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CNN International: Ukrainian Forces Advancing Further Into Russia; Deadly Heat Wave Sweep Italy; Gaza Ceasefire Talks Set to Resume on Thursday; Israel Braces for Potential Retaliation by Iran; Ernesto Expected to Strengthen Into Hurricane in Coming Hours; Fast- moving Wildfire Scorches Forests Near Athens, One Killed; Pm Fumio Kishida Announces He'll Step Down in September; Thailand Removes Prime Minister From Office on Ethical Grounds; Trump Tries to Regain Focus With Economic Speech; Biden Announces $150 Million in New Funding as Part of Cancer Moonshot Program; Annual Inflation Rate Slows to 2.9 percent, Lowest Since March 2021. Aired 8-9a ET
Aired August 14, 2024 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:00:12]
AMARA WALKER, CNN ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWSROOM": Hi, everyone. Welcome to our viewers all around the world. I'm Amara Walker. This is "CNN Newsroom." Just ahead, more gains for Ukrainian forces. The Russian border region of Belgorod declaring an emergency, we will have the latest details. Plus, Hamas won't say if it's coming to this week's peace talks as Qatar, Egypt, and the U.S. work of a plan for a ceasefire and hostage deal. And a deadly heat wave sweeps across Italy, we'll be live in Rome as health officials warn locals and tourists to stay safe.
On the move and pushing deeper into Russia. More than a week after launching a surprise cross-border incursion, Ukrainian troops are continuing to press forward. The governor of Russia's Belgorod region has declared an emergency, saying the situation is extremely difficult and tense. It follows new attacks by Ukrainian forces and as Kyiv claims, control of hundreds of square miles of Russian soil.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says, since the attack began, large numbers of Russian soldiers have surrendered. Moscow, meanwhile claims its air defenses shot down more than 100 drones and four missiles launched overnight from Ukraine. Ukraine's lightning-quick advance caught Russia off guard and is proven to be a major embarrassment for the Kremlin. CNN's Frederik Pleitgen brings us the latest on Ukraine's surprise offensive. And a warning, some of the images in his report are graphic.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): A Russian attack gunship firing at Ukrainian forces from the air in the Kursk region inside Russia. While on the ground, a Russian soldier's body cam records what appear to be several killed Ukrainians near their destroyed armored vehicle. The Kremlin trying to show its forces are halting Ukraine's advances, but the reality is this, more Russian civilians having to evacuate their towns and villages as Kyiv's troops press ahead.
We left the chickens at home this woman says. We gave them two bags of grain, some water and left. Maybe there will be nothing to return to.
What seemed to be Russian prisoners of war transported in a Ukrainian pickup as the Ukrainian soldier spray paints the Ukrainian spelling of a town's name inside Russia. Kyiv's lightning offensive caught not just its allies off guard, but Moscow as well. Russian President Vladimir Putin trying to publicly brush off Ukraine's incursion, meeting with the head of the Palestinian Authority in Moscow, after earlier berating his generals to oust Kyiv's troops from Russian soil.
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): The main task for the ministry of defense is, of course, to drive and squeeze the enemy out of our territories.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): Russia has vowed a massive retaliation and Kyiv fears Moscow could launch even larger missile strikes at Ukrainian cities, but Ukraine's president vowing not to back down.
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Russia needs to be forced into peace, especially if Putin is so set on fighting.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): And Vladimir Putin's grip on power may not be as strong as some believe. Russian opposition activist Vladimir Kara- Murza who was recently released from a Russian jail in a prisoner swap said on CNN's "OutFront."
VLADIMIR KARA-MURZA, KREMLIN CRITIC: I don't only think, I don't only believe, I know that Russia will change and I will be back in my homeland. And as I told him, it's going to be much quicker than you ever think.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): But for now, Moscow says it will bring more reinforcements to its southwestern regions to try and oust Ukraine's invasion force before it can dig in.
Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Berlin.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALKER: All right, CNN's Clare Sebastian joining me now. Of course, the question is, how long can Ukraine hold on to this territory for, and what is the ultimate objective with this incursion?
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Amara, Ukraine is not suggesting that they want to actually annex any part of Russia here. This was made very clear in a briefing by the foreign ministry on Tuesday. This isn't about taking Russian territory, this operation, its primary goals seem to be, number one, to stop Russia from moving more forces in particular to the eastern front to try to stretch them out. And then if you listen to officials, including Zelenskyy, is to try to force Russia into peace.
The foreign ministry making that very clear on Tuesday, saying that the raids as they called it on Russian territory, the sooner Russia accepts -- suggests peace, they said the sooner those raids will stop, and they show absolutely no sign of stopping right now.
