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Central United States in Severe Weather; East Asian Leaders Condemned NoKor's Planned Satellite Launch. Closing Statements on Trump's Hush Money Trial Set on Tuesday; Qatar Airways Experienced Turbulence Upon its Landing in Dublin, Ireland; Japan Alarms Over Romance Scams in Nightclubs. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired May 27, 2024 - 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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MAX FOSTER, CNN LONDON CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from the United States and all around the world. I'm Max Foster.

Just ahead. A massive landslide in Papua New Guinea buries thousands of people alive. We are in the region with the latest on search and rescue efforts.

Violent storms sweep the central United States leaving several dead, homes leveled, thousands without power and millions more are at risk as the severe weather moves east.

Plus, no place is safe. An Israeli airstrike on tents in a makeshift camp in Rafah kills dozens of Palestinians. Israel says it was targeting a Hamas compound.

We begin this hour in Papua New Guinea where the death toll from last week's massive landslide now appears far worse than initially feared. In the letter to the United Nations, an emergency official says as many as 2,000 people were buried alive.

The United Nations Migration Agency has said the landslide swallowed up more than 150 homes with debris spread across an area as large as four football fields. Rescuers are still searching, hoping to find more survivors. The landslide hit a remote region of the country in the middle of the night early on Friday.

With us now Chris Jensen, the National Director for World Vision Papua New Guinea. Thank you so much for joining us Chris. I mean the figure is horrendous. We were reporting on it last week but the rescue workers have clearly really realized the scale of the devastation.

CHRIS JENSEN, NATIONAL DIRECTOR, WORLD VISION PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Yeah absolutely, look this is an absolutely tragic event.

It's a remote beautiful part of Papua New Guinea but it's seen its fair share of tragedies with tribal fighting and other challenges related to development issues. But yeah this is a landslide of massive proportion.

The moment we're looking at confirmed, I have a figure of 670 as you mentioned from the U.N. with 150 households.

There's estimates of up to 2,000 people at the moment. We're still really not sure and you know our heart goes out to families and those impacted by this.

We're working with the government on the ground to provide supplies, medical assistance and other requirements.

FOSTER: When we look at the images, the aerial images and the rescue workers on the ground, you don't see any signs of a village or a town at all. It seems like you know compounding this tragedy is that you know all that soil, all those rocks landed in just the wrong spot.

JENSEN: Oh yeah, look I don't think you could make this up. It's quite astonishing that a whole mountain has literally fallen on so many households middle of the night, three o'clock in the morning. Imagine that your life's gone on in an instance. It's an absolute tragedy.

I think also too as I mentioned there's other issues related to here. This landslide has interrupted the main highway, the Porgera Highway right nearby here. It's some 60 kilometers from the provincial center, a long way from the capital city in Port Moresby and that highway is the main lifeline for economic activities and other such activities. So you know we're looking at bringing in heavy equipment but what do you do when the landslide is still moving? This is, you know, we can't further create problems with land that's still moving so we've really got to be very careful about the response now.

FOSTER: Yeah you're talking about the, you know, the bravery of those workers knowing that you know there could be more rocks to fall down as well and they're just using sticks from what we can see because as you say the road is closed so you're struggling to get anyone in and the right sort of equipment.

JENSEN: Absolutely and like with World Vision here we've got a strong focus on children and so we're looking at how we can get you know then what are the needs of those families, what are the survivors, those children that are still there, what's their hope for their future.

The situation is dire but you know we still have hope that we can reach out to those that are hopefully still surviving and then we start to look at recovery.

[03:05:05]

How do we help those that are still there? They need housing, they need shelter, they need food, ongoing medical care. Yeah the needs are many and we're there to help.

FOSTER: Obviously when this immediate part of the mission is over there'll be big questions about how it was allowed to happen, how this development was allowed to be exactly in that spot when there was a clear risk. JENSEN: Yeah look I think that's a you know a good question. I think

with people they live in PNG, they live in their traditional homeland, it's where they belong, it's where they come from and so people would have lived there for a very long time.

We have to look at what caused this. There are engineers at the moment through the provincial authorities, national government, also the Defense Force that are assessing this situation to say hey what did cause this. There has been large earthquakes in recent times in the last couple of years in this region.

