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Harris to Announce her Running Mate Within the Day; Asian Stocks Rebound After Yesterday's Global Stocks Meltdown; Trump's Running Mate Outraged on Cat Lady's Comment, Wife Defends His View; Simone Biles Ends Paris 2024 Campaign with Three Golds and a Silver in Gymnastics; Starmer Vows to End Violent post-Southport Knife Attack Protests. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired August 06, 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]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the United States and all around the world, and everyone streaming us on CNN Max. I'm Rosemary Church.

Just ahead, all eyes on U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris as she prepares to announce who will join her on the Democratic ticket for November.

Plus a massive tumble on Wall Street as U.S. stocks notch their worst day in two years. But in Asia, the markets make a comeback.

And the British Prime Minister vows a swift response after days of violent far-right protests grip the nation.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Rosemary Church.

CHURCH: Good to have you with us. Well, we should learn in the coming hours who U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris has picked to be her running mate, a key decision that will come just two weeks after she launched her presidential campaign.

Harris is expected to announce her choice before she appears with her running mate at a rally in Pennsylvania later today. Multiple sources tell CNN Harris focused on two Democratic governors in the final hours of her search, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Tim Walz of Minnesota. Harris met both men in separate meetings on Sunday. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi weighed in on who might be the best to join the Democratic ticket.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), U.S. HOUSE SPEAKER EMERITA: I think they're all great and whoever she picks, I'm for. But Tim Walz is wonderful. He was chair of our Veterans Affairs Committee. Governor of Pennsylvania is remarkable and a real star. It's a question of who she feels the most comfort level with in terms of governance. People say, well, who can help us win? But it's about who can help us govern more than that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: NN's MJ Lee is following developments and has more now from Philadelphia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MJ LEE, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: We are in the very final, final stages of the vice presidential selection process for Vice President Kamala Harris. As of late afternoon on Monday, the Harris campaign had said that she had not yet made a final decision.

We, of course, have been discussing three names in particular as being the final contenders. Those names, of course, are Josh Shapiro, Mark Kelly and Tim Walz.

And what CNN reported Monday evening is that in the final hours of the selection process, the vice president had been training her focus in particular on two of those names, Shapiro and Walz. Now, to be clear, our sources said that Mark Kelly was still in the running in those final hours that his name had not been taken off the table.

All three of them, of course, met with the vice president in Washington, D.C. over the weekend.

We also know that some of the biggest questions that the vice president has been asking of the advisors around her and probably of herself as she has been deliberating over this process are questions like who can help her win, who can help her govern, who does she have a strong personal chemistry with.

Now, Tuesday night here in Philadelphia, Kamala Harris and her future running mate will appear at their first joint campaign rally of the 20 -- 21st first season. And then they are hoping to travel to a number of additional battleground cities and states as they really hope to showcase this joint ticket for the first time.

And that, of course, is when we will first see what kind of personal chemistry the two of them actually do have.

MJ Lee, CNN, in Philadelphia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Ron Brownstein is a CNN senior political analyst and senior editor for "The Atlantic." He joins me now from Los Angeles. Appreciate you being with us.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST AND SR. EDITOR, "THE ATLANTIC": Hi, Rosemary.

CHURCH: It is decision day for Kamala Harris. She is set to pick a running mate in the coming hours. And multiple sources tell CNN she's focusing on two possibilities now. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. Who is the smart choice politically for Harris and the Democrats?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, you know, the impact of the vice president on the presidential race, as Donald Trump himself noted, has tended to be rather modest.

But to the extent they do influence it, they can be a little bit of a help in their home state. And I think that most Democrats agree that Pennsylvania looks like the tipping point state in this election, the state that is likely to be the 270th Electoral College vote for a Democrat if they win.

[03:05:05]

Now, you know, there are certain risks with taking Josh Shapiro in that there are parts of the left of the Democratic Party who don't like him for various reasons, his views on Israel and the war in Gaza, on school vouchers.

But if you have a chance of influencing, even at the margin, the outcome in a state that you are very unlikely to win without, politically at least, it would seem that is the most logical pick.

