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NATO Secretary General Announce More Military Aid for Ukraine; 70,000 Ethnic Armenians in Mass Exodus, Fears Ethnic Cleansing; President Biden Warns About MAGA Extremists; China's Digital Authoritarianism; Philippines Accusing China of Bullying. Iraq: 14 People Arrested After Fire Kills At Least 100; Three Dead After Targeted Attack In Dutch City; Swiss Glaciers Shrink At Alarming Rate; Largest Climate Change Lawsuit Underway In European Court; Two Eagles Soar As Adults For First Time In Bolivia. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired September 29, 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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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN HOST: Welcome to all of you watching us around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber, ahead on CNN NEWSROOM. Praise for Ukraine from NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. Those words of encouragement coming as more aid is announced for President Zelenskyy's government, even as Russia too says it's stepping up military spending.
A mass exodus of people from the Nagorno-Karabakh region into Armenia. This, as the self-proclaimed republic, is set to cease to exist in the coming months. I'll speak to a reporter in Armenia.
And six young people are taking climate change into their own hands. They're suing more than 30 nations for not acting fast enough. It's the largest climate change lawsuit in history.
We begin with reports of a new Ukrainian drone strike in western Russia. A local governor says a wave of drones attacked the Kursk region Friday morning causing a fire at an electric substation. Five settlements and a hospital are reportedly without power but there are no reports of deaths or injuries so far.
Now the attack happened a day after NATO's Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg met President Zelenskyy during an unannounced visit to Kyiv. The NATO leader says work is underway to provide Ukraine with $2.5 billion worth of new ammunition. He also praised Ukraine's advances on the ground despite their slow pace. Here is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JENS STOLTENBERG, NATO SECRETRY GENERAL: Today your forces are moving forward. They face fierce fighting, but they are gradually gaining ground. Every meter that Ukraine enforces or gains is a meter that Russia loses.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BRUNHUBER: But as NATO works to send more ammunition to Ukraine, Russia is preparing a massive boost in its military spending. And as Fred Pleitgen reports, Ukraine needs help to keep up.
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The Ukrainians say that they're continuing to make gains, even though modest ones, in the south of the country and also where we are in the east of the country as well. And the NATO secretary general seems to also agree with that. In a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, he also said that he believes that the Ukrainians are making modest gains. He says they are tough gains, but they are gains nonetheless.
One of the things that Jens Stoltenberg said is he said, for every meter that the Ukrainians gain, the Russians lose a meter. Now, there was also some substantial aid that was announced by Jens Stoltenberg as well. He said that NATO has a plan to provide Ukraine with more ammunition. That's certainly something the Ukrainians need.
Stoltenberg was speaking about artillery ammunition and tank ammunition as well. One of the things that we've seen here as we've been in a major battle around the Bakhmut area is that the Ukrainians certainly fire a lot of ammo when they try to move forward. The Russians, of course, firing a lot as well, but the Ukrainians, from what we can see, certainly will need a lot of ammunition if they are going to stay in the fight and if they are going to continue to make gains.
At the same time, the Russians also upping the ante as well. They're now announcing that they want to increase their defense budget by almost 70 percent. Obviously, they also feel that they're going to need a lot of ammo and a lot of weapons as this war drags on. Fred Pleitgen, CNN in eastern Ukraine.
BRUNHUBER: The Kremlin's trying to dispel rumors that one of its major allies in the war is seriously ill. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov is facing a string of accusations of human rights abuses both inside and outside of Chechnya. His troops are fighting in Ukraine. As Matthew Chance reports, Moscow released a new video on Thursday suggesting he's doing just fine.
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MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Behind the daily strikes, an information war is raging, fueling speculation about key Russian figures, forcing the Kremlin to dispel the rumors. Like those swirling around hardline Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, now shown on state TV, meeting President Putin after rumors he's gravely ill. Rumors spread by Ukrainian intelligence and that Kadyrov has denied on social media.
"I strongly advise all those who can't tell the difference between truth and lies on the internet to go for a walk in the fresh air and put their thoughts in order," he wrote.
[02:04:54] In recent weeks, Russia has been busy denying Ukrainian claims that a strike on its Black Sea fleet headquarters in Sevastopol killed dozens of Russian naval officers, including the overall commander. Admiral Viktor Sokolov soon appeared in an undated video call with Russian defense officials. His stiff appearance though only fueled speculation about his condition.
Finally the Admiral is shown handing out medals to the Russian Navy soccer team, answering questions apparently on the attack, although CNN can't verify when the event took place.
UNKNOWN (through translation): Could you please tell us in a few words what happened to reassure Sevastopol residents?
VIKTOR SOKOLOV, RUSSIAN NAVY (through translation): Nothing happened to us. Life goes on. The Black Sea Fleet is carrying out the tasks assigned to it by the command.
