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At Least 35 Killed in Rafah Strike; Leaders from Japan, China, South Korea Hold Trilateral Summit; U.N. Health Agency to Discuss Response to Next Pandemic; Japan's Host Clubs Accused of Preying on Vulnerable Women; China, Russia Look to Counter U.S. Space Capabilities; Global Warming Bleaching Coral Reefs in Thailand. Aired 12-12:45a ET

Aired May 27, 2024 - 00:00   ET

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

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: hello and welcome everyone. I'm Michael Holmes. Appreciate your company.

[00:00:36]

Coming up here on CNN NEWSROOM, no place is safe. An Israeli airstrike on a makeshift tent camp in Rafah kills dozens of people. Israel says it was targeting Hamas compound.

Leaders of Japan, South Korea, and China meet for the first time in four years, hoping to strengthen security and economic ties.

And coronavirus literally brought the world to a standstill. So are we any more prepared for the next pandemic?

ANNOUNCER: Live from Atlanta, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Michael Holmes.

HOLMES: Welcome, everyone. We begin this out in Gaza, where the health ministry says at least 35 people, many of them women and children, have been killed in an Israeli strike in the Southern city of Rafah.

Many more have horrific burn injuries from the fire that followed the strike. Gaza officials say it hit a camp filled with tents for those displaced from the war.

Many of the video coming from the scene simply too graphic to show. The Israeli military claims it was targeting what it called a Hamas compound and says two senior Hamas officials were killed.

The IDF, though, acknowledges reports of the strike along with the fire that it caused, did harm civilians.

CNN's Paula Hancocks is tracking all the developments for us. She has more from Abu Dhabi.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There have been a significant number of casualties following an Israeli airstrike on a Rafah this Sunday.

Now this happened in Northwest Rafah. It was in a displaced persons' camp, where there were tents. There were makeshift shelters. And according to Gaza's Ministry of Health, they say that most of those who were killed and injured were women and children, saying that no hospital had the capacity in the area to be able to cope with the scale and the number of those killed and injured.

Now we know also from the Gaza government's media office that this was designated as a safe zone. And this is an area where some had moved to after being evacuated by the Israeli military and other parts of Rafah, notably in the East.

Now we've had a response, a statement from the Israeli military. They say that they did carry out an airstrike. They struck a Hamas compound in Rafah. And they say that they killed two senior Hamas officials, one of them a commander of Hamas's leadership in the West Bank.

Now, they do acknowledge that there was a fire, reports of a fire. They say they see reports of civilians being harmed, as well, and they are conducting a review of the incident.

Now, we know a large fire did break out in that area. There are horrific images on social media. There are images obtained by CNN, where we see the bodies and the injured being pulled from those burning tents.

Now we saw firefighters, paramedics, also the displaced desperately trying to put those fires out. Now, also, earlier this Sunday, we saw Hamas fire eight missiles at Israeli territory.

And for the first time since the end of January, they targeted Tel Aviv. There were no reports of casualties, but we heard from the Israeli military that Hamas is operating in Rafah. They have hostages in Rafah. And this is why they need to operate there.

But the fact, of course, that more than seven months, well over seven months into this war, Hamas is still able to fire rockets into Israeli territory. It does raise questions, and it does also put more pressure on the Israeli government to come up with not just a military strategy, but also a political plan for the day after the war.

Paula Hancocks, CNN, Abu Dhabi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: The death toll from a Russian strike on a crowded hardware store in Kharkiv is now at least 16, but that number could still rise.

We do have new video from inside the store. A warning: it is disturbing. Officials have said there were nearly 200 people inside the building when it was hit.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says hundreds of first responders rushed to the scene after Saturday's attack.

