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Russia Ramping Up Air Assaults On Ukraine; Israeli Demonstrators Demand Hostage-Ceasefire Deal; Former Aide To New York Governors Accused Of Acting As Agent For China; McCain's Son Rebukes Trump, Backs Kamala Harris; At Least 129 Killed In Attempted Prison Break In Kinshasa; Man Accused Of Drugging, Raping Wife For Nearly A Decade. Aired 12-12:45a ET

Aired September 04, 2024 - 00:00   ET

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

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BRANDI CHASTAIN, OLYMPIC AND WORLD CUP CHAMPION: There's this interest because we see that the business works, and the business is going to lead the way. And before it may have been seen as like, oh, we love women sports. It's a charity. It's not a charity. It is a business that we have sponsors, the media rights, and things are changing, and we are very proud. And as a Bay FC co-founder, I am proud about what it is that we are doing for our players on a daily basis.

LAURA COATES, CNN ANCHOR: So important to think about, you forgot to mention unbelievably talented players as well.

Thank you so much, Brandi Chastain. I'm glad to see you in the boardroom.

CHASTAIN: Yes. Thank you so much. And let's go Bay FC.

COATES: There you go.

Well, thank you. And thank you all for watching. "ANDERSON COOPER 360" starts right now.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello, I'm John Vause live from Atlanta. Ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): The Russian scum will undoubtedly be held accountable for this strike.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Two ballistic missiles, 15 seconds apart, more than 50 Ukrainians dead. And those who survived the Russian airstrikes say there was almost no time to reach safety.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MERRICK GARLAND, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: The charges unsealed today are just one part of our effort to target every aspect of Hamas' operations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: U.S. Justice Department charges six Hamas leaders over the October 7th attack on Israel. Three are dead, the rest on the run.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The successful infiltration by a Chinese government agent to the highest levels of New York state government.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Paid in poultry. How a senior aide did to New York state governor allegedly received salted Nanjing duck, as well as cash payments through the bidding of the communist regime in Beijing.

ANNOUNCER: Live from Atlanta, this is CNN NEWSROOM with John Vause.

VAUSE: Well, the deadliest Russian airstrikes since the start of the war has left more than 50 people dead at a military academy in central Ukraine. More than 200 wounded and desperate pleas from Ukrainian officials for an end to restrictions preventing Western supplied weapons from being used to strike targets deep inside Russia.

According to survivors, there was almost no time to reach safety. Two ballistic missiles striking the academy within seconds of each other, leaving much of the building destroyed. Rescue crews searching through debris, looking for those who survived the strike.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Russian scum, in his words, would be held accountable. He also pleaded for more air defense systems from the United States. In a statement, President Biden did not address that directly, but said, make no mistake, Russia will not prevail in this war. The people of Ukraine will prevail, and on this tragic day and every day, the United States stands with them.

CNN's Fred Pleitgen begins our coverage and has the latest now from Kyiv.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Parts of this military educational facility in the central Ukrainian city of Poltava, almost completely destroyed. Dozens killed here the Ukrainian say when two Russian ballistic missiles struck, leaving those on the ground with no time to get to bomb shelters.

More than 200 were also wounded and a nearby hospital damaged. Ukraine's president irate.

ZELENSKYY (through translator): The Russian scum will undoubtedly be held accountable for this strike. And once again, we urge everyone in the world who has the power to stop this terror air defense systems and missiles are needed in Ukraine. Not in a warehouse somewhere, long-range strikes that can defend against Russian terror are needed now, not sometime later.

PLEITGEN: Russia has been accelerating its aerial bombardment of Ukraine's cities and infrastructure. A massive barrage aiming for the capital Kyiv early Monday just as children were gearing up for the first day of school after summer break. One of the places damaged, a management college.

ANASTASIYA, STUDENT (through translator): We got up and it had already started to boom. We ran out into the yard near the dormitory. We heard something flying in, something being shot down.

PLEITGEN: On Sunday, more than 40 people injured after Russian airstrikes on the north eastern city of Kharkiv. Responders desperately trying to save the victims. There's an ambulance on the other side, the photographer says. We won't be able to carry him there, she answers.

While Ukraine's air defenses often take down Russian missiles, the consequences can be devastating when they don't. The strikes on Poltava were one of the deadliest single attacks since the start of the war. We were on hand when a ballistic missile annihilated a funeral wake in eastern Ukraine in October of last year, killing 59 people.

