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Five Americans Freed From Iran; India And Canada Expel Diplomats As Dispute Deepens; Zelenskyy To Attend UNGA, Meet Biden To Shore Up Support; UK Police Probe 2003 Report After Russell Brand Allegations; Netanyahu Challenges Musk About Antisemitism On X. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired September 19, 2023 - 02:00   ET

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

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[02:00:29]

LAILA HARRAK, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello. I'm Laila Harrak. Next on CNN NEWSROOM. A murder investigation in Canada takes quite a twist as its prime minister accuses the Indian government of orchestrating the killing of a prominent Sikh leader. New Delhi is now responding.

Five prisoners held in Iran about to touch down on U.S. soil following multinational diplomatic efforts and the unfreezing of $6 billion to Tehran.

Plus, Wagner's African empire. CNN's Clarissa Ward shows us their influence in the region less than a month after Prigozhin's death.

ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Laila Harrak.

HARRAK: Relations between India and Canada are going from bad to worse with Canada expelling a senior Indian diplomat. And then India during the same. Kicking out a senior Canadian envoy. Well, that's after Canada's Prime Minister said India could be behind an assassination carried out on Canadian soil. Justin Trudeau says credible allegations linked the Indian government to the deadly shooting of a prominent Sikh leader in British Columbia.

To Canada, he was a citizen. To India, he was a wanted terrorist. CNN's Paula Newton explains.

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PAULA NEWTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR (voiceover): In a startling accusation Canadian officials say the killing of a prominent Canadian Sikh leader in the province of British Columbia in June may have been an assassination carried out on the orders of the Indian government.

JUSTIN TRUDEAU, PRIME MINISTER OF CANADA: Over the past number of weeks, Canadian security agencies have been actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the government of India and the killing of a Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar. NEWTON (voiceover): Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he confronted India's Prime Minister with the allegations in a face-to- face meeting just last week as Narendra Modi hosted the G20 Summit.

TRUDEAU: Canada has declared its deep concerns to the top intelligence and security officials of the Indian government. Last week at the G20 I brought them personally and directly to Prime Minister Modi in no uncertain terms. Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty. It is contrary to the fundamental rules by which free, open and democratic societies conduct themselves.

NEWTON (voiceover): The killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar remains unsolved. Royal Canadian Mounted Police say Nijjar suffered multiple gunshot wounds while sitting in a vehicle outside a Sikh temple in Surrey British Columbia. Homicide investigators say two mass suspects described as heavier set males fled on foot and then possibly in this 2008 Silver Toyota Camry.

In the earliest days after the homicide protesters demanded justice, saying the killing was politically motivated and chilling retribution for Nijjar's activism and support for Sikh independence in India. At the time, RCMP would not comment on a possible motive. But now Canadian officials are speaking loud and clear about their suspicions.

MELANIE JOLY, CANADIAN FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINISTER: The allegations that a representative of a foreign government may have been involved in the killing of a Canadian citizen here in Canada, on Canadian soil is not only troubling but it is completely unacceptable. If proven true, this would be a grave violation of our sovereignty and of the most basic rule of how countries deal with each other.

NEWTON (voiceover): That stern rebuke was followed by swift action, Canada expelled the head of India's spy agency in Canada, one of India's top diplomats in the country. In a statement, the Indian government responded saying the allegations are unsubstantiated and accused Canada of sheltering tariffs. Trudeau considers the intelligence so credible that his foreign minister says he raised the issue with both U.S. President Joe Biden and Britain's prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

[02:05:02]

The killing of Nijjar and its fallout is now a potential political powder keg in both India and Canada. Home to one of the largest Indian diaspora anywhere in the world. Sikh independence has long been a dangerous fault line and Indian politics. Canada now fears that conflict may have been brought to its shores with deadly consequences.

Paul Newton, CNN.

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HARRAK: CNN's Vedika Sud comes to us now live from New Delhi. Vedika, what can you tell us about India's official response to these allegations? VEDIKA SUD, CNN REPORTER: Well, what's clear, Laila, at this point is it's already impacting the diplomatic ties between India and Canada within hours of Justin Trudeau going into parliament and making that highly explosive and rare comment where he has linked Indian agents, the Indian government to the possible killing of a Canadian citizen, a Sikh leader. There has been a huge development here in New Delhi.