[00:05:09]

The remains of ten people have been identified. Eight others, though, are still missing, leaving some family members desperate for information.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I am looking for my mother and sister. MY dad managed to crawl through the other side. I was in the toilet. I came out a minute later, and there was fire everywhere. I think it was impossible to survive there. They were laying there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Mr. Zelenskyy gave his condolences to those who lost loved ones. He's also urging the U.S. and China to attend a peace summit in Switzerland next month.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: To President Biden, the leader of the United States. And to President Xi, the leader of China. We do not want the U.N. charter to be burned, burned down just like these books. And I hope you don't want to either. Please show your leadership in advancing the peace, the real peace, not just a pause between the strikes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Zelenskyy went on to say that more than 80 countries have already agreed to attend that summit. Emmanuel Macron is in Berlin for a three-day visit. It is the first state visit by a French president to Germany in 24 years.

It's also a show of unity between the two nations ahead of E.U. parliamentary elections next month. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier welcomed Mr. Macron, saying that their nations understand the importance of defending freedom and peace in an important year for European democracy.

Mr. Macron also urged European leaders to remain firm in their support for Ukraine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EMMANUEL MACRON, FRENCH PRESIDENT (through translator): To be on the side of peace today means giving strength to the law. Peace, but not capitulation. Peace is not the abandonment of principles. We have too often seen this confusion and collective debates. Peace means enabling a country to defend its borders and sovereignty. International law to build a lasting peace as the camp we have chosen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Mr. Macron also visited a giant football pitch in front of the Brandenberg Gate, built for the Euro 2024 tournament, which will begin in June.

Leaders from China, Japan, and South Korea, or in Seoul this hour for a trilateral summit aimed at boosting dialogue, trade, and mutual cooperation. It is the first such meeting for the three nations in more than four years.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol are expected to adopt a joint statement focusing on six areas of cooperation.

CNN's Mike Valerio is following developments from Hong Kong.

Good to see you, Mike. Bottom line: put into context why this matters.

MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Michael, good morning to you from Hong Kong.

And the reason why this is such a big deal is because this is all about avoiding any kind of potential miscommunication, avoiding any sort of undue escalation at a time when tensions are so high throughout the region here in Asia.

Of course, we have these two centers of gravity, Michael. We have China now pulling Russia closer to it, and we have the United States pulling the Republic of South -- or the Republic of Korea and Japan closer to it and its own alliance, as well.

So this is the context we find ourselves in the senior leaders of all of these countries. Again, President Yoon Suk Yeol, South Korea Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida, and Premier Li Qiang of China, saying that they need to be able to talk to each other at a senior level, again, to avoid any kind of escalation or misunderstanding.

So you know, Michael, the framework for having this sort of meeting has existed for years. It's notable that it's happening, because it's been on ice for the past four-and-a-half years because of tensions between the three countries and COVID, as well.

Now, despite that, we aren't expecting any major reversals among the three nations or policy breakthroughs. We are expecting areas of cooperation in easier subjects like people-to-people exchanges, science, and technology.

Summing it up quite well was a professor from the National University of Singapore, Ja Ian Chong, who spoke to us over Zoom earlier today. Here's what he told us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JA IAN CHONG, PROFESSOR, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE: So I'm not looking for any big breakthroughs. I think that's not feasible at this point in time. If there is some mutual understanding to move forward on issues like the environment, on people-to-people exchanges, on some trade investment issues. I think that's pretty good. That's probably as much as we can expect at this point in time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALERIO: OK. So where do we go from here? The summit is ramping up as we speak.

[00:10:04]

Already, China and South Korea have come out with official statements saying that they are resuming new talks with free trade and security, which is certainly good for this stability of the region.

But then we have North Korea entering the conversation earlier this morning. The nation promising that it will be launching a satellite between today and the 4th of June.

So already, we have President Yoon Suk Yeol saying that the international community needs to sternly respond. Prime Minister Yoshida echoing those comments, as well.

So Michael, you know, as this wraps up, we're going to be looking to see what language is specifically used by each country, because it is a common security denominator for all three countries.

We're going to see if this meeting leads to any new sort of cooperation as it relates to North Korea. That is one of the wildcards in all of this here, Michael.

