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89 People Killed in a Drone Attack in Syria; Venezuelan Authorities Issues Arrest Warrant to Former Opposition Leader in Exile; Five Arrested in Jerusalem for Spitting Christian Pilgrims. CNN Grants Rare Access to One of the Clandestine Secret Classrooms in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan; Nobel Peace Prize Winner as Predicted by an Expert; French Officials Reminded to Stay Calm Despite Bedbug Infestations Were Reported. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired October 06, 2023 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[03:00:00]
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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to all of you watching us around the world and everyone streaming us on CNN Max. I'm Kim Brunhuber.
Just ahead. A Russian missile hits a grocery store and a cafe in one of the deadliest attacks on Ukraine to date.
At least 80 people, including six children, reported killed in a drone attack on a military college in Syria.
And inside the secret classroom in Afghanistan, where young girls risk everything for an education.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Kim Brunhuber.
BRUNHUBER: And we're getting reports of new Russian attacks on two regions in Ukraine. Now one is in the city of Kharkiv where officials say Russian strikes destroyed a three-story residential building and damaged two other ones. Nine people were wounded in the attack, which also started a fire that was later put out.
Ukraine is also reporting a massive drone attack on its Odessa region. The drone's damaged port infrastructure and a grain facility on the Danube River, which Ukraine uses for grain exports. Now all of that's coming on the heels of one of Russia's most horrific attacks since the war began.
Kyiv says a Russian missile hit the village of Hroza on Thursday, killing at least 51 people. It happened while the victims were holding a wake for a fallen Ukrainian soldier. Ukrainian prosecutors say there were absolutely no military targets in the area at the time.
For more, Nic Robertson joins us from London. So just a horrific attack, Nic. What more are we learning? NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yeah, a tiny
village, a population about 330 before the war and population now perhaps 150 to 200, according to local officials, about 40 kilometers from the front line. So really not a place you would expect to be targeted. The Russians have had a big offensive in that part of eastern Ukraine over recent months and closer to the front line. Ukrainian officials have asked women, children, elderly people to leave the area if they can, but not that particular village.
So the funeral was underway when this high-precision, high explosive Russian missile slammed into the cafe and shopped there the store. What happened was devastating and the pictures that you're going to see are quite disturbing.
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ROBERTSON (voice-over): Rushing to recover survivors.
Emergency workers scramble through rubble in one of the deadliest Russian strikes since the war began.
Children among the victims, an eight-year-old boy killed, many attending a funeral when the precision guided Iskander missile hit a cafe and store. As his country reeled from the devastating blow, President Zelenskyy had this stark warning about what US political divisions mean for his country.
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: The situation with the United States is dangerous. Yes, it's a tough period for the United States, and of course it's a tough period for Ukraine.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): The Ukrainian president in Spain, meeting E.U. leaders to stiffen their support all the while worrying about an apparently wavering U.S. commitment.
ZELENSKYY: Difficult election period for the United States, different voices, some of the voices are very strange. About this also we will speak about this.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): In Crimea, though, Ukraine's fortunes improving. A big focus of recent attacks targeting Russian naval shipping and headquarters paying off.
New satellite imagery showing Russia has reacted, pulling some of its prized Black Sea naval fleet out of Ukraine's missile range.
Once a red line for Putin, he now appears on the back foot, effectively ceding partial use of ports he considers essential for Russia's defense. In territory, Zelenskyy vows to retake. But Zelenskyy's concern, momentum, could be transitory without U.S. support.
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ZELENSKYY (through translator): I believe that today it is impossible to protect people, especially during the winter, except by air defense, to protect people who died absolutely tragically because of this inhuman terrorist attack.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): The brutal attack Thursday. Yet another object lesson in the ugly, crushing, seesaw of war likely without adequate air defenses, not the last.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTSON (on-camera): And those airstrikes that we're hearing about this morning, Kim, that you were talking about before in Kharkiv, and we've got some updated numbers there now. We now know from local officials that their casualty toll is 16.
One child was killed, an 11-month-old child also, among those injured there. Again, pointing to that issue that Ukraine faces, it has limited air defense capability. It can't have it everywhere all the time.
That tiny village was somewhere they wouldn't have expected to protect. But a big town like Kharkiv, that's still got a big population there. And a lot of people remain in danger. Kim?
BRUNHUBER: Well, I appreciate the update on that. Then Nick, another story we're following. Putin's claims about testing a new nuclear- powered missile. What more can you tell us about that?
ROBERTSON (on-camera): Yeah, in 2018 Putin announced that he was going to be developing this sort of new range of ballistic missiles and this is one of them, potentially the longest range, the Borovetsnik. It can or will be used according to Russian officials as not a first strike weapon but a second strike because it can go up in the sky, it can go further than previous missile systems and it will carry a nuclear warhead as well, which gives it very destructive capabilities and they say that this would be used in a sort of second wave of strikes to make sure that there was nothing left standing after the first wave.