The Indian government has now expelled a senior Canadian diplomat without naming this official and wants this official to leave India within the next five days. So, you can see that the tensions are building between the two countries. And this comes after a very strong statement from the Ministry of External Affairs here in India. And I'm going to read out an excerpt from there where they have refuted and rejected the allegations made by the Canadian Prime Minister and the Canadian Foreign Minister.

And it states and I'm going to quote them here. Such unsubstantiated allegations seek to shift the focus from Khalistani terrorists and extremists who have been provided shelter in Canada and continue to threaten India's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Now, this is something that India has repeatedly been stating officially at least to Canada that they are condemning and they want Canada to take some action and rather strong action against anti-India elements in Canada, specifically the Khalistani members and leaders there. And there's a huge diaspora as we know of Indians in Canada and a significant percentage of the Indians there are from the Sikh community.

India has repeatedly asked for action against anti-India elements based in Canada. And now, you know, the prime minister came out and spoke about this person Hardeep Singh being a part of the community there, being a citizen of Canada but for India, this man is a declared terrorist and an absconder and was declared a terrorist back in the year 2020. Back to you.

HARRAK: Vedika Sud reporting in New Delhi. Thank you very much. Now, we are just a short time away from what will certainly be an emotional reunion on U.S. soil. Five Americans freed from detention in Iran are scheduled to land in the Washington, D.C. area within the next few hours. While they were released by Tehran on Monday as part of a deal mediated by Qatar. It also includes the release of five Iranians detained in the U.S. and the unfreezing of $6 billion in Iranian funds.

The Americans made a brief stopover in Doha before leaving for the U.S. Only three have been identified publicly, including Siamak Namazi who's been held in Iran since 2015. Morad Tahbaz and Emad Shargi were both arrested on espionage charges in 2018. The two other freed Americans have not been identified publicly.

More now from CNN's Becky Anderson in Doha, Qatar.

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BECKY ANDERSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR (voiceover): Smiles, hugs and tears, as five Americans detained inside Iran for years are finally freed and on their way home. Among them, Siamak Namazi. He was arrested in 2015 while on a business trip to Iran, and charged with having relations with a hostile state. After nearly eight years in prison, Namazi was Iran's longest held American prisoner.

Feeling abandoned by the U.S. earlier this year. He appealed directly to President Biden in an unprecedented interview with CNN from inside the notorious Evin Prison.

SIAMAK NAMAZI, U.S. CITIZEN IMPRISONED IN IRAN SINCE 2015 (via telephone): Honestly, the other hostages and I desperately need President Biden to finally hear us out, to finally hear our cry for help and bring us home.

ANDERSON (voiceover): Also freed, dual Iranian-American citizens Morad Tahbaz and Emad Shargi. Tahbaz, an environmentalist was arrested while on a trip to Iran in 2018. Shargi, a businessman who moved with his wife to Iran from the U.S. in 2017 was also detained in 2018 on similar charges to that of Namazi.

ANDERSON: For years, their fate tied to tensions between the two countries. But with the help of a common friend in Qatar, breakthrough diplomacy brought us to this very moment.

[02:10:11]

ANDERSON (voiceover): Iran free the dual citizens and a deal to release five Iranians held in U.S. prisons. And to unblock $6 billion in Frozen Iranian funds from South Korea. That cash moving from Seoul to Switzerland before being transferred to Doha, after the Biden administration last week issued sanction's waiver clearing the way for the money to move.

The role of Qatar now changing from mediator to guarantor. Ensuring Washington's demands that Iran's billions are strictly controlled and spent only on humanitarian goods, like food and medicine. But critics worry even with Doha's oversight, the monies could be spent, however, Tehran decides. There's also concern this latest deal enables what many critics have dubbed Tehran's hostage diplomacy.

But for the freed Americans today at least, politics will likely be a secondary concern, as they finally get to go home after years of mental and physical anguish.

Becky Anderson, CNN, Doha.

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HARRAK: Joining me now is Negar Mortazavi. A senior fellow at the Center for International Policy. And host of the excellent Iran Podcast. I'm so happy to have you with us. How do you reflect on this moment, the homecoming in the release of five wrongfully detained Americans?