The advantage of Tim Walz, he's a very good campaigner, broadly liked in the Democratic Party, there's really no controversy associated with him. But the upside does not look nearly as potentially great as it could be if Shapiro gives you even a scintilla better chance of winning a state you have to win.

CHURCH: And Kamala Harris will hold a rally with her vice presidential pick on Tuesday in Philadelphia. Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie says it should be Josh Shapiro because he has a 65 percent job approval rating and he's so popular in Pennsylvania, a state Harris needs to win, as you pointed out. But does his popularity necessarily translate into the pivotal state of Pennsylvania going blue?

BROWNSTEIN: No, but, you know, if obviously not, I mean, there are plenty of vice presidential nominees, John Edwards most recently in 2004, who could not deliver, quote unquote, "their home state."

But the political science is pretty consistent that the vice president makes at least some impact.

And as long as the impact is more than zero, that would seem to be a pretty good argument for picking the guy who has a 65 percent approval rating or favorability rating in a state that you almost certainly have to win. You know, if Democrats don't win Wisconsin, they can replace it with Arizona.

If they don't win Michigan, they can replace it with Georgia. If they don't win Pennsylvania, they have to win both Georgia and either Nevada or Arizona. And that's a lot.

So, again, on a purely political calculus, I think Shapiro is head and shoulders. Now, there are parts of the party that are more resistant to him for all the reasons we just discussed. And Tim Walz, who is a good campaigner, is probably the path of least resistance.

But I would think that much like Hillary Clinton picking Tim Kaine in 2016, Democrats may come to view a Walz election as a safe pick that was an opportunity lost.

CHURCH: And "Politico" wrote over the weekend that the junior senator from Pennsylvania, John Fetterman, is concerned about Harris choosing Governor Josh Shapiro as a running mate, because he says he's excessively focused on his own personal ambitions. Is that likely to be enough to turn Harris off Shapiro and does that make him any different to any other politician?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, you know, Fetterman is a loose cannon at this point. I mean, he is someone who was even more supportive of Netanyahu than almost anyone else in the Democratic Party, you know, is very critical of the movement on Biden.

I would not be shocked if he has a primary race when he comes up again in 2020, a serious race when he comes up in 2028. I mean, the point that he's making that has a germ of truth is that if you are picking Shapiro and you win, you are kind of -- you are clearly putting a thumb on the scale in the succession, you know, for the Democratic Party going forward, whereas Barack Obama picked Joe Biden, who was presumed at that point to be someone who did not have ambitions of his own.

And that kind of, you know, reassured the -- the Obama team that Biden would not be out kind of freelancing for his own benefit. Walz might fit into that category more than Shapiro in the sense that fewer people can imagine him running for president one day.

But, you know, your job is to win as the nominee, particularly if you believe, as Democrats have been saying for several years, that a Trump victory is an existential threat to the future of democracy, to the rule of law in America. It's just hard to see how you don't end up with the person that gives you the best chance of winning.

And if you don't, I think it is a somewhat ominous signal of the ability of, kind of, factions in the party to move you toward a decision that may not be optimal for your chances.

CHURCH: Ron Brownstein, always a pleasure to chat with you. Many thanks.

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me.

CHURCH: Financial markets here in the U.S. are on track for a positive start when trading gets underway later today. The Dow, Nasdaq and S&P 500 are hoping to recover from their worst percentage drop in nearly two years. You see there the Nasdaq and S&P 500 futures up more than 1 percent. A weak jobs report, renewed fears of a recession and the lack of an interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve all contributed to Monday's sell-off.

[03:09:57]

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei has bounced back from its worst one-day percentage drop since 1989. The index gained more than 10 percent after falling 12 percent on Monday.

So let's go live now to Tokyo and CNN's Hanako Montgomery. So Hanako, what's the latest on markets in Asia and what can we expect from the financial day ahead for the rest of the world?

HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Rosemary, stock markets in Asia have recovered somewhat after those massive losses we saw just a day ago.

