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Ukrainian Troops Try To Expand Gains Along Southern Front; New Warnings About Possible Kim-Putin Meeting In Russia; Torrential Rain Follows Summer Wildfires In Greece, One Dead; Cuba Says Traffickers Coercing Cubans To Fight For Russia; French Schools Send Home Dozens Of Girls Wearing Muslim Abayas; Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars Pledged For African Carbon Credits At Climate Summit. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired September 06, 2023 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Coming up here on CNN, Greece is facing catastrophic flooding from day to day historic intellectual rain, raging torrents of water now sweeping through towns and villages.
Artillery from North Korea, new recruits from Cuba, Vladimir Putin's desperate search for material and manpower. There's war of choice in Ukraine. And the ISIS video they did not want the world to see, secretly recorded images of the terror group and it's worse new evidence the international prosecutors.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from CNN Center. This is CNN Newsroom with John Vause.
VAUSE: Great to have you with us. We begin with Ukrainian forces now trying to hold recent gains in the south of the country, as Russian forces pushed to retake lost territory with a heavy barrage of artillery fire. Less than a week ago, Ukrainian troops liberated what was left on the village of Robotyne in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine's first significant breach of Russian defenses in the south. Ukrainian troops and are inching closer to a key Russian position. They say they could not have done it without U.S. made Bradley armored vehicles. More details now from CNN, Melissa Bell.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): The flag now flies over what's left Robotyne. Ukrainian leaders say it's the first victory of three-month counter offensive, a source of great pride for the men of the 47th Mechanized Brigade.
KARATSUPA, BRADLYE CREW COMMANDER, 47TH MECHANIZED BRIGADE: We evacuated six civilians that day. Our infantry prepared the civilians and they collected their essential belongings.
BELL: The soldiers hadn't expected to find them but rushed the handful of men and elderly women into their Bradley vehicle before speeding away as quickly as they could.
KARATSUPA: As soon as we left, our location was shelled. The Russians don't care whether it is soldier or civilians. They don't care, it's all the same for them. They hit just two meters from Bradley.
We were lucky, thank God. And thanks to the fact that the cross-eyed Russians didn't manage to hit the vehicle directly. Bradley was on fire. Smoke everywhere, the side was cracked but the reinforced armor held. The Bradley was stumbling but we managed to drive away.
BELL: Back into safety of a nearby wood, the civilians are given much needed water and phones.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello daughter. Hello, hello.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello Doll.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Daughter, we were rescued.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know Mom, I know.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do not cry. We are home.
BELL: But for the 47th brigade, Robotyne was just the start. And some of its heroes have since fallen.
BELL (on camera): I'd like to ask about your colleagues the day you went into Robotyne and you took the civilians out there was another team but they were killed.
PAN, BRADLEY DRIVER, 47TH MECHANIZED BRIDAGE: We trained with them in Germany at an American base. Believe me, it's hard to talk about it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For us it's a terrible loss. It's very hard to think about them, to talk about them, it's heartbreaking. When you live, eat and bunk with someone who is suddenly not there anymore, it's heart-wrenching.
BELL (voiceover): Still they carry on southwards along a stretch of road they've nicknamed The Road to Hell. Melissa Bell, CNN, Zaporizhzhia region.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: According to the White House talks between Russia and North Korea over a weapons deal are actively moving forward, adding to earlier U.S. intelligence that Kim Jong Un may be planning to travel to Russia for an in person meeting with President Vladimir Putin.
A White House National Security Adviser said if Russia is seeking arms from North Korea, then international sanctions are working.
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JAKE SULLIVAN, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: We have continued to squeeze North Russia's defense industrial base and they are now going about looking to whatever source they can find for things like artillery ammunition. That's what we see going on now. And we will continue to call it out and we will continue to call on North Korea to abide by its public commitments not to supply weapons to Russia that will end up killing Ukrainians.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[01:05:02]
VAUSE: South Korea's intelligence service is also closely monitoring the possibility of a Kim Jong Un visit to Russia. His first if it happens since 2019.
The Kremlin was asked about all of this Tuesday refused to comment. Two other U.S. officials say the North is seeking technology from Russia that could advance its satellite and nuclear powered submarine capabilities.
Well, the Kremlin appears to be looking to North Korea for artillery shells and anti-tank missiles in might be looking for manpower and new recruits from Cuba. Government officials in Havana say they've uncovered a human trafficking network operated by the Russians. No comments are now from Moscow. But our man in Havana is Patrick Oppmann.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): The Cuban government says it has detected and is attempting to neutralize what it calls a human trafficking network, attempting to recruit Cubans to fight in Russia's war with Ukraine.
According to a Cuban Foreign Ministry statement, these intermediaries, this trafficking network is trying to get Cubans to agree to go to Russia first. And then on to the frontlines with Ukraine is trying to track down Cubans to flight in the war, both in Russia amongst the large community of Cubans that live in Russia and here on the island.