NEGAR MORTAZAVI, SENIOR FELLOW, CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL POLICY: Well, it's a very emotional moment for families and friends of them. It's also a rare moment of the success of diplomacy of some form of engagement between these two foes, Iran and the United States. This came as a result of complex and long-negotiations rounds and rounds of indirect negotiations with mediation by the state of Qatar.

Qatari diplomats literally shuttling between Iranian and American diplomats in different hotels in Doha and with the help of other trusted partners on both sides. The deal or the agreement that was reached was complex. It was a very carefully choreographed and eventually led to the release of five Iranian Americans lawfully held in Iran. And also, five equal number of prisoners held -- Iranian nationals held in the U.S. and the unfreezing of Iranian funds from South Korea.

HARRAK: So very intricate and delicate, a process that you outline there carefully orchestrated. So, is it a diplomatic success and what dilemmas does it raise?

MORTAZAVI: I think it's a major diplomatic success. And it's seen as maybe an opening a small goodwill gesture to more reduction of tensions or defusing of these tensions between Iran and the U.S. Obviously, the big issue for the United States' allies partners is Iran's nuclear program. And that's something that U.S. negotiators and diplomats had been trying to prioritize, but it just didn't come about an agreement because they should too complex and too difficult to tackle for both sides after the U.S. pulled out of the nuclear deal under President Trump.

So, I think this was seen as a low-hanging fruit as a smaller step as an agreement or an understanding that could be reached and essentially maybe opened the door for more reduction of tensions and prevention of further conflict between the two sides.

HARRAK: Now, predictably, there is a backlash now here in the United States with some arguing that this deal incentivizes hostage taking. Can anything be done to deter countries from hostage taking and using prisoner swaps as a tool of diplomacy?

MORTAZAVI: Well, I think increased tensions, the overall file of this increased tensions between Tehran and Washington is what has actually emboldened Iran to take more detainees, more hostages with the pulling out of the nuclear deal that maximum pressure campaign, the imposition of sanctions. Let's not forget, these funds have been frozen as part of the U.S. sanctions regime against Iran which is something Iran is using these hostages or detainees as political pawns to try to get those funds back.

So, I think the overall increase of tension is enough excuse for the Iranians to become even more bolder in taking and detaining these dual nationals or foreign nationals and using them as political pawns. And when it comes to a deal, there are no good deals when it comes to this issue is just how you -- what you do in the real world to try to get your citizens back home which I think is what the administration prioritizes and was able to do successfully.

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HARRAK: How would you characterize the Biden administration's approach when it comes to Iran?

MORTAZAVI: Well, it's a bit different from the previous administration, the rhetoric of maximum pressure has changed. I have tried to engage diplomatically try to pursue the diplomatic path. There was a window of opportunity at the beginning of the administration, which they missed with the previous administration in Tehran which was more pro-diplomacy, more pro-engagement with the United States.

Now there's a more hardline conservative administration in Tehran which is harder to deal with with the United States. And Iran is shifting more to the east to the great powers in Asia, Russia, China and it's made things just more complex and more difficult. Iran is also helping Russia in the attack on Ukraine, the war in Ukraine. So, all of these have made it more difficult for the administration to pursue diplomacy with Iran.,

But I think both sides are trying to prevent a military conflict. And so, in the absence of a military conflict or the appetite for war, diplomacy would become the only alternative they can pursue.

HARRAK: All right. Negar Mortazavi, thank you so much for joining us. Negar Mortazavi is the host of the Iran Podcast.

MORTAZAVI: Thank you for having me.

HARRAK: World leaders gathered in New York are set to kick off the United Nations General Assembly in the hours ahead. While U.S. President Joe Biden is among those delivering remarks on Tuesday before holding a bilateral meeting with the U.N. Secretary General. Mr. Biden is the only leader of the permanent five members of the U.N. Security Council to attend. Leaders will be discussing a host of issues from climate change to the war in Ukraine.

And Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will also be attending the annual meeting in person for the first time and it said to address the assembly in the coming hours. On Monday, he visited Ukrainian soldiers undergoing treatment and rehabilitation in New York. He also honored some soldiers with awards.

And meantime, the commander of Ukraine's land forces says troops have successfully broken through a Russian defense line on the Eastern front.

CNN's Frederik Pleitgen shows us the scene on the battlefield.