[08:05:00]
We've just had an update from President Zelenskyy in a video call which he published with his commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Take a listen to what the commander had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OLEKSANDR SYRSKYI, COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF, UKRAINIAN ARMED FORCES: The defense forces continued to conduct an offensive operation in the Kursk region. Since the beginning of the day, the troops have advanced one to two kilometers in some areas. The search for and destruction of the enemy in Suja has been completed. Since the beginning of the day, more than 100 enemy soldiers have been captured.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SEBASTIAN: Since the beginning of the day, he said more than 100 Russian soldiers have been captured. This may be a secondary goal of this operation. President Zelenskyy calls it replenishing the exchange fund, capturing more Russian soldiers which can then be swapped for Ukrainian soldier still in Russian captivity.
This video, which Fred Pleitgen also just showed you, appearing to show Russians in a Ukrainian pickup truck heading away from the Russian border into Ukraine, a scene that some ten days ago would have seemed virtually impossible. But as we look now over a week into this operation, at the metrics of potential success for Ukraine, this may be one of them. Amara?
WALKER: It's an extraordinary turn of events, obviously, that is humiliating to Vladimir Putin. From Russia's perspective, as we were saying, a major blow. How do we expect Putin to manage this crisis?
SEBASTIAN: Well, so he's using this sort well-worn tactics of blaming the West, of trying to play this down, calling it a terror attack. And frankly, the sort of state media propaganda machine have taken their cue from him. We are seeing a lot of sort of human interest stories on the news, focusing on people sort of getting their families out and how people are being helped. We see collections that people in different cities around Russia are undertaking, sending supplies to the people of Kursk.
So, he is handling it in that way. But I think, look, it is a big problem for him. It clearly shows that the operation is not going well. And as Ukraine conducts this ground operation, they are also attacking from the air. We've just heard from a security source in Ukraine, that they have conducted their biggest-ever attack since the war started on Russian airfields, four of them overnight. So, if they do manage to sort of crimp Russian air power that way, that really could have an impact on their efforts inside of Ukraine, Amara.
WALKER: All right. Clare Sebastian, appreciate your reporting there from London. Thanks so much.
We will have much more on Ukraine's incursion into Russia later in the show. I will speak to CNN political and national security analyst, David Sanger, and that is coming up in 20 minutes from now.
Israel-Hamas ceasefire talks are set to resume Thursday in Doha and a lot is riding on them. There has been some speculation that Iran might hold off on plans to attack Israel if a Gaza ceasefire is reached soon. But, some have cast serious doubt on that. Iran has vowed to retaliate for the assassination of Hamas' political leader in Tehran, an attack that it blames on Israel.
Meanwhile, sources tell CNN, Hamas is taking a position of intentional ambiguity about appearing at the Doha talks. Representatives from Israel, Qatar, Egypt, and the U.S. are all taking part. Nic Robertson joining us now from Tel Aviv with the details.
Hi there, Nic. So, Hamas being very non-committal about the talks that are set for Thursday. What are you watching for? And if they don't show, are the talks off?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: No, there's a part of the talks that's going to happen there, proximity talks. So, the U.S. and Israel and the intermediaries, Qatar and Egypt, can meet and are expected to meet in Doha tomorrow. We do sort of see this strategic or this ambiguity by Hamas as a potential way to try to put pressure on the Israeli government because they're being very specific about why they have this ambiguity.
They are saying these are not negotiations from their point of view, that the meeting in Doha should be about implementing the framework that President Biden put forward in over the past couple of months, that they say that the Israeli government, Prime Minister Netanyahu has added on additional things like control and veto over prisoner exchange -- prisoner releases, about the control of the Philadelphi Corridor, the control of the Rafah border crossing, all of which are huge issues for Hamas, that they say were not part of that original framework.
So from their perspective, you know, and speaking to other sources who are informed about the talks and about Hamas' position, it seems clear through this ambiguity as well, very clear that if the talks were to go in Doha between the U.S. and Israel and the Qataris and the Egyptians, as Hamas wants, then they would have somebody available to have a follow-on discussion with.
[08:10:23]
But I don't think expectations are at that point. I think the expectations really, at the moment, are questioning what is going to be different about these talks and any other, how much or has there been any substantial change on the negotiating position of either side, either Hamas or Israel. And that's where things stand. And of course, that's what Iran is waiting to see. And the expectation is regardless of the outcome of these talks, Iran will strike. It's just a question of how big that strike would be. WALKER: And Nic, if you want, talk to us about what you're hearing there in Israel, because obviously, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been facing a lot of pressure and it seems -- there seems to be a difference between what the public wants versus the political will and what the government is aiming for.
ROBERTSON: Yeah, the latest polling on some of the channels here in Israel indicates about two-thirds of the population would go for a hostage deal as it's been outlined already, which is a significant number. But that's not the position of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that we know and it's certainly not the position that the hard right members of his coalition government are willing to tolerate.
