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CNN International: Last Week's Offensive Killed More Than 200 People; Armenia: 13,500 Have Fled Nagorno-Karabakh; Russia Publishes Video Appearing To Show Sokolov On Tuesday; Appeal Hearing For Jailed Kremlin Critic Navalny; South Korea Takes A Harsher Stance On North Korea; Hunter Biden Suing Rudy Giuliani Over Laptop Data; Congress Faces Saturday Deadline To Avert Govt. Shutdown; Border Town Mayor To Extend Emergency Declaration; Mexico, U.S. Officials Agree To Ease Migration Surge; How The Search For Fossil Fuels Threatens Whales. Indigenous Australians Protest Woodside's Plans. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired September 26, 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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[08:00:34]

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

Just ahead, thousands of ethnic Armenians flee the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh after Azerbaijan's lightning offensive there. Then Russian strikes force a ferry crossing between Ukraine and Romania to close as the Kremlin continues its relentless assault.

And a surge of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border leaves Texas town scrambling. We'll explore how they're responding.

The mass exodus out of Nagorno-Karabakh is picking up pace as ethnic Armenians flee the breakaway enclave. Armenia says more than 13,000 people have arrived following Azerbaijan's brief but bloody offensive last week that killed more than 200 people and returned control of Nagorno-Karabakh to Baku.

The enclave is home to 120,000 ethnic Armenians. Adding to the misery, at least 20 people are dead, hundreds are wounded after an explosion Monday evening at a gas station in Nagorno-Karabakh. Many of the injured were taken to the hospital via helicopter.

Scott McLean has been following all of this. Have we got a sense of how things are going to work in that enclave now?

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I think that's the big question and I think it's useful to sort of remind our audience who actually owns this piece of territory. It is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan. But because it is majority ethnic Armenian, they have exercised some level of self-governance, obviously, ties to Armenia as well. And they've operated in sort of this gray area for more than two decades, a fragile gray area that came to a head in 2020 when there was this brief war that ended in this ceasefire where Armenian troops agreed to withdraw from the area, but they still left the local troops commanded by the local leadership there.

This time around last week, this 24-hour lightning offensive, those troops were clearly outgunned, clearly outmanned, this ceasefire agreement. They've agreed to dissolve the Armed Forces entirely. The Azeri government would also like to see the local government also disassembled, I suppose.

And so there's plenty of question marks now about how things will go from now, how people will be treated, especially those who may have served in the Armed Forces and people are being left with this choice, essentially stay in a place where they've been rooted for decades or centuries and live under Azeri rule or go to Armenia.

Many are choosing to go to Armenia. As you said 13,500 thus far and some of those who are arriving we know say, that, look, they figure they will never be back. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SRBUHI, NAGORNO-KARABAKH RESIDENT (through translator): No, no, no, no one is going back. That's it. We are over this care back topic for good, I think. Unless the world turns upside down and everything is good again for everyone, everywhere, because right now the world is a complete mess. No one knows what's going on, but maybe we will have some kind of a payback. Although that is not possible, just not possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCLEAN: So the exodus of those looking to flee the region, Max, is moving at a snail's pace. We've seen new video showing this mountain pass jammed up with cars that are frankly not moving at all or moving maybe very, very slightly. No one is going anywhere anytime soon.

In fact, CNN has been in touch with one family who left very early this morning to try to get out of Nagorno-Karabakh to go to Armenia. They waited for six, seven hours. They moved about 50 meters or so. And so, they've decided to turn back. They're going to try their luck again tomorrow.

Adding to the misery, obviously, is the fact that you had this gas fuel depot explosion yesterday, where you had 20 people injured, some 300 -- almost 300 people injured -- 20 people killed I should say, almost 300 people injured. And because of bad weather and obviously the dicey situation on the ground, it has been very difficult to get people out.

The local officials are trying to prioritize not private vehicles but the injured in getting out. Just this morning, the very first helicopter carrying some of those injured arrived on Armenian soil. The cause? We still don't know. The local leadership in Nagorno- Karabakh, though, says that, look, there's zero chance that this was terror-related in any way.

FOSTER: OK. Scott, thank you.

The Kremlin isn't commenting on the alleged Ukrainian assassination of Russia's Black Sea Fleet commander, but the Ministry of Defense has published this video appearing to show Viktor Sokolov participating in a meeting on Tuesday. CNN can't confirm where that meeting took place though.

[08:05:15]

Meanwhile, for the second night in a row, the southern Ukrainian region of Odesa came under heavy Russian attack and military officials say drones pounded the area for two hours, damaging port infrastructure.

And Kyiv says it has suspended operations at a ferry crossing between Romania and Ukraine following Russian drone strikes.