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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): Ground combat in a place reduced to a wasteland by months of relentless fighting. Ukrainian forces released this video saying it shows their troops advancing near Bakhmut on the Eastern front.

They're coming. Cover me, the soldier says as machine gunfire rings out and later mortars rain down. The Ukrainians say their gains here are small but important. Firing heavy weapons at the Russians including rocket barrages from combat helicopters. Kyiv trying to show they have the upper hand a presidential adviser tells me.

Let's not forget that we're talking about the army that everyone was afraid of only yesterday, he says. Today, we're talking about a Ukrainian offensive in different directions. The Russians eager to show they are holding on.

Russian state media releasing this video of Putin soldiers in the ruins of Bakhmut claiming they'll hold off Ukrainian assaults.

We can see them in the forest line, their trenches, we're working on those targets, he says. We shell them with our mortars.

As Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy embarks on his visit to the U.S. both for the U.N. General Assembly but also to meet with President Biden and members of Congress, the Ukrainians are urging the U.S. to keep up its support. Saying aside from the longer-range attack on his tactical missiles to hit Russian supply lines, they urgently need a lot more artillery ammo as their forces are heavily outgunned, even as they tried to advance.

Speaking to 60 Minutes, Zelenskyy highlighting the sacrifices Ukraine is making.

We're defending the values of the whole world, he says. And the Ukrainian people are paying the highest price. We are currently fighting for our freedom. We are dying.

A tough and slow grind on the ground as Kyiv's military tries to inch forward vowing they won't stop until they've ousted the Russians from all of Ukraine's territory.

Frederik Pleitgen, CNN, Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine.

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HARRAK: And still ahead, the search continues for survivors and the dead in Libya after deadly floods. How the coastal city of Derna went from picturesque to receive mass graves when we return.

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HARRAK: Protesters packed the streets of the Libyan city of Derna on Monday. Hundreds of residents demanded accountability from officials. They partially blame for the scope of the damage from the recent deadly flooding. Residents blamed government officials for not giving enough warning for residents to evacuate in time. Critics are also highlighting the fact that experts knew as early as last year.

The city was vulnerable to floods and the dams required maintenance. Reuters reports Libya's acting prime minister in eastern Libya dismissed all members of Derna's municipal council and as called for an investigation.

Well, meantime, volunteers are working to dig large mass graves to handle the thousands of bodies found since last week. Derna's hospitals and morgues were overwhelmed in the days following the floods with more than 2500 people buried. In cases where bodies are decomposed and bloated beyond recognition, victims are identified by numbers. And officials take DNA samples ahead of burials.

CNN's Jomana Karadsheh is in Derna with more.

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JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): It's all gone they say. Derna is now a city of the dead. There was no time for final goodbyes here. Mom rest in peace spray painted where that mother wants lived. In 90 minutes, a city and its people were left shattered. Here grief lingers in the air.

Faces tell of the horror they survived and lost they have yet to comprehend. Akram (ph) lost his brother's entire family. He now sits where their house once stood. It's all he has left to them.

I lost my brother and his children. I lost my neighbors. I lost my whole world, he says. He searched for their bodies everywhere and hospitals and by the sea. Akram breaks down as he tries to remember his last call with his brother just two days before the catastrophe struck. He says this is God's will. It's a harsh one they've had to accept.

Everyone here has lost family. One after the other they share their gut-wrenching stories. about Stoned faced Denam Abdullah (ph) recalls how he held his 10-year-old son and jumped from one rooftop to another to escape the ferocious flood. He helped save families but couldn't save his own.

Abdullah lost his mother, his wife and his two other boys. 25 family members in total, but he's only buried for. Everyone here is on a mission to find the dead. There aren't enough search and rescue teams. It's mostly volunteers digging through the muddy trouble at these homes. They call passersby to join.

[02:25:07]

KARADSHEH: They believe there is one or more dead bodies underneath the rubble. They say they can smell it.

KARADSHEH (voiceover): But most of the bodies are not here, officials say. Thousands were swept away with their homes and in their cars into the Mediterranean.

Derna's idyllic seafront is now a staging area where they deliver the dead. Radias (ph) not had time to process what she survived. She has been here since last Monday preparing the dead for burial. This is the hardest thing she's ever had to do, she says. She's recognized the lifeless faces of family friends and neighbors. Is this Derna? It will forever be heartbroken, she says. We lost our

finest. People used to come and look at our flowers, our Jasmine. Now they come to a broken Derna.