According to the Cuban statement, Cuba does not allow its citizens to become quote, mercenaries or to fight the full foreign armed services and wars that Cuba is not involved in, and that Cuba is not a participant in the Ukraine war.
Cuba has supported though Russia's claims that essentially that the NATO and the U.S. are behind the war. And it's not Russia's fault that the war in Ukraine has gone on now into its second year. Russia has sent Cuba crucial aid ever since the war has begun as increased shipments of aid including food and shipments of crude oil, and the relationship up until the statement was released seemed to be closer than ever.
So it's not clear yet if this is simply a way of Cuba, knowing what that Russia was recruiting its citizens and allowing for some deniability to take place to keep some distance between an operation that was bringing Cubans, perhaps in the hundreds to fight in Ukraine, or if simply Cuba, while supporting Russia does not want its citizens on the frontline of a warzone. Patrick Oppmann, CNN, Havana.
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VAUSE: Earlier, our CNN contributor Jill Dougherty, why recruiting troops in Cuba is a better option politically for Vladimir Putin than another unpopular call or troop mobilization at home.
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JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I think that's definitely a factor. Because, you know, we've seen the Kremlin over the period of this entire war, come to the point where it felt that it really needed to get more people. And that would mean a general mobilization.
But as soon as they got close to the word mobilization, people fled the country. Now it's become much more difficult to leave the country, it's much more difficult to get out of being drafted. So that is a factor. But they need people. And they have made it clear that they're trying to get more.
So, I think, you know, Cuba is -- has always been obviously very friendly, has good relations, let's say with Russia, it needs Russia right now, in an economic sense. So that it's a place where you might begin to think there would be people who number one would need money to work. And then you recruit them if this is the way it seems to work, recruit them to have a job like in construction.
And then when they get to Moscow, they're given a uniform and sent or told that they should go to the front. So I think it's not particularly strange. And there actually have been some reports, John, of other places like Kazakhstan, where you're getting, you know, people who might be willing to fight, et cetera. So obviously, Putin is reaching out to other places other than Russia.
VAUSE: And what they're signing up for. Here's an example for the Reuters news agency, which has reporting on phone conversations. This took place in July, a conversations between Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine and relatives at home and are intercepted by Ukrainian intelligence.
One soldier says to his wife, they're effing us up. No effing ammunition, nothing. Shall we use our fingers as bayonets? Another tells his mother, just imagine thrown on the front line with no equipment, nothing. Everyone's scared. The generals couldn't care less.
So there's that side of it. But then also, there's the effect of the war on just the general economy. Bloomberg reports the ruble has suffered from a deterioration in foreign trade amid a route of international sanctions over the war in Ukraine. The plunge threatens to exacerbate inflation, eating into living standards ahead of what was meant to be a showcase presidential election.
You know, it seems, you know, this is increasingly becoming a war most Russians didn't sign up for. So there -- does come a point, you know, much like it was with the Afghanistan invasion by the Soviets. When reality Trump's the state propaganda machine?
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DOUGHERTY: That's really the question, but I don't think at this point is really an answer. You know, if you look at Afghanistan, granted it had a very big impact on society. But it was not as overwhelming is this war? I mean, this war, you know, is just major in every sense of the term with international implications.
And so, you know, will Russians finally say, enough is enough? There's more propaganda today about this war. They, you know, on every level, internet, any way you look, state propaganda. So people, you know, it's more difficult to oppose this war at this point, even though that was the old Soviet Union with Afghanistan, still very difficult to, you know, come out and say you were against this war.
So, I don't know. I mean, I don't think anybody knows I don't think even probably President Putin knows that there will be a moment where people just say, we've had enough, and we're not going to support this anymore.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Well, thanks to Jill Dougherty for that. Now, Greece is facing yet another natural disaster torrential rain and deadly flooding, which the Prime Minister has described as a totally extreme weather event.
The storm which has been named Daniel dumped several months worth of rain on Tuesday, killing one man crushed by collapsing wall. Cars being swept away, buildings flooded, many homes and one hospital have been forced to evacuate.
Red storm warnings have been issued for a number of provinces, especially on the eastern coast. And it comes just days after fire crews contained the largest ever wildfire recorded in the EU. According to the government, this is the most extreme rainfall within 24 hours since Greece began keeping records. And there's more to come is CNN meteorologist Chad Myers.
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CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST (on camera): And unfortunately, that rainfall is continuing over portions of Greece, places that have already picked up somewhere between 300 and 500 millimeters of rainfall, it is very heavy here just now to the northeast of the low that's in the Mediterranean. And then that's bringing up all of that very warm humidity, all that very warm water just to the south of Greece and pushing it right up into the same areas that have seen so much rainfall just over the past 24 to 48 hours.
So here for Meteoalarm, level three of three, four, the rainfall possibilities here. And yes, we're still seeing the pictures coming out of here out of Greece. But I know that some of these pictures are old, and they will be updated. But they can't get them out of there right now because there's just very little communication coming out of this area, especially video, some of them online, are quite disturbing, and the rainfall is actually continuing where's the gore now 528 millimeters of rain since this rain has started.
