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Biden Under Pressure to Allow Kyiv's Deep Strikes on Russia; Ukrainian Hospital Train Whisks Wounded from Front; UNWRA: Deadliest Single Incident for Staff in Gaza Since October; Garland Condemns Threats and Efforts to Weaponize the DOJ; El Salvador: From Murder Capital to Safe Space; Young Chinese Couples Choose Pooches Over Parenting. Aired 12-12:45a ET
Aired September 13, 2024 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Michael Holmes, coming to you live from Atlanta.
[00:00:01]
Coming up here on CNN NEWSROOM, Ukraine's hospital on wheels. We'll give you an exclusive look inside a retrofitted train rushing injured soldiers away from the front lines.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: There will be no third debate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Donald Trump shuts down the idea of a rematch with Kamala Harris days after a debate performance that came under fire, even from fellow Republicans.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, this is a miracle. This is a miracle.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: And what was once the murder capital of the world gets tough on crime, where on the streets inside El Salvador's controversial crackdown.
ANNOUNCER: Live from Atlanta, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Michael Holmes.
HOLMES: Welcome, everyone.
We begin with a new warning from Moscow that NATO should think twice before letting Ukraine strike deeper inside Russia with Western-made weapons. On Thursday, President Vladimir Putin issued one of his most hawkish statements on the subject. He said, if Ukraine gets NATO's go-ahead, the alliance could be on a military collision with Russia.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VLADIMIR PUTIN, PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA (through translator): This is their direct involvement, and this, of course, would in a significant way, change the very essence, the very nature of the conflict.
Tt will mean that NATO countries -- the United States and European countries -- are at war with Russia.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: But U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, visiting Poland, indicated that permission is on the table. Ukraine has been asking for a green light to hit deep inside Russia with long-range missiles for months.
And U.S. President Joe Biden now coming under domestic pressure to allow that. Here's what Secretary Blinken said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Look, a hallmark of what we've done from day one, in fact, even before day one of the Russian aggression against Ukraine in 2022, was to try to make sure that Ukraine has what it needs when it needs it to deal with that aggression.
And, as what Russia is doing has -- has changed, as the battlefield has changed, we've adapted.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Now, that's happening as Moscow tries to retake territory Ukraine captured last month in Western Russia. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy confirming Russia has launched an operation to recapture its territory in the Kursk region.
This video showing a Russian attack on a village held by Ukraine on the Western edge of the area it controls.
Moscow claims it has already taken back ten settlements, but according to the Pentagon, the Russia operation is not a game changer, at least so far.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAJ. GEN. PATRICK RYDER, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: What we have seen is Russian units beginning to try to conduct some type of counteroffensive in the Kursk region. At this stage, I would say that it's, you know, marginal but something, obviously, that we're keeping an eye on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Ukraine says it has captured about 1,300 square kilometers of territory and about 100 settlements inside Russia.
President Zelenskyy says Kyiv expected Russia to push back, and what's happened so far is in line with Ukraine's plans.
For more, let's head over to Brisbane, where we're joined by Mick Ryan, a retired Australian general in the army there. He's also the author of the book "War Transformed: The Future of 21st Century Great Power Competition and Conflict."
Great to see you, as always, Mick. So, the pressure building on President Biden, including from within his own party to loosen those restrictions on Ukraine firing deeper into Russia. How important is that permission in this war in a military sense?
MICK RYAN, RETIRED AUSTRALIAN GENERAL: Yes, good day, Michael.
It's very important, because what it allows the Ukrainians to do is strike Russian airfields and launch points for aircraft that use glide bombs, missiles to attack civil targets, as well as drone launch points.
Whilst bombers might have been moved further back, many, many tactical aircraft that are important to Russia's operations are still within range of America's long-range strike weapons.
HOLMES: Yes. So important. You -- you wrote in your latest Substack that there's no clear U.S. strategy for the war in Ukraine, but that might change.
How do you see that strategy unfolding, or how should it unfold, if Ukraine is to win?
RYAN: Well, we've seen reports of a strategy finally being provided to Congress from the Biden administration.