At a cemetery outside the city where more than 1000 victims have been buried in mass graves. They prepare for more. No family here, just strangers who pray for the dead. But there's no time to stop. The bodies just keep coming.

Jomana Karadsheh, Derna, Libya.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRAK: Next to our CNN NEWSROOM. What happens with the Wagner militia in Africa now that their leader is gone?

CNN travels to the Central African Republic to see how Yevgeny Prigozhin's death is changing the way his fighters operate.

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HARRAK: Almost a month after Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin died in a still unexplained plane crash. Russia has been moving to consolidate Wagner's operations across Africa. CNN's Chief International Correspondent Clarissa Ward traveled to the Central African Republic. One of the world's poorest nations and one of Wagner's first operational sites on the continent to see how Wagner's work and Russia's influence might be changing.

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CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): In the Central African Republic, the message from Wagner is clear. It's business as usual.

[02:30:03]

Less than one month after their boss Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in a plane crash, mass mercenaries still guard the president and have got an intimidating figure on the streets of the capital.

Faces covered as Wagner protocol dictates, they are unapproachable and untouchable. These are the first images of Wagner fighters in the country since Prigozhin's death. That presence runs deep. The markets are full of cheap sachets of vodka and beer, made by a Wagner owned company. The locals seem to like it.

WARD: They say they don't drink French beer, only Russian beer.

WARD (voice-over): We've come back to the center of Prigozhin's empire in Africa, right as his death raises questions for the regimes he protected and the mercenaries who's loyalty he inspired. Our last visit was in Wagner's early days here. Run like the Mafia, providing guns and fighters and propaganda in return for gold, diamonds and timber. Using intimidation and brutality along the way.

WARD: That car full of Russians has been following us for quite some time. We don't know why. We don't know what they want.

WARD (voice-over): But in this lawless, war scarred country, one of the poorest in the world, that ruthlessness and the security it brought is celebrated by many.

FIDELE GOUANDJIKA, SENIOR PRESIDENTIAL ADVISER, C. AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Welcome to Bontical's Palace.

WARD: Wow, that is quite the t-shirt.

GOUANDJIKA: Yes, a beautiful t-shirt.

WARD (voice-over): Presidential advisor Fidele Gouandjika said the nation is in mourning for Wagner's dead leader.

GOUANDJIKA: He was my friend. He was my friend. Best friend. A friend of all Central African people.

WARD: Why exactly was Mr. Prigozhin so popular here in your mind?

GOUANDJIKA: Because our country was in war. And so Mr. Putin gave us soldier Mr. Prigozhin.

WARD: So aren't you nervous now that he's dead that things might change?

GOUANDJIKA: Mr. Putin called our president, he told him that everything will be like yesterday. Nothing will be changed. Nothing.

WARD (voice-over): But according to a diplomatic source here, hundreds of Wagner fighters left the Central African Republic in July after Prigozhin's failed mutiny. Those who remain, including his top lieutenants, have agreed to work for the Russian ministry of defense. Fighters have already been pulled back, from frontline outposts to population centers, in an effort to cut costs, the source says.

What's less clear is what becomes of Wagner's civilian presence here. This is one of the last places that Prigozhin was seen alive during his final tour across Africa. It's called the Russian Cultural Center, only it has no connection to Russia's official cultural agency, and was run until recently by Prigozhin's closest associate here. Photographs taken on that visit show a new face, a woman known as Nafisa Kerianava. After days of asking for permission to visit, we decide to film covertly.

WARD: So but you were here then when, Yevgeny Prigozhin, when he was here, in the photographs? There's the photographs of you with Prigozhin together here.

NAFISA KERIANAVA: Oh my God, can you show me that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah. I think it was just over in the corner. There you are.

KERIANAVA: Hmm. Ok. Ok. That's good.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And this is Mr. Prigozhin, no?

KERIANAVA: Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How was he?

KERIANAVA: Normal.

WARD: Do you think he knew they were going to kill him?

KERIANAVA: My gosh. What is the question there? Who knows such things?

WARD: What does it mean for your work here? Does it change anything?

KERIANAVA: It doesn't change anything if, I don't know, the president of your country dies? Does it mean that your country stops to exist?