But experts are warning me that we can expect to see much more volatility in markets until September when the U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to make rate cuts.

Now, the reason why Asia stock markets and specifically the Japanese stock market, which was the hardest hit, made such a quick recovery is really twofold.

The first reason is because we received better than expected service sector data for the month of July from the United States. That's some concerns about the possibility of a recession in the world's largest economy.

Now, the second reason is because the value of the yen has dipped just a little bit. On Monday, we saw the yen surge against the dollar and these massive movements that we've seen in the dollar-yen rate really is largely attributed to the Bank of Japan raising interest rates for the second time in 14 years. Just last week, the interest rates are now at 0.25 percent, which doesn't sound like a lot.

But the Bank of Japan has raised interest rates, which is a break from what other countries are doing because they recognize that it needs to raise interest rates and therefore boost the value of its currency. Over the last year or so, the value of the yen has dropped significantly against the greenback, making the cost of imports for things like food and fuel that much more expensive.

So the Bank of Japan raised interest rates and therefore boosted the value of its currency.

But the sudden surge we saw on Monday really spooked hedge funds and also investors, which is why we saw that sudden panic selling.

Now, again, because the value of the yen has dipped a little bit, it's now trading at 146 yen to the dollar. That's eased and soothed some nerves.

Now we can expect U.S. and U.K. markets to open higher like Asia markets have done. But experts are warning me that we're not out of the woods just yet and central banks will watch with bated breath what the U.S. Federal Reserve will do come September. Rosemary.

CHURCH: Alright. Hanako Montgomery, joining us live from Tokyo with that report. I appreciate it.

Well for decades, Google has dominated the internet search market, now handling about 90 percent of the world's online searches. But that dominance has been dealt a serious blow in a U.S. district court, which ruled Monday that Google has violated antitrust laws acting as a monopoly to stifle competition.

The landmark ruling is a stinging rebuke and could reshape how millions of Americans get their information online. Google has spent tens of billions of dollars on exclusive contracts to make itself the world's default search provider. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland hailed the ruling, saying quote, "this victory against Google is an historic win for the American people. No company - no matter how large or influential - is above the law." No comment yet from Google, which is expected to appeal any penalties it may face.

Large parts of the southeastern U.S., including Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, are facing torrential rain and catastrophic flooding from Tropical Storm Debby. The storm is bringing the threat of tornadoes and dangerous storm surge in coastal areas. The mayor of Savannah, Georgia, says he's terrified by the amount of rain from this slow moving storm.

It's blamed for at least five deaths so far. The storm is expected to move into the Atlantic Ocean in the hours ahead and will slowly push into North Carolina and up the East Coast later this week. More now on Tropical Storm Debby from CNN meteorologist Chad Myers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, Debby started out certainly as a rainmaker with almost a foot and a half of rain over parts of Florida. Everywhere that you see purple on this map, that's 10 inches of rain or more.

And then the red spots here somewhere around six. Look at the wind gusts here, just barely getting into the hurricane category, but they were there.

This is the rainfall that is still to come because this storm is moving so slowly, literally five miles per hour.

The Olympic athletes could power walk faster than that. And it's going to hang around for a very long time, putting down significant amounts of rainfall. There could be 10 to 20 inches of additional rain into parts of Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina. And look at this by Saturday, there could even be rain into the Northeast.

[03:15:05]

Now, obviously the cone goes all the way to the left and all the way to the right five days away from now, but it's certainly a possibility. We keep watching it for you here.

Now, also remember that there could be some still coming in. If you hear those sirens or your phone goes off, make sure you take cover low country, South Carolina, also up toward the grand strand.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: A flurry of diplomacy is underway to prevent a larger conflict in the Middle East, but U.S. forces are now coming under attack in Iraq. Details on that after the break.

And Donald Trump's running mate is facing huge backlash after saying, quote, "childless cat ladies shouldn't be running the country." Now, his wife says people are taking it all too seriously.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: As the Middle East braces for Iran to retaliate against Israel, the U.S. is reporting a strike against its personnel in Iraq. An American defense official says several U.S. staff were injured in a suspected rocket attack at the Al Asad airbase.

