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Northern Gaza in Direct Need of Aid Amid Israeli Offensive; U.S.: At Least 3,000 North Korean Troops Inside Russia; Push for New Payment System as BRICS Leaders Meet; Trump's History of Admiration for Authoritarian Leaders; CNN Crew Held Captive by Militia in War- Torn Sudan; Turkey Strikes Iraq and Syria after Terror Attack on Capital Ankara; Harris Calls Trump Fascists on CNN Town Hall; Trump Steps Up Personal Attacks and Dark Rhetoric; Antony Blinken Meets Saudi Crown Prince, Foreign Minister. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired October 24, 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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LYNDA KINKADE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Lynda Kinkade live in Atlanta.
Ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, Turkey hits back striking Kurdish targets in Iraq and Syria hours after a deadly terrorist attack near the capital.
A huge fireball lights up the sky over Lebanon. It is as Israeli warplanes pound targets in suburban Beirut.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Do you think Donald Trump is a fascist?
KAMALA HARRIS (D), VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Yes, I do. Yes, I do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KINKADE: And Kamala Harris calls Donald Trump unstable, unfit and a danger to the United States during a live CNN town hall.
ANNOUNCER: Live from Atlanta, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Lynda Kinkade.
KINKADE: We begin in the Middle where Turkey has carried out retaliatory strikes following a deadly terror attack near the capital Ankara. Turkey's Defense Ministry says it struck the Kurdistan Workers Party, the PKK, in northern Iraq and Syria. Video from northern Syria shows a series of explosions overnight on a number of targets.
Kurdish officials say at least two people were killed and six others wounded in that shelling. The Turkish government says it believes the PKK is responsible for the deadly terror attack in Ankara on Wednesday.
Now those strikes come hours after an explosion and gunfire ripped through the headquarters of the state-owned Turkish Aerospace Industries near Ankara.
(VIDEO CLIP)
KINKADE: This video shows the moment armed attackers launched the assault. The interior minister says at least five people were killed, 22 others injured. Video verified by CNN shows at least two attackers carrying guns and wearing backpacks approaching the entrance of the facility. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Turkey is investigating but officials have made an initial assessment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALI YERLIKAYA, TURKISH INTERIOR MINISTER (through translator): When compared to previous attacks, we have a strong opinion that it's the PKK terrorist organization, but it will become certain once the identities of the attackers are determined, which we'll announce with you to the public.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KINKADE: Well, CNN's Salma Abdelaziz is following all the developments from London and filed this report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SELMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Turkey is reeling after an attack on an aerospace company just on the outskirts of Ankara, the capital.
We do have social media video to show you of the moments of this attack. It's been geolocated and verified by CNN, and in this video you can see a huge explosion. You can hear the sound of it as well. And then you can see those -- that plume of smoke going up in the air and then an individual appears who is carrying or looks to be carrying a weapon. You can hear the sound of gunfire ringing out.
Now, images like this are absolutely going to send shockwaves across Turkey. It is no stranger to terror attacks, but it hasn't seen one like this in recent years. Authorities say that two assailants, two attackers were killed, a man and a woman, and that a judicial investigation is underway to identify those who are behind this attack.
Now, the location is extremely significant. This aerospace firm is state-owned. It also provides military supplies, drones, airplanes to Turkey's military. One analyst described it as the crown jewel of Turkey's defense industry. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has issued his condolences to those who were killed and said the attack targeted the survival of the country and the peace of our nation.
Salma Abdelaziz, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KINKADE: For more, we're joined by Asli Aydintasbas. She is a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institute. Good to have you with us.
ASLI AYDINTASBAS, VISITING FELLOW, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: Hi, Lynda.
KINKADE: So I want to start with the significance of this aerospace facility. This is one of Turkey's top state-run defense firms and a major arms producer, right?
AYDINTASBAS: It produces drones and aircraft for Turkish Armed Forces, drones and armed drones have been the crown jewel of Turkey's growing regional power.
[00:05:03]
And of course the country is very proud in many ways of its defense industry. So yes, it's a very important factory.
KINKADE: And we are hearing that Turkey has already launched strikes in retaliation on Kurdish militants in both Iraq and Syria. It's blaming them for this attack. Do we know if there is any evidence?
AYDINTASBAS: Well, we don't know who the actual -- what the identity of the actual attackers are. Late yesterday, we heard the defense minister come out and say it looks like a PKK, the Kurdish separatists. We don't know why because just a couple of weeks ago, for the past few weeks Turkey has been discussing a new peace initiative with Kurds. In fact, with the PKK, there was expectation that its imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan, who's been in jail in Turkey for many, many years, would come out and call for disarmament of the organization, come out and call for a resumption of peace negotiations.
So this coming right after that national discussion on reconciliation had started. It's a bit of a shock to many.