So it's a concern but we do know that during the development of this missile system, although Putin says it's ready to go, we do know that during the development it's had a lot of problems and a lot of issues and some of the other missile systems, the Kinzhal, a hypersonic missile that Russia's developed over the past couple of years, is effective, is hypersonic but it doesn't quite live up to the hype that Russia has put on it, if you will, and it's still able to be taken down by a patriot system, for example, as we saw seen recently in Ukraine.
BRUNHUBER: Interesting and frightening as well, I guess. Nic Robertson in London, thanks so much.
And Vladimir Putin has suggested the plane crash that killed Wagner Chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was caused by hand grenades that blew up inside the aircraft. Prigozhin, who led a failed uprising against the Kremlin's military leaders, was among ten people killed on the plane that crashed northwest of Moscow in August.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): The chairman of the Investigative Committee just reported a few days ago that the fragments of the hand grenades were found in the bodies of the victims. There was no external influence on the plane. It is an established fact, the result of expertise performed by the Russian Investigative Committee.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: President Putin also said investigators should have performed drug or alcohol tests on the victims.
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PUTIN (through translator): Unfortunately, no examination was carried out to establish the presence of alcohol or drugs in the system of the victims. Even though we know after the recent well-known events at the company in St. Petersburg, the FSB found 10 billion in cash and five kilos of cocaine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: And Putin's government has denied involvement in the plane crash.
Syria is blaming terrorists for a drone attack on a military college in Homs that killed at least 80 people and wounded hundreds more. We have to warn you the video is graphic.
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Soldiers and their families had gathered Thursday for a graduation ceremony. Syrian officials say at least six children are among the dead. The Syrian Armed Forces called the attack unprecedented and vowed to respond, quote, "with full force and determination." The government in Damascus has declared three days of national mourning.
CNN's senior international correspondent Ben Wedemann is live in Rome with more. Ben, what more are we learning here?
BEN WEDEMANN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we've just seen a report from the Syrian Arab News Agency, the official news agency of the Syrian government, that the death toll has now risen to 89, with 31 women killed and five children, and the number of injured they now put at 277.
Now, the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights is putting the death toll as much higher, but neither of these claims can be independently verified. But what we've seen from the video, much of which we cannot show on CNN, is that there were many people there, civilians.
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And we can see, for instance, pictures of people with their clothing on fire after this drone strike. Now, it's believed that these drones were launched from Idlib province, which is in northwestern Syria. It is occupied by a variety of rebel groups, many of them jihadi in nature.
The Syrian government is vowed retaliation of what we're seeing already. According to the White Helmets, which is a civil defense group that operates in the Idlib province, that there have been a series of Syrian government strikes killing at least 12 people.
Also yesterday, 11 people were killed in Turkish drone strikes in the north-eastern part of the country. Now, it's important in these days when we're not paying much attention to the situation in Syria to remember that in Syria there are operating Russian, American, Turkish, Iranian, Lebanese Hezbollah forces on the ground.
In addition to that, Israel regularly carries out airstrikes there. So it does appear that perhaps the pace of the bloodshed that is killed more than half a million people since 2011, displaced almost 13 million Syrians during that time seems to be getting even worse. Kim?
BRUNHUBER: All right, I appreciate that context there. Ben Wedeman in Rome. Thanks so much.
Venezuela's former opposition leader and former National Assembly President Juan Guaido says charges brought against him by the government are false allegations.
On Thursday, Venezuelan authorities issued an arrest warrant for Guaido, accusing him of using resources from a state-owned oil company for his own finances and to pay for legal expenses. The charges include treason and money laundering.
Guaido called on his followers to vote in the upcoming opposition primary election later this month. He says he'll provide more details on the, quote, "false allegations" on Friday. So for more on this, Journalist David Shortell reports from Mexico City.
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DAVID SHORTELL, JOURNALIST: The government of Venezuela tonight issuing an arrest warrant for Juan Guaido, the former opposition leader in that country, accusing him of several crimes, including treason and extracting money from the government unlawfully.
Now, this is the authoritarian government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, so it's important to keep in mind that this is a government with a very partial justice system and a government that has a long history of jailing political opponents.
But I'll take you through a bit of what the country's attorney general said earlier on Thursday in making this announcement. He accused Juan Guaido and the interim government that he led in that country from 2019 to 2022, he accused them of tapping into the resources of the state-run oil company and using that money to pay for some of the interim government's projects and some of its legal bills. You'll remember Guaido in 2019 was recognized by the United States in
a broad international coalition as the legitimate leader of Venezuela. And in the years that followed, he led an interim government, a transitional government as the interim president, up until late last year when the opposition there actually dissolved the government, the opposition government.