CHANCE (voice-over): But prominent Russians do have a tendency to occasionally drop from view. General Sergey Surovikin, a senior Russian commander linked with Wagner, disappeared after recording a statement calling for the mercenary group to abandon its rebellion back in June. Months later in September this image was circulated purporting to show Surovikin and his wife out and about in Moscow in a bid to dispel rumors of his arrest.
And even Russia's defense minister, shortly after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, vanished from view for over a week, eventually popping back up on a video conference call with Putin, a sign perhaps he was back in favor. Matthew Chance, CNN, New York.
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BRUNHUBER: The Armenian government says more than 84,000 people have arrived from the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is now under the control of neighboring Azerbaijan. The figure means approximately 70 percent of the enclave's ethnic Armenian population has fled since last week. Armenia's prime minister says the exodus is the result of, quote, "ethnic cleansing" carried out by Azerbaijan. The self-declared Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh will cease to exist soon after its president signed a decree on Thursday dissolving state institutions citing the military and political situation.
Now, for many refugees there's little hope of ever going home again. The mother of this two-week-old infant described the struggle of raising her children during the crisis.
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UNKNOWN (through translation): They have seen three wars in 2016, 2020 and this one. Everyone has borne the brunt and experienced the cruelty of each of these wars.
UNKNOWN (through translation): We have no hope of going back. It is impossible to live side by side with Azerbaijanis. Peace with them is a fiction. (END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: And joining me now is Gabriel Gavin, a reporter with "Politico" who's currently in Armenia's capital. Thank you so much for being here with us. The displacement of desperate people on such a large scale, I mean, describe what you've been seeing at the border and along the route.
GABRIEL GAVIN, REPORTER, POLITICO: Well, look, as you said, 85,000 people are now officially registered as having left Nagorno-Karabakh. Over the past week, I've been down on the border in the village of Kornidzor, which is the first stop on that road out of the breakaway region. And it's been scenes of desperation, I think, every single day.
People have been piling into cars, into open-backed construction trucks. One truck turned up with basically 20 children inside, many of them unaccompanied, having slept underneath plastic sheeting to shelter from the rain. I went down, I was given access to the hospital in the city of Goris just nearby and some of the people I met, some of the stories I heard were just unbelievably harrowing.
I mean, you've got a man whose wife gave birth in the car after waiting 30 hours in the queue to cross the border and they said they'd lose the baby because they had no food or water. I met a woman who came in unconscious. She was 90 years old. She came in unconscious with no documents, no known relatives, and nobody really knew what to do with her.
There was a man, a cancer patient, who had a stroke as he evacuated his hometown. And everyone I speak to says they fear they will never return home.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah, that's what we heard there from that other woman in that clip. I mean, they must have a lot of fear as well when they're all along these routes, especially, you know, families, children, as you say. Has there been any signs of violence at all?
GAVIN: Well, I think people have always been concerned about any interaction with Azerbaijan's armed forces because for 30 years, these two countries have been engaged in this bitter standoff. Armenian forces forced hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis out of their homes in the 1990s. And I think there's always been a fear that the same would be done to them. At the checkpoint where they do have to show documents, people tell me that it's obviously intimidating.
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It's obviously terrifying for these people. But so far, civilians have been allowed to pass unhindered. And I think that's really important to understand, that people have been allowed out. And I think one of the things that people were really concerned about was that men, almost all of whom who have done conscription or served in the war in 2020 or in the in the wars in the 1990s. There was a fear that they'd be detained. Actually, that in most cases isn't happening. There are a small number
of the political leadership of the region that has been detained or is being actively searched for. So Russian Armenian oligarch Ruben Vardanyan, who was once effectively the Prime Minister of Nagorno- Karabakh, while he was attempting to cross, he was detained and has since been taken into the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, and will be charged with terrorism financing charges as well as crossing the border illegally.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah, I was struck by what some of these people are bringing with them, things like farm animals, for instance. Any idea what happens next when they get to wherever they're going?
GAVIN: Well, that's exactly the problem, because for so many people, their land is not just their home, it's their livelihood as well. They're farmers, they're pastoralists, they have construction machinery. That's how they earn a living. And now what you need here is not just short-term accommodation that's going to enable people to have a roof over their head. You need longer-term homes, you need livelihoods, you need jobs for people, you need schools for their kids.
And in many cases, you need psychosocial support for quite complex needs. Some of these people, you know, they'd say they've been through hell just to get here. And then now they have almost no idea what they're going to do next.
BRUNHUBER: So some 70 percent of the population have left. That leaves, obviously, 30 percent. Azerbaijan's president says the rights of ethnic Armenians will be guaranteed. But what happens to those who didn't leave? What kind of future are they facing, do you think?
GAVIN: Well, I think it's really important to understand that many of the people who haven't yet left are trying to leave. So the roads between Stepanakert, the de facto capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, and the Armenian border have been congested. I mean, people I know were waiting overnight for friends and family. People are spending up to 30 hours in their cars. So I think we all expect this figure of the number of people who've actually left to be far higher in the coming days and weeks.