KINKADE: Just talk to us about the Kurdistan Workers Party, the PKK. Is this sort of attack typical of their approach, which reportedly included a suicide bomber?
AYDINTASBAS: Well, it's unusual to see an attack on a Turkish state enterprise or an armed factory. PKK has had an on again, off again peace process with Turkish government, which ended a decade ago. And since then there have been a number of attacks. But it's not been doing too much inside Turkey. Instead, it has consolidated in Syria and Iraq.
Of course, this is an organization that goes back to the 1980s. It started out as a guerrilla movement fighting for an independent Kurdish homeland, but has been over the past few -- past decades seeking more of an autonomy inside Turkey. They run a very strong powerful organization in Syria, inside Syria, affiliated with anti- ISIS forces, fighting ISIS affiliated with U.S. Military inside Syria, partnering with U.S. Military in the fight against ISIS.
And that has been a huge cause of tension in Turkey's relationship with its closest ally, the United States. So at this point, we're talking about an organization that isn't just in Turkey, but also in Syria and Iraq. Perhaps a very big movement. And Turkish government and PKK have been fighting an on again and off again war basically since 1980s, early '80s.
KINKADE: And of course, you mentioned the timing of this, coming at a time when Turkey was debating whether to reignite the peace process with the PKK and talking about whether to grant parole to this imprisoned leader. So if this was the PKK, what was their objective?
AYDINTASBAS: It's very hard to figure out what the signaling was, of course, people have died. Five people have died. It's more than signaling, it's a terrorist attack. But on the other hand, there's clearly a message here in this -- in picking this particular location in Ankara, a defense manufacturing company. When Erdogan is away, perhaps PKK is saying that a peace process without its own involvement simply with the leader of the organization who has been in jail for decades, would not work, that it needs to be the primary interlocutor or perhaps it's an offshoot inside the PKK, a more radical element that is wanting to sort of boycott, sabotage the peace process. But there's no doubt that this comes as an effort to sabotage this new talk of reconciliation inside Turkey.
KINKADE: Asli Aydintasbas, appreciate your analysis. Thanks so much for joining us.
AYDINTASBAS: Thank you.
KINKADE: There are 12 days to go until the election here in the United States, and both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump need to attract more support in order to win the presidency.
Harris took her message to the voters in a CNN town hall event in Pennsylvania on Wednesday night, repeating her warning to Americans that Trump poses a threat to the nation's core principles.
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HARRIS: Yes, I do believe that Donald Trump is unstable, increasingly unstable, and unfit to serve.
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And I don't necessarily think that everyone has heard what you and I have heard repeatedly, which is the people who know Donald Trump best, the people who worked with him in the White House, in the situation room, in the Oval Office, all Republicans by the way, who served in his administration, his former chief of staff, his National Security adviser, former secretaries of defense and his vice president have all called him unfit and dangerous.
Imagine now, Donald Trump in the Oval Office, in the situation room. He who has openly admired dictators, said he would be a dictator on day one. The former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has said he is a fascist to the core.
COOPER: You've quoted General Milley calling Donald Trump a fascist. You yourself have not used that word to describe him. Let me ask you tonight. Do you think Donald Trump is a fascist?
HARRIS: Yes, I do. Yes, I do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KINKADE: Well, Harris also ran through some major policy plans, including having Medicare cover home health care for the elderly and a tax increase on the richest Americans. When pressed as to why the administration hasn't done more to slow the record number of illegal border crossings, she stressed the need for a bipartisan bill to provide a long-term fix.
Well, Michael Genovese is president of the Global Policy Institute at Loyola Marymount University, and he joins me now from Los Angeles.
Good to have you with us.
MICHAEL GENOVESE, POLITICAL ANALYST: Thank you, Lynda.
KINKADE: So this was a town hall of undecided voters. Plenty of young people, plenty of registered Republicans. Do you think Harris succeeded in winning over any of those voters tonight?
GENOVESE: Well, you know, I don't think she moved the bar very much because there's not a lot of bar to move. Generally speaking, there are about 3 percent of the voters are undecided, which is incredibly small, much smaller than the past two elections. And so most voters have already hardened their positions. And they aren't up for grabs. And so there's not many to convert. And that means that the campaigns are really going to go to get out their bases.
KINKADE: She certainly came out swinging against Trump, calling him a fascist, agreeing with the former Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, who was scathing, warning about Donald Trump's threat to democracy. Let's just take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Over 400 members of -- previous members of the administration from Ronald Reagan to both Presidents Bush to Donald Trump, even, have endorsed my candidacy. And the reason why among them is a legitimate fear based on Donald Trump's words and actions that he will not obey an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KINKADE: So does making that case help her win over Republicans who might be on the fence?