He's now living in Miami in exile and he's actually teaching college courses there and he responded forcefully to these allegations in a live stream, calling them false accusations and questioning the timing of them just a few weeks outside of primary elections that the opposition is going to be holding down in Venezuela. Take a little listen to a little bit more of what he had to say about Nicolas Maduro, the country's president.
JUAN GUAIDO, FORMER VENEZUELAN OPPOSITION LEADER (through translator): So no Maduro. I did not allow you to kidnap me. I will not allow you to take away my voice, and I will continue to denounce you wherever possible.
SHORTELL: Now, analysts I've spoken with have called these charges purely symbolic. There's virtually no chance that the Biden administration is going to act on this arrest warrant and detain Guaido in the United States. CNN has reached out to the Justice Department for comment.
David Shortell, Mexico City.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: A major policy shift in the U.S. towards Venezuelan migrants, the U.S. will deport them directly to their home country if they entered illegally and lack a legal basis to remain.
Venezuelans make up a large share of the southern border crossings, but for years the U.S. has been unable to deport them due to frosty diplomatic relations with Caracas. The policy change follows a recent move to extend what's known as temporary protected status for some Venezuelans, allowing them to stay in the U.S. for 18 months.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken led a team to Mexico City Thursday to discuss migration with their Mexican counterparts. A former U.S. border official described the challenges they face. Here he is.
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JOHN SANDWEG, FORMER ACTING DIRECTOR, U.S. IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT: You see the administration is really struggling. They you know, it's, it's they've inherited a very difficult problem. This was going on long before the Biden administration. But they have very limited tools to solve it. And I think like today you're seeing Secretary Mayorkas, Secretary Blinken in Mexico meeting with President Lopez Obrador, that could be a big part of the solution. Try to limit Mexico. Try to do a better job of limiting the flow of individuals through Mexico.
Look, the problem only becomes when they set foot in the United States. Clearly, there's very little we can do to stop people in Mexico from approaching our border. We can only deal with it once they get here. So that's part of the reason why you're seeing this delegation in Mexico today is to just put additional and work harder with Mexico to see what else they can do to limit the flow to our border.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: The U.S. president says he's been forced to add some new construction to Donald Trump's border wall, even though that means violating a campaign promise. Joe Biden insists border walls don't work, but claims he can't get out of expanding the barrier.
CNN's MJ Lee explains.
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MJ LEE, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The contentious political issue of the border wall.
DONALD TRUMP, THEN-U.S. PRESIDENT: Don't worry, we're going to build that wall.
LEE (voice-over): Back in the spotlight.
The Biden administration announcing that it is waiving 26 federal laws in order to greenlight the construction of a border wall in south Texas. The wall will be built using previously appropriated funds, specifically year marks for this purpose under the Trump administration.
But the building of the wall clashing with this explicit promise that Biden made as a presidential candidate.
JOE BIDEN, THEN-DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There will not be another foot of wall constructed on my administration.
LEE (voice-over): His then-opponent Donald Trump made construction of a border wall a major rallying cry in his re-election campaign.
TRUMP: And we are now building that beautiful wall. And this powerful border wall is going up at record speed.
LEE (voice-over): The administration's decision coming amid a surge of migrants at the US southern border. The administration facing intense pressure, including from some Democratic lawmakers, to get the situation under control.
SEN. MARK KELLY (D-AZ): I am from a border state.
MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on-camera): That's true. KELLY: And, you know, it's been a crisis on the border. You know, on and off for decades. We've spent a lot of money on it, but, you know, we could always use more resources, you know, money for border patrol.
LEE (voice-over): President Biden himself defending the move on Thursday, saying he was powerless to stop the use of the funds.
BIDEN: A border wall, when money was appropriated for the border wall, I tried to get them to reappropriate, to redirect that money. They didn't. They wouldn't. And in the meantime, there's nothing under the law other than they have to use the money for what it is appropriate. I can't stop that.
LEE (voice-over): But Biden also bluntly rejecting the efficacy of a border wall.
REPORTER: Do you believe the border wall works?
BIDEN: No.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: The prime ministers of the U.K. and Italy chaired a group meeting on Europe's migration crisis at a summit of regional leaders in Granada, Spain on Thursday. The Netherlands, France, Albania and the European Commission also attended the meetings. The group agreed on an eight-point plan to address growing levels of illegal migration to the European continent.
Alright, still to come, a potential meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and China's Xi Jinping is in the works. We'll tell you where and when it could take place.
Plus, outrage in Jerusalem after Christian pilgrims are spat upon by Orthodox Jews. And it's not an isolated incident.
And all of those details when we come back. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Plans are underway to arrange a potential meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and China's Xi Jinping at next month's APEC summit in San Francisco. Now that's, according to officials familiar with the matter, it would be the second time during Biden's presidency that the two leaders met face to face.
Joining me now with more is CNN's Marc Stewart in Beijing. So Mark, just how likely is it that this meeting will actually happen?
MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think, Kim, the intention is for this meeting to happen. But as we have seen, this is a very fragile relationship. In fact, it was not even a year ago that we saw the incident with the balloon shoot down in the United States.
And that quickly caused a growing relationship between the United States and China to kind of unravel, kind of spiral downward. So, provided something like that does not happen, the intention is for this to take place. And as we have seen in recent months, there have been meetings with top cabinet officials.
Just last month, we saw National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan meet with Wang Yi, China's top diplomat in Malta. And then of course, in June, we saw Antony Blinken, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meet with Xi Jinping himself here in Beijing.
So the framework for this meeting is certainly being built. With that said, there are certainly some profound differences between these two nations, profound differences on issues such as Taiwan, such as human rights, such as some of the economic trade and technology issues.
And that's why these meetings that are taking place now are so crucial, because it will establish points where there are agreement, but also points of disagreement. So if and when these two leaders meet, Kim, there will be a strong starting point and time won't be wasted. It will allow the two men to move forward essentially, Kim.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah, it's not just President Biden, right? China's preparing for some more high-profile American visitors in the days ahead. Tell us about that.
STEWART: Right, we're seeing Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer lead a bipartisan delegation. I was talking to one analyst last night about this. We certainly see the administration want to have a relationship with China, but so too does Congress, the legislative body. And they certainly see some value in having a face-to-face meeting, as we have heard from Chuck Schumer's office.
This is going to focus on economic competition, some of the technology issues and according to at least one member of that delegation, Senator Bill Cassidy from Louisiana, a meeting is scheduled with Chinese President Xi Jinping, no comment though at least from the ministry here in Beijing if that will happen indeed.
BRUNHUBER: Interesting. Alright, we will keep following on that. Marc Stewart in Beijing, thanks so much.
The Israeli military says five of its soldiers were wounded by a grenade Thursday during an incursion in the city of Tulkarm in the occupied West Bank. Three soldiers were said to have serious injuries and were taken to hospital. Hamas claimed responsibility afterwards, saying it had, quote, "ambushed the soldiers." In a separate incident in the same city, Hamas said two of its fighters were killed in a gun battle with Israeli soldiers.
The ongoing holy season in Jerusalem is an important draw for tourists, especially Christian pilgrims from around the world. But not all religious Jews are welcoming pilgrims of other faiths, and ugly incidents have been on the rise.
CNN's Hadas Gold has our report.
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HADAS GOLD, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the old city of Jerusalem, the three Abrahamic religions are literally right on top of each other. Tensions between the groups are nothing new.
But an upsurge of religious Jews spitting towards Christians or churches has led to widespread condemnations and now arrests. Earlier this week, a video went viral of a group of Christian pilgrims along the Via Dolorosa carrying a giant wooden cross being spat on by religious Jews.
The Orthodox men and boys were on their way to pray at the Western Wall for the Sukkot holiday.
Brother Matteo Munari of the Church of the Flagellation, where the video was recorded, said spitting at Christian churches or clergy is not new.
BROTHER MATTEO MUNARI, CATHOLIC PRIEST: But recently more. And also they started to spit also when they see groups of pilgrims, especially when they see the cross.
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GOLD (voice-over): Condemnations have poured in from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling such acts desecration and unacceptable and a broad swath of politicians and rabbis.
Brother Matteo says it's a small group of extremists who spit at them, believing a church to be an impure place. In the past, he says, the police didn't do much. But this week, something changed.
Israeli police made five arrests, including one for assault. Surveillance video shows undercover officers laying in wait as groups of Orthodox men walk by, arresting them as they spat.
UNKNOWN: That we will not tolerate expressions of hatred towards anyone, regardless of their faith.
GOLD (voice-over): It's not just a moral issue for the Israeli government. Christian tourism is a major economic boost for the country. And evangelical Christians are an important source of political support for Israel abroad, especially in the United States.
But despite the indignities, Brother Matteo says he still prays and has love for everyone.
MUNARI: It's beautiful to live in Jerusalem despite all this kind of phenomena. And there's wonderful people who believe in love, no matter if they are Christians, Muslims or Jews.
GOLD (voice-over): A powerful message for a city so often on edge.
Hadas Gold, CNN, Jerusalem. (END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: The European Parliament on Thursday condemned what it called the ethnic cleansing of ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh and suggested sanctions be imposed against Azerbaijan. Nearly all of the 120,000 people who lived in Nagorno-Karabakh are now believed to have fled to neighboring Armenia, their cultural homeland, after Azerbaijani forces seized control last month.
On Thursday, the Armenian Prime Minister met with the leaders of France, Germany and the European Council President Michel Chauvin said he hopes to get the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan together in Brussels by the end of the month for talks.
Typhoon Koinu is moving towards the southern China coast after killing one person and injuring more than 300 others in Taiwan. The storm made landfall at the island's southern tip on Thursday, dumping more than 600 millimeters of rain. Its heavy winds knocked out power for hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses.