That's a good thing, I hope. Most importantly, it should provide a clear and compelling vision for why the United States is helping Ukraine and why it's important for Ukraine to win.
If it does nothing else but that, that would be a major achievement. And hopefully, it will do that.
[00:05:00]
HOLMES: Yes, and to that point, the U.S. secretary of state, Antony Blinken, not surprisingly, said, quote, you know, "We want Ukraine to win this war."
But let's listen to how Donald Trump answered that direct question on whether Ukraine should win. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID MUIR, ABC ANCHOR: Do you want Ukraine to win this war?
TRUMP: I want the war to stop. I want to save lives.
MUIR: Do you believe it's in the U.S.'s best interests for Ukraine to win this war? Yes, or no?
TRUMP: I think it's the U.S. best interest to get this war finished and just get it done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: How significant is it, Mick, that Trump would not answer that very direct question on whether he thought Ukraine should win? Just say that the war had to end?
RYAN: Well, it's hard to know the motivations for why he didn't just say yes or even no. But at the end of the day, the best way to save lives and end the war is for Ukraine to win.
HOLMES: Yes. I'm going back to long-range missiles. Russia are warning, as we just reported, of dire consequences if those long-range munitions are used, despite, you have to say, the obvious fact that Russia has been firing long-range missiles into Ukraine since the start of this war.
What do you make of the threat, though? And at the same time, also Russia launching this counterattack in the Kursk region?
RYAN: Yes, Michael. I mean, you know from firsthand experience from the start of the war, the Russians have been using very long-range weapons. Far from being escalatory, this is us playing catch-up.
And, you know, from the last couple of years, Putin has been talking about that he is at war with NATO. So, his comments about long-range missiles being provided, meaning NATO's at war with Russia, really have no credibility.
HOLMES: Winning the war is one thing. But as I know you've pointed out in your writings, winning the piece is another. What -- what sort of security guarantees, what sort of end to this war will win the peace for Ukraine?
RYAN: Well, the most important thing will be the accession of Ukraine into NATO. That's extraordinarily important for the future security and prosperity of Ukraine and its people.
But also, the bilateral agreements with different countries all in the Baltics. Germany and other countries, as well as ongoing military assistance to Ukraine of the type that the United States provides to countries like Taiwan and to Israel at present.
HOLMES: Major General Mick Ryan in Brisbane. Also, a new book out, "The War for Ukraine," and also a terrific Substack people should read. Good to see you, Mick. Thank you.
RYAN: Thanks, Michael. HOLMES: Well, Ukraine is blaming Russia for an attack that killed three Red Cross workers on Thursday.
Video shows the group's truck on fire after the alleged artillery strike in Eastern Ukraine. You see it there, clearly marked with the Red Cross.
The International Committee of the Red Cross says its workers were hit while preparing to distribute cooking supplies. The group says two other humanitarian workers were injured but didn't say who was behind the attack.
And CNN got an exclusive look inside one of Ukraine's hospital trains used to evacuate wounded soldiers from the front lines. It is equipped with ultrasound scanners, ventilators, even life-support machines.
CNN chief international anchor Christiane Amanpour spoke to some of the staff and soldiers on board. We're not identifying them by their full names or revealing the train's route for security reasons.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR (voice-over): On a hot, late summer morning, departure time is fast approaching at this railway station in Ukraine. But this is no ordinary train. It's a hospital on wheels, evacuating dozens of wounded military personnel away from the Eastern front, as Russia's brutal offensive grinds on.
Paramedics carefully loading patient after patient, many of them unconscious, onto repurposed carriages.
It's a highly organized special operation, and it's never been seen before. CNN gained unprecedented and exclusive access to what so far has remained a closely guarded military secret.
AMANPOUR: But everybody is still --
AMANPOUR (voice-over): Before the train moves off, I meet 35-year-old Oleksander (ph), wounded by a drone strike, which has caused him to go deaf in one year. His call sign is Positive, but he doesn't feel it.
OLEKSANDER, UKRAINIAN SOLDIER: I'm very tired. But these are hard times, and we must remind -- (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
GRAPHIC: We must keep fighting no matter how hard it is.