And it's in the same place that it's going to rain more tonight and into tomorrow. This could not even be a 24 to 48 hour event already. And we could still have another 24 hours to go as the continuous rotation of the low pressure pushes that rainfall over the same areas of Greece that have seen so much rainfall already.
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VAUSE: Chad, thank you and that same weather system hitting Greece is also causing flooding in northwestern turkey. At least two people have been killed there. Four others are missing. So far six have been rescued.
Rescue teams and military vehicles and a helicopter searching wooded areas of 12 people were said to be stranded in the flooding. To southern Brazil where an extra tropical cyclone has battered the area killing at least 21 people. Families were left stranded on roosters floodwaters inundated their homes.
Officials say it's the fourth severe weather event hit the state of Rio Grande Del Sol since June, damage is reported in at least 55 cities and towns.
Bill McKibben is founder of Third Act, a climate activist group made up of those aged 60 and older. He's a contributing writer to The New Yorker and distinguished scholar at Middlebury College. It's good to see, Bill.
BILL MCKIBBEN, FOUNDER, THIRD ACT: Hey, good to be with you. As always, John.
VAUSE: Thanks. Now these storms in Greece they're known as Medicanes similar to tropical storms and hurricanes in the Atlantic or typhoons in the Pacific, warm sea surface temperatures of 27 to 30 degrees Celsius, about 90 degrees Fahrenheit, could allow the storm to strengthen across the eastern Mediterranean over the next day or two.
So we know that right now ocean temperatures are at record highs, and that's because of climate change caused by human activity. So is this a pretty simple direct correlation here? You can make this link to explain how severe weather events a lot more severe and lasts a lot longer at the moment because of climate change than they did in the past.
MCKIBBEN: Absolutely. And oceans are a really good place to look, you know, oceans are storing more than 90 percent of the heat that we have added to the atmosphere by burning coal and oil and gas.
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But it's not like that heat just goes into saltwater storage and stays there forever. It expresses itself in all kinds of ways. One of them is powering storms, or hurricanes draws its energy from that heat in the upper levels of the ocean and around the world.
We've seen ocean temperatures this year, like we've never seen before. In fact, in Florida, just before the last big hurricane, we saw the all time ocean record 101 degrees Fahrenheit. It's a different world that we're creating.
VAUSE: Yes, and just the past 24 hours. Cyclone rains in Brazil's south killed 22, leave cities completely flooded. That's from the Reuters news agency. Searches for missing cleanup operations -- searching for missing or other cleanup operations underway in Spain after severe storms, and also seven dead as severe storms triggered through flooding in Greece, which we know about, but also Turkey, and Bulgaria.
You know, all of this seems shocking, but not surprising. And what do we have two kinds of options here right now. We can keep burning fossil fuels, keep pumping out carbon, and we'll go from bad to worse, or we can stop pumping out carbon decarbonize, which we even better, move to renewables, and the climate crisis will still get worse before it gets better.
MCKIBBEN: That's right, we're not getting out of this easily. The question now is whether it's going to be a difficult century or an impossible one. And if we stay on the track we're on now which is slow walking the transition away from fossil fuel. Then impossible is where we're headed.
Look, this summer in the Northern Hemisphere should have been the wake-up call of all wake-up calls. It wasn't the summer from hell. It was the summer that more or less was hell.
VAUSE: Thanks so much for being with us, as always, really appreciate your --
MCKIBBEN: Thank you, John.
VAUSE: We'll take a short break. When we got back, schools in France, sending dozens of girls back home for defying a ban on the abaya, a garment often worn by some Muslim women. Also ahead, billions of dollars pledge Africa's first have a climate summit. Details on that also coming up.
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VAUSE: Dozens of French school girls were sent home Monday for defying a ban on abayas. It's a long robe off and worn by some Muslim women. The French Education Minister says nearly 300 girls arrived wearing the abaya, most agree to change their clothes but more than 60 refuse. Meantime, an association representing Muslims has filed a motion, the Frances highest court against the move.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VINCENT BRENGARTH, LAWYER WITH PARIS BAR ASSOCIATION (through translator): This ban is not based on any legal text. It's a purely political announcement on the part of the Ministry of Education to coincide the start of a new school year. What's more, it's a garment that hasn't been precisely defined and which is considered to be a non-religious garment so that's what we're going to argue for the (INAUDIBLE) to ask for the band to be suspended.
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VAUSE: The French government announced the crackdown abayas last month as part of a 2004 French law outlawing the wearing of overtly religious symbols in public schools.
Live now to see the European Affairs commentator and UCLA professor, Dominic Thomas, good to see you.
DOMINIC THOMAS, CNN EUROPEAN AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: Thanks for having me on, John.
VAUSE: OK, so a few days before the start of the school year, just a couple of days ago, President Emmanuel Macron seemed to have a sort of a velvet glove in an sort of on an iron fist approach. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EMMANUEL MACRON, FRENCH PRESIDENT (through translator): In the most difficult High School Special staff will be seconded to work alongside head teachers and teachers to support them, and to engage in the necessary dialogue with families and pupils. But we won't let anything get past us.