Taiwanese officials say close to 3,000 people were evacuated. Now the storm is expected to strengthen in the next 12 to 24 hours before weakening. It's forecast to impact Hong Kong as a tropical storm in the next two days, but no landfall is expected there.
Alright ahead, underground schools in Afghanistan will meet some of the brave girls and teachers defying the Taliban.
And we'll find out today who will be awarded this year's Nobel Peace Prize. We'll have a look at the oddsmakers' favorites and the experts' picks. Just ahead, stay with us.
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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: It's been more than two years since the Taliban began effectively outlawing female education in Afghanistan. Girls aren't allowed to go to school from the sixth grade onwards and are barred from universities but a clandestine network of brave women has set up secret classrooms across the country in direct defiance of the ban.
CNN's Salma Abdelaziz was given rare access to one of the hidden classrooms. And she spoke to the teacher and students about the extraordinary risks they take to continue their education.
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SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You are witnessing a courageous act of rebellion. Young girls gathered to learn in a secret classroom. To the Taliban, they are criminals defying a ban on female education. But these students say they're determined to continue their schooling no matter the cost. Two of them told us why. I've told myself that even if the Taliban arrest me, I will stand up
and tell them I don't want to be kept at home. She says, I just want to learn and that is not a crime.
CNN was granted access to this underground classroom on the condition we can seal the identity of the students and staff and keep the location hidden. But allowing our cameras in, comes at extraordinary risks.
Around 30 students huddle into this little room to learn everything from science to math to tailoring and drawing.
Maryam, not her real name, is their teacher.
Fear is with us every second we're inside the school, she says, but there's a power stronger than fear, our hope for the future.
This is one of nine secret schools that educate more than 400 girls across eight Afghan provinces. It is operated by a clandestine network called SRAK. Families find the program through word of mouth and demand is growing.
It was founded by this woman, Parasto Hakim. She says because of her activism she was recently forced to flee Afghanistan.
But in the summer of 2021 as Kabul fell to the Taliban she tells us she anticipated the ban on female education and got to work.
PARASTO HAKIM, FOUNDER OF SRAK SCHOOLS' NETWORK: So we were watching some documentaries I was looking at Afghan women sitting up NGOs in like hide in undergrounded places.
ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): Inspired in part by Christiane Amanpour's 1996 CNN documentary "Battle for Afghanistan," Hakim began to follow the example of women set nearly 25 years ago.
UNKNOWN: I love my work. It's my right to work and I need to work.
HAKIM: Afghanistan is fully shattered. It is in darkness.
ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): The Taliban is forcing women into this darkness, effectively erasing them from much of public life. The U.N. says the group's draconian rules may amount to gender apartheid and crimes against humanity.
But this little classroom in the shadows provides a ray of hope.
The school is like a light for me, she says. It is like a road for me that I can see happiness and sunrise at the end of it.
It is also a lifeline. Rates of child marriage, underage labor and reported suicides have increased since the ban on female education. according to the U.N.
And countless girls, confined to their homes, are suffering from anxiety and depression. Fatima was among them. It felt just like being a prisoner, she says, like a prisoner who is
only allowed to eat and drink, but not allowed to do anything else.
With the support of her family, she discovered the school and found her passion. She wants to be a famous fashion designer.
I want my future to be a bright one, she says. I don't want to be behind a mask forever. I want to be able to show my real face.
Brave women and girls dreaming of a future without the Taliban and boldly preparing to step out into the light again.
Salma Abdelaziz, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: A potential U.S. government shutdown looms on the horizon just about 40 days from now. Millions of dollars in vital U.S. military aid to Ukraine is in limbo at a crucial moment in the war. The U.S. House of Representatives is suddenly paralyzed because a small group of far-right Republicans joined Democrats to vote out House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. A new leader isn't expected to be picked until next week, and nothing can happen until then.
[03:35:03]
In an exclusive interview, CNN's Christiane Amanpour asked former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for her take on the ongoing dysfunction within the Republican Party. And here's some of that exchange.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: So should the Democrats have saved him so to speak? Should they have voted to keep him in?
HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: You know that was a very tough call for the Democratic caucus but the problem was for them, as I understand it, he was totally untrustworthy by any measure.
He immediately after they did help him keep the government open, as you know, began to blame them for all kinds of, you know, extraneous matters. And at some point, a leader who has lost all credibility in dealing with the opposition, where you want to have an open line of communication, you want to be able to trust his word, is going to, you know, ask for their help and not get it.
AMANPOUR: It's said that the main contenders for his position are Jim Jordan who you know very well from Benghazi
CLINTON: Well, I don't know him well. I watched him and, you know, stared at him for 11 hours, only made stuff up about me so I don't know him but I've seen him in action.