And 46 were killed in Dnipro in January 2023, when a heavy cruise missile blew a giant hole into an apartment block.

The Ukrainian say, the reason why the damage here is so extensive is that this building was hit with a cruise missile called the KH-22.

[00:05:07]

That's designed to destroy aircraft carrier strike groups. And obviously, when it hit the building, it completely annihilated it, burying dozens of people underneath.

(Voice-over): Now, yet another mass casualty strike, leaving Ukraine's leadership angry and vowing revenge.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Kyiv.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Matthew Schmidt is an associate professor of National Security at the University of New Haven. He's also a former professor of Strategic and Operational Planning at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. He joins us this hour from Connecticut.

Welcome back.

MATTHEW SCHMIDT, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF NATIONAL SECURITY, UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAVEN: It's good to be here, John.

VAUSE: OK. So back in June, the Biden administration announced that Ukraine was the number one priority to receive air defenses, more important than any other country, saying it was a matter of Ukraine's survival. Ukraine's foreign minister told CNN so far that commitment has not been kept. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DMYTRO KULEBA, UKRAINIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: So I didn't know how many more tragedies like this have to occur for all promises to be fulfilled and for all new commitments to be made.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: He went on to add that only a Patriot air defense system would have been able to intercept these ballistic missiles. So in the aftermath of this attack, is the U.S. capable logistically of supplying more Patriots to Ukraine? And in the aftermath of this attack is the White House likely to do so?

SCHMIDT: To take the last part first, I think that they are. We've seen nothing but a continued commitment from Biden on this issue. And certainly the U.S. can continue supplying more air defense systems. But these Patriot systems are the most advanced and they're the most expensive. And they're the slowest to get out there.

What exactly is causing the delay, whether or not this is an inventory issue or an issue in logistics and actually getting things from places in, say, Germany or Poland, in site is something I don't know the answer to right now. But I think there's also the problem that Ukraine faces is which is that there's a target rich environment and they're only going to have so many of these systems available and they're going to have to make choices about where they put them.

And Poltava, you know, wasn't at the top of the list. And it might be now, but it wasn't. And every time they put one somewhere that leaves someplace else open then the Russians can find those places.

VAUSE: Well, some of those who survived this attack say it happened just so incredibly quickly. One man told the "Washington Post," there was very little time between the start of the air raid sirens and the explosion. Up to 15 seconds. There was a second incoming missile.

So just in practical terms, those missiles have been launched from further inside Russian territory, further away from Ukraine, the Ukrainians could use Western supplied long-range missiles to force the Russians to back away from the border. In this instance, would that have meant more time to reach safety and fewer people would have died?

SCHMIDT: You would think so, but I'll tell you, this is just supposition on my part, but I would be looking to electronic warfare here. That there are ways in which the Russians are able to mask these missiles by jamming Ukrainian radar and early warning systems in order to deny that early warning.

VAUSE: Well, the target here was the Military Institute of Telecommunications and Information Technology. Under international law, unlike previous targets hit by the Russians, was this one legitimate?

SCHMIDT: It's hard to say. It is a military academy, but it's not like a West Point to an American audience. It's more like something like the, you know, Virginia Military Institute. So, you know, so I'd say it's open for debate, but it's -- these are not students that are wearing uniform and going to fight right away. These are teenagers that would commission if they wanted to after graduation.

VAUSE: All right. Well, the main reasons for the Ukrainian incursion into Russia is to try and create a buffer zone along the border. So far Ukraine has taken about 500 square miles of Russian territory. And on that, here's the Ukrainian president speaking to NBC News.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENSKYY (through translator): We don't need the Russian territory. Our operation is aimed to restore our territorial integrity. We don't need their land.

RICHARD ENGEL, NBC NEWS FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS: But conceptually, you have this territory now. You say you don't want to keep it long term.

ZELENSKYY: Conceptually we will hold it. Conceptionally we will hold it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Conceptionally, can they hold it? And at what cost?

SCHMIDT: I think they can and at what cost is a question that depends on the kinds of mistakes that the Russians will make. So don't forget the enemy gets to punch back, but the enemy also can screw up. And so if the Russians punch back and do a good job, they'll hold it for less and if they screw up, there will be opportunities and a decision will have to be made to hold it for longer or even to take more territory in the future.