HOLMES: Yes, the language is everything. Good to see you, Mike. Mike Valerio there in Hong Kong for us. Appreciate that.

Tropical Cyclone Remal has made landfall in Bangladesh and Western Indian. The first cyclone of the year brings the threat of wind gusts of up to 135 kilometers an hour, potential landslides and storm surges of nearly four meters.

Authorities in Bangladesh raised the storm danger signal to its highest level, with two ports and nine coastal districts along the bay of Bengal prompting evacuations in those areas.

The cyclone continues to move North. It is expected to weaken as it gets further inland.

And across the United States, more than 120 million people face the risk of severe weather on Monday, which is U.S. Memorial Day.

A deadly storm system expected to continue on a path of destruction that it's been on for the last couple of days. An overnight tornado watch in effect for parts of Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky, impacting more than 3 million people.

And at least 18 people have died in four states from all of this. That includes four children in Cooke County, Texas, where a tornado hit overnight. That's just North of Dallas.

A preliminary report from U.S. National Weather Service estimates it had maximum winds of more than 217 kilometers an hour. That's 135 miles an hour. And an update on that massive landslide in Papua New Guinea. The U.N.'s migration agency says more than 670 people are now feared dead, a sharp increase from their initial estimates, while more than 150 homes are buried in the massive debris field, said to be as big as four football fields.

Rescuers are still searching. They're hoping to find more survivors, but as time passes, that hope becomes more forlorn. The landslide hit a remote region of the country in the middle of the night early Friday.

Thousands of government officials and global health experts are about to meet in Geneva to discuss how to respond to the next global health emergency. But can they reach a consensus? I'll be talking to an expert.

Also, activists and lawmakers in Japan raising the alarm about host clubs. Many of them are preying on women, forcing them to rack up huge debts, and pay it off with sex work. We'll have that story, as well, when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:15:39]

HOLMES: In the coming hours, the World Health Assembly will hold its annual meeting in Geneva to discuss the most pressing global health issues.

The center of the agenda is achieving consensus on how to respond to the next health emergency. Just four years ago, of course, the COVID- 19 pandemic began, which killed millions of people and upended economies around the world.

So far, countries have failed to come up with a unified plan on how to prepare and respond to the next pandemic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TEDROS ADHANOM GHEBREYESUS, DIRECTOR-GENERAL, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: My wish is we will come out of the assembly reenergized, inspired. We will try everything, believing that anything is possible, and make this happen. Because the world still needs a pandemic treaty, and the world needs to be prepared.

Because many of the challenges that caused serious impact during COVID-19 still exist.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Margaret Bourdeaux is an assistant professor of medicine and of global health and social medicine at Harvard Medical School. Joins me now.

Professor, thanks for doing so. I mean, you would think after the COVID pandemic, the staggering loss of life, and the exposing of the lack of preparedness, and given all of that, we have agreed well ahead of this assembly on what to do next time, but we have not. Why, briefly?

MARGARET BOURDEAUX, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE, HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL: The points of disagreement, as I understand them, you know, have to do with sort of three -- three things, right?

The first is, what are the standards in terms of surveillance, health system capability, countermeasure manufacturing that countries are going to agree to? And who's going to pay for it?

The second one has to do with, you know, will countries agree to share critical information about emerging pathogens such as their genetic sequences with pharmaceutical companies, so that those pharmaceutical companies, in turn, can quickly develop vaccines and other medicines against them.

But countries wants some guarantees that, if they share this information, that they are indeed going to have some -- some access to --

HOLMES: Right.

BOURDEAUX: -- affordable medical products that are produced.

And then the third point of disagreement is about how much authority the WHO is going to have with respect to overseeing the strategy that is the pandemic response strategy.

And at that point, there's just been a lot of misinformation out there. You know, some leaders have, you know, voiced concerns that this agreement somehow is going to give the WHO vast powers over national sovereignty. The WHO has vehemently denied that.