They threatened to get out of the talks if he went for that kind of deal. I think there's been a lot of expectation in the region, particularly in trying to get these talks up and running tomorrow, that there would be a lot of U.S. pressure on Prime Minister Netanyahu to change his position, not to have these add-ons that Hamas talks about, although his office say they don't -- they haven't put any add- ons to President Biden's framework.
And when we had the announcement yesterday that the United States was going to clear $20 billion worth of military equipment to Israel, not -- this is part of a long process and it's only part of that process, and it's only provisional. The timing of it because it's been a long process, does seem to indicate that the United States potentially trying to give Prime Minister Netanyahu something in return for what they may hope comes out at these talks. But I will say no one is holding their breath that that would be the outcome from this.
WALKER: Yeah. They understand the complexities and reality of all that is taken into account. Nic Robertson, appreciate your reporting there from Tel Aviv. Thank you.
And for people in Gaza, a peace deal cannot come soon enough. Just in the past 24 hours, we have seen more than 30 people killed in Israeli strikes, including three-day-old twins and their mother. CNN's Jeremy Diamond has this report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): How do you console a man whose whole world has been shattered? A man who hours earlier was locked in the warm embrace of his wife and newborn babies, but now cries out in agony, begging to see them one last time. His new horrific reality is too much to bear. His wife and twin babies are dead, killed in an Israeli strike on their apartment in central Gaza, according to hospital officials.
Aysal and her brother, Aser, were just three-days-old. The Palestinian ministry of health says they are among 115 infants born and killed during the war in Gaza. Hours earlier, their mother, Jumana, a pharmacist, was blissfully responding to congratulations and well wishes on Facebook. "I feel like it was a miracle. Alhamdulillah sister, everything is going well." Jumana, Aysal and Aser now lie here in a room consumed with Mohammad's inconsolable grief.
These are the birth certificates he says, while I was getting them, I received a phone call telling me our apartment was targeted, and that my wife and children were at Al-Aqsa Hospital. Neighbors are still sifting through the aftermath of that strike. Hospital officials say an Israeli shell hit the building. The Israeli military did not respond to CNN's requests for comments.
The victims of several other strikes in central Gaza also pour into Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital where more parents grieve the deaths of their children. How can I live after you, my son, this mother cries. Amid the grief, there is also anger and exasperations, including from the dead man's father.
[08:15:00]
The entire unjust world does not care about this. That's all I can say, Hassan says. Just numbers, we are just numbers. But for God, we are martyrs. One-by-one, their bodies are brought out of the morgue, so the living can pray for the dead, including nine month-old Jamal and his father, Ude (ph).
Mohammad is performing the same rituals for his wife and twin babies, but prayers offer little comfort for a man who has lost everything, for a new father with no children to raise.
Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Haifa, Israel.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WALKER: As soaring temperatures sweep across Europe, Italy is at the epicenter of a blistering and dangerous heat wave. At least one person, a road construction worker, has died and hospitals are seeing a rise in cases of heat-related illnesses. Temperatures are forecast as to rise above 45-degree Celsius in some places this week. The government is warning people to stay indoors, stay hydrated, and avoid alcohol because that could obviously dehydrate you, and it's urging employers not to make people work outdoors between noon and 5:00 p.m.
Joining us now from Rome is CNN's Barbie Latza Nadeau. Barbie, I could see you're wearing a tank top there fittingly. How does it feel there today and how challenging has it been for tourists and the resonance?
BARBIE LATZA NADEAU, CNN REPORTER: Yeah, you know, it is brutally hot and it's made worse by the fact that it's just not cooling down at night. A lot of people in southern Europe, especially in Italy, don't have air conditioning, so you can't even escape from this. You know, about a couple of miles down the road from us here, the tourists are lined up outside the Colosseum. They are in St. Peter's Square.
This has not stopped the tourists, and that's been especially worrying to the civil protection authorities who have said, you know, you need to stay inside, out of the sun at this time of the day, and stay hydrated. They're giving out free water. They've got misting stations, you know, this is a time they want you in a museum or in a church, trying to do some of that sort of touring. But this is peak tourist season and we know that today and tomorrow, 22 Italian city these are under a red alert. Then we are supposed to get a little bit of a reprieve, which means a couple of degrees cooler and, then hopefully, a little bit of rain, maybe after the weekend they're saying.
But until and unless that happens, it is just brutal outside and the streets are filled with people enjoying this beautiful city. Amara?
WALKER: Yeah, that has to be the hardest part when the nighttime doesn't bring any cooler temperatures. CNN's Barbie Latza Nadeau for us in Rome. Get in the shade, go inside, get some water, Barbie. Thank you.