There's no reports of earthquakes this time but we did have quite a lot of rain. We've got a lot of you know inclement unseasonal weather happening across PNG. There's flooding in other provinces, we've got a lot of challenges here probably exacerbated by climate change where things are changing and we're adapting to different circumstances. So we'll do further assessments and analysis and be able to try and figure out what caused this but yes we're absolutely worried that you know with the right proper disaster resilience we could have actually saved some lives but who can know. It's great in hindsight but at the time yeah probably not something anyone expected.

FOSTER: Okay. Chris Jensen appreciate your time, thank you.

We're going to now to the U.S. where more than 120 million people across the country face the risk of severe weather in the coming days on this U.S. Memorial Day. A deadly storm, a system expected to continuous path of destruction. Tornado watches are in effect across Ohio, the Ohio and Tennessee river valleys impacting nearly five million people.

Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas amongst some of the hardest hit states after the severe storms and possible tornadoes tore through the area late on Saturday night. More than half a million homes and businesses are without power and at least 18 people have died in four states. That includes four children in Cook County Texas where a tornado hit overnights, that's just north of Dallas.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott visited one of the hardest hit cities in Cook County on Sunday to survey the destruction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R-TX): We will piece our lives back together, get back to business, rebuild families that there's only one thing that cannot be rebuilt and that's the loss of life. That's why we always stress to everybody whatever you do in any type of storm: put life first, protect life at whatever cost you can because life is irreplaceable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: CNN's Ed Lavandera has more from Valley View Texas.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Residents are cleaning up the destruction that was left by a tornado that shredded its way through this part of north Texas near the little city of Valley View north of the Dallas Fort Worth area.

You can see some homes just destroyed and absolutely leveled throughout the day. We've seen dozens if not hundreds of residents just cleaning it all up in some cases like this bringing in you know heavy equipment to just bulldoze the debris away. It has been a devastating day and evening for many of the residents who live here.

The storm in this area killed at least seven people. The sheriff here tells us that four of those seven victims were under the age of 18. Two of them are two and five years old so just simply devastating heartbreaking news that so many people are dealing with right here.

We spoke with a number of people who rode out the storm inside of makeshift storm shelters that had been built on their own to protect themselves from this.

They said they could feel the pressure dropping everything starting to violently shake as the storm ripped through here and they knew in the dead of night that when they woke up and emerged from these shelters or wherever they were seeking cover that it was not going to look good and that is exactly what has happened. But the extent and the length of the damage here in this particular storm system is quite devastating as well. Not only in this subdivision south of Valley View but there was a convenience store that collapsed. Several people had to be rescued out of that.

There's also a marina at a nearby popular lake on this Memorial Day weekend that was shattered by the storm system as well. So just a devastating scene that many people are having to deal with on this Memorial Day weekend and the deaths have been extensive into Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri as well. So this storm system really wreaking havoc in the overnight hours leading into this this Sunday of a holiday weekend. Just devastating scenes that we're seeing play out and unfold here wherever we look.

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Ed Lavendera, CNN, near Valley View, Texas.

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FOSTER: Millions are without power in parts of Bangladesh and India where tropical cyclone Remal made landfall late on Sunday. The first cyclone of the year brings the threat of wind gusts of up to 135 kilometers per hour, potential landslides, storm surges of nearly four meters. Authorities in Bangladesh raised the storm danger signal to its highest level for two ports and nine coastal districts along the Bay of Bengal. Officials say more than a million vulnerable people across both countries have been evacuated from homes ahead of that storm. The cyclone continues to move north and is expected to weaken as it gets further inland. The Gaza Health Ministry says at least 35 people have been killed in

an Israeli strike in the southern city of Rafah. Gaza officials say the strike hit a camp filled with tents for those displaced by the war and caused a fire that left many people injured with burns. The Israeli military claims it was targeting a Hamas compound and killed two senior Hamas officials.

Nada has been looking at this. What do we know about the compound or the tent area?

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Look Max, this was an area known to be housing thousands of Palestinians who've been displaced in Rafah as we know more than a million were displaced to this southern city and this was an area known to be filled with tents for those that had been displaced. In fact we have seen some parts of Rafah particularly in the east which were ordered to evacuate by the Israeli military ahead of what is expected to be a ground offensive.

This was not one of those areas, this was supposed to be a safe zone but it was targeted last night and the video the images that we have seen coming out of the southern neighborhood which is the particular area that was targeted are distressing, they are graphic, many of them we cannot show because they are simply too graphic. These are some of the most horrifying videos I personally have seen over the last seven months of this war. We've seen footage of charred bodies being pulled from burning tents. We've heard from some humanitarian organizations including Doctors Without Borders saying that they have seen an influx of patients now coming in with severe burn injuries.