But negotiators are sensitive enough to that issue that they, as I understand it, are putting some language in the agreement itself that would be pretty explicit about what the WHO cannot do.

HOLMES: Yes. National interest and national selfishness was -- was an issue back in the day. I mean, I was reading on the Harvard website where you said many of the COVID values were egregious.

And this is meant to resolve a lot of them. What -- what was the worst and what is the most important to resolve soon.

BOURDEAUX: There's a sort of a small issue, but it represents a big issue. So, you know, I would say that the -- the small issue, or the sort of tactical issue during COVID was that we really did not have a coherent strategy for how we were all going to work together to -- to stop COVID.

And, you know, this mad scramble for vaccines and diagnostics and medicines and PPE. You know, many people in the world were left -- left without. And, you know, that was terrible and small and awful. But the bigger issue here, or the thing that I think is most critical

is really, we're at an inflection point, I would say, as a species. You know, can we come together to negotiate something that is clearly in everyone's best interests?

[00:20:04]

In other words, there is no country that can effectively address a pandemic alone.

But you know, that is really the definition of an outmoded date definition of national security.

HOLMES: We're almost out of time, but I wanted to ask you this, because it strikes me this is true. Quite apart from getting this accord sorted, do you think there's been enough urgency on a global level, more generally, to correct mistakes?

Is there a tendency, as time passes, to forget what it was like in 2020? We -- have we gotten short memories here?

BOURDEAUX: I mean, we absolutely have. And that is -- that's curious to me. But you know, for better or for worse, we're going to get reminded really fast.

We are living in the age of pandemics, and we -- one is already happening, H1 -- H5N1. It is simply a lesson we are going to have -- we're just going to have to learn.

HOLMES: Yes. Absolutely.

BOURDEAUX: The question is how bad it will be before we learn it.

HOLMES: Yes, exactly. Well, thankfully, there's people like you working it. Professor Margaret Bourdeaux, thank you so much. Really appreciate it.

BOURDEAUX: Likewise, thank you so much.

HOLMES: Japanese officials are responding to a growing number of complaints about romance scams from a type of nightclub called host clubs.

One victim of these scams tells CNN she wound up thousands of dollars in debt while paying for the company of a handsome host, who she says then pressured her to perform sex work to pay her bills.

Hanako Montgomery is joining me now from Tokyo.

And Hanako, good to see you. You've been following this for months now. What is the current situation?

HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Michael. I mean, simply put, this situation has not improved for the hundreds of victims of this particular type of romance scam. Host clubs have said that, by April, they would ban underage girls from entering their clubs and prevent women from shouldering these massive, massive debts.

But according to the lawmakers, the victims and the aid groups that we've spoken to, that simply is not the case. There are host clubs that are just simply shrugging off these regulations.

And in fact, women are still being trafficked into sex work, both at home and abroad.

Earlier this year, we spoke to a woman of this specific type of romance scam, a woman named Yu. And she told us about how she lost everything and how she was trafficked overseas to pay off her debts.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

YU, HOST CLUB VICTIM (through translator): I've hit rock bottom. I don't know if I can start over again. I want to go back to my normal life, my ordinary job, and play with my pets. I don't know why I ever went to host clubs.

MONTGOMERY (voice-over): Yu is one of hundreds of Japanese women forced to sell their bodies after they've been coerced to spend every penny to their name on a certain type of Japanese entertainment called host clubs.

MONTGOMERY: Right now, I am in the mecca for host clubs, Kabukicho. In this part of town alone, there are over 300 of these types of establishments. And it's in places like these where the problem starts.

MONTGOMERY (voice-over): Host clubs, part of Japan's expansive night entertainment industry, are bars were female patrons pay for the companionship and attention of male hosts.

Typically well-groomed and skilled in flattery, these hosts serve up compliments and drinks, offering a fantasy-like escape.

But some of them are outright romance scams and criminal enterprises, preying on young lonely women.