AMANPOUR: Do you feel that you have enough people, enough weapons to defend?
OLEKSANDER (ph): No.
AMANPOUR: You don't have enough?
OLEKSANDER (ph): Not enough. No. (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
GRAPHIC: There aren't enough people. And there definitely aren't enough weapons.
AMANPOUR (voice-over): As the train rolls on, we make our way to the intensive care unit, where several soldiers are on life support, bed after bed of broken and battered bodies, lives shattered in an instant.
[00:10:15]
Ninety percent of the wounds being treated here are from shrapnel. And yet, many of these patients know there'll be patched up just to be sent back to the front as soon as possible.
This train and its cargo sum up Ukraine's state of military affairs: mostly ordinary citizens who've answered the call. Outmanned, outgunned by Russia. And yet, still putting up a hell of a fight.
Nurse Yulia (ph) makes this journey twice a week.
AMANPOUR: How do you feel, being in here with these very badly wounded soldiers? How does it make you feel?
AMANPOUR (voice-over) "I'm an empathetic person, so it's difficult," she tells me. "But you have to switch off your feelings at the moment of work, and later, you can reflect."
And the story of frontline morale is on display here, too. If electrician Oleksander (ph) was feeling down after 18 months fighting this brutal war, Stanislav, who signed up in March, is still full of patriotic fervor. He can still summon a smile, even though he has shrapnel in his body and damage to his lungs.
STANISLAV, UKRAINIAN SOLDIER (through translator): Personally, I was ready for it. I was ready to trade the shower stall, the good sheets, and the bed, the good conditions that I had at home for a foxhole. I knew where I was going. And what I was doing.
OLEKSANDR, UKRAINIAN ARMED FORCES MEDIC (through translator): The most difficult part is evacuation from the front lines. Combat medics who work on the front are dying, just like soldiers.
AMANPOUR (voice-over): As these carriages rumble on through fields of gold, think for a moment of history repeating itself in Europe, when thousands of ambulance trains evacuated casualties from World War One's trenches, more than a million to the U.K. alone.
Tonight, darkness descends as we arrive at the destination, and suddenly there's activity everywhere again, as ambulances line up, collecting and dispatching to hospitals across the country.
On the platform, the railway chief describes his pride and his sorrow.
OLEKSANDR PERTSOVSKYI, CEO, PASSENGER OPERATIONS, UKRAINIAN RAILWAYS: You see these kids who are saying goodbye to their dads, who are heading towards the frontlines, to seeing those -- those same guys coming back, effectively unconscious or with amputations. It feels like the price of the war is incredible. AMANPOUR (voice-over): Like a conveyor belt, industrial-scale
conversion of healthy young men and women into this.
And yet, as one of them told us, Ukraine is strong and motivated. While Russia has quantity, we have quality, and we will win.
Christiana Amanpour, CNN, Ukraine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Israel's military is trying to defend its actions after one of its strikes in central Gaza killed at least 18 people, including six U.N. employees.
The Israel Defense Forces claims three of the six UNRWA staff were members of Hamas but didn't provide any evidence. At least 44 other people were wounded.
The IDF admits to carrying out Wednesday's strike on the U.N. school turned shelter, where thousands of displaced people had been seeking refuge.
Israel's military claims Hamas was using the location to plan and execute terror attacks. The U.N. says the three people accused by the IDF were, in fact, school teachers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Israel's coming out and again saying that several of the six UNWRA staff members were combatants, were fighters, were part of Hamas. Do you have any evidence of that?
STEPHANE DUJARRIC, UNITED NATIONS SPOKESPERSON: We've -- we've heard what they said, and I referred it to -- to it in the statement.
We have no way of -- we're not in a position to confirm it, to deny it. Our focus is on humanitarian help. What is -- what has been -- what is clear to us is that no one in this conflict -- and all parties -- and I do mean all parties -- should never use civilian infrastructure as a place from which to launch attacks, to target attacks. The use of human shields is condemned, is -- has been condemned. And we will continue in that direction.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: More now from CNN's Nic Robertson in Tel Aviv.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: So, the single deadliest strike of U.N. workers, UNRWA workers, inside of Gaza since October 7.