[03:20:08]

The Pentagon says Iran aligned militia groups are responsible, calling the attack a dangerous escalation. Damage assessments are underway. The White House released this photo of the U.S. president, vice president and secretary of state discussing the attack in the situation room and a statement saying they went over the steps being taken to defend U.S. forces and support the defense of Israel.

They also discussed efforts to lower regional tension. Intense diplomacy is underway to prevent an attack that could lead to a wider war. It's unclear how and when Iran will go after Israel.

The Iranian foreign ministry is stressing that Tehran is determined to, quote, "deter Israel and no one should doubt its resolve."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NASER KANANI, IRANIAN FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINISTRY SPOKESPERSON (through translator): Iran does not seek to escalate tensions in the region. If Iran talks about its right to punish the aggressor, this is an action to help consolidate security and stability in the region.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Iran has been vowing to punish Israel for days now after its ally, Hamas political chief, Ismail Haniyeh, was assassinated on Iranian soil last week. Israel has not claimed responsibility for the killing.

CNN's Paula Hancocks is covering these developments live from London. She joins us now. Good morning to you, Paula. So what's the latest on this heightened tension in the region as Israel braces for retaliation from Iran?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rosemary, it's really a waiting game at this point to see what Iran will do in its retaliation that it has promised against Israel, what form it will take and also when it will happen. Now, of course, the question is whether it would be Iran alone that will carry out some kind of retaliatory attack or whether they will be using their proxies in the region as well, which would make it potentially a more significant and widespread event.

Now, what we have seen, as you mentioned overnight, we did see that there were Iran-aligned militia groups, according to Washington, that did carry out an attack, a strike against the Al Asad air base in Iraq. Now, we have seen since October a number of these attacks in Iraq and also in Syria on U.S. troops that are stationed there, and they have consistently been blamed on these Iranian proxy groups.

This one has been no different. The U.S. saying that is who is responsible. But we have been seeing somewhat of a lull in recent months for these attacks, or at least they haven't been publicly acknowledged. Between October and January, we saw more than 150 strikes against U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria.

So that is a reminder to Israel, to the United States, that there are these Iranian proxies that are ready and willing to carry out these attacks. So, of course, the question that the U.S. is trying to figure out now is whether or not these groups will be involved in any kind of retaliation.

You did mention there was this Situation Room meeting where they tried to assess and predict what could happen. We have heard, though, from two U.S. officials that many of the Iranian military assets that they would need for this kind of retaliatory attack had been moved back in April.

So it has made it far more difficult for U.S. intelligence to follow any kind of movement, any kind of preparations to be able to predict what and where may happen. So this is why we are seeing, certainly on this occasion, there appears to be less predictions and less knowledge of what could happen. Very different to what we saw back in April when Iran carried out that retaliatory attack on Israel, where you saw more than 300 drones and rockets and missiles being fired to Israel, but it was well telegraphed.

And there had been good preparations in place, so the U.S. and its allies were able to shoot the vast majority of them out of the sky. Rosemary?

CHURCH: All right. Paula Hancocks, joining us live from London. Many thanks for that report.

My next guest is the author of "Making the Arab World" and a professor of international relations at the London School of Economics. Fawaz Gerges, appreciate you joining us.

So with an Iranian retaliatory attack on Israel expected any time now, the U.S. is reporting a strike on American personnel in Iraq, blaming Iranian proxies for the attack. Is this an effort to drag the U.S. into the conflict? And if so, how should the U.S. respond?

FAWAZ GERGES, PROF. OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS: No, not at all. Actually, the reverse is true. Neither Iran nor its local partners or proxies would like an all-out war with the United States.

[03:25:07]

In fact, one of the reasons why Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon and other local partners of Iran have been reluctant to really retaliate on a much bigger scale than before is that they're terrified, they're anxious that the Netanyahu government is trying to drag Iran into all- out war with the United States. And the U.S. knows this.