In the Caribbean, Tropical Storm Ernesto is expected to strengthen to hurricane force in the coming hours. It's already generating winds of 70 miles per hour and it's brought power outages to Puerto Rico, affecting more than 100,000 customers. Earlier, Ernesto hit the U.S. Virgin Islands.
[08:20:00]
Electric power there is almost entirely down and flood warnings have been issued both in the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. Meteorologist Derek Van Dam is tracking the storm. He's joining us now. What more can you tell us, Derek?
DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yeah, Amara, we were wondering if at that 8:00 a.m. National Hurricane Center update, we'd have a hurricane, but that hasn't happened just yet. But even though it's still a tropical storm, it's behaving like a hurricane, that's for sure. We have clocked in wind speeds, now high as wind gusts, in Puerto Rico, at 86 miles per hour. Remember for it to be a hurricane, it has to be 74 miles per hour sustained or greater.
So, we haven't quite reached that just yet, even though this is a gust, not sustained, that's the difference. But it's still Tropical Storm Ernesto and it is really bringing this incredible rainfall to eastern and southern sections of Puerto Rico as well as the British and U.S. Virgin Islands. The eye of the storm has just north of Puerto Rico, so it's going to start pulling away from the region. But unfortunately, this is a lopsided hurricane or tropical storm, meaning that the bulk of the precipitation is on its southeastern side.
The western side, not a lot going on there and unfortunately, the landmass in the way of this lopsided storm is just the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. We are getting rainfall, heavy rainfall, one to two inch rainfall rate per hour over the same locations for an extended duration of time. That's why, the National Weather Service out of San Juan has issued this flash flood warning. Anywhere you see that shading of red, but I'm particularly concerned across the southern portion of Puerto Rico.
Remember, mountainous terrain, will get some uplifts, some topographical lift from the mountains there, that could bring heavier rainfall rates and the potential for that flash flooding and mudslides across the island. So, we are going to keep a close eye on that, another three to four inches of rain possible going forward with this storm before it exits the area. And then where does it go from there?
Well, it's going to take advantage of the warm Atlantic waters over the western Atlantic Ocean. And it could strengthen into a major hurricane status on its final approach to the island of Bermuda here, by early Saturday morning. What impact will it have on the U.S. East Coast? Well, aside from large waves and rip currents, no direct impacts. But this is going to be a major wave maker and then -- all island interests need to be focusing on where the storm will go if you're located in Bermuda, a popular tourist destination.
Of course, with an eye potentially moving over land, that could bring some problems with winds, potentially exceeding 100 miles per hour by early this weekend. Amara?
WALKER: You have been busy tracking so many different storms. Derek Van Dam, thank you.
Greece's worst wildfire of the year has eased as strong winds die down and firefighters work to put out the last of the blaze. More than 400 square kilometers or 156 square miles of forests in the Attica Region and up to the suburbs of Athens have burned in the fast-moving fire. At least one person was killed. Thousands of residents were evacuated as the fire came very close to the Greek capital where more than 3 million people live.
Emergency crews have been working to extinguish the fire, which began on Sunday, near the town of Varnavas. One person who lives there describes the inferno.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): It was hell. The fire started from very high up and it came all the way down to the village. It was running at great speed. It was very windy. There was panic; there were sirens. A lot of people, police, people crying, screaming, shouting, and it reached and burned all the way down to Athens.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALKER: A local mayor told CNN at some point, the fire was faster than the cars and trucks. And he said that studies show in the next 30 years, similar fires could devastate everything under 300 meters, leading towards the middle of Greece.
The prime minister of Japan has announced he is stepping down next month. Fumio Kishida's Liberal Democratic Party has been embroiled in a series of scandals, fielding calls for him to resign. CNN's Hanako Montgomery has the latest from Tokyo.
HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kishida's decision to step down is not all that surprising because we know he's been battling with very low approval ratings, really for the past year or so now, and it looks as though he's finally acknowledging that this has taken a toll on his leadership. Now, during a press conference earlier on Wednesday, he said that by stepping down, he wanted to restore people's faith in politics. This is what Kishida had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FUMIO KISHIDA, JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER (through translator): I have made the heavy decision with a strong desire to move forward with political reform, because the people's trust is what makes politics work.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MONTGOMERY: Now, the reason why people have been losing faith in Japan's political class in the first place is because of two major scandals.
[08:25:00]
The first is a political slush fund scandal where several politicians and factions within Japan's ruling party were found to have not properly reported funds raised through several fundraising events. Now, this under-reporting or this lack of reporting has continued for several years, but it only came to light in December of last year when domestic media outlets first reported this issue. Now, several politicians, including the former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga criticized Kishida for not taking full responsibility for this issue, even though his faction was part of the problem.