You know, war is a realm of chance. It's the realm of chaos and luck, and we have to remember that. One thing that is definitely going on here is holding this territory is getting information into the Russian public about the real nature of the war.

[00:10:06]

It's forcing Russians into exile back into -- I love saying this -- you know, unoccupied Russia who are texting, you know, 10 or 20 friends, and having conversations and getting around Putin's news buffer. And that's really important. It's probably not enough yet, but some of these real stories are getting out there to the Russian public now.

VAUSE: Good point to finish on. Matthew, thank you for being with us. Matthew Schmidt there, associate professor of National Security, University of New Haven. Good to see you.

SCHMIDT: My pleasure.

VAUSE: Six leaders of Hamas have indicted by the U.S. Justice Department, not just for their role in the October 7th attack on Israel but also for decades of alleged atrocities. Notably, three of those charged including Ismail Haniyeh are dead and his replacement, Yahya Sinwar, and the leader of the Hamas Diaspora Office, Khaled Meshaal, are on the run. Charges include terrorism, conspiracy to murder U.S. nationals, and the use of weapons of mass destruction resulting in death.

And they follow a promise these charges from U.S. president Joe Biden to hold Hamas accountable. The charges were filed back in February but kept under seal in the case the Justice Department had the opportunity to arrest any of those defendants but now three -- with three of the Hamas leaders dead, they say there is no longer a need to wait.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GARLAND: The charges unsealed today are just one part of our effort to target every aspect of Hamas's operations. These actions will not be our last.

The Justice Department has a long memory. We will pursue the terrorists responsible for murdering Americans and those who illegally provide them with material support for the rest of their lives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Meanwhile, across Israel, a third day of protests with many filling city streets demanding the Israeli government end the nightmare by signing a ceasefire and hostage release deal with Hamas.

CNN's Nic Robertson talked to protesters in Tel Aviv.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: It's the third day in a row, protesters have been out in the center of Tel Aviv demanding the prime minister get the hostages home, saying, why are we still in Gaza? And at one point the crowd were listening to the wife of one of the hostages and she read out, and I have to say her voice was hoarse from shouting, from being at so many protests, shouting so much to be heard.

She was shouting out the names of each of the hostages and after each name, the crowd shouted back now, meaning, now, get them back home now. This was a level of anger, level of frustration. And the crowd in there was asking people there what they thought about what the prime minister had said the previous day, Monday, that he wasn't going to negotiate with Hamas and he was getting even more hardline on his position on the Philadelphi Corridor on having troops on that border between Gaza and Egypt. The people I talked to they just don't trust the prime minister.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's a liar. That's it. All fraud. I don't believe one word he says.

ROBERTSON: And how long will you keep protesting?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As long as it takes. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As long as the hostages are in Gaza, normal life in

this country and normal governing of this country will not be allowed to happen.

ROBERTSON: So I asked him what he meant by that and I asked other people as well, what did they mean? What else could they do? And he told me and they told me that they would shake the country. And I asked him specifically, well, how do you do that? And he wouldn't get into the details.

But clearly what the unions have been trying to do to put pressure on the government additionally, and they can't do it now, the unions can't go on strike because there's been a court order saying that. But what the unions would be able to do, the big unions here, would be to shut down the airport, shut down the ports, shut down the train stations, shut down the buses, reduce services at hospitals.

All of those things it appears the protesters, the organizers believe could be part of the mechanism in the future. But they just believe this isn't going to be changed overnight. The prime minister isn't going to listen to them overnight. But if they keep coming out, keep showing other politicians that they have support, and they did hear tonight from Benny Gantz who spoke on the television, one of the leaders of one of the main opposition party, saying he too doesn't believe the prime minister, doesn't believe what the prime minister is saying about the Philadelphi Corridor is valid, says it's not an existential threat to the country as the prime minister says.

It's a strategic issue, but he says the prime minister knows full well there were other options, military, technical options to controlling that border other than the ones that the prime minister is proposing.

The faith in the prime minister in this country is dwindling. He is not giving in, however.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Tel Aviv.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: To Tel Aviv now and Israeli political analyst Ori Goldberg.

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Ori, thanks for being with us.

ORI GOLDBERG, ISRAELI POLITICAL ANALYST: Thank you for having me.