At the start of the new school year, I'm going to be frank with you. We know that there will be cases because we know that there will be some through negligence, perhaps, but many to try to defy the Republican system. We must be uncompromising.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: They've had 19 years to make this crack down to clarify where the abayas tands. So, why make this move now? You know, the teachers union, among others have suggested it's a distraction from some of the real problems within the education system and elsewhere. So how do you see what's going on here?
THOMAS: Yes, well, I mean, we know that, you know, Emmanuel Macron, when he was reelected, lost his parliamentary majority. And these are clear, conservative and far right talking Points. And we also know that the educational system faces some very major problems and that school is going back, school teacher morale is at a low point. Parents agree with the teachers and the problems that they've described. And these same teachers came out in very significant numbers just a few months ago, against the pension reform.
So at the end of the day, John, there's nothing like a debate around Muslim school, our tie in schools coinciding with the return after the summer break, to stimulate a kind of polarizing debate, which ultimately will distract from the very real issues at hand.
This is a brand new Minister of Education who's taking over who's trying to sort of make his -- make a statement here and make a mark. And this is one way of distracting from the massive range of issues that he faces. John.
VAUSE: Here's one student explaining like she is opposed to the ban. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Abaya is a long dress that's quite loose. I mean, it has long sleeves, but really, it's normal clothing. It has no distinct religious symbol. I think the abaya has no religious symbol, it's just like wearing a dress.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: And that position is taken up by the French Council of Muslim Worship. So in France, does the government ultimately decide what is religious and what is not religious?
THOMAS: Yes, no, it doesn't John, and its role is actually to then explain to school principals what the rules and regulations are, so that they can apply them in an even handed manner. The responsibility for this goes all the way up to the Constitutional Court. And this is a long standing issue and debate in France, it goes all the way back to 1989, when they initially attempted to ban young Muslim girls from wearing headscarves to school, and in 2004, they ruled and the key word here is that conspicuous religious clothing would be banned because it was in violation of the 1905 laws, which separate the public from the private.
So the Muslim Council here is arguing on the one hand that they don't automatically see the abaya as being representative of religious clothing. Bet the government says that it is and that it is conspicuous. And so it is determined to push this through and to -- and to go about banning this. And Muslims of course feel yet again targeted and singled out by these particular measures in school and their ability to express religious freedom or identity. John.
VAUSE: Many conservatives now saying this controversy is a good reason for making students wear a school uniform. Emmanuel Macron said on Monday he's in favor of or Tuesday rather, of experimenting with uniforms in order to inform public debate. He said another experimental option could be for children to wear similar outfits, such as a pair of jeans, a T-shirt and a jacket.
There does seem to be a lot of talk at the highest levels in transit out, you know, high school fashion right now. So why is this idea of just, I mean, wearing a school uniform so controversial in the first place?
THOMAS: Yes, that's a great question. Because of course, you know, you just look across the channel to the U.K. and then of course, New Zealand, Australia, you know, South Africa, you name it. And what's interesting here is he's talking about having an informed debate, but in fact, the debate begins from the premise that is simply based in myth, not in fact, the French don't wear school uniforms. Yes, of course, there are examples in private schools, religious
schools, military uniforms and so on. But there is no long standing tradition like there is as I mentioned, across the channel in the UK.
[01:25:00]
So the idea of imposing something in school and then sort of recycling these arguments around equality and so on precisely what worry ethnic minorities and religious minorities in France is that it's already a colorblind Republic. We talked about this a lot around the question of racial profiling a few weeks ago, and so on. So there's already a kind of sentiment that French society, in its desire to assimilate to eliminate differences is not doing an adequate job, in other words, that those Republican ideals that he wants to defend here, are somehow failing these young people.
And the idea that the school environment should then be further transformed into this kind of monolithic space in which difference disappears, is of great concern to those who already feel like the outside world potentially replicates the issues that they're facing at school with his rules and regulations. And so the context needs to be understood to see how this is particularly upsetting in the French context. John.
VAUSE: Dominic, some great insight there from you, and we really appreciate that. Thank you. Good to see you.
THOMAS: Thank you, John.
VAUSE: Now, the Kenya were billions have been pledged for sustainable development on day two of the Africa Climate Summit. $4 billion for clean energy projects came from the UAE, while the United States committed more than $30 million for supporting climate resilience and food security. Meantime, Kenya's president says Africa can play a key role in decarbonizing the planet.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAM RUTO, KENYAN PRESIDENT: Using the enormous resources we have, and I dare say 60 percent of the world's renewable solar resources are in Africa. And we want to use these resources to power our own growth in a responsible manner, that we are not using fossil fuels, we are using renewable energy. And we want to do it not just for Africa. We also want to use these renewable energy resources to decarbonize the world economy and the world development and the world industrialization and manufacturing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: The Summit (ph) in Monday it's focused on mobilizing finance for the continents response to climate change. An increase in malaria cases in Kenya is likely linked to mosquitoes growing faster and living longer because of a warming planet, and as Larry Madowo reports children are especially vulnerable to disease, which was almost once totally eradicated.