Now, the second scandal back Kishida pointed to during his presser earlier on Wednesday was the Unification Church scandal. As we know, the former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated by the son of a member of this religious organization. After Abe's assassination, the Japanese government launched an investigation and found that several politicians within Japan's ruling party had ties to the church. They were receiving funds and money, so the Japanese government stripped the organization of its name.
But people in Japan have been criticizing Kishida and his government for not fully halting the organization's activities. So for these reasons, Kishida said that he needed to step aside so that another politician could lead his party to the general elections come October 2025.
Hanako Montgomery, CNN, Tokyo.
WALKER: And there is change of leadership in Thailand as well. In a shock decision, the Constitutional Court has booted the prime minister out of office. It ruled that he violated the constitution by including in his cabinet, a lawyer who had served jail time and, according to the court, seriously lacked moral integrity. Speaking after the decision, he said he accepted the verdict and a week later, the same court dissolved the progressive Move Forward Party, which won the most seats in last year's election and banned its leaders from politics for ten years. A new government must now be formed.
Still to come, Ukrainian forces push deeper into Russia and show no signs of slowing down. Ahead, the latest on Kyiv's surprise border incursion and what may come next. And a CNN Investigation into a business that Donald Trump's running mate helped fund. How a company that was supposed to provide jobs in rural America turned into a nightmare for workers.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WALKER: Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his forces have advanced one to two kilometers in the Kursk region today alone, as Ukrainian troops push deeper into Russian territory.
[08:30:00]
And an Ukrainian security source says Kyiv has conducted the "biggest attack" on Russian air fields since the war began with drones targeting the airfields overnight. Meanwhile, the governor of Russia's Belgorod region has declared an emergency, saying the situation is extremely difficult and tense. And earlier, Russia's National Guard said that it has tightened security at a nuclear power plant in the southwestern Kursk region.
Let's dig a little deeper now. Joining me now is CNN political and national security analyst, David Sanger. He's also the author of " New Cold Wars: China's Rise, Russia's Invasion, and America's Struggle to Defend the West." Welcome and thanks so much for your time, David. I mean, it really is extraordinary to see this quick turn of events in Ukraine's favor. As they push further in into Russia, David, you have to ask, what is the objective here? Obviously, it's not to hold onto the land, right? I mean, is this about having a bargaining chip to come to some kind of peace deal?
DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: It's a great question, Amara, and thanks for having me on. So, I think it raises a few questions. First is, is there a strategic objective here? And I can't imagine that it is simply to have a bargaining chip, though it may be prove useful for that. Because at this point, Vladimir Putin has shown very little interest in having a negotiated end, didn't leave him with at least the 18 percent to 20 percent of the country he had already seized.
And President Zelenskyy has shown no interest in any agreement that would involve him giving up any land at all. So, it's possible this is about bargaining. I think it's about a few other things. First, it's about taking the war to the Russian people who so far have been told, don't worry about this. I'll take care of it, Putin has said, it's not going to affect your life. I think, second, it is to sort of show up the incompetence of the Russian military after, of course, they had a very bad start in the war, but then have been coming back.
And third, I think it's simply to show that the Ukrainians maintain the ability to surprise. There was very little hint of this coming, even when president Zelenskyy was in Washington a few weeks ago for the NATO Summit.
WALKER: It is also jarring to see some of these images. I mean, this was from the Agence France-Presse, the team there visiting the Ukrainian border, and what we saw on the video is a Ukrainian truck carrying blindfolded men in Russian uniform, away obviously from the Russian border. I mean, this is not just humiliating for Russia, but it's also got to be a risky move for Ukraine when you say considering that they've been stretched on the frontlines for some time now.
SANGER: I think it's risky in a couple of different ways. So first of all, if you don't know what you're strategic objective is with this, and so far at least, they haven't explained what that objective is, then you run the risk of either pushing it too far or not calibrating your attacks. The second big risk I think is that it's so humiliates Putin that he is tempted to do what at various moments he has threatened to do in this war, though not in recent times, which is rollout tactical nuclear weapons or some other major weapons system. We are at most risk for Putin doing something like that when he perceives he is losing or humiliated.
I think that third big risk is that Zelenskyy himself overreaches here and thins his own troops out too much and, of course, gives the Russians an opportunity to grab more land elsewhere.
WALKER: What is your sense of how Ukraine pulled this off?
SANGER: You know, it's pretty remarkable. I was looking at the work that my colleagues at the "New York Times" have done. Huge secrecy about it, they moved a number of forces stealthily into the area. Had people hanging out in houses out there, often not in uniform, pretending that they were on -- doing exercises, when in fact they were preparing for this attack. They didn't tell many of the troops that where they were going until a day before it happened. What does that sound like? It all sounds like the way the Russians pulled off the actual invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022.
WALKER: And just quickly before we go, David, what is the West saying about all this?