WARD (voice-over): She shows us one of their Russian classes. As we step back outside, we see a Wagner fighter.

WARD: Hi. Who are you?

WARD (voice-over): You can just make him out, retreating to the back of the center where, according to the investigative group The Century, Wagner sells its gold and diamonds to VIPs, and manages its timber and alcohol operations.

WARD: Who is that?

KERIANAVA: A personnel.

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WARD: A person? Can we see what's there? That's weird.

KERIANAVA: Actually well what are you going to see there?

WARD (voice-over): Like most of Wagner's activities here, it's clear there is still so much that is hidden from view. We pushed the visit far enough, it's time to go. No matter who takes over here, Western diplomats say they don't expect much to change.

At the local Orthodox church, the Greek lettering has been painted over. Its allegiance now is to the Russian patriarchy. And even in the skies above the empire Prigozhin built, Russia's dominance lives on. Clarissa Ward CNN, Bangui.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRAK: The UN Secretary-General is reacting to a CNN report out of western Haiti about women who claim a lack of support from the UN after they were exploited or abused by UN personnel. Some even fathered children. Here's part of Paula Newton's report.

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NEWTON: Rosmina Joseph says she was a child when she was lured into a relationship with the Uruguayan peacekeeper and became pregnant. He was sent home and served a sentence for abuse, according to a UN document. But Rosmina wanted us to see her home.

A place where she says dreams once stood, a plot for a house, still a barren foundation. She has no money to build here. She lives on this patch of land, in nothing more than a tent. Clinging to proof and staking her claim that the UN is also responsible for the harm done to her and her 12-year-old son.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRAK: Well CNN's Christiane Amanpour sat down with UN chief Antonio Guterres, as world leaders gather for the General Assembly, and asked him about CNN's reports. Here's some of his response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONIO GUTERRES, UN SECRETARY-GENERAL: When I saw that, I immediately gave instructions. Let's see what's happening, and where are we failing. Because we shouldn't fail. And there is another issue that you didn't mention that for me, it's the most difficult and where we are having clear problems.

We need to make sure that the fathers, when identified, and in many situations they are identified, they assume their responsibilities. And for that the countries need to do it through the legal systems. And we are having a strong program to create the conditions to make countries work on this.

But it has been very tough to make things move. Very tough. There's a lot of reluctance and my appeal to member states is to really make sure that those that have children recognize them and do the best they can to assume their responsibilities as fathers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRAK: Well Guterres says a program of support should be helping the children and mothers in Haiti. And also pointed to Victims' Advocates Antitrust Fund that have been set up by the UN to deal with issues around the globe.

They acknowledged, sometimes, things do not work as they should. Still to come, antisemitism was a big topic as Israel's prime minister and Elon Musk sat down for a chat in California. Hear what Benjamin Netanyahu told Musk about hate speech on his platform X.

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[02:40:47]

HARRAK: London's metropolitan police say that they are looking into an allegation of sexual assault in 2003. And this comes days after three British media outlets published a joint investigation citing four women who accused Russell Brand of sexual assault between 2006 and 2013. London police are not naming the British actor and comedian in their new inquiry. But they say that they are aware of the media reports. Brand has denied all the allegations so far.

But the remaining dates of his multi-city comedy tour have now been postponed. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has kicked off a weeklong visit to the US in California, where he sat down with Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk for a wide-ranging discussion. Mr. Netanyahu used the opportunity to challenge Musk about antisemitism on his social media platform X.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: I hope you find within the confines of the first amendment, the ability to stop, not only antisemitism, or roll it back as best you can, but any collective hatred of the people that antisemitism represents. And I know you're committed to that. I hope you succeed in it. It's not an easy task. But I encourage you and urge you to find the balance. It's a tough one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRAK: And Musk said he is against antisemitism and, quote, "Anything that promotes hate and conflict." A non paying visitor caused a scare at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida on Monday. Some rides at the magic kingdom were shut down after a black bear was spotted in Mickey Mouse's neighborhood.

Well the bear was eventually captured in a wooded area, and it's being relocated to a nearby national forest. No injuries were reported and the rides have been reopened. I'm Laila Harrak, thank you so much for watching CNN NEWSROOM. WORLD SPORT starts after the break.

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