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LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): Mary and both her sons are in hospital for malaria. Four-year-old Mark says he's doing better and so is his big brother Joseph, who's 12 They keep getting malaria, Mary says, and she can barely afford the treatment.
MARY ACHIENG, MALARIA PATIENT (through translator): Malaria has hit my family hard. In a month I use about $35 on drugs, and the following month, one of them falls sick again.
MADOWO: Mary lives in Western Kenya, a hot region where residents have an especially high risk of malaria. More than 10,000 people die each year from the mosquito borne disease in this East African nation, but kids are especially vulnerable.
Researchers are collecting mosquitoes here to study how they're evolving, rising temperatures, let them grow faster and live longer.
MADOWO (on camera): Why do you come to collect mosquitoes here specifically?
KWOBA CELESTINE, KEMRI RESEARCH PARTNER: The mosquito densities are very high.
MADOWO (voiceover): They're tracking the full lifecycle of mosquitoes to get ahead of this tiny insect before he does even more damage.
MADOWO (on camera): This is a typical high malaria zone. It's hot and humid, swampy. Those are rice growing fields back there, a lot of water right next to where people live. But as temperatures warm across the board, scientists are concerned about malaria causing mosquitoes reading in new places.
DAMARIS MATOKE-MUHIA, PRINCIPAL RESEARCH SCIENTIST, KEMIR: Mosquitoes are the deadliest animals on earth.
MADOWO: Has made it her life's work to neutralize the insect that causes malaria, the female Anopheles mosquito after her brother died of the disease.
Her team of scientists at Kenya's largest research institute is studying mosquito samples from around the country to guide Kenya's response to malaria, and how to beat it.
MADOWO (on camera): Are we any close to eradicating malaria?
MATOKE-MUHIA: We want but with the change of now climate, we're seeing more mosquitoes than they were before. We're seeing new species. We are seeing it going to places where we didn't expect before then we are taken back to zero.
MADOWO (voiceover): Climate change is helping mosquitoes responsible for transmitting malaria reach colder parts of the continent. Scientists at Georgetown University Medical Center found drawing on data going back 120 years.
But heat is also helping mosquitoes live longer and to become infectious sooner, worrying public health officials.
MADOWO (on camera): Are you concerned about the resurgence of malaria in your work across the continent.
DR. GITAHI GITHINJI, GROUP CEO, AMREF HEALTH AFRICA: We are concerned that areas that had seemed to eliminate malaria are now having malaria. And we are seeing that actually the public health system is not prepared for this resurgence.
[01:30:05]
MADOWO (voice-over): Malaria is having devastating effects on more people suffering from serious cases. Steve Ngugi says he was sick for nearly three months.
Your malaria was very serious.
STEVE NGUGI, MALARIA SURVIVOR: Very, very serious.
MADOWO: Were you afraid you could die?
NGUGI: Of course. Because by the time I reached the hospital, I couldn't manage to move my hand.
MADOWO (voice-over): 96 percent of people who die from malaria are in Africa. The World Health Organization says as the continent warms faster than the rest of the world, malaria persists and experts warn it risks spreading into (INAUDIBLE).
RICHARD MUNANG, CLIMATE CHANGE PROGRAM COORDINATOR, UNEP AFRICA: What is happening in Africa we gradually see it elsewhere because with the warming climate, with the changing temperatures, malaria, mosquitoes are migrating to other areas that are conducive for them.
Malaria will displace people. They will migrate to other (INAUDIBLE) areas, within the continent and out of the continent.
MADOWO: Larry Madowo, CNN -- Nairobi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: When we come back, the relationship between Russia and North Korea, getting strong and stronger it seems. Ahead, we will find out what each side can get from the other and why closer ties makes the world a dangerous place.
Plus, the former leader of the far-right Proud Boys receives the longest prison sentence of any of the January 6th defendants (INAUDIBLE). We will tell you why and how long it was after the break.
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VAUSE: Welcome back on. I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
The White House says negotiations about a meeting between the leaders of North Korean and Russia are moving ahead quickly with reports any face to face discussions would happen in Russia, which would mean a rare trip outside the Hermit Kingdom for Kim Jong-Un.
CNN's Nic Robertson has details reporting in from London.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Well, it does appear that the White House assesses the likelihood of a meeting between President Putin and Kim Jong-un is increasingly likely. They say discussions between Russia and North Korea are actively advancing, an effect they say of the economic sanctions that have been put on Russia.
Perhaps the unintended consequences of this long war in Ukraine that in a war of attrition, Putin is now running out of ammunition and that he needs to turn to North Korea to potentially supply some of that ammunition.