The U.S. has made it very clear that neither Iran nor its local allies or proxies have any intention or desire either for all-out war or for a direct confrontation, not only with the United States, but even with Israel itself. And that's why I think the big question on the table, you know, Antony Blinken, the U.S. Secretary of State said yesterday, all nations in the Middle East should refrain from escalation. It's a wonderful statement.

But who has really triggered this current crisis you and I were talking about? Does de-escalation applies to Israel? Has the Netanyahu government accepted the hostage deal and a ceasefire in Gaza, who basically violated Iran's sovereignty and tried to humiliate the new president, the new president of Iran, who was inaugurated last weekend and who has called for closer ties with the West, including the United States? So we have to really be direct when we talk about the foundation and the causes of this particular crisis you and I were talking about.

CHURCH: So what calculation would Iran be making right now as it assesses how to strike back at Israel in response to the assassination of that senior Hamas leader, Haniyeh, on the Iranian soil last week and what type of retaliation are you expecting to see?

GERGES: I think this is the question and challenge facing Iranian leaders and their local partners or proxies in Lebanon, in Yemen, in Iraq, while they really want to retaliate and basically show that Israel really cannot just violate their sovereignties and kill their leaders just very easily.

But at the same time, they want to make sure that their retaliation does not trigger all-out war, either with Israel or the United States.

And that's why the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, has repeatedly said that their retaliation will be calculated, will focus on particular targets. It will not basically provide the pretext for Israel to basically go for all-out war. My own reading, and I could be wrong, that Iran will directly involve in retaliation with Hezbollah and the Houthis in Yemen and Iraqi militiamen.

And this particular retaliation will be multi-layered, targeting Israel's strategic positions, airport, what have you, the infrastructure. And I think Iran and its allies will most likely rely on Hezbollah's precision missiles in order to overwhelm Israel's air defense capabilities and the coalition that the United States has been reassembling in the past few days in order to really shoot down most of these missiles or drones that they will be fired at Israel when and if the attack takes place. CHURCH: So how would you then expect Israel to respond once Iran

retaliates?

GERGES: I think this is the key question.

The question is not whether Iran and its allies will retaliate. The question is when and how extensive this particular attack, the question facing the United States. Will the United States be able to convince the Netanyahu government not to retaliate against the retaliation and trigger a cycle of retaliation for a few days that could easily expand into a wider regional conflict?

So this is what the Biden administration, in particular the president and his associates, senior aides, are really discussing now, trying to work on multiple fronts, sending messages to Iran against really strategic escalation and trying to also basically impress on Netanyahu the need for against strategic escalation as well if and when the Iranian retaliation takes place.

[03:30:00]

It's not very easy at all. But again, what has happened, and for your own American viewers, is that the United States is being dragged into the killing fields of the Middle East. And we have been warning about it, as you know, for the past 10 months is that what the war in Gaza, unless the war in Gaza ends now, not tomorrow, we could really all you need is a trigger that could basically find the United States and Britain in all-out war in the Middle East.

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Fawaz Gerges, many thanks for joining us. I appreciate it.

GERGES: Thanks.

CHURCH: And still to come, Team USA's Simone Biles misses out on gold in her last event at the Paris Games, but she has no problem with who took the top spot, we'll explain.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. Well, the wife of Donald Trump's vice presidential pick, J.D. Vance is defending her husband after outrage over his childless cat lady's comment. Brian Todd has more on how Usha Vance is trying to soften the view of her husband and his message.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Usha Vance speaking out in a new Fox interview about her husband's now-infamous childless cat lady remarks.

USHA VANCE, WIFE OF J.D. VANCE: He made a quip, and he made a quip in service of making a point that he wanted to make that was substantive. I just wish sometimes that people would talk about those things and that we would spend a lot less time just sort of going through this three-word phrase or that three-word phrase. TODD (voice-over): J.D. Vance's controversial comments from a July

2021 interview on Fox, insulting adults without children, drew scorn from Hollywood as well as from conservative outlets.

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), U.S. VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're effectively run in this country via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they've made.