[00:15:06]
Six of them killed; 18 people, total, killed in these Israeli strikes on this U.N.-run school in Gaza. Twelve thousand people were seeking shelter there.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Forty-four other people injured.
It is the fifth time that this particular U.N.-run school has been hit. These are -- these are places of shelter and food distribution for people who've lost as their homes inside of Gaza.
The U.N. secretary-general is saying that these types of attacks must stop. The U.N. director of UNRWA operations inside of Gaza has said that, if they are allowed, these types of strikes are allowed to continue, then this will undermine international humanitarian law, undermine the Geneva Conventions.
And the statistics here in this particular case are staggering. Five times the school has been hit. Seventy percent of U.N.-, UNWRA-run schools across Gaza have been hit since October 7th. Two hundred and twenty UNRWA employees have been killed so far in Gaza, according to the Irish foreign minister, condemning the attack earlier today.
ROBERTSON: Now the IDF says that they were targeting a Hamas cell there. It was a command-and-control center for Hamas. The IDF says that they tried very carefully to avoid civilian casualties. Indeed, they say three of the U.N. employees there were members of Hamas.
Now the U.N. has pushed back.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): UNWRA has pushed back very clearly on this and said these three people that the Israelis claim were working for them, but being members of Hamas at the same time, they're saying there's no evidence to support that.
The list that the IDF gives to the U.N., claiming Hamas members working for the -- for the U.N. these names don't exist on those lists. That's what the U.N. is saying at the moment.
But the -- the reality here is, for all those civilians living inside of Gaza who depend on the U.N. for these shelters in U.N.-run schools, they are all at risk.
The IDF says that they will strike Hamas operatives where they have intelligence that leads them there. They will try to minimize civilian casualties as best they can.
ROBERTSON: But in this case, 18 civilians killed, 44 wounded.
Nic Robertson, CNN, Tel Aviv.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Well, an Israeli intelligence commander who critics say played a role in failing to prevent the terror attacks of October 7 is stepping down from his post.
Israeli media published excerpts of his resignation letter. Brigadier General Yossi Sariel writing, quote, "On October 7th at 6:29, I did not fulfill the task as I expected of myself, those at my command and commanders expected of me, and the citizens of the state I love so much," unquote.
In the wake of the Hamas attack, a number of top Israeli defense and security officials came forward to take responsibility, to some extent, for missteps that led to the events of October 7.
In May, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted there were political and military failures around the attack.
When we come back on the program, Donald Trump says no more after Tuesday's presidential debate. Kamala Harris says, let's do another one. We'll have the latest on the debate of -- about another debate.
Also, the top U.S. law enforcement official says the Justice Department won't be intimidated by threats. Coming up, details on Merrick Garland's fiery new warnings.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:20:53]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: So, because we've done two debates, and because they were successful, there will be no third debate.
It's too late anyway. The voting's already begun. You've got to go out and vote. We've got to vote.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Donald Trump now saying he will not participate in another presidential debate.
But Kamala Harris's campaign not taking that promise seriously. A senior Harris adviser predicts there will be a second debate between the two.
And the U.S. vice president said she wants to go another round with her political adversary.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Two nights ago, Donald Trump and I had our first debate.
And I believe we owe it to the voters to have another debate.
Because this election and what is at stake could not be more important.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Coming off one of her strongest single fundraising days yet, Kamala Harris repeatedly hit her rival over his debate performance during a North Carolina rally. She criticized him for his answers on policy issues and targeted his comment on replacing the popular Affordable Care Act when he said he had the quote, "concept of a plan."
Now at a rally in Arizona on Thursday, Trump continued to attack Tuesday's debate moderators over fairness. He said that they only corrected him and not Harris.
Meanwhile, he repeated debunked conspiracy theories, ludicrous ones, around migrants are stealing and eating pets in the state of Ohio.
The U.S. attorney general, Merrick Garland, is implicitly pushing back against Donald Trump and his allies for threats and attacks against Department of Justice employees. And for trying to use the DOJ as a political weapon against their real or perceived enemies.