Most people I speak to who haven't left simply haven't left because they can't get transport, they can't find fuel, they don't have a car, they're waiting for buses. Only yesterday the authorities in the breakaway region said, well, look, we can provide buses for people who don't have their own vehicles. Please go to this assembly point. So we're expecting far more.
But that said, Azerbaijan insists that it's guaranteeing the political, social, cultural, linguistic rights of the Karabakh Armenians. I think the simple answer is the proof will be kind of, you know, the proof is that the it's now incumbent on them to show that is actually what they intend to do.
And they have said to me, the Azerbaijani foreign policy chief, Hikmet Hajiyev, told me that there will be a right of return for people who have left, provided they want to come back. But from where I'm standing, it's very hard to find anybody who believes that promise.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah, exactly. A lot of skepticism out there. Listen, really appreciate the reporting. Gabriel Gavin, thank you so much for speaking with us.
GAVIN: Thank you.
BRUNHUBER: All right, still ahead, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing a critical task before the country's Supreme Court. When we could expect a ruling, we'll explain that coming up. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Israel's Supreme Court has an important decision to make in the next few months. It's set to rule on a challenge to a new law making it harder to declare a prime minister unfit for office. CNN's Hadas Gold reports from Jerusalem.
HADAS GOLD, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: The case being heard in the Israeli Supreme Court on Thursday could have the most far-reaching personal implications for the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ability to serve as leader of this government. That's because the arguments were being heard for and against a law that was passed in March that makes it much more difficult to remove a sitting prime minister from office.
Under this new law, the only way a prime minister can be declared unfit to serve is for physical or mental reasons, and it would need to pass both a supermajority in the Israeli cabinet as well as the Israeli parliament. Now, Benjamin Netanyahu faces an ongoing corruption trial, charges to which he denies. But there were some concerns from his allies that the attorney general was going to declare Netanyahu unfit for office and potentially try to remove him from office because of the situation in his ongoing corruption trial.
But as this law has now passed, you can only declare a prime minister unfit for office for physical or mental reasons and with these very high hurdles of votes that need to be passed. Now, the petitioners who brought this case to the Supreme Court, they argue that this law was passed in a misuse of constituent authority, that this law was passed solely to benefit Benjamin Netanyahu. And what was interesting is that the lawyers representing the Israeli government and the Israeli parliament essentially admitted to as much.
They said, sure, this law will benefit Benjamin Netanyahu, but that they are arguing the Supreme Court cannot and should not strike it down because if they do, they are arguing this is the Supreme Court essentially taking electoral decisions into their own hands and casting aside the millions of people who voted for Benjamin Netanyahu.
Now those arguing against this law, including the attorney general, lawyers for the attorney general said that a law cannot be used as a kind of private resource, arguing that it cannot be used to remove personal problems from the field of morality and criminal law. And they are arguing that at minimum, if the Supreme Court will not annul this law, that they will at least delay its implementation until the next session of the Israeli Parliament.
We are expecting a decision on this specific case could come as soon as the coming weeks. Hadas Gold, CNN, Jerusalem.
BRUNHUBER: As far as court filing by Donald Trump's lawyers on Thursday revealed, the former U.S. president won't seek to get his election subversion case in Georgia moved to federal court. Trump had been widely expected to seek such a change, although his former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, was already turned down in his attempt earlier this month. Meadows is appealing that ruling.
The language of Thursday's filing was a notable departure from Trump's defiant rhetoric after his indictment. It read in part that Trump had, quote, "well-founded confidence the judge will ensure he gets a fair trial in Georgia."
BRUNHUBER: Well, as the clock ticks down in Congress, U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday made one of his most direct condemnations yet of the hardline Republicans who have stalled the funding and the former president who's been egging them on. Biden didn't mince words as he warned that Trump and his MAGA Republicans are bent on destroying American democracy. CNN's Kayla Tausche has more from the White House.
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KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Biden with a stark warning for American voters.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: There's something dangerous happening in America. There's an extremist movement that does not share the basic beliefs in our democracy. The MAGA movement.
TAUSCHE (voice-over): The president issuing a blistering critique of the far-right wing of the House GOP.
BIDEN: Extremists in Congress more determined to shut down the government, to burn the place down.
TAUSCHE (voice-over): And making a not so subtle reference to his top 2024 rivals, Trump and DeSantis.
BIDEN: Consider these as actual quotes from MAGA, the MAGA movement. Quote, "I am your retribution. Slitting throats of civil servants."
TAUSCHE (voice-over): The impassioned speech from battleground Arizona, the state whose 2020 election results Trump tried to overturn.
[02:20:00] BIDEN: The defeated former president expressed when he was in office and believes it applies only to him. And this is a dangerous notion. This president is above the law, no limits. Trump says the Constitution gave him, quote, "the right to do whatever he wants as president," end of quote.
TAUSCHE (voice-over): It's a familiar rebuke from Biden, spurred to run for president while watching the Charlottesville riots, cautioning on political violence from Capitol Hill to Independence Hall ahead of the midterms.
BIDEN: Equality and democracy are under assault.