GENOVESE: Well, you know, people who study this like myself think that democracy or authoritarianism is the existential threat. American voters don't generally think that. They have other priorities. The American voter has a funny way of deciding for themselves what they think is important. And so, although that those who know Trump best like him least, those who work with him the most find him the most disturbing, that's a powerful voice and a powerful statement, but it doesn't seem to be registering with American voters.
They have things like the economy and the border, like those are the big issues for them. And so democracy is the essential issue but American voters are really sort of bypassing it.
KINKADE: And in terms of the issues, you know, abortion rights, immigration, the plight of Palestinians, support for Israel, of course, the cost of living, all of those issues she tackled tonight. And she said she believed in compromise, working across the aisle. But then she got this question. A question often used in job interviews. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What weaknesses do you bring to the table and how do you plan to overcome them while you're in office?
HARRIS: That's a great question, Joe. Well, I am certainly not perfect so let's start there. And I think that -- perhaps a weakness some would say but I actually think it's a strength is I really do value having a team of very smart people around me who bring to my decision- making process different perspectives. My team will tell you, I am constantly saying, let's kick the tire on that. Let's kick the tires on it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KINKADE: A lot of undecided voters say they don't really know who Kamala Harris is. Do you think people got more of a sense of who she is during tonight's town hall?
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GENOVESE: You know, she is known but not well-known. And the question that was asked, what are your failures, et cetera. She fumbled it a bit and stumbled over it. One of those questions you're supposed to answer, well, my problem with my wife is I love too much. She's not defined herself very clearly for the American voter, which is unusual since she should be very well-known.
But I think the key for her is that she has to really define who she is in contrast to Donald Trump. And that's where she runs the risk. She didn't have a long campaign to develop a persona and a style of campaigning. She had to do it in a very short amount of time, and that's why she is not -- doesn't always seem comfortable on the campaign trail.
KINKADE: And of course we know Trump was invited to debate Harris tonight. He didn't turn up and he also turned down the opportunity of having his own town hall. Instead over the last few days, he's done stunts at McDonald's. He's resorted to some vulgar locker room talk and according to Trump's former chief of staff in the past he's praised Hitler's generals. At this late stage, how is he faring less than two weeks out from the election?
GENOVESE: He's had a bad few weeks. He has been stumbling in his speeches. He's been engaging in just unusual word salads. He has said some things that are absolutely bizarre and inexplicable. He talks about a dead American golfer's private area and the size of it. Talking about using the military against American citizens, naming Pelosi and others. A 39-minute musical interlude in the middle of what he described as a town hall meeting, was odd.
So there are some real cognitive issues that seem to be at work here. And he seems to be at odds with himself, and he has not done himself any favors. The problem for the campaign for Harris is it doesn't seem to matter to his base, to Trump's base, that he is so out of touch and he's so stumbling and fumbling. They are loyal to him to a fault. They don't budge. They are hardened Trump supporters.
And we used to joke about when he said, you know, I could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and no one would care, well, who's the joke on now? He actually could do that and his base wouldn't care. They are so in love and devoted to Donald Trump.
KINKADE: Michael Genovese, good to have you on the program. Thanks so much for your time.
GENOVESE: Thank you so much.
KINKADE: And in case you missed it earlier, we will replay CNN's presidential town hall with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris next hour. That is at 9:00 a.m. in Abu Dhabi, 1:00 p.m. in Hong Kong.
Well, Donald Trump spent his day in the key swing state of Georgia, making two campaign appearances. At a huge rally hosted by ultraconservative group he launched more personal attacks at his rival and her running mate.
Our Alayna Treene was there.
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ALAYNA TREENE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, former president Donald Trump addressed a massive crowd at a rally in Duluth Georgia, on Wednesday where he significantly escalated his attacks not only on his opponent, Kamala Harris, but on the vice presidential nominee, Tim Walz. He called him sick and argued that he didn't know who was worse, him or Harris. Take a listen to what he said.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And you can't even say, well, let's go to the vice president because he is really a sicko, right? Remember he called J.D. Vance and I weird? We're not weird. We're very solid people. He's a weird dude. That guy, he's always pumping his heart, ha-ha-ha. You know, like, he's got great heart. He's a sick guy.
TREENE: Now, it is not unusual to hear Donald Trump attack both Harris and Walz. But normally he keeps those personal attacks very much focused on his running mate. So this was noteworthy. But look, this comes as Donald Trump over the last several days has really been escalating those personal attacks on his opponents and also increasing his dark rhetoric when it comes to the current picture of America. He did all of that on Wednesday night. He focused heavily on
immigration, the border specifically, and what he argued were undocumented migrants coming over the southern border to commit crimes in the country. He also talked about the economy, about energy. But one thing that was very notable was how big of an event this is. This was hosted by Turning Point Action, it's one of the biggest outside groups that has been really helping Donald Trump with his ground game strategy, not just here in the state of Georgia but also in the other key battleground states.