The health ministry in Gaza says it simply does not have the capacity in Rafah to care for all of these patients. Now as you mentioned the Israeli military says it struck what it has described as a Hamas compound that it killed two senior Hamas leaders but as we know this is an area densely populated with civilians. The Israeli military has acknowledged that it is aware of civilian casualties that this strike in particular caused harm in its words to civilians and that it is reviewing the incident at the moment but again fierce criticism coming from humanitarian organizations and of course the Palestinian Authority as well as Hamas not only directed at the Israeli military but also crucially at President Biden.

The Palestinian Authority and Hamas both accusing Biden of facilitating Israel's actions and offensive in Rafah and of course this comes just a week after the International Court of Justice ordered the Israeli military to halt any plans for a military offensive in the south.

FOSTER: Okay. Nada, thank you.

Israel's war cabinet met ahead of a ceasefire and hostage deal talks which is set to resume this week but already Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressing his opposition to demands made by Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. Now in a statement the Prime Minister's office said quote "while Prime

Minister Netanyahu time and again gave the negotiating team an extensive mandate to release our hostages, Sinwar continues to demand the end of the war the withdrawal of IDF from Gaza and leaving Hamas intact so that it can carry out the atrocities of October the 7th over and over again. Prime Minister Netanyahu strongly opposes this".

Alon Pinkas is a former Israeli Consul General in New York. He joins me now live from Tel Aviv. Thank you so much for joining us. I mean what's your feeling about where the hostage talks are at right now?

ALON PINKAS, FORMER ISRAELI CONSUL GENERAL IN NEW YORK: Well tragically Max it's going nowhere and Mr. Netanyahu is on brand being disingenuous by saying that he provided the negotiation with an extensive mandate. He never ever provided with an extensive mandate and proof of that was just uttered yesterday and articulated yesterday by a former Major General (inaudible) who heads that negotiating team and said I'm very frustrated with this government quote unquote "there won't be a hostage deal". So to answer your question Max unfortunately I'm not optimistic about the likelihood or plausibility of a deal.

[03:15:03]

FOSTER: What do you think is the main sticking point if there is one or is this just a litany of different issues which you know just aren't getting resolved?

PINKAS: No, no, no, no, no this is not you know the people start taking drafts and comparing points. No, there's a major sticking point as you just alluded to in your question and that is the ceasefire.

Any hostage deal needs to be accompanied by a ceasefire. Whether draft number one says a six-week ceasefire or draft number two says five weeks it doesn't matter.

A ceasefire under current condition prevents Israel from saying it toppled, destroyed, annihilated, eradicated Hamas. In other words it prevents Israel from saying it won the war because there's nothing to show for other than devastation and death in Gaza and devastation and death in Israel.

So Mr. Netanyahu has a disincentive for a ceasefire not only because that would prevent him from showing or demonstrating an achievement or something tangible that he could call a triumph but because that would subject him almost inevitably to the scrutiny of being responsible and being held accountable for the period leading to October 7th and the mismanagement of the war.

On the other hand on the Hamas side without a ceasefire they have absolutely no reason to give up what they cruelly savagely and barbarically think are negotiating assets, human lives including babies and women and so both sides are, you know, locked jammed in this no-win situation.

FOSTER: Obviously you know you can't comprehend what's happening to so many civilians in Gaza but there is you know I mean there is an argument to be made isn't there that both sides feel that they've got some momentum right now so that gets in the way of negotiations.

PINKAS: I have to doubt that you know you look at what happened in Rafah last night and you ask yourself if this is what momentum looks like then you know then this is the sum of all the tragedies. I don't see any momentum for Hamas, I don't see any momentum for Israel other than a nasty brutish war of attrition.

FOSTER: If I could ask you about that you know that attack on the tented area, Nada was describing it she's covered this in great detail about some of the worst video that she's actually seen from during this conflict because they were so horrifying these burns and we haven't been able to show a lot of the video but this is exactly what many of Israel's allies have been concerned about, isn't it, you know they're saying they got to Hamas officials but there was a huge civilian casualty rate off the back of that.

PINKAS: Well that has been unfortunately the story of the war of, you know, indiscriminate and almost disproportionate civilian or non- combatant as the professional term is destined throughout Gaza over 30,000 of which I don't know how many are Hamas members now this is the most dense, densely I'm sorry, populated area or swath of land on this planet so there's no way in the world that with aerial bombardment you can target a certain individual and not cause the damage the civilian the residual structural damage it's almost impossible to achieve.