Fred Pleitgen joins us from Eastern Ukraine. I mean, there's an awful lot to take in there. What are you focusing on the most?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL: Well, right now, the most thing that we're focusing on is that new video that just came out that the Russians have posted of Admiral Victor Sokolov, apparently taking part in that meeting of the defense minister Sergei Shoigu and some of the other top generals of the Russians that appeared to show Admiral Sokolov in one of those little screens as that meeting was going on.

Now, of course, this comes after the Ukrainians claimed that he was killed in those strikes that they conducted on the Sevastopol headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Navy last Friday. Recall that the Russian -- that the Ukrainians said that they had hit that Black Sea Fleet headquarters with some cruise missiles and that 34 senior officers had been killed, including the commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Victor Sokolov.

Now, we did say yesterday when the Ukrainians came out with this claim, Ukrainian military intelligence, they really hadn't offered any sort of evidence to back that up, that Sokolov was really killed in that strike. The Russians, however, over the past 24 hours, since the Ukrainians first made that claim, also didn't come up with any sort of denial.

In fact, this morning on a conference call with the Kremlin and some journalists, so the spokesman for the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov, he was asked about all this, and he also said that he couldn't comment and that this was fully in the realm of the military.

So now, the Russians coming out with this video, still having not commented on it. Certainly, that does seem to show Admiral Victor Sokolov there at that meeting. Again, impossible once again to completely verify whether or not it is him, but certainly, some pretty clear messaging from the Russians that he is -- or they say that he is very much alive. At the same time, you do have that situation that obviously is going on, especially there in the Black Sea with the -- or around the Black Sea with the Russians apparently attacking some places around Odesa. That, of course, is something that we have seen over the past couple of days.

We had that massive attack involving cruise missiles and drones just a day ago, and now it seems as though the Russians trying to keep up that pressure and hitting more targets in the Odesa region. So that -- certainly, that seems to be going up or continuing all this as the Ukrainians, Max, say that they are still making progress on the battlefields here in Ukraine.

Of course, the main thrust considers to be -- continues to be in the south of the country. However, at the same time, the Ukrainians also saying in the east where I am right now that they are also making progress there and certainly keeping the pressure on the Russians, Max.

FOSTER: OK. Fred, thank you.

An appeal hearing for jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has just begun. Navalny's team says the hearing to appeal his latest sentence on extremism charges has moved behind closed doors. A Russian court handed down a new 19-year sentence last month. That's on top of an 11.5 year sentence he was already serving.

In 2020, Navalny was the victim of a suspected poisoning whilst on a flight to Moscow. He spent months recovering in Germany before he returned to Russia in early 2021, where he was immediately arrested. A CNN investigation with Bellingcat found that there was evidence that before Navalny fell ill, he was being followed by agents from Russia's security service.

Now, for the first time in a decade, South Korea is marking its 75th Armed Forces Day with a parade. A rainy day in Seoul didn't stop the display of tanks, missiles and other weaponry. All this as tensions rise on the Korean peninsula.

Seoul is looking to Washington and Tokyo to counter the threat of North Korea's accelerating weapons program. As Paula Hancocks reports.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is South Korea's first military parade in a decade. Thousands of troops and the latest military arsenal rumbling through the heart of Seoul. Now, I have to say, the weather is miserable.

It is pouring with rain, but there are so many residents that have come out to support their armed forces on the 75th anniversary, lining the streets of this 2 kilometer, 1.2 mile route. Now, this is an opportunity for the South Korean President, Yoon Suk Yeol, to show the increasing military strength that this country has. Also, at a time when he's taking a harsher stance on North Korea and its nuclear and missile ambitions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) YOON SUK YEOL, SOUTH KOREAN PRESIDENT (through translator): If North Korea uses nuclear weapons, its regime will be brought to an end by an overwhelming response from the U.S.-South Korea alliance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANCOCKS: Now there is also a U.S. flavor here today. There will be about 330 U.S. troops that are going to be involved in this parade as well, because it's not just about Armed Forces Day. Apparently, this is also about the 70th anniversary of the U.S.-South Korean alliance.

[08:10:12]

So, it is a day to show off the latest homegrown arsenal that South Korea has. For example, the Hyunmoo, which is the first domestically created ballistic missile. Also, the weapon that's being touted as being able to shoot down a North Korean ballistic missile and that is the L-SAM missile defense system.

Now, we were promised a very impressive aerial display as well, but unfortunately, the weather appears to have scuppered that. But it is a positive feeling here on the streets. Everybody cheering about their Armed Forces, waving and showing their support.

Now, of course, these kind of parades are quite regular for North Korea. They've had three in the past year. It's less regular here. They used to have them every five years, but five years ago, back in 2018, that was when the then-president Moon Jae-in was getting on well with the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. So he downgraded the parade to an air show.