More now on that from CNN's Brian Todd.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An indignant attorney general takes aim at those who he believes have leveled threats against prosecutors and other staffers at the Department of Justice.
MERRICK GARLAND, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: We will not allow this department to be used as a political weapon.
TODD (voice-over): In an impassioned speech to Justice employees, Merrick Garland said it's dangerous now for people at the department to simply do their jobs. And he condemned what he called the escalation of attacks against government lawyers, law enforcement agents, and others.
GARLAND: These attacks have come in the form of conspiracy -- conspiracy theories, dangerous falsehoods, efforts to bully and intimidate career public servants by repeatedly and publicly singling them out; and threats of actual violence.
TRUMP: Very polite.
TODD (voice-over): Garland never mentioned former President Donald Trump by name, but it was clear the recent actions of Trump and his allies fueled much of his frustration.
TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, WHITE HOUSE BUREAU CHIEF, "THE WASHINGTON POST": The former president definitely amped up the threats against the Department of Justice. And he has been threatening to put people in jail who worked for the Department of Justice, who work for election offices, by threatening them with this idea that they were cheaters during the election.
TODD (voice-over): Indeed, in recent days, Trump threatened prosecution and long prison sentences for election officials and political workers who Trump suggested could cheat in this year's election. The former president posting on Truth Social, quote, "When I win, those people that cheated will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."
It's part of Trump's efforts to cast doubt on the integrity of this year's election, even though there's no evidence of widespread fraud or irregularities in any recent U.S. election.
Trump has often suggested recently that he would weaponize the justice system to go after his political opponents if he's elected again, even though during the recent debate, he accused the democrats of doing that to him with the recent criminal prosecutions against him.
TRUMP: They weaponized the Justice Department. They used it to try and win an election. They're fake cases.
TODD (voice-over): Garland defended the department's integrity.
GARLAND: There is not one rule for friends and another for foes. one rule for democrats and another for Republicans.
And he reiterated his prosecutors and agents won't be intimidated by political attacks.
[00:25:02]
GARLAND: But it is dangerous and outrageous that you have to endure them.
OLORUNNIPA: He's worried about election-related violence. He's worried about Trump inspiring someone who may take what he is saying and run with it and feel like they need to take things into their own hands.
TODD: At certain points in his speech, Merrick Garland seemed to express real exasperations with the attacks on the Justice Department. He thanked prosecutors and other department staff for refusing to bend to politics and break under pressure.
Garland said, quote, "You deserve better."
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: A judge is throwing out three charges in the Georgia election subversion case, two of which were charges Donald Trump was facing. One count of filing false documents and another count of conspiring to file false documents have been dismissed.
Trump's lawyer hailing the rulings as a victory, but the decision hasn't yet been formally applied to Trump, since his case has been paused pending appeals.
And in a separate ruling, the Fulton County judge upheld the marquee racketeering charge in the case, which includes Trump. Well, from the murder capital of the world to a destination for
reverse immigration. How El Salvador has been transformed. That's after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM with me, Michael Holmes.
Now, Pope Francis leaving Singapore right now and heading back to Rome. The Catholic leader has been on a 12-day tour of the Asia- pacific region, where he underscored the importance of interest faith harmony, particularly with Muslims.
The 87-year-old called on leaders to take care of the poor in the elderly and advocated for the environment.
The pontiff earlier met with Singapore's president and prime minister and celebrated mass for tens of thousands of people.
Talk of criminals entering the U.S. illegally has put a spotlight on its Southern border.
But in El Salvador, a remarkable transformation has taken place that has seen thousands of gang members put in prison. And now, instead of trying to enter the U.S., many Salvadorans are renewing their lives there. Some are even crossing the other way back, returning home.
CNN's David Culver with the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID CULVER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We're layering up to walk through a notoriously gang-infested part of El Salvador's capital.
The country's defense minister is our tour guide.
CULVER: And this area, especially was --
RENE MERINO, EL SALVADOR DEFENSE MINISTER: Was very, very, very dangerous area.
[00:30:04]
CULVER: He said, go back three or four years, and the folks who lived in this area didn't even want to look police and military in the eye.