FOSTER: Okay. Alon Pinkas in Tel Aviv, I really appreciate your time today. Thank you.

Three Asian powerhouses held their first summit in years on Monday. We'll tell you what was on the agenda for leaders from Japan, South Korea and China just ahead in a live report.

Plus police in Massachusetts believe stabbing attacks at a movie theater and a McDonald's could be connected with other details.

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FOSTER: At least 16 people are dead after Russia bombed a crowded hardware store in Kharkiv on Saturday but that number could still rise. We have new video from inside the store but a warning, it is disturbing.

Officials have said there were nearly 200 people in the building when it was hit the remains of 10 people have been identified but eight others are still missing as Russia forces Russian forces continue to bombard Ukraine's northern border President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is 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 burnt down just like these books and I hope you don't want to either. Please show your leadership in advancing the peace, real peace, not just a pause between the strikes.

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FOSTER: Zelenskyy went on to say that more than 80 countries have already agreed to attend the summit.

Emmanuel Macron is in Berlin for a three-day visit. It's 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 their nations understand the need to defend 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 in collective debates. Peace means enabling a country to defend its borders and sovereignty. International law to build a lasting peace is the camp we have chosen.

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[03:25:06]

FOSTER: Mr. Macron also visited giant football pitch in front of the Brandenburg Gate built for the Euro 2024 tournament which will begin in June.

U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul and a bipartisan delegation of lawmakers arrived in Taiwan on Sunday. The six congress members are all set to meet with Taiwan's new president who was inaugurated last week. Lai Ching-te has been rebuked as a dangerous separatist by Beijing. His election triggered the largest military exercises in more than a year around the self-governing island which were held in the past few days.

Leaders from China, Japan and South Korea wrapped up their trilateral summit in the last few hours. Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol all held talks in Seoul aimed at boosting dialogue trade and mutual cooperation. The three nations haven't held this kind of meeting in more than four years so it is significant.

CNN's Mike Valerio has been following developments for us and joins us live from Hong Kong. Mike, some pretty positive reaction as well coming from all three sides it seems.

MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah Max, absolutely I think that could be the understatement of the afternoon here in Asia. We're hearing language from the Premier of China Li Qiang saying that this represents a new beginning for all three countries involved here. The government of Japan is saying that this was a very productive summit as well.

But Max, you know, the why we care factor, the why this matters, why we should be paying attention to the summit around the world is that this is all about avoiding misunderstandings, avoiding miscommunication and potential escalations among the three nations because we find ourselves here in Asia in such a tense environment. China aligning itself more closely with Russia and the United States pulling in Korea and Japan more tightly with its alliance certainly announced in and made formal by the Camp David summit in August of last year.

So certainly encouraging language there the Prime Minister of Japan Fumio Kishida, South Korean President Yoon Suk-Yeol and the Premier Li Qiang of China saying that they need to be able to talk to each other at a senior level to bring tensions down and certainly a test of their ability to operate Max is the wild card of North Korea which made itself very apparent as the summit was beginning. The North announcing that it's going to be launching a satellite between now and next Tuesday. Here's the Prime Minister of Japan Fumio Kishida talking about how the response should be. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FUMIO KISHIDA, JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER (through translator): Last night North Korea once again gave notice of its intention to launch another satellite but even if it were to successfully launch it, it would be a breach of United Nations resolutions and we strongly urge North Korea to cancel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALERIO: So South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol out with more forceful language saying that the international community needs to quote "sternly respond". China saying that each side needs to exercise restraint but you know Max in terms of a deliverable from this summit China and South Korea have agreed to a security meeting happening within the next month or so.

So small signs of progress a lot of progress when it comes to trade saying that the region needs to have a free trade environment to promote stability. So we're going to be watching to see how these three begin to respond to North Korea and we're going to be waiting to watch what happens with this planned satellite launch, Max.

FOSTER: Okay. Mike Valero in Hong Kong, thank you so much for that.

Still to come, a dozen people are injured after turbulence hit a Qatar Airways flight. We'll hear from some of the passengers about what happened.

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MAX FOSTER, CNN LONDON CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR: We are nearing the end of Donald Trump's historic criminal hush-money trial. Closing arguments set for Tuesday, starting with the former president's attorneys, followed by the prosecution. Afterwards, the judge will instruct the members of the jury on the charges that they have to consider. Then will begin, well they'll begin their deliberations likely on Wednesday.

Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up a payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election. CNN spoke with one of his former attorneys on whether he believes Trump's team is prepared for the possibility of a guilty verdict.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM TRUSTY, DONALD TRUMP'S FORMER ATTORNEY: Yeah, I think so, because it's a Manhattan jury pool. I mean, the reality is that the numbers don't favor him. Only taking three days or three and a half days to pick a jury on something this high profile is very worrisome. Even having a couple of attorneys on the jury could kind of cut wildly in either direction. So, you know, I think there's probably a feeling of fatalism, but not of surrender. I mean, again, you can, there's stuff to attack in terms of whether the entries are even false when it says legal service is rendered.

But beyond that, to go into Cohen as the star witness is just, you know, you can make a lot of arguments that if you wouldn't buy a used car from this guy, you can't base a criminal verdict on him. Government's going to distance themselves. They're going to say, look at all this corroboration we have. Maybe they'll use the old speech. There's no swans in the gutter, you know, going back about 30 years when I was a prosecutor. But they'll distance themselves and act like there's a lot of corroboration. Although really for the intent, I'm not sure there is.

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FOSTER: Six people were stabbed in separate attacks in Massachusetts, and police say they're likely connected. Four young girls were attacked at a movie theater before two other people were stabbed at a McDonald's. CNN's Polo Sandoval has those details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this weekend, police releasing limited information about this series of stabbings, but still enough to help us build a timeline, albeit a disturbing one.

It paints a clearer picture of the events from Saturday. Police say that it all started at 6 pm on Saturday when a suspect, without a ticket, walked into a movie theater in the town of Braintree, Massachusetts, which is about 13 miles south of Boston.

Police say he proceeded to stab four young females, their ages ranging from 9 to 17 years old. Their injuries, non-life-threatening, so they're expected to survive here. Police say that this seemed to be an unprovoked attack, that without saying anything, without any warning, that this suspect then started stabbing these young women and then fled.

[03:35:00]

It was a short time later that police say that he made his way to Plymouth, Massachusetts, where he stabbed two additional individuals, a man and a woman, each in their 20s. They also suffered non-life- threatening injuries, and then he tried to flee. The suspect did.

Police then engaged that suspect in a chase, which ended in a crash, and ultimately they were able to detain that suspect.

We should mention, though, that there is no specific word on any possible motive. They are still investigating. We should also mention that police in Deep River, Connecticut, on Saturday, also investigating a homicide after they located a body while responding to a call of a disturbance. Police there in Connecticut will only say that their suspect was arrested in Massachusetts, but they stopped short of directly linking it to those two other stabbings. So still a lot of information here that should be coming up, coming forward from investigators, but at least we do have enough to understand that series of events of two unprovoked stabbings at a movie theater and also at a fast food restaurant over the holiday weekend.

Polo Sandoval, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Qatar Airways says it'll 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 on Sunday. The flight ran into turbulence over Turkey, but it's unclear what caused it. This comes less than a week after more than 100 passengers were injured, and a man died of a suspected heart attack when a Singapore Airlines flight encountered severe turbulence.

For more, let's go to CNN's Sebastian Shukla, who's in Berlin. Sebastian, walk us through, then, this particular latest incident.

SEBASTIAN SHUKLA, CNN PRODUCER: Yeah, Max, good morning. I mean, turbulence is not rare for anybody who's ever done any airline travel, frequent or infrequent.

But what is incredibly rare is the fact that we have two relatively serious incidents happening in the space of a week. That's Singapore Airlines' flight from London to Singapore, which had to be diverted to Bangkok. And now we have this flight, Qatar Airways, going from Doha to the Irish capital, Dublin.

That didn't have to divert, it did land, but there were still 12 people who were injured on that flight, and eight of them had to be hospitalized. Now, we don't really know what happened with regards to the

turbulence. Was it the same as the Singapore Airlines flight? But we know that it happened somewhere over Turkey, and that it appeared to be a clear air turbulence of some form, because it happened during the meal service, and that was a good four hours to go until it was due to land in Dublin.