VAUSE: OK. So the White House reportedly planning possibly this week to present Israel and Hamas with a take-it-or-leave-it, last chance agreement for a ceasefire in Gaza. Here's the spokesperson for the U.S. State Department. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATHEW MILLER, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON: Finalizing an agreement will require both sides to show flexibility. It will require that both sides look for reasons to get to yes. Rather than reasons to say no.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: That seems to be the knot here. There's always 1,000 reasons to say no, but to agree on a ceasefire, to make it work, you have to want it, you have to believe in it. And so the longer this goes on, does it become just increasingly obvious to Israel and the world that Netanyahu just doesn't want a ceasefire?

GOLDBERG: I don't think Netanyahu wants a ceasefire but I have to say I don't think he has much of a choice. I don't think he has many more options if any, and the indictments announced by Attorney General Garland seemed to be a gesture meant to placate him as he's dragged, kicking and screaming to the altar.

VAUSE: So where does this head next? What does Netanyahu actually do? Because he's sort of in a corner right now. He's got his back up against the wall because of his extreme right coalition members who do not want a ceasefire in Gaza at any cost. And if he does have a ceasefire, he risks, you know, his government collapsing.

GOLDBERG: I think this was true up until three days ago. This is no longer just about intra-coalition politics. I think the rage on the streets is quite real. I think the distrust of the government is quite real. And Netanyahu is wily enough to play this as a necessity if he decides to surrender to the American pressure, as in the pressure from the street and sign the deal.

He can play that's something that he has to do to keep the country together. He can play that's something he has to do to maintain the security of Israel. He has a lot of options should he decide to go down this path.

VAUSE: Well, the latest reason for a delay from the Israeli prime minister in any kind of ceasefire deal is over control of the Philadelphi Corridor. That's that small buffer zone between Egypt and Gaza. Netanyahu argues leaving Israeli forces there is crucial for national security. But Benny Gantz, an elected member of the Knesset and former head of the IDF, says that's just not the case here. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENNY GANTZ, FORMER MEMBER OF ISRAELI WAR CABINET (through translator): But let's be honest. The Philadelphi Corridor is an operational challenge, but it is not the existential threat to the state of Israel. Iran's axis of evil is the existential threat to us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: So he's right, that brings us back to the idea of wanting to get to yes, yes to a ceasefire. And questions over Netanyahu's commitment. But what -- there are other security options here on the border between Gaza and Egypt that Israel could implement without leaving troops there. Is that right? GOLDBERG: Of course it is. There's no real issue of a tactical

physical security obstacles that are obstructing this deal. This is entirely a political decision. It is based on a reckoning that it is very difficult for Israelis to make, even for the prime minister, that Israel has lost this war, that it is time to hedge its bets and limit its damages and to try and look forward to a future.

We are all cut off to some extent we're addicted to the hustle and bustle, and the righteous indignation of the war. The future is much more nuanced, much grayer, and it is about climbing down and joining the real world. It's completely a political decision, and it has absolutely nothing to do with whether Israeli troops will be stationed in the Philadelphi Corridor or not.

VAUSE: When you say climb down and joined the real world and it's a much more nuanced position from this point on, what do you mean by that? What does it look like?

GOLDBERG: Well, right now, for Israel only absolutes exist. We live in a black and white universe. It's basically us and everybody else. We're the only good real people around. This isn't just about the Palestinians. It's about the entire world. We have to integrate ourselves into the notion that any, quote-unquote, "resolution" will involve multiple players, will not give us everything we want, and will leave us the only right people in this entire scenario.

And of course, we have to accept responsibility for the consequences of our actions. We have to realize that our absolute impunity is gone. We have to start weighing the potential of our future actions against the prices we must pay. The illusion that we're not going to pay any price should be exactly that. Just an illusion.

The indictments handed down by the Justice Department are a good example of a gesture meant to placate us, but to effectively say, we're taking this out of your hands.

[00:20:08]

We're no longer relying on Israel to go after the people who killed American citizens. I think that's a good approach. I hope it's the first step of many others coming.

VAUSE: How do you get the Israeli public to get to that point?

GOLDBERG: It's very difficult to get the Israeli public there, but the suspicion and the anger now in the streets are important. I think what they're saying, what Israeli citizens now understand, the two bills that signed for the war by the Israeli government, the destruction of Hamas, and the return of the hostages are mutually incompatible.