AMANPOUR: So what would it mean if he gets the speakership? CLINTON: Well, I mean he is one of the principal ringleaders of the
circus that's been created in the Republican party for the last several years. I have no inside knowledge about what the Republicans will do, who they will end up voting for.
But when do they put the country first? They do not represent a majority of even the Republican Party when you look at the extremists in the House. They certainly don't represent a majority of the country.
And, you know, somebody has to stand up and say enough. You know, we could have disagreements. I'm all for that. I was in the Senate for eight years. I worked with a lot of Republicans and, you know, oppose them when I didn't agree. But at some point, there needs to be a backlash against the control that this small group of extremists have. And I don't know who will lead that, but let's hope whoever becomes the new speaker will.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: And Christiane Amanpour's exclusive interview with Hillary Clinton airs in its entirety next week. So be sure to tune in Monday here on CNN at 1 p.m. in New York. That's 6 in the evening in London right here, of course, on CNN.
Well, stunning new reports from ABC News and "The New York Times" about Donald Trump and America's military and nuclear secrets. Both outlets cite sources who say the former president allegedly discussed details about U.S. nuclear submarines with a member of his Mar-a-Lago club months after leaving the White House.
Australian billionaire Anthony Pratt then shared the information with dozens of other people including foreign officials and journalists. Now CNN has confirmed that federal investigators have interviewed Pratt. Anderson Cooper spoke with CNN military analyst Lieutenant General Mark Hertling about the potential damage from such disclosures. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: All classified information is provided to those only with a need to know and every president needs to know a lot of stuff to help them in decision- making. But that need to know also comes with a requirement not to disclose.
If he was truly talking about capabilities, as Maggie said, about the nuclear part, the sea-based part of our nuclear triad, I would suspect, and I don't know this for sure, that they are at the higher levels of security clearances, either top secret or code word when you're talking about the nuclear force.
That puts the country, and as the secretary said, it puts service members in harm's way when he's giving up capabilities.
And one other thing I'd add to that, if this alleged incident did occur, and it seems that it did, this is just one incident that's being reported. How many other times at Mar-a-Lago or one of his golf courses did he lean into somebody and put other secrets in our citizens in danger because he's given up other secrets? That's the thing that concerns me the most.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Now, A Trump spokesperson slammed the new reports telling CNN the claims, quote, "lack proper context and relevant information."
All right, turning now to the U.S. migrant crisis. The situation is getting more dire for Central and South American migrants who enter the U.S. illegally and are then transported to Democratic-controlled cities in the north. Officials in those cities say their resources are being stretched to the breaking point.
CNN's Whitney Wild reports from Chicago.
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WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the end of a six-week long journey from Venezuela for Carla Garcia and her five-year-old niece Angelique.
CARLA GARCIA, VENEZUELAN MIGRANT (through translator): So tired. We don't have a decent place to sleep.
WILD (voice-over): They sleep in a corner of a southside Chicago police station, while dozens more migrants line the sidewalks. More than 3,000 migrants live at city police stations and airports.
[03:40:10]
BRANDON JOHNSON, CHICAGO MAYOR: I've been over the course since I've been in office. We have been flooded with buses with individuals who are in very desperate circumstances.
WILD (voice-over): Mayor Brandon Johnson expects the number of migrants who have descended on Chicago to reach 20,000 in coming days. Migrants started arriving in August 2022 when Texas Governor Greg Abbott added Chicago to a list of sanctuary cities where he planned to send buses, saying relief is needed for overcrowded southern border towns.
JOHNSON: This is very much tied to the politics of the Republican Party that has made it very clear they want to destabilize cities like Chicago.
WILD (voice-over): Tension is flaring between Illinois leaders and the White House for more help. The pressure to manage this crisis will only grow.
Next summer, the Democratic National Convention comes to town. Officials believe that will prompt even more buses.
JB PRITZKER, ILLINOIS GOVERNOR: There are other things the federal government can do other than sending us money that they haven't yet done. And I do believe, and I have spoken with the White House since even over the weekend and the letter to make sure that they heard us.
WILD (voice-over): Johnson's administration is working rapidly to house migrants opening one shelter per week.
But closing some public facilities to make room for migrant housing has angered some residents.
UNKNOWN: Our rights are being infringed upon because instead of having the ability to say yes or no.
WILD (voice-over): The city has inked a nearly $30 million deal for military-grade tents, a temporary solution while the city races to move migrants off the street before Chicago's brutal winter sets in.
JOHNSON: I'm very much committed to making sure that we get people off of the floors of police districts and police stations and out of our airports because it is not humane. These are awful conditions.
WILD (voice-over): Back at the police station, Carla isn't sure leaving Venezuela was worth the sacrifice.
GARCIA (through translator): We don't know yet because we're here, all this uncertainty and just sleeping here. If you're thinking about coming here, think twice because this is very hard.