[01:34:47]
ROBERTSON: That is the concern. That's why Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser at the White House is making this knowledge, this information about what they think -- what the White House thinks North Korea and Russia are doing at the moment.
They are making it public and saying that they are telling North Korea that it should hold to its public commitment not to supply Russia with weapons.
Nevertheless, this developing relationship between Putin and Kim Jong- un seems to be getting stronger.
What does Putin get out of this, he gets much needed ammunition. The war of attrition in Ukraine cannot be won by him unless he has the firepower to keep landing artillery shells on the Ukrainian forces as they try to advance.
What does Kim Jong-un get out of this? Well, potentially access to technologies -- military technology, scientific technologies he does not have at the moment.
Launching and putting satellites into orbit. Potentially for nuclear submarines as well. He spends a huge amount of his budget on defense equipment.
So the unintended consequences we've seen with Iran supplying drones to Russia. At what cost, what information, what technologies does Iran get for that. And now it seems a deal perhaps with North Korea that would potentially make North Korea more dangerous in the future.
Putin it seems has no choice but to trade something to get his hands on the ammunition that he cannot win the war without.
Nic Robertson, CNN -- London.
(END VIDEOTAPE) VAUSE: To Israel now and the murder of dozens of Israeli Arabs this year being blamed mostly on organized crime. Families of the victims though say investigators are not treating their cases with the seriousness they deserve.
CNN's Hadas Gold has more now, reporting in from Haifa.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HADAS GOLD, CNN ANCHOR: A mother's anguish, with grief still fresh.
"Enough," she cries. We want to live in peace and quiet. We want to find who is behind all of this. Why, why, why kill these kids?
GOLD: Qasidah Busalek's (ph) son Ali was murdered just last week, a year out from a stint in prison. An Arab citizen of Israel, he's one of the latest victims in an alarming crime wave that's rocking the Arab community across the country.
At a recent protest in the northern Israeli city of Haifa, thousands turned out to call for equal justice. Arabs make up around 20 percent of Israeli citizens. Many speak fluent Hebrew and also identifies Palestinian.
But they say Israeli authorities are not treating their cases the same as Jewish ones.
Qasidah says she blames the police, government and the law. Her son was set to be married soon. When I asked her whether the police have made any progress on the case, she says not yet and stops, overcome by emotion.
These coffins represent the more than 160 Arab Israeli citizens of Israel who have been killed thus far this year. These numbers far eclipsed previous years for the same period.
And these coffins, many of them have messages saying what their victims were doing when they were killed. Some of them say I was out getting a pizza. I was studying for my university exams.
And these citizens they say that this government is not doing enough to protect them.
In addition to targeted killings, innocent civilians including children have been caught in the cross fires. Badiyah (INAUDIBLE) daughter Johara was an anti violence and women's rights activist. Killed last year when a bomb exploded under her car.
Her mother, who identifies as an Arab Jew Israeli citizen said the police have made no progress.
"I feel like a neglected stranger completely neglected, dictatorial country," she says. "I do not have a sense of belonging."
Reasons behind the violence would be gang warfare, loan sharks, the influx of guns and activists say a vacuum in the Israeli policing of the Arab communities and fear of cooperating with police investigations.
Israel police declined our request for an interview.
Arab Israeli politicians like Ahmad Tibi say far-right ministers are to blame, especially minister of national security Itamar Ben-Gvir. Himself once convicted of anti Arab racism.
AHMAD TIBI, ISRAELI KNESSET MEMBER: This man, who is a convict and a terrorist according to the Israeli court is leading the police, fighting the police, the police fighting him. The cost of this failure is a lot of bloodshed in our streets, in our communities.
GOLD: In the early 2000s, Israel successfully fought a crime wave spurred by organized criminal Jewish gangs. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says they will do the same with the Arab community.
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: We will use all means, including the Shin Bet, including the police -- all means to defeat this crime. We eliminated organized crime in Jewish society in Israel. We will eliminate organized crime in Arab society in Israel.
[01:39:58]
GOLD: If they don't, these citizens argue, their anguish will ricochet back into the Jewish community's backyard and these coffins will be theirs to carry.
Hadas Gold, CNN -- Haifa, Israel.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: A U.S. district judge has handed out the toughest sentence so far to a defendant on trial for his role in the January 6th uprising on Capitol Hill.
The former leader of the far-right Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio was not in Washington that day but he was sentenced to 22 years in prison for what the judge described as his outsized role in the attack.
Prosecutors had sought 33 years. They said the Proud Boys had an integral role in breaching the Capitol and Tarrio was communicating with them during the attack. The judge added that Tarrio has shown no remorse with his actions.
Coming up on CNN, members of ISIS secretly recorded doing their worst? New evidence for international prosecutors.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS ENGELS, COMMISSION FOR INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE AND ACCOUNTABILITY: As a normal state of affairs, the hospital had CCTV running. The members of the Islamic state did not realize that this was being recorded in the background and did not think too much about it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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VAUSE: No Islamic terror group has used gruesome, brutal, public videos as effectively as ISIS geared to recruit new jihadis who will terrorize those who refuse to adhere to their twisted religious beliefs.