Most Israelis have lived through the past year under the illusion that they are at the very least commensurate and to some extent complimentary. The deaths of these six hostages, which was entirely preventable, the understanding that they died right there and then, and not in some faraway country, which is the way most of us think of Gaza. I think that death has snapped the illusions that destroying Hamas brings the hostages home.

So at the very least there's distrust at the government. There's no profound sea change as far as what Israelis are thinking. They still think that war is the only possible option. But there's major distrust of the government. A lot of anger, a lot of confusion. I think that should be leveraged towards gradually taking the Israeli government's executive authority away from it, stripping the Israeli government from any option of actually doing something obstructive as it has done so far. I think that's the only way forward. A change of heart will come later.

VAUSE: Ori Goldberg, you make some very interesting points. Well- argued and insightful as well. Thank you so much for getting up early and being with us. It's really appreciated.

GOLDBERG: Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

VAUSE: We'll take a short break. When we come back, she was allegedly recruited to spy for China. A former aide to two New York governors. The accusations and the poultry payoff. When we come back, also Pope Francis meets with Indonesia's president during his first full day in Jakarta. We'll have the latest on his tour of Southeast Asia in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Pope Francis in Jakarta at this hour meeting with President Joko Widodo and other officials a short time ago. From Indonesia, the Pope will head to Papua New Guinea and then East Timor, Singapore, or island nations. This is an almost two-week long tour of Southeast Asia, one of the longest foreign trips any Pope has taken, and certainly the furthest distance Pope Francis has traveled since becoming pontiff in 2015.

A former aide to two New York governors has been charged with acting as an agent for the Chinese government. Current Governor Kathy Hochul says she's furious and outrage at what she calls brazen behavior by her former deputy chief of staff, Linda Sun.

[00:25:01]

Sun was arrested Tuesday and charges include violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act, visa fraud, alien smuggling, and money laundering conspiracy.

CNN's Gloria Pazmino has more details now from New York.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAZMINO: Well, what prosecutors are alleging essentially amounts to the successful infiltration by a Chinese government agent to the highest levels of New York state government for more than 10 years. Earlier on Tuesday, federal prosecutors charged Linda Sun and her husband, Chris Hu. Linda is a former aide to Governor Kathy Hochul, and she also worked for former governor Andrew Cuomo, as well as other state agencies. Now, federal officials say that Linda and her husband enriched

themselves and received a series of payoffs in exchange for actions that ultimately benefited the Chinese government and the Communist Party, specifically they say that they laundered money, received tickets to special events, helped to promote their friends' businesses. And at one point even received a special delivery of specialty duck, which had been prepared by a Chinese official's personal chef.

Now, we have gotten a response from Governor Hochul's office which said that they are cooperating with the investigation. They said that they terminated Linda Sun's employment in March of 2023 after discovering evidence of misconduct and immediately reported her actions to law enforcement and have assisted law enforcement throughout this process.

One of the more shocking allegations that the government has made in this case is that Linda Sun at one point used her influence to get former governor Andrew Cuomo to publicly thank Chinese officials for donating medical equipment. This was at the height of the pandemic, and as New York was trying to respond, Linda Sun was allegedly using her position to make sure that Chinese officials were being publicly recognized.

Then Governor Cuomo went on to thank them publicly during a briefing and he even wrote out a tweet naming some of the officials and thanking them for their donation.

Now, as part of her role, part of what the government alleges Linda Sun did, she specifically worked to block Taiwanese officials from having access to New York state government officials, even blocked sort of trivial things like the Taiwanese community being able to get a recognition for Taiwanese cultural week. All of this she did at the behest of the Communist Party and the Chinese government, according federal prosecutors.

Now, Linda Sun and her husband did appear in court with their lawyers. They have pleaded not guilty and their lawyer said that the allegations are all the result of an overly aggressive investigation by the federal officials. If it's all true, it will be that the state government here in New York was brazenly manipulated for nearly a decade at the highest levels and certainly raises questions just about how the government here in New York hires its staffers and whether or not there may be other Chinese government officials and agents working on behalf of the Communist Party and the government here in New York.

Reporting in New York, Gloria Pazmino, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Now, Donald Trump's seemingly never ending legal dramas. His lawyers have entered a not-guilty plea to the revised January 6th election subversion charges. Special Counsel Jack Smith updated his indictment last month to take into account a very controversial ruling by the Supreme Court which granted Trump immunity for some conduct which fell within his presidential powers. Hearing is scheduled for Thursday to decide how to proceed with this case in federal court.