And one more point to make, this is not just about sending a message to North Korea, to the wider region, it's also to show what South Korea has to offer. President Yoon has said that he wants his country to be the world's fourth largest arms exporter. So in some ways you could see this as a sales pitch.

Paula Hancocks, CNN, Seoul.

FOSTER: And just in to CNN, President Biden's son, Hunter, is suing former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and others. Hunter Biden alleges they tried to hack his devices. At issue, the laptop he left at a Delaware repair shop and the data obtained from it. The lawsuit claims Giuliani and others caused total annihilation of his digital privacy and violated computer privacy laws in an effort to hack his devices.

CNN has reached out to Giuliani for comment on that.

U.S. lawmakers got back to work today or they go back to work today after a long weekend, pondering whether the rest of the federal government should keep on working.

If Congress fails to pass new spending measures, the government will shut down on Saturday. The biggest hurdle is the House, where some hardline Republicans are holding up short-term funding bills. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy could go to Democrats for help, but doing so would almost certainly mean the end of his speakership.

As for President Joe Biden, he's spending today visiting picket lines in Michigan, where autoworkers are on -- were on strike.

Let's go straight to our Congressional Correspondent Lauren Fox. It just seemed difficult to imagine a situation through this deadlock around the budget. What do you think is going to happen?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: Yes, you know, one Republican that I talked to last week on the House Rules Committee said at this point, the only way out of this crisis is through this crisis. And that really speaks to the point that you're making here, Max, that it's very hard to see how House Republicans rally around any spending package, get the votes for any spending package and have a real negotiation with the U.S. Senate at this point, which brings us to the most likely outcome.

Senate negotiators, both Republicans and Democratic leadership and their teams, they are trying to find a path forward on what we know now is likely going to be a 45-day short-term spending package that negotiators say would fund the government and get them past the September 30th deadline.

Now, a few question marks still remain in that negotiation. Will they include any of the $24 billion in Ukraine funding that the White House has requested? Will they include billions of dollars in disaster funding that is so important to so many lawmakers whose states have been affected by floods, wildfires, tornadoes, et cetera?

So those are some of the big looming questions. One of the obstacles to including Ukraine funding at this point is you have senators like Rand Paul who are arguing that if Ukraine funding is included, they will slow walk this process. And given the fact that we have a time constraint right now, that there are five days until the government shuts down, you are in a situation where there may not be time to work through the Senate process and ensure that you avert a shutdown.

So one of the things that lawmakers are looking at is maybe you have a shorter spending package, 45 days long that doesn't include everything they hoped for. Then you can get to the bigger questions about Ukraine funding and disaster aid in a larger package.

But again, that just means we could be doing this again very shortly Now, once the Senate passes that, assuming they could, they'll send it over to the House of Representatives. Then it's up to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to decide.

Does he put it on the floor, risk losing his speakership because it would work with Democrats? Or does he not put it on the floor of the House and risk a shutdown and all the political implications that could come from that? Max?

FOSTER: A busy week ahead, Lauren. Thank you.

Still ahead, the growing influx of migrants is overwhelming many U.S. border towns. What some of them are doing to deal with the crisis in a live report from Houston, when we return.

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[08:17:17]

FOSTER: The mayor of a Texas town on the Mexican border says he plans to extend his city's emergency disaster declaration as a migrant surge in the region shows no signs of slowing down. The mayor of Eagle Pass says the influx is impacting the safety and the economy of his city.

And in the city of El Paso, council members have voted to purchase a former stool that could serve as an additional emergency migrant shelter.

Excuse me, more asylum seekers are sleeping on the streets. The U.S. Immigration Court currently has a backlog of more than 2.6 million cases.

CNN's Rosa Flores is in Houston, Texas with the latest on the crisis. And we've talked a lot about this over the months, haven't we? But what's different right now, would you say, Rosa?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, from talking to a senior CBP official, what this individual says is that right now, there are two hot spots on the U.S. southern border, in Eagle Pass and in El Paso, Texas. And we've talked about these two border towns and you just mentioned some of the situations that are being seen in these towns.

And what the U.S. federal government is doing is sending resources there to make sure that they are able to process migrants in a timely fashion. And what they're also doing is something called decompression. And that's a really fancy word, in essence, for transferring migrants from areas that are over capacity to areas that have space.

Now, what a lot of the migrants that are crossing the border right now might not realize is that they're entering a backlogged U.S. immigration court system with 2.6 million court cases already. Now all of this is according to a group out of Syracuse University who analyzes all this data provided by the federal government.