[03:35:05]

TODD (voice-over): Usha Vance's first solo interview comes as the Trump campaign is trying to deflect attention from her husband's remarks and change the narrative.

U. VANCE: J.D. absolutely at the time and today would never, ever, ever want to say something to hurt someone who was trying to have a family who really, you know, was struggling with that. And I also understand there are a lot of other reasons why people may choose not to have families, and many of those reasons are very good.

TODD (voice-over): It's not the first time Usha Vance has confidently stood by her husband politically. During his 2022 run for Senate in Ohio, she took the lead in a campaign ad.

U. VANCE: Our family's story is an Ohio story. My husband, J.D., grew up in Middletown and things weren't easy. He's an incredible father and he's my best friend.

TODD (voice-over): That proclivity to be able to comfortably appear with her husband in public contrasts with Melania Trump, who's rarely seen with the former president at public events.

U. VANCE: We don't see Melania Trump humanizing her husband. That's really not the role that she's ever played. And so perhaps Usha could be a really big advantage to this campaign. She's young. She's well- spoken. She's successful.

TODD (voice-over): Born Usha Chilukuri in 1986, she was raised in a San Diego suburb by Indian immigrant parents and met J.D. Vance when they both attended Yale Law School. They married in 2014 and have three young children, which Usha Vance has balanced with some impressive professional accomplishments.

She clerked for two Supreme Court justices, Chief Justice John Roberts and Brent Kavanaugh when he served on the U.S. Court of Appeals. She recently resigned from a high-powered law firm. In a 2020 podcast, J.D. Vance joked about how tough it is to argue with her at home.

J. VANCE: Oh, my God, it's terrible. It's just terrible. She uses so much facts and logic.

TODD: During that Fox interview, Usha Vance also seemed to want to clarify reports that she and her husband had privately condemned Donald Trump before Trump selected J.D. Vance as his running mate. And more specifically, a report in "The Washington Post" that said Usha Vance was upset with Trump over the January 6th attack on the Capitol. Usha Vance told Fox she has grown to understand Trump since then.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Another day of Olympic drama is unfolding in Paris. A slightly lighter schedule will see 15 medal events on Tuesday. Those include finals in women's skateboarding and athletics and the team sprint final in men's track cycling. Team USA and China are currently tied atop the medal table for most golds with 21 each. But the U.S. still ranks first in overall medals.

And CNN's Amanda Davis joins me now live from Paris with more. Great to see you, Amanda. So take us through the highlights of Monday's events.

AMANDA DAVIS, CNN WORLD SPORT: I have to say I'm laughing. A slightly lighter schedule. It's not that light. And certainly the athletes involved will very much be going full steam ahead. But yesterday, I mean, we got what is being talked about as the most iconic photo of Paris 2024.

I'm dubbing them the ABC: Rebecca Andrade, Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles, not only the first all-black Olympic gymnastics podium, but a true show of love, support and respect between the trio. All game changes in their own right with Biles and Chiles bowing down to celebrate Brazil's Andrade as she celebrates her first Olympic gold at her third games after coming back from not one, not two, but three ACL tears having won the floor competition.

It's women supporting women in the best possible way with Biles signing off here in Paris with three golds and a silver and she's described as more than her wildest dreams.

Speaking, though, of iconic pictures, a fair few have been produced 10,000 miles away from here in the French territory of Tahiti, which is venue of the surfing competition. And you might have missed while you were sleeping. Team USA's Caroline Marks taking the gold.

The 22 year old defending World Surf League champion, upgrading her fourth place finish from Tokyo in the best possible way to take the gold or maybe the best possible way was the way that Mondo Duplantis did it in the pole vault. The world champion successfully defending his gold from Tokyo, setting a new world record as well.

A 24-year-old just keeps rewriting the record books. He's raised the world record six centimeters in the last four and a half years since he first broke it. It previously took 23 years to move it that distance. And you just had to see Noah Lyle's reaction to Mondo's achievements last night to see the respect that he deserves as an athlete.