Meantime, Trump's request to have his hush money trial move to a federal court has been denied. A jury found Trump guilty of 34 felony counts back in May. The federal judge says there's nothing in the Supreme Court's immunity ruling that would change his view on the fact that payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels were private and official acts. Trump's attorneys have also asked to postpone his September 18th sentencing.

Well, the son of the late Senator John McCain speaking out against Donald Trump and his recent appearance at Arlington National Cemetery. The 17-year military veteran says he's now registered as a Democrat and plans to campaign and vote for Kamala Harris.

CNN's Natasha Bertrand has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jim McCain, the youngest son of the late Senator John McCain, is speaking out for the first time exclusively to CNN about Donald Trump and his conduct last week at Arlington National Cemetery.

JIMMY MCCAIN, SON OF SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN: The people who are buried there don't have an opinion. The point of Arlington Cemetery is to go and show respect for the men and women who have given their lives for this country.

[00:30:06]

When you make it political, you take away the respect of the people who are there.

(MUSIC: "TAPS")

BERTRAND (voice-over): The former president and his campaign have denied the former president and his campaign have denied reports first that they pushed aside an Arlington Cemetery staffer who tried to prevent them from filming in Section 60, where recent U.S. casualties are buried.

The cemetery cited rules that prohibit political activity on the sacred grounds.

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And then they took over. That disaster, the leaving of Afghanistan.

BERTRAND (voice-over): The Trump campaign releasing this video and pictures of the former president posing with Gold Star families whose loved ones were killed in the Abbey Gate bombing during the Afghanistan withdrawal in 2021.

Trump posted on Truth Social calling it a, quote, "made-up story" after Vice President Kamala Harris weighed in on the controversy with a lengthy statement on X, saying Trump, quote, "disrespected sacred ground, all for the sake of a political stunt." UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Vice President Harris.

BERTRAND (voice-over): Some of the Gold Star families who accompanied Trump again defended the visit in a video.

DARIN HOOVER, FATHER OF STAFF SGT. TAYLOR HOOVER: The events that happened on August 26, 2024, with President Trump at Arlington National Cemetery were solemn and in keeping with the reverence and respect that is given to all members of our military that are buried there.

We invited President Trump.

BERTRAND (voice-over): Jim McCain, who enlisted in the Marine Corps at the age of 17, had already been moving away from the Republican Party before Trump's visit to Arlington.

He recently changed his voter registration to Democrat and says he plans to vote for Kamala Harris in November.

MCCAIN: I feel that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz embody a group of people that will help make this country better, that will take us forward.

BERTRAND (voice-over): It's a significant move for the son of a former GOP presidential candidate, and it follows years of attacks by Trump on his late father.

TRUMP: He's not a war hero he's a war hero.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's a war hero.

TRUMP: He's a war hero --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Five and a half years in a POW camp.

TRUMP: He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured. OK? I hate to tell you.

BERTRAND (voice-over): McCain now telling CNN he still hasn't gotten over those comments.

MCCAIN: When I hear those things said about him. I can never forgive. You know, the one thing about John McCain is that he cared about his country.

BERTRAND (voice-over): There are several generations of McCains buried at Arlington.

McCain points out that not every service member whose gravestone is visible in the video that Trump posted gave consent to being used in a political ad.

MCCAIN: The least we can do is, when they're gone, if they -- you know, when they're in Arlington, is to respect the rules and regulations that are in place, like not politicizing the fact that these men and women are there.

BERTRAND: Jim McCain now says that he is willing to get involved with the Harris-Walz campaign in any way that he can leading up to the November election.

And he says that, as soon as he got back from a recent deployment, just about a week ago, from the Middle East, he changed his voter registration from independent to Democrat because, quote, he said that he wanted to do what he believes in at this point.

And we should note also that the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz campaign has already begun sending out campaign emails highlighting Jim McCain's support for their campaign and how it shows that current Republicans, former members of the party, many of them are throwing their weight behind the Democratic nominee.

Natasha Bertrand, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: When we come back here on CNN, dozens are dead in the Democratic Republic of Congo after an attempted mass breakout in the country's notorious largest prison there.

Also ahead, a man on trial in France, accused of drugging and raping his wife, and encouraging dozens of others to do the same. Details in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:35:55]

VAUSE: More than 120 people have been killed in an attempted mass prison break-out in the Democrat [SIC] Republic -- Democratic Republic of Congo.