Now, the founder of Turning Point Action, Charlie Kirk, as well as several other high profile Republicans, that includes people like Tucker Carlson, RFK Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, Dr. Ben Carson, as well as the country music star Jason Aldean.
[00:20:06]
All of them spoke on Wednesday as well, and it really did feel like the vibe in the room felt almost like a mini-Republican National Convention.
Now, I also just want to point out one thing we heard earlier in the night from Tucker Carlson, because then it ended up playing a bigger role when Trump was on stage. Essentially Carlson argued that if Donald Trump were to win in November, it would be like dad was coming home. And he said in response to criticizing the media as well as the Democratic Party overall, he said that Trump, like God, would treat everyone as his children but also would recognize that they needed a spanking.
Later on, you heard the crowd chanting when Trump was on stage. Daddy's home and Daddy Don. So notable as I have not heard that yet before on the campaign trail.
Alayna Treene, CNN, Duluth, Georgia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KINKADE: Well, Lebanon says more Israeli airstrikes are pounding the southern suburbs of Beirut. We'll have the latest on the Middle East next. And later, thousands of North Korean troops at a military base inside Russia. What the U.S. is worried they're training for.
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KINKADE: That's a major explosion rocking a southern Beirut suburb late Wednesday. The Lebanese Health Ministry says at least one person was killed, five others injured by Israeli airstrikes on a residential complex. Lebanon's national news agency described the strikes as the most violent in the area since the conflict began.
A video on social media captured a large fireball rising from buildings along the sounds of explosions. A spokesperson with the Israeli Defense Forces had warned civilians to stay away from certain areas minutes before that strike. Also Wednesday night, the IDF said two projectiles from Lebanon landed in central Israel, while two others were intercepted. No injuries have been reported.
The U.S. Secretary of State is urging a diplomatic solution to the conflict in Lebanon during his trip to the Middle East. Antony Blinken spent Wednesday in Saudi Arabia, where he sat down for an hour with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The U.S. is renewing its efforts to bring the war in Gaza to an end and to deter a broader regional war. The top U.S. diplomat also met with the Saudi foreign minister to discuss the situation in Gaza as well as the release of the hostages still held by Hamas. These meetings followed Blinken's stop in Israel.
Our Jeremy Diamond has more now from Tel Aviv.
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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, Secretary of State Antony Blinken is making his 11th visit to the Middle East since the beginning of this war. But he appears to be coming up empty handed once again. On Tuesday, he sat down with the Israeli prime minister for over two and a half hours, trying to convince the Israeli prime minister that now is the moment in the wake of the killing of Yahya Sinwar to end the war in Gaza and strike a deal to bring the hostages home.
But the tone and the wording from the Israeli prime minister and his office in the wake of that meeting was very different from what U.S. officials would have hoped. The prime minister's office putting a lot of emphasis on the ongoing fight in Gaza, the potential for Israeli strikes against Iran, and only offering really just a fig leaf to this idea of ending the war in Gaza in the wake of Sinwar's killing, saying in the statement that Sinwar's killing, quote, "is likely to have a positive influence on returning the hostages and achieving Israel's goals in the war in Gaza." Not quite a firm commitment to getting back to the negotiating table.
We also know that the secretary of state pressed on the humanitarian situation in Gaza. And the reality is that we are watching that despite these efforts by the United States, they say that Israel is taking some steps to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza. But it's clear from on the ground that we are nowhere close to that situation getting resolved. Instead the Israeli military is stepping up its military offensive in northern Gaza, where we are getting reports every single day of civilians being killed in in these strikes, killed by gunfire, and also, of course, that very little to no aid is actually making its way there as hospitals are also facing very dire conditions.
In Lebanon we are also watching the Israeli military continuing to carry out heavier strikes, not only in southern Lebanon, including in the historic city of Tyre, but also in the Lebanese capital of Beirut once again. And so it's just clear that for now there is no real sense that things are going to de-escalate in this region for the moment. But nonetheless, even as the secretary of state tried to press on these kind of immediate term goals, he also is looking longer term. And that's what he was doing in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday as he sat
down with the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to talk not only about this opportunity to end the war in Gaza, but also to think about the day after the war in Gaza. And there's no question that Saudi Arabia is likely to play a strong role there. The question now, though, is when will we actually get to that day after the war.
Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Tel Aviv.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KINKADE: Well, health care officials in northern Gaza continue to sound the alarm over the dire situation in the enclave. They're again warning of severe shortages of medical supplies as Israel intensifies its offensive.
CNN's Paula Hancocks reports. But first, a warning some of the images in her report are disturbing.
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PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hundreds stand in the midst of what looks like a post-apocalyptic world. Civilians being evacuated from Jabalya Refugee Camp in northern Gaza by the Israeli military after being trapped for days without food or water. Perpetual expulsion of desperate civilians. The United Nations Human Rights office warns the population in northern Gaza may be destroyed through, quote, "death and displacement."