MERINO: If the bad guy know that some Salvadoran (ph) people say hi, say hi to us, they kill them.
CULVER (voice-over): For decades, gang violence suffocated nearly all aspects of life in El Salvador.
But now, walking these once deadly streets with the defense minister feels more like a victory parade. Handshakes, hugs, photos, even carrying babies. For some, even asking about the past brings out tears.
CULVER: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
CULVER (voice-over): "Only God knows what it was like here before," she says.
Less than a decade ago, El Salvador was labeled the deadliest country in the world. Murders have since plummeted according to government data, from more than 6,600, in 2015 to 154 last year.
Life has seemingly returned to these streets.
CULVER: Now I feel a little bit silly, even having to wear this. The biggest threat is a slowdown in going to where you need to go because of taking photos and saying hi to people.
CULVER (voice-over): But how did it all change so quickly?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bukele.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bukele.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Bukele.
CULVER (voice-over): Most crediting Nayib Bukele, the country's president. In 2019, he came into office.
His actions controversial. Consolidating power, tightening his grip of control, and essentially eliminating any political opposition.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
CULVER (voice-over): Under a state of emergency, more than 81,000 people arrested.
Bukele even boasting that El Salvador now has the highest incarceration rate in the world.
The government says the most hardened gang members end up here at the terrorism confinement center. Government images from inside have been widely shared on social media.
But most of those arrested are actually kept in facilities like these, a side of El Salvador's prison system few have seen.
CULVER: You can actually see, just over where we are, there's row after row after row.
CULVER (voice-over): This facility alone holds roughly 30,000 inmates.
Prisoners are put to work, tasked with rehabilitating themselves and their country.
CULVER: You can even see there's that police vehicle that they're working on. CULVER (voice-over): We tour another facility where inmates are making
government uniforms and building desks for local schools.
Some inmates are sent into communities to help heal the nation by erasing parts of a painful past. President Bukele ordered the inmates to shatter gang tombstones.
CULVER: So, this is one of them here, and you can see this is all broken off.
They're still buried here, and they still have a plot.
CULVER (voice-over): But any mention of their past gang affiliations and nicknames, destroyed.
Driving through the capital, we see kids playing, parks packed with vendors and families, and lots of traffic. It all might seem normal.
But locals stress to us, this is all new to them.
CULVER: It's calm. (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
CULVER: Before, nobody would visit here, not even your own family.
CULVER (voice-over): Though feeling safer, this woman tells me the drastic changes have come at a devastating cost.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
CULVER: She's saying her son, who helps her normally financially, is in jail. So, for her, yes, it might be safer here, but economically, it's no better.
CULVER (voice-over): She says her son is being held at one of the work prisons we visited, but that he's innocent and has not been given the opportunity to defend himself.
It's a claim many have made against the government.
But the Bukele administration is adamant that they've taken lawful and necessary steps to liberate this country.
We meet this woman, who says she's been able to move in, thanks to the changes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
CULVER: So, for her to be here in this space now, to have a little business, she says has been a blessing.
CULVER (voice-over): Keeping the gangs out has meant military patrols at all hours, though now, even the sight of armored trucks with flashing lights, surrounded by heavily armed soldiers, no longer intimidating for residents, so much as fascinating. CULVER: They're just curious and wanting to take a picture and video of the inside of some of this military equipment.
MERINO: Mr. President says this is a miracle, he says. This is a miracle.
CULVER (voice-over): And perhaps, like a miracle, El Salvador's transformation has its skeptics and doubters.
[00:35:02]
But most everyone we find here, for now at least, devout believers, hopeful this change will last.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Gracias.
MERINO: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
CULVER: But it seems the impact of President Bukele's crackdown is going beyond the borders of El Salvador. In fact, we looked at the numbers from Customs Border Protection here in the U.S.
And starting in roughly early 2022, around the same time that that controversial state of emergency began in El Salvador, up until 2023, the number of encounters of folks from El Salvador at the U.S. Southern border dropped 36 percent.
Now it's on track to drop even further this year.