Yu, a divorced mother of two, felt her heart flutter when she first met her host. She asks us to use a pseudonym, because her family doesn't know about her debts.

Yu met her host in January 2023 and quickly fell in love. She, a clinician who worked long, lonely hours, spent every spare minute at his club. In return, he showered her with presents, attention, promises, until her money ran out.

She spent it all on extremely marked-up alcohol, where the bill you could run into the thousands of dollars.

YU (through translator): He asked me, how are you going to pay me back? And when I said I didn't know, he said, Go abroad for sex work. I didn't want to.

MONTGOMERY (voice-over): Yu said he pushed her into prostitution at home and abroad in Macau and Hong Kong. She never saw the money she earned, all of it wired back to a pimp in Tokyo.

YU (through translator): When my body was exhausted or I felt weak, I thought it'd be easier to die. I thought about that a lot.

[00:25:06]

MONTGOMERY (voice-over): Hidemori Gen is an aid worker in Tokyo's biggest red-light district.

He's provided a drop-in consultation service for victims of sexual abuse and gang violence for over two decades. But in this past year, women with cases like Yu's, he says, have increased five-fold.

HIDEMORI GEN, CHAIRMAN OF VICTIMS' SUPPORT GROUP 'SEIBOREN' (voice- over): Last spring when we came out of the pandemic and the masks came off, that's been consultations about host clubs increased dramatically.

MONTGOMERY (voice-over): Politicians like Ayaka Shiomura have tried unsuccessfully to pass laws to strengthen safeguards against exploitative host clubs.

AYAKA SHIOMURA, LAWMAKER (through translator): Basically, it's a romance scam. Some of these women are brainwashed into thinking they're dating these hosts. It's a vicious cycle.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MONTGOMERY (voice-over): Instead, from April 1, hosts clubs say they will self-manage and ban customers under 20, and prevent women from incurring massive debts, a measure welcomed by Mikami, a host of ten years.

RUI MIKAMI, HOST (through translator): These guys know they'll make more money prostituting young women, so they target girls.

MONTGOMERY (voice-over): Though he swears he's never forced a customer into sex work, Mikami admits in the past, he's coerced women to spend way beyond their means.

MIKAMI (through translator): But now I entertain women without pressuring them for money. I stick to what they can afford. Now, my clients go home every night and say, thank you.

MONTGOMERY (voice-over): But for victims like Yu, "Thank you" are the last words out of her mouth as she wonders if she'll ever get her life back.

YU (through translator): I'm still doing sex work, because I can't afford to leave. I don't want to do this work. I feel like I'm going to fall apart.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MONTGOMERY (on camera): Clearly, a very dire situation, Michael.

Now, in terms of what the Japanese government is doing to solve this issue, just last week, a high-level government official met with victims of this host club scam for the very first time.

And, according to an aid group that was there at that meeting, they said that the government finally acknowledged that these were victims of an actual crime, rather than women who had simply gotten themselves in a bad situation.

Now the aid group said that it felt like a massive step forward, but that there was so a lot of work that needs to be done in order to prevent women from being trafficked into sex work -- Michael.

HOLMES: What a dreadful story, but important for people to know about. Hanako Montgomery, thanks to you and the team for bringing it to us.

After the break, the U.S. leading the way in space. We'll explain the way new rivals China and Russia are looking to change that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:30:25]

HOLMES: There is a new kind of global space race. Countries working to develop technology that could disarm or even destroy their adversary's satellites, and perhaps more.

Analysts say the U.S., Russia, and China could use things like signal jamming and anti-satellite missiles to target each other.

Simone McCarthy is a senior China writer for CNN International. Delight she joins me now.

Amazing piece on CNN.com. And it talks about U.S. concerns about what they say is Russia's development of a space-based nuclear weapon that could wipe out satellites in orbit and -- and launching what they say is likely to be a counterspace weapon.

So when it comes to all of this technology, is it new or a growing risk? How worrying is it?