WILD (on-camera): The Department of Homeland Security sent people here to Chicago to assess the situation. Meanwhile, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson says he plans to go to the southern border. He said he understands what southern states are dealing with, but he wants to go himself to assess the situation.
Whitney Wild, CNN, Chicago.
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BRUNHUBER: All right, stay with us. We'll be right back.
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BRUNHUBER: Over less than two hours away from a highly anticipated announcement from Oslo, the Norwegian Nobel Committee is set to announce the recipient of the 2023 Peace Prize.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is a favorite among oddsmakers for his efforts to end Russia's brutal invasion, but experts say his chances are actually slim.
[03:45:06]
Another possible contender is Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. He led protests against Vladimir Putin and Russian corruption before his arrest and imprisonment.
So for more on this, joining me now is Henrik Urdal, who's the director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo. Thanks so much for being here with us. So, you know, the winners have often surprised us. How difficult is it to predict what they're actually going to do here?
HENRIK URDAL, DIRECTOR, PEACE RESEARCH INSTITUTE OSLO: Oh, it's very difficult to predict under normal circumstances. I think this year is particularly open. There are no peace process that have been concluded. There are no disarmament agreements that have been negotiated. So I think the field is quite open this year.
BRUNHUBER: Alright, so as I mentioned, President Zelensky has been given the highest odds of winning, but there's plenty of skepticism that the committee would give a peace prize to someone who's involved in fighting a war. What do you think?
URDAL: Well, I think the Buckmuckers (ph) are wrong. I think Zelenskyy will not win the peace prize this year, and we can have every sympathy with his cause and the cause of the Ukrainian people, but it's going to be difficult for the peace prize committee to give the prize to a leader, a head of state who's at war.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah. All right, so Russian dissidents have claimed the prize two years in a row. Alexei Navalny is another popular pick, but you've assembled your own shortlist as you do every year. Neither Zelenskyy nor Navalny were on it. So if you were, let's say, sharing an elevator with one of the voting members of the Nobel Committee, you only had a few seconds to pitch your picks, what would you tell them? So starting with two campaigners for women's rights in Afghanistan.
URDAL: Yeah, I think we will likely see a human rights prize this year and women's rights activists in Iran and Afghanistan are certainly the top contenders. So education for women has been a big issue in Afghanistan after the U.S. pullout and Taliban's takeover.
And Mahmoud Basaraj is a journalist and women's rights activist in Afghanistan to remain there under Taliban and try to get Taliban to accept education for girls and women.
And in Iran, Nargis Mohammadi is one of the leaders of the Defenders of Human Rights Center. She's worked extensively for women's rights education against corruption and the death penalty. So those would be excellent candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize this year.
BRUNHUBER: All right, next you have Myanmar's representative to the United Nations. That's appeared in on a couple of lists. Explain why.
URDAL: Exactly. Now the U.N. ambassador for Myanmar, Kyaw Moe Tun and the Myanmar National Council, Unity Consultative Council have been working peacefully and democratically for reinstating stability and democracy in Myanmar, which saw a military coup. That could also be a price that reminds us about the dangers of military coups elsewhere in the world, which we've seen, unfortunately, becoming more prevalent.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah, absolutely, in Africa especially. So in the context of Russia's war on Ukraine, you've also touted the International Court of Justice. Explain that. URDAL: Yeah, that would be a price for peace through international
law. And that's a price that we haven't seen before. We have seen none of the legal institutions getting a price, even though the U.N. has received it many times. So that would be, I think, a good way to underscore the importance of these multilateral arenas, these places where states are coming together to solve their differences in a peaceful manner.
And the International Court of Justice in The Hague is one place where All of the members of the U.N. are also members of the court and that would strengthen the position of the court and also support these multilateral cooperative structures internationally.
BRUNHUBER: Continuing sort of on your human rights theme, you have two campaigners for the rights of indigenous peoples. Who are they?
URDAL: Victoria Tauli-Corpuz from the Philippines. She was a U.N. Special Rapporteur for Indigenous Peoples' Rights. And we have Juan Carlos Intiac from Ecuador who served as the co-chair of International Indigenous Caucus and the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. So this would be a way to combine focus on Indigenous peoples' rights and also the big issue of climate change in the world.
BRUNHUBER: All right, and finally, another group on your list, the Human Rights Data Analysis Group. A bit left field, why them?
URDAL: Yeah, it's HRDAG among friends. It's an organization that works to collect data that is used to -- in international courts for the criminal investigation for individuals, but also for peace and reconciliation settings. So, this is an organization that works with research and works with data, and it would underscore not only the political processes, but also the importance of facts on the ground for these international processes.
BRUNHUBER: Can I put you on the spot for our last 10 seconds? Can you make a pick? Who would you think is going to win?
URDAL: I think we're going to see a human rights prize and a women's rights activist prize. So my pick would be Mahmoud Basaraj and Nargis Mohammadi.