U.N. teams on the ground claim forceful transfers of people. Israel says Hamas is regrouping and rebuilding in the area which it is fighting to prevent. The wasteland illustrates the intensity of the military force being used.
There was bombardment every minute, explosions every second, gunfire, this woman says. We never experienced such fear and horror. It was one of the darkest nights we ever lived through.
Remarkable that the hell civilians have lived through for more than a year could still get worse. The reality increasingly resembles the so- called general's plan, a proposal to force civilians out of northern Gaza and blockade going in. Sources say the Israeli cabinet declined to adopt the plan earlier this month, but U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken felt the need to ask Israel's prime minister about it this week.
Doctor Hussam Abu Safiya runs the Kamal Adwan Hospital in the north, which he says is now surrounded by the Israeli military and under constant shelling. He says they ran out of blood and medication on Monday, calling the constant stream of injured a massacre.
The medical staff are few, he says, and the volume of injuries high. We have had to implement a difficult triage system. We have to let some die so some can live.
He films the children's ICU himself to show the impossibility of evacuating despite IDF orders.
[00:30:05]
This boy arrived with burns covering more than 70 percent of his body, he says.
Israel says 47 humanitarian aid trucks entered Northern Gaza within a 24-hour period this week. Gaza's Health Ministry says no medical supplies or food have entered the area for 18 days, claiming aid is being diverted to central Gaza.
U.N. aid workers cannot find food, water or medical care, according to the head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, adding the smell of death is everywhere, as bodies are left lying on the roads or under the rubble.
Gazan health officials say more than 770 have been killed in the more than two-week Israeli campaign. No breakdown of militants versus civilians.
But the innocent are the hardest hit in this never-ending war.
This young boy, Adam (ph), pulled alive but injured from the rubble last week. The man who saved him says his greatest pain was when he heard his parents did not survive.
Paula Hancocks, CNN, Abu Dhabi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KINKADE. I'm Lynda Kinkade.
The U.S. is publicly confirming a move by North Korea that has Western allies on edge. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says the U.S. is seeing evidence of North Korean troops in Russia. But what they're doing remains unclear.
A senior administration official tells CNN that thousands of North Korean troops recently arrived in Eastern Russia and are undergoing training.
The move has fueled concerns that they intend to take part in Russia's war in Ukraine.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN KIRBY, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COMMUNICATIONS ADVISOR: If North Korean soldiers do enter into combat, this development would demonstrate Russia's growing desperation in its war against Ukraine.
Russia is suffering extraordinary casualties on the battlefield every single day, but President Putin appears intent on continuing this war.
If Russia is, indeed, forced to turn to North Korea for manpower. This would be a sign of weakness, not strength, on the part of the Kremlin.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KINKADE: More now from CNN senior international correspondent Will Ripley.
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WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At this remote Russian military base, a convoy of what appears to be North Korean troops training in a barren, bleak stretch of wilderness deep in Russia's far East.
CNN geolocated this video. Sergeevka training ground, near China and North Korea. The front lines of Ukraine, more than 4,000 miles away.
[00:35:04]
Ukraine is where South Korean intelligence says these soldiers are going. Fifteen-hundred now; as many as 12,000 could be deployed, South Korean media says. Some, seen here, supposedly just days ago, getting their Russian military uniforms.
The audio muffled, the language sounds like Korean. We can't independently verify this video provided to CNN by the Ukrainian government.
They also shared this: a uniform sizing questionnaire dated last week, in both Korean and Russian, for hats, headgear, uniforms, and shoes.
RIPLEY: Why would Kim Jong-un be sending troops to Russia and to Ukraine?
DANIEL PRESTON, LECTURER IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, TROY UNIVERSITY: So, if Russia is successful, then you know the North Koreans could follow suit, and it could be a very dangerous situation.
RIPLEY (voice-over): As Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin deepen their anti-U.S. Anti-West military partnership, a terrifying scenario, says Ukraine's president.
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: We know about 10,000 soldiers of North Korea, that they are preparing to send, fight against us. And this is the first step to a world war.
RIPLEY (voice-over): At the United Nations, no comment from North Korea.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Such groundless stereotype rumors aimed at smearing the image of the DPRK.
RIPLEY (voice-over): They've been busy lately, blowing up border roads with South Korea, coming just days after supposed South Korean drones dropped propaganda leaflets on Pyongyang, North Korea's capital, almost at Kim's doorstep.
CAPT. CARL SCHUSTER (RET.), FORMER DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS, U.S. PACIFIC COMMAND JOINT INTELLIGENCE CENTER: His regime is very even beyond normal levels of paranoia right now.