SIMONS MCCARTHY, SENIOR CHINA WRITER, CNN INTERNATIONAL: Michael, the development of technologies to counter satellites is something that's as old as satellites themselves. It dates back to the Cold War era.

However, we are seeing an increasing concern about recent developments of such technologies. And that's playing out against the backdrop of increasing focus on space and U.S.-China competition in space.

Today, militaries are increasingly integrating their capabilities here on earth with satellites in space. For example, using satellites for things like positioning troops, or launching and detecting weapons and running secure communications. And that's led to a growing number of countries vying for technologies

that could disrupt or, in some cases, even destroy their potential adversary's satellites.

And this is of particular concern to the United States, because it's a country that has extensive military capabilities linked to assets in space. And its geopolitical frictions are mounting here on Earth. That's something that experts who watch this space closely are saying that China and Russia are interested to deny the U.S. access to those assets through the development of these counterspace technologies.

HOLMES: Right. So what do we know about the kinds of technologies Russia and China and the U.S., for that matter, are developing?

MCCARTHY: Well, tracking countries' development of these technologies is incredibly difficult. That's because, of course, on the one hand, these are closely held military information.

On the other hand, some of this technology is dual use. So it may not necessarily appear at this time to have a military application, but it could down the line.

That said, space powers are widely believed to have researched or developed technologies that include things like jamming and spoofing of satellite signals.

So that means interrupting a signal that's going from a satellite down to a ground station or vice versa. There's also high-powered lasers that could dazzle imaging satellites and preventing them from taking that imagery.

Then there's more destructive kinds of technologies, and those include things like missiles, which are launched from space that can then take out a satellite or satellites and other spacecraft that are launched into orbit that could potentially interfere with or target satellites there.

Russia and China are believed to have been researching and developing related technologies. And the U.S., too, is expected to be finding ways to defend its assets in space.

HOLMES: Yes. We -- we already see, you know, use of GPS signal jamming, cyberattacks on satellite-connected communications networks in the conflict in Ukraine as just one example.

But how much worse could the impacts be? What -- you know, what potentially could space weapons do to us on Earth? What would a space war look like?

MCCARTHY: Well, Michael, I certainly hope that we don't see a space war. This is something that, you know, today we're so reliant on satellites for so many aspects of our daily life. This includes things like running global banking and trade, to even predicting and responding to natural disasters.

Right now, we don't believe that any destructive capabilities have been actively used in any military conflicts. And analysts say that countries who are developing these kinds of technologies are interested in things which may be non-destructive, like those lasers and jamming and even cyberattacks that we spoke of earlier.

That said, were we to get into the kind of space where there is destructive technology that's being used, apart from just interfering with a specific satellite that's targeted operations, that could create things like space debris, which could then damage a wide range of satellites, as well as hurting, potentially, astronauts who are operating in space.

And then when we get into more extreme examples like the kind of nuclear weapon based in space that the U.S. has alleged that Russia might be developing, that could really wipe out a wide range of satellites, which you know, would have extensive ramifications, potentially, on communication and things like that here on Earth.

[00:35:06]

HOLMES: Yes, it's all very worrying.

I wanted to ask you this just finally. I mean, one of the big issues is that, of course, we have, on Earth, borders. We have governments controlling what happens inside those borders. They are no borders in space. I mean, even if there are agreements and some do exist, who's to say can -- who can do what up there, especially given the levels of geopolitical mistrust among adversaries.

MCCARTHY: That's such an excellent question, Michael, and it's something that countries at the U.N. Security Council are grappling with right now.

There is an outer space treaty which has existed for decades and more than -- more than 100 countries have signed onto. And that treaty stipulates that countries will not place weapon of mass destruction in outer space.

But there have been calls for more efforts to shore up rules and norms around this.

One of the things that we should mention in any conversation when we're talking about the placing of weapons in space or the use of weapons against satellites is that, for generations, humans have talked about the peaceful use of outer space -- and this is including the U.S., Russia, and China -- and have agreed to say that space should be for the use of all mankind.