The prison is notorious for overcrowding and appalling conditions. Many were killed in a stampede, others shot dead, some women even raped.

CNN's Larry Madowo has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LARRY MADOWO, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: One hundred twenty-nine people killed in this attempted prison break is no small number.

MADOWO (voice-over): The government now suspending sending any more inmates there as part of the measures to decongest and improve the conditions there, promising to open another prison in Kinshasa as part of the decongestion process.

This prison, Makala, was built for about 1,500 people, but Amnesty International says as many as 12,000 people could have been there, almost ten times the capacity it was built for.

This is not even the first jailbreak from Makala. In 2017, members of a religious sect broke in and freed some of their members.

And there have been other prison breaks in other parts of the country, most notably in 2020, when a rebel group affiliated with ISIS broke into the prison in Beni, in Northeastern DRC, and hundreds of people were freed.

MADOWO: A lot of questions about this tragedy. So deadly. And there will be many people in the DRC hoping that the government can make sure something like this does not happen again.

Larry Madowo, CNN, Nairobi please.

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VAUSE: At least 12 people have died, mostly women and children, after a migrant boat capsized off the coast of Northern France on Tuesday.

More than 50 others were rescued, several now in critical condition.

Authorities believe most of the migrants were from Eritrea. It's the deadliest incident -- migrant incident this year on the English Channel, where small boat crossings have soared in recent years.

Details from a rape trial have left -- has left many in France in shock. Prosecutors say a 71-year-old man, on trial for allegedly dragging his wife and then recruiting dozens of men to rape her over nearly a decade.

CNN's Saskya Vandoorne has details. And a warning: viewers will find these details disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SASKYA VANDOORNE, CNN SENIOR PRODUCER (voice-over): Gisele wants this trial to be public so that the horrors she lived never happen again. To expose the 51 men accused of raping her while she was drugged unconscious by her then-husband, Dominique.

ANTOINE AREBAIO-CAMUS, GISELE'S LAWYER (through translator): She now realizes that there are many lessons to be learned from her own story, which is why her first wish is, obviously, that it should come out. In the end, silence is what the aggressors want.

VANDOORNE (voice-over): The 71-year-old pensioner has admitted to crushing sleeping pills into her drink, raping her, and allowing other men to rape her at their home in Mazan, Provence.

Over the course of ten years, Dominique recruited the men over a website that is now banned.

BEATRICE ZAVARRO, DOMINIQUE'S LAWYER (through translator): Some people believe that he told them that it was a libertine game, that it was -- forgive me the expression -- a threesome.

VANDOORNE (voice-over): After discovering footage on his computer, police counted a total of 92 rapes committed by 72 men. Fifty-one were identified, their ages spanning from early 20s to late 60s, at the time of the alleged assaults.

Gisele was so sedated that she has no recollection of the abuse she suffered, but for the first time, surrounded by the couple's three children, she'll hear and see the details of what was done to her.

AREBAIO-CAMUS (through translator): The questions their children ask are mind-boggling. Who is this man who raised them? What exactly did he do to their mother? What are their childhood memories worth? Birthdays, holidays, their whole lives are shattered.

VANDOORNE: Dominique claims the other men were all aware that his wife had been drugged and was unconscious, an allegation most of the men deny. Many of them face up to 20 years in prison, with the trial set to go on until December.

Saskya Vandoorne, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: A good time to pause and take a moment. Back in a second.

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[00:41:57]

VAUSE: The Trump campaign is no stranger to cease-and-desist notices from singers and performers, and mostly their lawyers. But now comes the first court order to stop.

This is the song.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC: ISAAC HAYES, "HOLD ON I'M COMING")

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: That's "Hold On I'm Coming," sung by the duo (ph) Sam and Dave. The estate of Isaac Hayes, one of the song's late co-writers, claims Trump's team does not have approval to play the song at any political events.

A federal judge ruled the song cannot be used again without a proper licensing agreement.

Hayes' estate also wanted previous recorded uses of the song by the Trump campaign to be taken down. The judge, though, denied that motion.

A lot of artists have publicly complained about Trump's use of their songs at campaign events. But the Hayes estate is the first to take their complaints to court and win their court case.

I'm John Vause, back at the top of the hour with more CNN NEWSROOM. But first WORLD SPORT starts after the break.

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