It's another massive day on the track as well, though. We've got one of those iconic showdowns to look forward to in the men's 1,500 meters defending champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen up against world champion Josh Kerr and USA's Gabby Thomas heading into the 200 meters very much as the favorite, having posted the fastest time in the semifinals, Rosemary.

[03:40:09]

CHURCH: Well done, Amanda Davis, joining us live from Paris. Now go off and have some fun. I Appreciate it.

Coming up, some Israeli soldiers are speaking out against the war in Gaza and are refusing to go back to fight. We'll tell you why.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: The Israeli military returned 89 bodies to Gaza on Monday, where Palestinian officials are preparing them for a mass burial. A warning, viewers may find this video disturbing.

Family members of missing people gathered at the burial site, hoping to find information about their loved ones. Palestinian officials say the bodies were handed over in a shipping container and the Israelis did not provide their identities or information about when or how they died. Gaza's civil defense officials say some of the body bags contained the remains of more than one person, and now forensic specialists are examining them to find out details.

Some Israeli soldiers who have fought in Gaza are reconsidering what they were ordered to do in the enclave. One former reservist tells CNN that he witnessed serious misconduct and says many troops were motivated by anger or revenge for the October 7th attacks. Jeremy Diamond speaks to some Israelis who now refuse to go back to the war.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Michael Ofer Ziv isn't just protesting Israel's war in Gaza. He served in it. And now, as the war enters its 11th month, he is refusing to serve again.

MICHAEL OFER ZIV, FORMER ISRAELI RESERVIST: It just feels like this is my duty now. Like, after doing whatever I did there, I feel like it's my duty to oppose this as much as I can, to raise my voice, to be part of this fight.

DIAMOND (voice-over): Michael served as a fire control officer, monitoring threats to Israeli forces in Gaza and approving airstrikes from across the border.

[03:45:07]

DIAMOND: You were watching live feeds of these airstrikes happening.

OFER ZIV: Yeah.

DIAMOND: And what were you seeing?

OFER ZIV: No audio, just video. You just see the feed. And then all of a sudden you see just a building goes boom, you know, goes up in flames, like big mushroom of clouds.

DIAMOND: Looks like a video game.

OFER ZIV: Exactly. And then you start seeing the aftermath of those strikes. At some point, your brain kind of cannot disconnect those two things anymore, and they start to connect. This is happening in real life and has actual effect on those people. So you start connecting dots.

DIAMOND (voice-over): Once he connected those dots, there was no going back. At the end of May, he and 40 other military reservists said they would not serve again, signing an open letter declaring, our conscience does not allow us to stand up and lend a hand to the desecration of the lives of the hostages and to sabotage another deal.

OFER ZIV: I'm actually supposed to be there now. I was called back. I told them I cannot come. I cannot in clear conscience come and do this in clear mind, clear heart. I cannot, just cannot participate in this thing. The main vibe was we should first ask questions later.

DIAMOND: It became clear to you that the system was not doing all it could to protect civilians.

OFER ZIV: Yeah. Yeah. Very, very clear at some point.

DIAMOND (voice-over): Yuval Green is taking the same stand after wrestling for months with his service as a combat medic in Gaza.

YUVAL GREEN, FORMER ISRAELI RESERVIST: I was always in conflict. It wasn't simple. But I felt like I can't abandon my friends at this moment when they need me the most.

DIAMOND (voice-over): But the immeasurable destruction around him became impossible to ignore. And so was the language of revenge, he says, that seemed to imbue everything Israeli soldiers in his unit did in Gaza.

GREEN: The way they spoke, the violent way they spoke, ideas like killing the entire population of Gaza suddenly became almost normal.

DIAMOND: What was that moment when you decided, I can't be a part of this anymore?

GREEN: Basically, they told us to, after one of the houses we've used to protect ourselves, we went out of it. And this was a house in the middle of a place that would be definitely rehabilitated by the Palestinians afterwards.

And they told us to burn it down, because we're burning down every house we're coming out of. And I said, all right, this is just not a good enough reason to take away the house of two or three families. I'm not doing that. And if we're doing that, I'm leaving. The commander of my company just didn't have good enough answers, and I just left.