RIPLEY (voice-over): This week, Seoul summoned Russia's ambassador, condemning what could be North Korea's largest ever overseas deployment, bigger than the 1973 Yom Kippur War and Vietnam, says this retired South Korean lieutenant general.
LT. GEN. CHUN IN-BUM (RET.), SOUTH KOREAN ARMY: So, this could be a real serious problem for the entire world.
RIPLEY (voice-over): A problem compounded by a massive influx of North Korean weapons into Russia. Reports of 70 shipments of shells, missiles, and anti-tank rockets since August 2023, not to mention North Korean ballistic missiles, which Ukraine says have killed civilians, including children.
Will Ripley, CNN, Taipei.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KINKADE: Well, the war in Ukraine has been looming awkwardly over the BRICS summit in Southwestern Russia.
President Vladimir Putin is hosting the leaders of major emerging economies and vowing to form a new multipolar world order that is not beholden to the West.
He's also proving to the world that Western sanctions will not isolate Russia. CNN's Clare Sebastian has further details on the goals of this gathering.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this first official day of the BRICS summit brought more powerful optics.
Russia will certainly use images like this. The first family photo of the expanded BRICS alliance, a group now representing some 45 percent of the global population, as undeniable proof that the West has failed to isolate it. That is already a clear deliverable for Moscow.
But whether the BRICS will succeed in its practical goal of coming up with new sanctions-busting payment systems that reduce the power of the U.S. dollar is a different question. But for Russia, the most sanctioned country on earth, this is urgent.
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We do not refuse. We do not fight the dollar. But if we are not allowed to work with it, what should we do? Then we are forced to look for other alternatives, which is what is happening. We, while striving for cooperation, must still understand that the longer we live and work by someone else's rules and on someone else's platforms, the longer this transition to a new and more just economic and financial system will last.
SEBASTIAN: Now there are positive noises coming from some BRICS allies on this. Iran's new president, for example, talked explicitly in a meeting with Putin about disrupting the West's global dominance.
But for this bigger BRICS, which includes countries like India, Egypt, and the UAE, with a clear interest in also maintaining ties with the West, there are nuances. And Russia's war in Ukraine remains a complicating factor.
The declaration the nine countries adopted Wednesday called, for example, for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages, but said very little about Ukraine, other than to say the conflict should be settled through diplomacy.
It talked also about the importance of free navigation in the Red Sea, but didn't mention the Black Sea, where Russia has stepped up attacks in recent weeks, including on civilian cargo ships.
And while the BRICS are willing to gloss over this uncomfortable reality, the U.N. secretary-general, set to meet Vladimir Putin on Thursday, is promising to address them head on.
Clare Sebastian, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[00:40:02]
KINKADE: U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is attacking his former chief of staff, John Kelly, on social media, calling him, quote, "a total degenerate."
This comes after Kelly said that Trump fits the general definition of a fascist and wanted the kind of generals that Adolf Hitler had during World War II.
More now from CNN's Brian Todd about Donald Trump's history of admiration for strongmen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): New accounts raising concerns about Donald Trump's history of admiration for strongmen, from his former chief of staff, John Kelly.
JOHN KELLY, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF UNDER DONALD TRUMP (via phone): He's certainly an authoritarian. So, he certainly falls into the general definition of fascist.
TODD (voice-over): And from "The Atlantic," citing two people who claim Trump said, quote, "I need the kind of generals that Hitler had." Some analysts say it fits a concerning pattern.
MAX BOOT, SENIOR FELLOW, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: Trump has seemingly never met a dictator he doesn't like. And not just like, but he seeks to emulate, which is the scariest thing of all.
TODD (voice-over): Trump has openly praised Russian President Vladimir Putin; Hungary's prime minister, Viktor Orban; Chinese President Xi Jinping.
DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: President Xi is a friend of mine.
TODD (voice-over): And North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.
TRUMP: And then we fell in love. OK?
TODD (voice-over): Trump's former defense secretary, Mark Esper, said this to CNN.
MARK ESPER, FORMER U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY UNDER TRUMP: Clearly, he has a predilection for -- for leaders whom he -- whom he perceives to be strong. And that's just how he breaks the world down. He breaks things down between strong and weak.
TODD (voice-over): Some analysts worry about how Trump would behave in the White House if he's elected again.
JACOB HEILBRUNN, EDITOR, "THE NATIONAL INTEREST": He fetishizes the strongman, and that's the blueprint. Crush the media, eviscerate the independent judiciary, and establish his own rule over the country.
TODD (voice-over): Trump offering a glimpse of his view on presidential authority this week.
TRUMP: As president, you have tremendous -- it's called extreme power. You have extreme power.
TODD (voice-over): This all comes after Trump drew heated criticism for telling FOX News about his concerns over potential unrest on election day and how he might handle domestic opposition to him.
TRUMP: I think the bigger problem is the enemy from within. We have some very bad people. We have some sick people. Radical left lunatics. And I think they're -- and it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard or, if really necessary, by the military.