[08:35:00]
SANGER: Precious little, which is somewhat remarkable. President Biden was asked about it as he was getting onto his helicopter the other day, and he said, I don't think I want to talk about this. They don't want to talk about it because they must be deeply uncomfortable with what Zelenskyy is doing and with the likelihood that he's using some American equipment to do it. And of course, the rule we've heard is no American weapons can be used against Russia in Russian territory. We don't know that they're using American weapons, but the images seem to suggest they may well be using American provided transport.
WALKER: Yeah. Always a concern that this could lead to an escalation. David Sanger, thank you very much.
SANGER: Great to be with you.
WALKER: Donald Trump returns to the campaign trail today with a rally in North Carolina. His campaign is billing this speech as a major address on the economy. That is significant because Republicans have been begging Trump to focus more on the big issues and less on personal attacks, and those personal grievances. Trump's VP pick has proclaimed he is a champion for the working class, but a new CNN Investigation found that before entering politics, J.D. Vance was an early investor in a farming start-up. That company promised to provide jobs for locals in Kentucky. Ultimately, it declared bankruptcy and workers alleged they experienced "nightmare conditions" and were eventually replaced with migrant laborers. CNN's Kyung Lah has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANTHONY MORGAN, FORMER APPHARVEST EMPLOYEE: A nightmare, it was a nightmare that should have never happened.
KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): That nightmare happened here at this nearly empty greenhouse in eastern Kentucky. AppHarvest, a failed high-tech startup, promised local workers a future, but spiraled into broken promises. Anthony Morgan bought into the company's public pitch that it was for Appalachia by Appalachians.
MORGAN: Where he was (ph) being told that, hey, guys, he's from here.
SEN. J.D. VANCE, (R-OH) VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Thank you. Wow.
LAH (voice-over): He is J.D. Vance, the Republican nominee for vice president.
VANCE: I will be a vice president who never forgets where he came from.
LAH (voice-over): Leaning on his personal rise out of poverty to reach swing state voters as Donald Trump's running mate.
DONALD TRUMP, (R) FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I chose him because he's for the worker. He's for the people that work so hard, and perhaps weren't treated like they should have been.
LAH (voice-over): But before politics, Vance was a venture capitalist and AppHarvest's first outside investor, eventually steering millions of dollars to the company. Vance was a lead pitch man for the vertical farming started, tweeting he was supporter and investor, writing I love this company.
VANCE: It's a great business that's making a big difference in the world.
LAH (voice-over): The company's investor presentation pledged a commitment to Appalachia, estimating thousands of new jobs to a poverty stricken area.
MORGAN: A major emphasis with them was, we want to bring work to eastern Kentucky. This is why we are here.
LAH (voice-over): Morgan left a stable job to join AppHarvest as a crop care specialist, pruning the greenhouse grown vegetables. A single father with six-year-old twins, the job rapidly turned when production fell behind under what a dozen workers described to CNN as mismanagement, including dangerous conditions.
Employees filed multiple complaints to the state and federal government, alleging heat exhaustion, working in extreme temperatures, and lack of water breaks, while the cases were all closed with no citations.
MORGAN: I think about the hottest that I experienced was around 128 degrees.
LAH: Inside?
MORGAN: Inside. Couple days a week, you have (inaudible) show up and you are seeing people leaving on gurneys to go to the hospital.
LAH (voice-over): The cuts came next to promised worker benefits, and then foreign workers came in to fill those so-called local jobs.
MORGAN: The second round of folks they brought in was focused on work visas and they (inaudible) a van full. They brought bus loads.
LAH (voice-over): Documents show AppHarvest hired contract workers from outside the region. At one point, as many as 500, the majority of its work force not locals. But that's not the image AppHarvest wanted the world to see. This is Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell visiting in 2021.
LAH: Mitch McConnell coming through --
(LAUGH)
LAH: Where the migrant workers there at the time?
(LAUGH)
LAH: You're laughing. I mean, I look at the video, it doesn't look like there's any --
MORGAN: They hid these guys. They took them out of the plant. (Inaudible) gone and then Mitch McConnell is giving a speech about all this work that AppHarvest has brought eastern Kentuckians.
[08:40:00]
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL, (R-KY) MINORITY LEADER OF THE UNITED STATES SENATE: I like the idea of taking the tomato market away from the Mexicans. How about that?
LAH: So, they were trying to hide the migrant workers?
MORGAN: Specifically, yeah.
LAH (voice-over): This worker who asked not to be identified says the hiring of migrant workers became part of a mirage that AppHarvest was helping the region. He took this video as his co-workers clapped for visiting investors. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And anytime they did that, they kept workers off the floor, doing like stationary parade while people come through. And yeah, it was -- it was awkward having to stand there and just be a prop.
LAH: A prop for what?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, look at all of these, these poor folks we are employing.