But now video recorded in a hospital in Aleppo without their knowledge has expose their depravity and total lack of humanity, as well as giving international prosecutors concrete evidence to argue for harsher convictions.
Jomana Karadsheh has details and a warning, her report contains disturbing and graphic images.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Answering the call to unite under one flag -- this is the source of our glory.
JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was an ISIS hallmark -- slick media production terrorizing the world.
It's what they wanted us to see. But not this.
ENGELS: This film is different. This film is Islamic state without Islamic state knowing it was being filmed.
KARADSHEH: Never before seen video inside the group's headquarters in the Syrian city of Aleppo in 2013, a children's hospital turned into a house of horrors.
CCTV video that captures the reality of the Islamic state where torture was routine. Hundreds of Syrians were held in this makeshift prison, many never made it out to tell their stories.
Others did, including some western hostages with chilling accounts of what they survived and witnessed.
[01:44:44]
DIDIER FRANCOIS, FRENCH JOURNALIST: We could hear the Syrian prisoners in the first places where we were detained, in the Aleppo hospital for instance. We could see some of them in the corridor and we could see some people lying in the (INAUDIBLE).
KARADSHEH: This video was much more than just a snapshot of ISIS' reign of terror.
ENGELS: As a normal state of affairs, the hospital had CCTV running. The members of the Islamic state did not realize that this was being recorded in the background and didn't think too much about it.
KARADSHEH: And the cameras rolled for months, capturing scenes like this. A captive left hanging in a stressed position, blindfolded detainees marched down the hallway. Here, a fighter laughing as he pushes down the head of a handcuffed
and hooded detainee. It's only a few of the clips shared exclusively with CNN by the Commission for International Justice and Accountability (INAUDIBLE).
ENGELS: This is exactly the type of treatment that we've heard about from survivors. What makes this important is as you see right there, the Islamic state member without a mask on walking down the hall. That is a person that would normally try and hide his face outside.
KARADSHEH: We've blurred faces to preserve ongoing investigations and possible future prosecution.
ENGELS: That's incredible evidence at trial for several of these individuals who've been identified.
KARADSHEH: According to Engels, fighters from all over the world, including senior members from Europe and the U.S. were operating in the facility. This video he says has already been used to identify a French suspect.
Evidence gathered have long allowed them and law enforcement in various western countries to identify and track down ISIS members who have fled before the fall of ISIS' so-called Caliphate with just war crimes investigators work under cover, collecting evidence like this from the battlefields in Syria and Iraq.
ENGELS: It is often the case that domestic massive law enforcement and prosecutorial authorities have enough evidence to prove that they were a member.
What we think is important is that wherever possible, we are able to prosecute them for the torture, for the kidnapping, for the murder.
KARADSHEH: This is not just about the past, ISIS remains a top global security threat.
ENGELS: These are individuals that have already proven that they are a threat. And we don't want to give them the opportunity to decide to go down that path again.
We have had several hundred requests for information. Our law enforcement partners have not at all forgotten about the conflict.
KARADSHEH: Just before dawn on January 17th, heavily armed Dutch police descended on the street in the village or Arko (ph). They raided a house and arrested a man suspected of having been a senior ISIS commander in Syria.
His arrest in the small sleepy town where he lived a quiet life with his wife and children shocked the nation. Residents here were reluctant to speak to us about the suspect, identified as Aham Al-Eb (ph). He allegedly operated in Damascus, not Aleppo.
So it wasn't the CCTV video that led to his arrest. It's a tip from a Syrian NGO and witness testimony that triggering a years' long Dutch investigation.
Sources say he had a long history of extremism in Syria. Holding leadership positions, first with an al-Qaeda affiliate and later ISIS Aham's (INAUDIBLE) who rejects the government accusations, now faces life in prison.
MIRJAM BLOM, PUBLIC PROSECUTOR: He had a leading position within a terrorist organization.
KARADSHEH: Mirjam Blom is the public prosecutor on the case. She's charged him with two counts of membership in terror organizations with the aim to commit war crimes.
BLOM: In order to charge him with separate war crimes like execution or violent arrests or torture, you need more evidence than indications.
KARADSHEH: And so this is ongoing and --
BLOM: We have investigation still going on, yes.
KARADSHEH: Was he hiding?
BLOM: He was not hiding. He was living here openly.
People like him and also war criminals, come to the Netherlands, hiding in the legitimate stream of refugees and to be able to investigate and prosecute those cases. It is very, very important aspect of our mission not to be a safe haven for war criminals.
KARADSHEH: The trail of terror ISIS left behind will haunt not only their victims but those who tormented them.
Jomana Karadsheh, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: A change of pace when we come back.
A landmark moment for women's soccer in Spain, as the team appoints its first female coach. Why her predecessor was fired. Also, his reaction in a moment.
