it's very likely that we will see that mugshot in the public quite quickly. And who knows what political meaning that will carry. I'm sure Trump's team wants to use it a certain way.

I'm sure the DA is worried about what political and broader implications that could have. But it does look like this is how it's going to play out.

FOSTER: It's going to be interesting, just a photo, but it has a huge amount of significance. Thank you so much for joining us.

HONIG: OK.

FOSTER: CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig.

Still to come, this was a family home once, but now there is nothing. Most of the family is dead or they fled. Yet one man remembers and shares his pain with CNN.

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[08:22:02]

FOSTER: We are back to one of our top stories, and that is Ukraine and some jaw dropping numbers. As we mentioned, Russia has struck the Zaporizhzhia region 96 times with shells and missiles just in the past 24 hours. While the numbers are hard to even comprehend, behind those double-digit figures are real people. Real people whose lives have been shattered by war.

Nick Paton Walsh has met one very brave fireman who shared his personal tragedies. Here's his story.

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WALSH (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 counteroffensive. And this is a normal day for them. UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): Let me pass. Hi. Say ho to your subscribers. Girsl will see you. And you'll get married.

WALSH (voice-over): Here's the story of one we've gotten to know, Dima.

DIMA, FIREMAN AND SURVIVOR OF THE CONFLICT (through translation): Sometimes it feels we were born in this war. In the two hours there were 200 incoming. We were in the basement saying goodbye to life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): The fire moved through the balconies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): Fuck, a bomb just landed!

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 (through translation): 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.

WALSH (voice-over): The gaps between the horror harder than the horror itself. And sleep when it comes is sometimes worse.

DIMA (through translation): 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.

[08:25:10]

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 (through translation): His heart just stopped from fear. When it explodes, everything shakes inside you. So he died in my mother's arms.

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 (through translation): I have my own war with my mother. 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 "Orikhiv --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.

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 (through translation): 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.

WALSH (voice-over): Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Thanks for watching me here on CNN Newsroom. I'm Max Foster in London. World Sport with Andy Scholes is up next.

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