DIAMOND (voice-over): The next day, Yuval jumped into a vehicle making a supply run out of Gaza. He never went back.

There is a sense in Israel that if you refuse to serve or if you criticize the war, that you could be viewed as a traitor in some ways.

GREEN: Yeah, a lot of my closer friends and families are more afraid that I'd be harmed because of those interviews than I was in Gaza. Crazy, right?

DIAMOND (voice-over): The Israeli military has yet to try and call Yuval back to active duty.

But as the war rages on and a wider regional war looms, the military could prosecute Yuval and Michael for refusing to serve.

OFER ZIV: I do prefer to go to jail than to participate in what we're doing in Gaza, but I prefer to do neither if it's possible.

DIAMOND (voice-over): He may need a ceasefire to turn that hope into reality.

DIAMOND: Now, in response to Yuval Green's allegations, the Israeli military says that it follows Israeli and international law and that buildings are only destroyed in order to, quote, "remove a threat." They say that any destructions of buildings that don't fit operational needs are, quote, "contrary to the army's orders and the IDF's values and will be examined."

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Haifa, Israel.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Still to come, hundreds arrested as violent far-right protests sweep the U.K. And new Prime Minister Keir Starmer is vowing to end the riots. We'll have the latest in a live report from London.

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[03:50:00]

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CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone.

Britain's new prime minister is vowing to end the riots sweeping the U.K. with what he calls a standing army of police ready to bring violent protesters to justice. Facing his first major crisis since taking office, Keir Starmer chaired his first emergency response meeting known as Cobra on Monday.

He says far-right agitators have seized upon the deadly stabbing of three young girls in Southport, England, last week, using their tragedy to spread anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim disinformation. Starmer says it's nothing more than violent organized thuggery.

And CNN's Salma Abdelaziz joins me now live from London. Good morning to you, Salma. So what is the latest on these violent protests sweeping the U.K.?

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so for nearly a week now, Rosemary, these massive demonstrations that have taken place in town cities and centers across the country have really rocked the U.K. We've seen mosques and Muslim communities attacked. We've seen these very tense and violent clashes with police in multiple places across the country.

And we've seen this very violent rise of hate and anti-immigrant sentiment that Keir Starmer, the country's prime minister, has responded to with what one could call an iron fist. He has said he has no tolerance for the violence that's taking place and that he will crack down. I want you to take a listen to how he laid out his plans to quell the violence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEIR STARMER, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: We'll ramp up criminal justice. There have already been hundreds of arrests. Some have appeared in court this morning. I've asked for early consideration of the earliest naming and identification of those involved in the process who will feel the full force of the law.

[03:55:10]

And thirdly, I've been absolutely clear that the criminal law applies online as well as offline and I'm assured that that's the approach that is being taken.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABDELAZIZ: So far, 370 people have been arrested but authorities expect that number to go up because as you heard there, the government has promised, has vowed to find every single individual involved in these violent riots and to prosecute them. Keir Starmer has said that he will find extra spaces in prison.

He is creating more hours in the court system to prosecute these people more quickly and they're reaching out to technology companies. And this is absolutely key, Rosemary, because the lever for this is on social media where this misinformation and hate spread online, where individuals were able to organize these violent rallies again around the country.

The country's technology secretary met with some of the key social media companies, Meta, TikTok, others and began to lay out the need to crack down on this misinformation. But Rosemary, when you have the head of one of these companies, Elon Musk, of course, the head of X himself engaging in a tit-for-tat with Keir Starmer himself, engaging in misinformation and trying to fan the flames by saying there could be a civil war in the U.K. It's hard to imagine.

Yes, Keir Starmer could get a grip on the streets, but how does he get a grip online?

CHURCH: Yeah, important question. Salma Abdelaziz, joining us live from London. Many thanks.

And thank you for spending part of your day with me. I'm Rosemary Church. "CNN Newsroom" continues next with Max Foster and Christina Macfarlane in London.

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