TODD (voice-over): Trump's running mate, J.D. Vance, defended the former president's remarks.
SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Is it a justifiable use of those assets if they're rioting and looting and burning cities down to the ground? Of course it is.
TODD (voice-over): Mark Esper says we should take Trump seriously when he talks about using the U.S. military against American civilians.
ESPER: It concerns me on many levels, not least of which is, you know, the impact it could have on -- on American citizens. It's the impact on the institution of the military.
TODD (voice-over): Will any of this hurt Trump politically as we move closer to November 5th?
SUSAN PAGE, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, "USA TODAY": Donald Trump's core supporters, they are not going to be put off by almost anything. But we're now two weeks before the election, and there may be soft supporters or undecided Republicans who will be repelled by this.
TODD: Donald Trump's campaign has refuted John Kelly's assertion that Trump expressed a desire to have loyalty on the level of Hitler's generals.
The Trump campaign's communications director said Kelly had, quote, "beclowned himself with debunked stories that he had fabricated" and called Kelly a failed chief of staff who suffers from, quote, "Trump derangement syndrome."
Brian Todd CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KINKADE: Well, President Biden and Vice President Harris are speaking out against Trump's big dictator energy.
Listening to this exchange between CNN's M.J. Lee and White House press secretary. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
M.J. LEE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: So just to be clear, when you said we do agree, President Biden believes that Donald Trump is a fascist?
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I mean yes. We have said. He said himself. The former president has said he is going to be a dictator on day one. We cannot ignore that. We cannot.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KINKADE: Vice President Kamala Harris says she believes Trump is a fascist. It was one of the first things she said during her CNN town hall just a few hours ago.
Earlier Wednesday, Harris called Trump's comments about Hitler's generals deeply troubling and further evidence of who Trump really is.
Still to come, held captive in Darfur, Sudan. It happened to a CNN crew. Our chief international correspondent, Clarissa Ward, describes the harrowing ordeal.
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[00:46:15]
KINKADE: Well, Norway is often associated with some of the most pristine and untouched waters in the world.
But in recent years, plastic pollution has become prevalent. Today, on "C all to Earth," we look at how a unique school is helping to combat that rise in pollution with the help of students from every corner of the globe. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KINKADE (voice-over): The fjords of Western Norway provide a breathtaking backdrop to a unique international organization rooted in Nordic culture.
JAMES CONNELL, UWC RED CROSS NORDIC: UWC Red Cross Nordic is an international school teaching students aged from 16 to 19 and located on the West coast of Norway.
KINKADE (voice-over): With 200 students from 90 countries, UWC Red Cross Nordic offers a unique learning environment.
MAHDUIKA SINGH, TEACHER, UWC RED CROSS NORDIC: The college has environment as one of our base pillars. So, we focus a lot on environment and impact on environment. So, this sort of comes in everything we do.
KINKADE (voice-over): The school is supported by the Red Cross and encourages students to take action to protect people and places in need. At the center of their education model is a project-based learning, or PBL.
SINGH: Project based learning basically implies that they are the ones who are part of the planning and they do the project and then they evaluate and look into how things work.
KINKADE (voice-over): A recent study found that Norway contributes an estimated 15,000 tons of plastic waste into the environment annually. And with almost 29,000 kilometers of coastline, plastic pollution poses a threat to marine ecosystems around the country.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Norway has one of the longest coasts in the world, and that is why it makes it so complicated. Right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.
KINKADE (voice-over): During the coastal cleanup PBL, the students are leaving their dorms and embracing Norwegian coastal culture.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thanks.
DAIMAS OREJE NGANYI, STUDENT UWC RED CROSS NORDIC: We are living in a boat for five days. It's just a joy being -- when you wake up, and there's a little bit of waves; you wake up to, you know, some rowing, and it's totally magnificent.
NORKIS VALERO MENDEZ, STUDENT, UWC RED CROSS NORDIC: It has been really great. I haven't been in a boat before. Sometimes it moves, and it's a bit scary, but it's really, really cool.
KINKADE (voice-over): The project has been running for the past four years. During this time, students have removed several tons of plastic from coastal islands, significantly impacting both the environment and the participants.
CONNELL: Within the space of about six hours, we collected around 300 kilograms of plastic. And it was -- it was totally surprising.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wow.
ANA POL MAYORAL, STUDENT, UWC RED CROSS NORDIC: It's been quite bittersweet. So just opening up and seeing, like, layers and layers and layers of plastic where you take out one and there's -- there's s even more and more.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Crazy.
MAYORAL: I still really want to make something that, thanks to this experience, would allow me to inspire other people and to tell them that this is going on. Thanks to the fact that I saw it with my own eyes.