(LAUGH)
LAH (voice-over): The worker says, it's impossible to forget about his time at AppHarvest, as J.D. Vance ascends to national politics.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's gotten away with a lot of money and fame for pretending to be one of us.
VANCE: O-H-I-O.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's just another grifter. Just another carpetbagger, another tourist who wants to tell us what we are.
LAH (voice-over): Vance left the board in April 2021 to run for the Senate. Shortly after, shareholders filed suit claiming they were misled. By 2023, AppHarvest had filed for bankruptcy, a little more than two years after its public launch, but the workers in this failed startup, say they are the real people in the Vance story.
LAH: Do you blame J.D. Vance for any of this?
MORGAN: I blame all of the original investors at AppHarvest, the original board of directors know what was coming. You would have had to have been an idiot not to have.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAH (on camera): CNN's review of documents and interviews with a dozen former workers show problems emerged while Vance was still a member of AppHarvest's board. Now, after he departed, he was still an investor and had more than $100,000 invested in the company, according to disclosures. Now, a spokesman for Vance says to CNN in a statement, J.D. was not aware of the operational decisions regarding hiring, employee benefits, or other workplace policies, which were made after he departed AppHarvest's board. Like all early supporters, J.D. believed in AppHarvest's mission and wishes the company would have succeeded.
WALKER: Stunning report, thanks to Kyung Lah for bringing that to us.
Now, U.S. President Joe Biden has announced more than $150 million in new research awards as part of a program aimed at helping reduce cancer deaths in the U.S. The cancer Moonshot program was founded while Mr. Biden was vice president and has been bolstered with billions in new funding since 2022. The initiative aims to provide cutting-edge research to halve the number of cancer deaths in the coming decades.
Still to come, brand new figures on inflation in the U.S. What they tell us about the prospect of an interest rate cut, when we come back. And an unexpected turn in Team USA's efforts to reclaim Olympic bronze for Gymnast Jordan Chiles.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:45:30]
WALKER: Just minutes ago, we got the latest reading on inflation in the U.S. and all signs point to prices rising -- to price rises, I should say, coming steadily under control. The Consumer Price Index rose a modest 0.2 percent in July, in line with expectations. On an annual basis, inflation slowed to two 2.9 percent, the first time since March of 2021 that it has been below 3 percent. To dig deeper into the numbers, here is CNN's Matt Egan.
OK, so sounds positive. What are the takeaways?
MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Amara, this is a major milestone on the cost of living front. As you mentioned, for the first time in more than three years, inflation is below 3 percent. That is good news and it is better than expected. 2.9 percent year-over-year; on a monthly basis, we saw prices up by 0.2 percent. That was right in line with expectations. It's really important to look at the trend and what we can see is that this metric has improved significantly.
About two years ago, inflation was running at 9 percent. Remember, that's when we had $5 gasoline prices and price spikes on so many different categories. And thankfully, there's been a lot of improvement since then. You can see it on that chart. It's slowed out -- slowed down a little bit, the improvement, but it is still going in the right direction. And digging into this report, we actually see some price drops for some specific items, including gasoline, new cars, and used cars.
One problem area remains the cost of shelter, which is the cost of rent and to buy, that remains something that's still going up at a significant rate, but it has improved. So I think when you put all this together, this is going to be yet more evidence for the Fed to start to lower interest rates at the next meeting in September. And Amara, probably at the meeting after that and the one after that, which is good news for main street (ph), right?
It means lower mortgage rates and cheaper cost to get -- to pay off credit card debt and car loans and student debt. So, that could be more good news coming soon.
WALKER: OK. And also, looking ahead, Matt, I mean, I remember the July Jobs Report created so much panic in the markets and then things kind of stabilized a few days later. What does all this signal to us about where the U.S. economy is headed, especially in the crucial months before the November election?
EGAN: Yeah, I think all of this really keeps alive the hopes for a soft landing, right, where the Fed tames inflation without causing an all-out recession. And so, that's why we have seen a better mood in the markets. You see U.S. stock Futures pointing to a slightly higher open this morning. The mood has really improved from a week ago when traders were really kind of freaking out about the state of the economy. All these worries that maybe the Fed was waiting too long to cut interest rates and doing too much damage to the jobs market.
And the latest numbers on the inflation front, both today and yesterday, where we got better than expected wholesale inflation numbers, all of this does point to interest rate cuts coming soon from the Fed and it really does keep alive hopes for a soft landing in the economy. So thankfully, the mood among economists and investors has really improved a lot in recent days.
WALKER: Yeah, it's amazing how much can change in just a couple of days, Matt. Matt Egan, good to see you. Thank you.
EGAN: Thanks, Amara.