[01:49:40]
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VAUSE: A German man has been detained in Florence, Italy after damaging a 16th century statue of Neptune. Police say the 22-year-old breached a protective barrier, climbed the statue, just to pose for some photos.
In this surveillance video we see him climbing down, at some point, it's believed, he broke a piece of red marble attached to Neptune's carriage. Damage is believed to be around 5,000 euros. The Spanish women's football team will now be led by its first ever
female head coach who was appointed within hours of her predecessor being fired.
Montse Tome is a former player and has been assistant coach since 2018. The move is part of a major shake up in Spanish football after the country's football federation chief forcibly kissed the star player after Spain won the Women's World Cup last month.
Former head coach Jorge Vilda says his firing is unfair and unexpected. He believes complaints from players and team management did not include him, sorry -- about team management, I should say. Still, Vilda says he congratulates Tome on her appointment. More details now from Patrick Snell.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PATRICK SNELL, CNN WORLD SPORT ANCHOR: Well on Tuesday, we learned that Jorge Vilda has been sacked from his role as head coach of Spain's women's team. This amid the ongoing fallout over that unwanted kiss, the now suspended president of the Spanish Football Federation Luis Rubiales gave a player in the aftermath of the Women's World Cup final.
That was the manager who led La Roja to their first ever world cup triumph recently in Australia. He's gone now and been replaced by former assistant Montse Tome. More on her historic appointment in just a few moments.
Now, despite Spain's success last month, Vilda's tenure as head coach, he was appointed back in 2015 fair to say has been hugely controversial.
If we go back to the buildup to the World Cup which saw ongoing unrest between Spain's players, Vilda himself, his coaching staff and the Spanish federation. It led to 12 of Spain's biggest stars actually missing the World Cup altogether. This amid reports of concerns over training methods and inadequate preparations for matches.
Now in a statement from Spain's federation on Vilda's departure reading in part, "The federation appreciates his work as the head of the national team and his responsibilities as the maximum sporting figure of the women's national team as well as the successes reaped during his term crowned with a recent achievement of the World Cup.
And just hours later on Tuesday, Montse Tome officially taking over from him as head coach in a very special piece of history indeed as the 41-year-old now becoming the first ever woman to be appointed manager of Spain's women's team.
Tome has served as an assistant coach within Vilda's staff since 2018 and helped Spain to the 2023 Women's World Cup title last month.
Tome is a former player, Barcelona among her club. She retired from playing in 2012 and we now know she will make a head coaching debut on September 22nd when Spain faces current world number one Sweden away in the Women's Nations League match.
Now in other developments, the Spanish Football Federation issuing an apology on Tuesday for Luis Rubiales what it calls inappropriate conduct at the Women's World Cup final. That apology to the world of football and society as a whole, all eyes remaining on Rubiales though who's currently suspended by the sports world governing body FIFA.
He's refusing to resign. He says that kiss was consensual. The player in question Jenny Hermoso says otherwise. Back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Thank you Patrick.
[01:54:46]
VAUSE: Singer Joe Jonas and wife "Game of Thrones" star Sophie Turner are heading for Splitsville. They began dating in 2016, married three years later, have two young daughters.
Jonas filed for a petition for divorce in Florida on Tuesday. CNN has reached out to their reps for comment.
The rumors are true. For the first time in 18 years, the Rolling Stones is set to announce a new studio album, this one called "Happy Diamond", which will include songs recorded with late drummer Charlie Watts before he died in 2021.
Paul McCartney even gets a gig on this playing bass on one track. Mick Jagger and company will do an interview with comedian Jimmy Fallon in London for the big announcement. Here's a teaser video for the big event.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIMMY FALLON, COMEDIAN: This is Jimmy. Mick? Keith, Ronnie? Live stream. You need me? Wednesday September 6th, Hackney. Gotcha.
As in London? You can't always get what -- that's right. You get what you need, you're right.
I'll be there. See you in London.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Also a chance at a piece of Rock and Roll history in London today with almost 30,000 possessions from Freddie Mercury's Garden Lodge home in Kensington now up for auction by Sotheby's. It includes his costumes, fine art, furniture, photographs, a whole lot more, most notably Mercury's black Yamaha baby grand piano which he used to compose the 1975 classic "Bohemian Rhapsody". That is expected to sell for around $3 million. Mercury's handwritten lyrics of some of Queen's biggest hits are also on the auction block.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DAVID MACDONALD, SOTHEBY'S LONDON HEAD OF SINGLE OWNER SALES: This is a man's life in the (INAUDIBLE) his private world, his public world -- it's not just about beautiful things. The beautiful things that he liked to surround himself with.
It is about his own history, the moments in his career. His professional career. The great stage master. You know, the man who created some of the most memorable lyrics in the late 20th century.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Sotheby's says proceeds from the auction will be donated to the Mercury Phoenix Trust and the Elton John AIDS Foundation.
Thank you for watching. I'm John Vause.
Please stay with us. CNN NEWSROOM continues with my friend and colleague Paula Newton in New York right after a short break.
See you right back here tomorrow.
[01:57:31]
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