And what they have found is that from August of last year to -- excuse me -- from October of last year to August of this year, 1.2 million new deportation cases were added to the docket. So what does that mean? That means, in essence, whenever a migrant enters the country between ports of entry, they're considered to enter the country illegally.

At that point in time, the U.S. federal agents have to decide, OK, do these migrants have a legal basis to stay in the United States? If they don't, they're deported. If they do, they're given something called an NTA, Notice to Appear, in order to appear before an immigration court.

Those are the cases that this organization has found have increased dramatically since last year. Now, where are these migrants going in the United States? According to this report, all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, some of the top states include California, Florida, New York and here in Texas, where I am.

[08:20:04]

Now, we're also learning more about this agreement between the U.S. and Mexico to deal with this current surge. And this is key, Max, because depending on what Mexico does really could determine what we see in the next few days, in the next few weeks on the U.S. southern border, because what Mexico has agreed to do is to, quote, depressurize its northern border cities and deport migrants back to their home countries.

And what we're learning now that's new is what the U.S. is actually doing in this case as well. And what we learned from this Customs and Border Protection official is that they are conducting -- mirroring patrols. And what that means is that law enforcement on the Mexico side and law enforcement on the U.S. side are working together and simultaneously patrolling the border.

So imagine, depending on where the migrant is, whether on U.S. soil or Mexican soil, if they are on U.S. soil, U.S. laws apply so that process that I just explained would then apply if they are on Mexican soil. Well, Mexico has pledged that they're going to be deporting migrants back to their home countries. We'll see how that works out.

Now I have to add that immigration advocacy groups, human rights groups, are condemning this type of tactic. In essence, what they're saying is that Mexico is doing America's dirty work on the southern border.

I want to leave you with this quote from one of the organizations, Max. The organization says, quote, "For years, the United States government has spent billions of dollars forcing Mexico to do its dirty work in preventing asylum seekers who are fleeing for their lives from ever stepping onto U.S. soil". Max?

FOSTER: Rosa Flores, thank you so much for joining us from Houston with that. Back in a moment.

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FOSTER: Australian environmental activists are challenging an offshore gas project. They say it's not only threatening to pump fossil fuel emissions into the air, but also may deafen whales living off Australia's west coast.

CNN's Anna Coren has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is seismic blasting. It's a method fossil fuel companies use to find gas and oil under the sea. Air guns launch sound waves towards the ocean floor. How long it takes them to bounce back gives an indication of the fossil fuels trapped under the sea bed. The bubbles and bangs may look harmless. But Greenpeace warns they can be deadly to marine life.

RICHARD GEORGE, GREENPEACE SENIOR CAMPAIGNER: And they're louder than an atomic bomb. Now that's really problematic if you're a whale, because whales depend on their hearing for everything to navigate, to find their mates and to look for food. So a deaf whale is a dead whale.

COREN (voice-over): The western coast of Australia is a whale superhighway. It's also where energy giant, Woodside Energy, wants to blast this southern spring. Searching for gas for a huge new fossil fuel project known as Scarborough.

GEORGE: If it goes ahead, we're looking at emissions equivalent to 12 years of Australia's total greenhouse gas emissions. So it's a disaster for our climate and it's a disaster for our oceans as well.

COREN (voice-over): Woodside provided CNN with its marine environment plan for the Scarborough gas project dated this June. "There will be no lasting effect on whales, however, there could be short-term hearing impacts", the report reads.

[08:25:08]

Woodside will have dedicated marine fauna observers and systems which can listen for whale song on some vessels, the company says. Adding, the presence of whales can postpone activities.

Another powerful concept is acknowledged in Woodside's report, the importance of the marine environment to the traditional customs and culture of indigenous Australians.

RAELENE COOPER, ACTIVIST: Those animals represent a song, a dance that, we, as indigenous people all over this continent hold.

COREN (voice-over): Raelene Cooper is taking Woodside to federal court, arguing she has not been properly consulted on seismic blasting.

COOPER: And it's our sacred, significant areas that continually get hammered. Our people are being attacked. Our ancient history, our wildlife, our ecosystems, our water.

Those song lines, the rocker and --

COREN (voice-over): Earlier this month, Cooper won a temporary injunction against the blasting while her case is heard. Woodside could begin blasting on Friday. In a statement to CNN, Woodside said, we also welcome the federal court's proposal to hold a further hearing regarding Ms. Cooper's challenge and went on to say, it had consulted extensively on its environmental plans and met regulatory requirements and standards.

The Australian government continues to back the project, saying it will be good for jobs and energy security. That is, despite also pledging to be carbon neutral by 2050. Scarborough is set to run two decades past that date.

Anna Coren, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Well, thank you for joining me here on CNN Newsroom. I'm Max Foster in London.

World Sport with Amanda is up next.

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