But obviously, Max, an incredibly harrowing experience for the passengers. Take a listen to what some of them had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHILOMENA PRENDERGAST, QATAR AIRWAYS PASSENGER: We had our seatbelts on just from watching the episode that happened last week. It was just, it was there in your mind. It was so scary at the time, you just don't know, is this it or not? The staff were amazing, to actually get up and have to look after us, and they're going around with bandages on their hands and bloodied faces, and they have to serve us as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHUKLA: Max, 65,000 incidents of turbulence are recorded every year, 5,000 of which are considered as serious, and a 2022 report by a university in the U.K. suggested that actually the incidents in the next decade could be rising by two or three times, which doesn't bode well for anybody who is a particularly anxious flier. And I was traveling on a flight yesterday which had some very mild turbulence, but it has seeped into the psyche of travelers because, you know, there was a little bit of screaming and people were worried about the small fluctuations in height.

So, Max, it will be something that airlines will have to look to contend with as they go forward.

FOSTER: Yeah, OK. Seb, thanks for joining us from Berlin.

Coming up, activists and lawmakers in Japan are raising the alarm about host clubs, saying many of them are preying on women, forcing them to rack up huge debts and pay them off with sex work. Our story's just ahead.

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[03:40:00]

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FOSTER: 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 ended up thousands of dollars in debt whilst paying for the company of a handsome host who, she says, then pressured her to perform sex work to pay her bills.

Hanako Montgomery joins us now from Tokyo. Hanako.

HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Max. As you mentioned, these romance scams have been a huge, huge issue in the country. And just briefly, host clubs are part of Japan's vast nightlife entertainment industry. They've existed for over 60 years now and are essentially bars or clubs where young, usually attractive men are paid to entertain women, flirt with them, pour them a couple of drinks.

Now, it sounds like it's all fun and games in theory. But from what we've found throughout reporting is that recently, some of these clubs are forcing women to spend an exorbitant amount at their clubs and incur massive, massive debts.

Now, once these women do incur these massive debts, they are then expected or forced into sex work by these hosts. And the hosts then take a cut of that profit.

It's become a huge issue in the country and it's left hundreds of people a victim to this type of romance scam. So host clubs have said that they're going to self-regulate, that they'll ban minors from entering their clubs and also prevent women from incurring these massive debts. But according to the lawmakers, the victims, the aid groups that we've spoken to, that just simply is not the case. Women are still being trafficked into sex work and being exploited.

We spoke to one victim of this scam earlier this year, a woman named Yu, who told us about how she lost everything and how she was trafficked overseas.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

YU, ROMANCE SCAM 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.

[03:45:08]

MONTGOMERY (voice-over): Host clubs, part of Japan's expansive night entertainment industry, are bars where 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 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 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.

MONTGOMERY (voice-over): Hidemori Gen is an aid worker in Tokyo's biggest red-light district, who'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 "SEIDOREN" (through translator): Last spring, when we came out of the pandemic and the masks came off, that's when 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.

MONTGOMERY (voice-over): Instead, from April 1st, host 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 10 years.

RUI MIKAMI, CLUB LEO 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.

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MONTGOMERY: It's clearly a very dire situation for these victims, Max. Now, to solve this issue, the Japanese government met with victims and host clubs, and actually, just last week, a high-level government official met with this group of victims for the very first time. And according to an aid group that was there, they told us that they finally felt like the government acknowledged that these were victims of an actual crime, rather than women who had simply gotten themselves in a bad situation. The aid group told us that it felt like a massive step forward, but that there was still a lot of work that needs to be done in order to prevent this sexual exploitation of women in Japan. Max.

FOSTER: Hanako Montgomery in Tokyo, I really appreciate that, thank you.

Just ahead, how climate change is costing fishermen their livelihoods in Thailand. Stay with us.

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[03:50:00]

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FOSTER: With climate change causing ocean temperatures to rise, marine life is dying off, including coral reefs that many species rely on. In Thailand, fishing communities are bearing the brunt of this devastation as they struggle to make their catch with a diminishing supply of fish. Lynda Kinkade has our story.

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LYNDA KINKADE, CNN ANCHOR AND 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 US 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.

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 and a fish near 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.

[03:55:06]

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 seawater'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.

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FOSTER: Champs-Elysees isn't just for tourists. That was the message behind the giant picnic that took place at the world-famous boulevard on Sunday. A few thousand Parisians were provided picnic baskets and invited to camp out for a meal at a site that's usually a hub for designer stores and tourists. The participants were selected by lottery and given baskets that included sandwiches, strawberries and cookies. The event organizer said the aim of the event was to back Parisians back -- or bring them back rather, to the thoroughfare.

Thanks for joining me on this hour. I'll be back in the next couple of minutes for another hour of "CNN Newsroom" after the break.

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