[03:50:01]
BRUNHUBER: Alright, we'll find out in the coming hours. I Really appreciate your insights on this. Henrik Urdal in Oslo, Norway. Thank you so much.
URDAL: Thanks for having me.
BRUNHUBER: Alright, still to come. Fears about bed bugs are still going strong in France. Officials are set to meet to discuss the problem while transportation authorities say there's no need to panic. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BRUNHUBER: In France, an inter-ministerial meeting is set to take place next hour to discuss the country's ongoing bedbug problem. French officials say there is no need to panic and stress that there has been no surge in the number of insects found on public transportation.
CNN's Melissa Bell is in Paris with our report.
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MELISSA BELL, CNN PARIS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is what it takes to get rid of bed bugs. The fight is on in Paris to tackle the scourge after reported sightings went viral, making the creepy crawlies the talk of the internet. Frenzy or real issue, officials are urging calm.
CLEMENT BEAUNE, FRENCH TRANSPORT MINISTER: No invasion of the phenomenon does exist, but I say we should not hide or say that there is nothing to do. We are doing more transparent and better action but we should have no panic as well because every case which is signaled to our public transport operators are checked.
BELL (voice-over): Officials and transport operators say that recent reports of sightings in public transport are unconfirmed. And yet the French government is holding meetings and pest control services say they've seen a rise in the numbers in private homes.
UNKNOWN (through translator): I have friends who've had them at theirs, so I know it can be a real ordeal to get rid of them.
BELL (voice-over): According to France's public health body, 11 percent of French households have been infested in the past five years, but the overall rise is insignificant year to year, part of the problem the ache factor involved.
UNKNOWN (through translator): There's an emerging phenomenon, but we've been seeing an increase in infestations for about 20 years now. It's happened gradually because there's no miracle product to combat bed bugs. But today, in these last few weeks, there's clearly been a media phenomenon of psychosis created around bed bugs.
BELL (voice-over): And the media interest says as much about Paris as it does about the bugs themselves.
With Fashion Week on as well as the Rugby World Cup and soon the 2024 Summer Olympics, the issue is also one of image. Bed bugs are after all about as universal as it gets, but France now knows that it needs answers urgently.
OLIVIER VERAN, FRENCH GOVERNMENT SPOKESPERSON (through translator): We need to give the French people an answer. Is there or isn't there a clear upsurge in bed bugs since when and where?
Bed bugs are hard enough to see let alone count, making the spotlight now shone all the more difficult to bear.
Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris. (END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: U.S. President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden's dog Commander is no longer at the White House. A spokesperson says that's because the dog has repeatedly bitten people. CNN's Tom Foreman takes a look back at presidential pets who have come and gone from their famous home in Washington.
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TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Almost a dozen Secret Service personnel and plenty of staffers. Sources tell CNN the presidential dog, Commander, has bitten more people than previously known. And after this latest snap, he's been relieved of command.
[03:55:00]
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, WHITE HOUSE SPOKESPERSON: Commander is not presently at the White House.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Presidents have had pets from the nation's beginning. Bears, birds, tigers, possums, horses, alligators, raccoons. Teddy Roosevelt had the most. Woodrow Wilson had sheep to trim the grass. Calvin Coolidge had a hippo, but there have often been pet peeves.
In the 1930s, Franklin Roosevelt had a big dog named Major that bit a British prime minister.
During World War II, political foes falsely said he sent a Navy destroyer to fetch his little dog named Fala after it was left behind on a presidential junket.
UNKNOWN: Of course, I don't resent the fact that my family doesn't resent attacks. But Fala does resent it.
FOREMAN (voice-over): In the 50s, opponents accused vice presidential candidate Richard Nixon of misusing campaign donations. Among the gifts was a Cocker Spaniel puppy, his daughter named Checkers.
RICHARD NIXON, THEN-VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And I just want to say this right now, that regardless of what they say about it, we're going to keep him.
FOREMAN (voice-over): In the 60s, Lyndon Johnson outraged some dog lovers by lifting his beagles by the ears.
And of course, a previous Biden family dog was also banished for biting. And ironically, just like FDR's snappy German Shepherd, his name was Major.
Still, comedy writer Jill Twiss, who wrote a children's book about him, notes at least this is a different kind of political scandal.
JILL TWISS, AUTHOR, MAJOR MAKES HISTORY: Yeah, I feel bad for the dog. That is what dogs do when they get freaked out. I feel bad for the family because families love their dogs. I obviously feel terrible for people getting bit because getting bit is terrible, but I'm not mad at anybody. And that's just really a good feeling.
FOREMAN (on-camera): At best, White House dogs can be happy and really humanize a president, making the most powerful person in the world look like a lot of us, just hanging out with a best friend. But at worst, well, sometimes for the dog and everyone else, it just bites.
Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
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All right, thanks so much for watching. I'm Kim Brunhuber. "CNN Newsroom" continues with Max Foster, next.
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