SINGH: It doesn't have to be changing the whole world, but if they can make an impact in their own little way in the spaces they are in, that little sort of drop in the ocean, probably many drops will make a big difference.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One, two, three.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Coastal cleanup!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Coastal cleanup!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Coastal cleanup!
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KINKADE: Well, let us know what you're doing to answer the call to earth with a hashtag, #CalltoEarth.
We're going to take a short break. We'll be back in just a moment.
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[00:51:40]
KINKADE: That's Gisele Pelicot, met with applause on Wednesday in France after testifying in the mass rape trial of her former husband.
He admitted to inviting dozens of men into their home for nearly a decade to rape her while she was drugged.
Pelicot told the court she was, quote, "totally destroyed" by what was done to her, but she refuses to be ashamed, because she did nothing wrong.
Fifty other men have been charged with raping Pelicot. She wanted a public trial to help other women and rape victims, who usually remain anonymous. She's been lauded for her courage, but says she isn't courageous, just determined to influence change.
Earlier this month, a CNN crew was held captive in North Darfur in the war-torn region of Sudan. They arrived to report on the world's worst humanitarian crisis but wound up becoming part of the story.
Chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward's team was supposed to meet a group deemed a neutral party in Sudan's civil war. But instead, they wound up being detained by a heavily armed militia for 48 hours.
CNN's Richard Quest spoke to Ward about the conditions leading up to their terrifying ordeal, and how they got through it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR/CORRESPONDENT: Thank God you and the team are safe.
But it's a risk you all took, because this is the forgotten war. I mean, God help me for saying it in those terms, but you know what I mean. This is the forgotten war that is just getting worse.
CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There's no question, Richard, that the conflict in Sudan has been overshadowed by Ukraine, by Gaza.
But when you talk to the U.N., when you talk to aid workers, they will say, by the numbers alone, Sudan is the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
And Darfur in particular, all eyes are on it at the moment.
There was a genocide that was perpetrated there between 2003, 2005. We have seen vicious war crimes taking place that are really heightening fears that you could see the worst being realized once again in Darfur.
On top of that, you have huge displacement, heavy fighting, the spread of disease, and in August, a famine declared in the Zam Zam displaced people's camp outside of the besieged city of El Fasher.
And Tawila, the town that we were trying to get to, is -- is just a few hours away from El Fasher, from Tawila. Almost no international journalists been able to get in on the ground. The two main warring factions simply not giving permissions to journalists.
And so, that has made it next to impossible to effectively report on this crisis, Richard.
QUEST: So, you and the team are held for two days. I've heard the description, your description. I've read your description of you're under trees, and you were not harmed.
But the very fact of being detained is a horror in itself. How are you all?
WARD: We're all fine. It was absolutely a stressful ordeal. All of us, I think, were very much fixated on our families back home and how stressful this must be for them.
And it weighs on you not having information, not knowing when you might be able to get out, when you might be able to cuddle your kids again.
As the only woman, I was very mindful of restricting my food and water intake, because there was no private place where I could relieve myself.
[00:50:06]
At the end of the day, we got out after two days. We came back home. We're safe, and we're with our families. And as journalists, it is so cringe-inducing, honestly, Richard, to become the story.
But we felt it was really important to share our experience, because it does touch on the broader themes and challenges of covering this conflict, but also of the complexity of the situation in Darfur, the difficulty of getting aid in, the difficulty of human rights organizations getting in, and getting the stories out of the people of Darfur that deserve to be told and that the world needs to hear.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KINKADE: That was our Clarissa Ward there.
Well, the militia leaders eventually announced they were releasing our colleagues, claiming they thought they were spies.
Ward said after hearing the news that there was a wave of relief. Then came smiles and handshakes, and this photo that she describes as awkwardly posing on a mat that had been their makeshift prison.
You can read Clarissa Ward's entire report about being held captive in Sudan on CNN.com.
Well, the president of McDonald's restaurants USA says his company is very confident that its food is safe to eat. He made those remarks after at least 49 people became ill from possible E. coli contamination after eating at McDonald's outlets in ten American states. One person has died. Ten others have been hospitalized.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says slivered onions or certain beef patties are likely the source of the contamination.
McDonald's chief executive says the company took quick action.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE ERLINGER, PRESIDENT, MCDONALD'S USA: We took swift action yesterday to remove the Quarter Pounder from our menu. This was swift and decisive action by us.
And, you know, it is the Quarter Pounder and two ingredients on that Quarter Pounder that are under investigation by the CDC.
So, you know, I want to say to our consumers that you can confidently go to McDonald's today.
(END VIDEO CLIP) KINKADE: Well, shares in the fast-food company closed down 5 percent after the E. coli news. That dragged down the Dow Jones index by almost 1 percent on Wednesday.
That does it for this edition of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Lynda Kinkade. Coming up after the break, a replay of our town hall with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris.
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