WALKER: Still to come, CNN's Richard Quest samples the delights of Coney Island with a reminder that our most memorable summer destinations could actually they close to home.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:50:50]
WALKER: The Olympics may be over, but there's a new twist in the tale of Team USA's attempt to reclaim the bronze medal for gymnast Jordan Chiles. Now, you may remember she was stripped of her first individual Olympic medal after the Romanian gymnastics team challenged her final score in the women's artistic floor exercise. The medal was later awarded to Romania's Ana Barbosu. Now, it's been revealed that one of the three-member panel which ruled on the decision has a history of representing Romania in legal cases.
Team USA says it will continue to appeal. Comcast and NBCUniversal have been the real U.S. winners of the Paris Olympic Games. The American media giant says their coverage drew an average of more than 30 million viewers across platforms. That is a whopping 82 percent jump in viewership compared to the Tokyo Games. NBC's streaming app, Peacock featured more than 3,200 live events over the course of the games, including generative AI daily recaps and a multi-view feature where viewers could watch several events at one time. I really enjoyed that one.
Well, it's the middle of August and with that comes the urge to have a well-earned break. But what do you do when time and money just don't add up? CNN's Richard Quest went to New York's Coney Island to remind us that sometimes the fun and adventure are right at your doorstep.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DENO VOURDERIS, CO-OWNER, DENO'S WONDER WHEEL AMUSEMENT PARK: This is the jewel of Coney Island here.
RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS EDITOR-AT-LARGE: Right.
VOURDERIS: That's the Wonder Wheel. It's 104-years-old, but it's not a Ferris wheel. It's an centric Ferris wheel because it's part Ferris wheel, part rollercoaster. It's part of the whole Coney Island, United States ingenuity.
QUEST: What is the attraction to it, do you think?
VOURDERIS: I am it's full of history. It means -- what makes the Wonder Wheel so special is it means different things to different people. It could be a first date. It could be a proposal, it could be an anniversary. It's the most romantic ride in the world and in 1920, it was the most thrilling ride in the world.
QUEST: Are you looking to a good summer this year? What is your gut telling you, Deno?
VOURDERIS: My gut is telling me that people need, not want, people need a place to unwind. I mean, we are always looking down on our devices. We are not actually living anymore. So I think places like Coney Island are essential businesses.
QUEST: People meet here?
VOURDERIS: People meet here. My grandparents used to date right on the beach out here in 1948.
QUEST: And you sir -- you sir, come follow me around. Tell me, what's your -- come in, what is your history?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My parents met here on the beach.
QUEST: Your parents met here on the beach?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They lived here in Brooklyn and they would take the train in. They came as two groups of friends and they met right here on this beach.
VOURDERIS: 1920, we have the Coney Island's oldest attraction. When COVID came by, everybody was cutting and running. We doubled down. We opened Coney Island's newest attraction because you either believe in what you're doing or you don't.
QUEST: OK.
VOURDERIS: And we believe in this place. We believe in its future.
QUEST: Right. Should we go on this?
VOURDERIS: I mean, I'm ready. You ready? We haven't killed anybody all day. Let's go.
QUEST: Let's go on this.
VOURDERIS: You know about saltwater corrosion? Yes, so we are constantly repainting. We are constantly resurfacing. We are constantly x-raying all these pieces of metal and make sure there is no cracks. That's some new stuff that's been around now, but the Wonder Wheel has definitely stood the test of time. I'm not going to tell you when it's going to swing. We are just going to keep talking and we'll see what happens.
QUEST: (Inaudible).
VOURDERIS: You don't have to hold on, hands up.
QUEST: (Inaudible).
VOURDERIS: Hands up. You are not supposed to make that sound.
QUEST: Looks like we are swinging, oh.
VOURDERIS: There you go. Here it is. This is Coney Island guys.
QUEST: Right.
VOURDERIS: We have --
QUEST: What do you need?
VOURDERIS: What do we need?
QUEST: Yeah. What do you need? As you look around at it, what is it that you actually now need in Coney Island?
VOURDERIS: I think we could use a little more investment. I think people are still a little afraid.
[08:55:00]
I think we need more people to not be afraid. When COVID hit, we knew the future of this place. And that's what always kept Coney Island coming back, is there was always somebody who knew this place's potential. There was always somebody who believed in its future. And honestly, I believe if we remember who we are, then our best days are ahead of us. There's so much potential. Coney Island has always had that reputation of being a little, you know, old New York, right? Let's say old New York.
QUEST: Joey (ph) in your face.
VOURDERIS: Joey (ph) in your face. And you know what? Some of it still is like that and we don't want to lose everything that we are, but we want to kind of find that middle ground, and I think we are slowly getting there.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALKER: An oldie but a goody, why not? Thanks to Richard Quest for that. Thank you for being with me here on "CNN Newsroom." I'm Amara Walker. "Connect the World" with Becky Anderson is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [09:00:00]