What's more is when we were down in El Salvador, we met a lot of folks who, for years, lived in the U.S. and who, in the past few years have decided to uproot their lives in the United States and cross the border South into El Salvador, where they're now building a new life, for many of them back home where they started.
David Culver, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: And join us tomorrow for part two of David Culver's report. He'll be speaking with some of those Salvadorans who have lived in the U.S. but are now reversed immigrants. They're returning home amid those safer conditions and a growing economy.
So, we'll have that for you tomorrow.
Still to come here on the program, pets over parenting. Young Chinese couples putting off starting a family, choosing to pamper the pooches instead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Back at home, we all have a lot of work to do, but from here, it sure looks like a perfect world. (END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: The four civilian astronauts on the SpaceX Polaris Dawn mission made history with their spacewalk, of course. Two of them went out of the craft. Two stayed in the capsule. But all four were depressurized and exposed to the vacuum of space.
A milestone in a historic and potentially dangerous maneuver. The mission has set records and took the crew farther into space than any humans since NASA's Apollo program more than 50 years ago.
Well, call it a canine conundrum for the Chinese government. Beijing needs its young people to start families and help ease the issue of an aging population.
But instead of pacifiers and prams, couples are choosing four legs over two.
CNN's Marc Stewart reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARC STEWART, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Married for seven years, Hanson (ph) and his wife, Momo, may resemble China's family of the future.
STEWART: Do you have any children?
HANSON (ph): No, not yet. No.
STEWART: Are you planning on having children?
HANSON (ph): Not right now. Not in this period of time.
STEWART (voice-over): The only parenting they're doing revolves around their six dogs.
[00:40:03]
MOMO, BEIJING RESIDENT (through translator): Yes, they're all part of our family. We are one big family.
HANSON (ph): It's like our children. Yes. It's like our daughters, our sons.
STEWART (voice-over): A reflection of the independent-minded younger generation in China, where having children is no longer a priority.
HANSON (ph): Different generations that do things differently.
STEWART (voice-over): According to a recent study by Goldman Sachs, the number of pets in urban China is expected to surpass the number of children ages zero to four by the end of the year. By 2030, there could be nearly twice as many pets in urban China than young children.
Business opportunity for this doggy daycare owner, who has also chosen not to have kids.
TAO, OWNER, SPACE DOG DAY CARE: I feel like people start to be more like, this is what I want, or this what I like for my life. Rather than, like, oh, this is what the society taught me to do, or this is what my parents want me to do.
STEWART (voice-over): Officials reported a record low birth rate last year as the population decreased for the second year in a row, a sharp dip partly due to COVID lockdowns.
While analysts expect a rebound this year, it is still a blow to the world's second largest economy, once so worried about overpopulation, it limited most urban couples to a single child, even forcing abortion and sterilization.
At a women's conference last year, China's strongman leader, Xi Jinping, lectured delegates to foster a new type of marriage and childbearing culture. The message is clear for Chinese women: get married and have babies.
But some women choose to have puppies instead.
STEWART: This newfound pet popularity comes at a time when the Chinese government is offering things like financial incentives and time off from work, all with the goal of promoting parenthood.
STEWART (voice-over): Yet, for many young Chinese, none of this seems to matter.
MOM (through translator): I don't think my choice for not having a kid would make much of a difference for China.
STEWART (voice-over): The country's leadership very much begs to differ as they doggedly try to boost China's birth rate and its economic strength.
Marc Stewart, CNN, Beijing.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Well, a runaway penguin lost at sea off Japan for two weeks is now safe.
The penguin, named Pen, was swimming with staff from a traveling zoo when she escaped. Since the feathered fugitive was born in captivity and had never been in open waters, their chances of survival were dim.
But then Typhoon Shanshan hit, a zookeeper telling CNN that probably helped save her life, keeping her alive, keeping her cool and hydrated, and safe from boats and fishing nets.
Pen was found Sunday, 12 kilometers from where she went missing.
Not a very imaginative name, Pen Penguin. Get it?
I'm Michael Holmes. I'll be back with more of the top of the hour with CNN NEWSROOM, but WORLD SPORT after the break in the meantime.
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