So if we start to see the use of these kinds of weapons, that would be something that would be incredibly detrimental for humanity's use of outer space overall.

HOLMES: It's all fascinating stuff. The article's on CNN.com. Do check it out. Simone McCarthy, thanks so much.

MCCARTHY: Thank you, Michael. HOLMES: Qatar Airways says it will investigate a turbulence incident on a flight from Doha to Dublin which injured a dozen people. Eight were taken to hospital when they landed in the Irish capital Sunday.

The flight ran into turbulence over Turkey. It's unclear what caused it.

This comes, of course, just five days after more than 100 passengers were injured and a man died of a suspected heart attack when a Singapore Airlines flight encountered severe turbulence.

Still to come on the program, how climate change is costing fishermen their lives in Thailand. Stay with us. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: With climate change causing ocean temperatures to rise, marine life is, of course, dying off, including coral reefs that many species rely on.

In Thailand, fishing communities are bearing the brunt of the devastation as they struggle to make their catch with a diminishing supply of fish.

Lynda Kinkade with their story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LYNDA KINKADE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's yet another beautiful day on the water in Chao Lao Beach, Thailand, but it's what lies beneath the surface that's been left unrecognizable.

Where this fisherman used to make up to 10,000 baht, or 276 U.S. dollars, a day, he says now he's lucky to earn a fifth of that.

As the coral below him dies off, the marine animals who inhabit it and feed off it disappear.

[00:40:05]

SOMMAY SINGSURA, LOCAL FISHERMAN (through translator): The coral reef is my heart and soul when it isn't bleached; healthy and abundant, and you can go out fishing at night. You can easily catch a squid in a fishnet in the coral reef. Earning a living was nice and easy.

KINKADE (voice-over): The third-generation fisherman is among some 200 who live and fish on this beach. The fishermen here help provide seafood, like blue swimming crabs and other small fish, to Bangkok, Vietnam, and China.

But with 50 percent of coral in the Gulf of Thailand already bleaching, according to Thai government scientists, their regular catch is dwindling.

Without healthy coral, typical marine life is forced to migrate. LALITA PUTCHIM, MARINE BIOLOGIST, THAILAND DEPARTMENT OF MARINE AND

COASTAL RESOURCES (through translator): The factor causing the bleaching is the rising of the sea water's temperature. When I got into the water just now, I immediately felt that the water was warm, very warm.

KINKADE (voice-over): To some scientists, the term global warming doesn't do the situation justice. Global boiling is a better fit.

As atmospheric temperatures rise, so do ocean temperatures. The heat stresses the corals, causing them to lose their algae and pigment. What's left is a colorless graveyard.

SINGSURA (through translator): The coral bleaching is happening so quickly this year, it's unusual. Look, all of it has turned white. It's never been this bleached before. All very white this year. All of it is bleached.

KINKADE (voice-over): Unless the world drastically cuts down on greenhouse gas emissions, 90 percent of living corals could decrease by 2050. An ominous threat, not just to our reefs, but to the marine life they sustain, and the fishermen whose livelihoods depend on them.

Lynda Kinkade, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: And finally, the Champs-Elysees is not just for tourists. That was the message behind a giant picnic that took place on the world- famous boulevard on Sunday.

A few thousand Parisians were provided picnic blankets and invited to camp out for a meal at a site that's usually a hub for designer stores, cars, and tourists.

These participants were selected by lottery and given baskets that included sandwiches, strawberries, and cookies. The event organizers said the aim of the event was to bring Parisians back to the famous thoroughfare.

And it's a beautiful place.

Thanks for spending part of your day with me. I'm Michael Holmes. You can follow me on Instagram and Threads, @HolmesCNN. WORLD SPORT coming up next. And Rosemary Church will have more of the day's news in about 15 minutes. I'll see you next week.

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