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Kyiv Faces New Reality as Russia Ramps Up Airstrikes; U.N. Says 2.4 Million Girls Excluded From School Since Taliban Takeover of Afghanistan; Two Former Chinese Military Men Arrested in South Korea; Total Solar Eclipse Sweeps Across Europe; Cristiano Ronaldo, Georgina Rodriguez Tie the Knot; Death Toll Rises To At Least 265 As Rescue Efforts Continue; U.S. Embassies In Middle East Told To Plan On Operating With Small Number Of Staff On The Ground; Kyiv Faces New Reality As Russia Ramps Up Airstrikes. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired August 13, 2026 - 02:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:00:40]

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I'm Ivan Watson in Hong Kong.

Just ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, a desperate search for survivors in Colombia after a deadly earthquake. The challenges facing rescuers. I'll speak to an expert.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: I'm asking American partners to sell me five percent -- five percent of missiles.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy there urging the U.S. for Patriot missile interceptors as Russian attacks pound Ukraine.

Plus, a spectacular cosmic event-a rare solar eclipse-captivates people across Europe and beyond.

ANNOUNCER: Live from Hong Kong, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Ivan Watson.

WATSON: All right. Let's start in Colombia because the search for survivors is becoming a race against time there, three days after a 7.4 magnitude earthquake hit the country. Colombia's president says the death toll has risen to at least 265 people. International teams are lending their assistance, much like they did when two deadly earthquakes hit Venezuela back in June.

But one political scientist says Colombia's government transition is making aid deliveries challenging. Remember, the new president just took office last Friday, and he's now declared an economic emergency due to the widespread damage. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABELARDO DE LA ESPRIELLA, COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): I am informing the country that I have decided to declare an economic emergency, a mechanism provided for in our constitution to address this crisis as appropriate. The emergency I am proposing will create a miracle fund, an entity that will channel national and international contributions toward the reconstruction of hospitals, educational centers, buildings, roads, and airports that were damaged by the earthquake.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: Now, thousands were injured in Monday's quake. The president says the main efforts now are on the hundreds who remain missing. CNN's David Culver is in Cali, Colombia, with more on the rescue efforts.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID CULVER, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We're headed now to a southern part of Cali where we're told there are active rescues underway, including just a few hours ago where someone was pulled out alive.

You can hear people still right now?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. Yes.

CULVER: Well, they won't -- let's have a -- OK, he said you can still hear people, so let's go see.

They just handed us masks. They said, please put these on because they're worried about asbestos and anything else that's in the air that we're also seeing some of this dust.

We've been told what we're looking at here was an apartment building that was about four storeys high. You can see the rooftop pool, the blue tiles over there, now about a storey-and-a-half up in the air. So, it has totally pancaked down, collapsing into the basement of this apartment complex.

Looking into the collapsed rubble, Harold Valencia recognizes something.

You can see your dad's mattress. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Exactly.

CULVER: Which is that one that he's showing right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's right there.

CULVER: Have you heard anything? Is there any movement or any --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No? I've been here for two days, and we don't hear anything there.

Harold flew in Tuesday from his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and he isn't the only one here doubling as a first responder.

And how old are the two people still missing, roughly?

JAVIER TABARES, VOLUNTEER: Late teens.

CULVER: Teenagers?

TABARES: Late teens, yes.

CULVER: And a brother and sister?

TABARES: Yes.

CULVER: How do you even process this moment? Like how --

TABARES: There's no way to process it, like you don't process it. You're just here dealing. Like if you're home, maybe you may have to find some way to cope with it. Like there's no time to process this type of stuff, like you have to be here helping. Otherwise, there's nothing else to do.

CULVER: Here in Cali, Colombia's third-largest city, with a population roughly the size of Houston, Texas, even folks working at hotels, or taxi drivers even, are splitting their day between their actual work and helping with rescues.

Motivated by scenes like this, a man handing off a baby boy from within the rubble, dust-covered and struggling to breathe, but he's alive.

You saw the baby's little head. He's not a first responder. He works in a bank, and he was just around the corner, and rushed down this street where the collapse and rescue is still underway for several others. And he says he goes there, and he hears (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE). What did the voice say?

[02:05:19]

The voice says, I'm here, I'm here with a baby. Brian and several others immediately go in. Over the course of three to five minutes, they're able to pull the baby out.

How's the baby right now?

Stable condition right now, as well as the dad. The only thing is the mom is still missing.

More than 130 miles north, we watched on for hours as this close-knit community dragged huge slabs of concrete from this collapsed apartment in Pereira.

All of these folks are volunteers. Late in the evening, their hands reached a 32-year-old woman clinging to life. Her stepmother held vigil there for more than 24 hours. She tells us her daughter suffered heart failure and shattered nearly every bone imaginable, but says she's hopeful she'll make it.

From that same wreckage, someone's beloved pet also pulled out alive.

Back here in Cali, this moment, reality briefly surfaces for Harold.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trying to get my dad home where he belongs.

CULVER: You could tell in that moment, Harold started to allow almost the reality of what he was looking at, the potential aftermath, to soak in, and he had to push it away, almost compartmentalize a bit, so that he could then focus that and get back to work.

And looking at him from afar, when we first were pointed his direction, we assumed he was part of first responders or a work crew.

I mean, he was directing traffic and having essentially some of the workers follow some of his orders so as to remove some of the large slabs of concrete. Then it turns out that he, like so many we've met here, have just flown in and are not part of the experience team so much as are just here looking for loved ones.

He and many others have said, if you want to do it, you have to do it yourself sometimes, and they're doing just that.

David Culver for CNN, Cali, Colombia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WATSON: OK, joining me now is Ilan Kelman, a professor of disasters and health at University College London. Professor, it's just that report I just saw. Seeing babies plucked from the rubble, a kitten. It's so powerful. And then hearing a rescuer perhaps losing his father. I want to ask this period, this kind of golden hour after an earthquake, how much is it complicated by the fact that the earth is still shaking? That there are scores of aftershocks still rocking the area.

ILAN KELMAN, PROFESSOR OF DISASTERS AND HEALTH, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON: This issue of aftershocks is one of the biggest challenges. Any rescuers who go in, whether they are local or experienced international search and rescue specialists are risking their lives after an earthquake of this magnitude. We do expect large aftershocks. They will continue for several days. Any time you're going underneath the rubble, any time you're near a building which could topple, you are at risk. And all thanks and all credit to everyone who's putting their own lives at risk in order to save others.

WATSON: Can I ask you because after one of these disasters, governments, organizations, they are rushing to the scene to try and help. I've witnessed this after earthquakes in Haiti, for example. But CNN's reporting that Colombia's new government initially refused some of these offers of help from foreign countries, and that the head of the disaster management in the country is on record Wednesday saying that Colombia only wanted rescue teams from the U.S. El Salvador, Ecuador, and Israel because they're the only countries with the proper certifications for this delicate work.

Are you surprised by that, and what potential impact could that have in these crucial hours, where you still could pluck a live baby from the rubble?

KELMAN: There is no surprise at declining humanitarian assistance and disaster response aid. There are two main reasons: practical and political. Practical is that the government is absolutely right to ensure that anyone coming in has the equipment, has the skills, and has the training. Any rescuer on site is using resources, can put themselves and others at risk. So the professionals, those who are trained, those who are self-sufficient, should be prioritized.

The other reason is unfortunately political. Sometimes countries will decline aid because they do not want to be seen to lose face. They may decline aid because they do not want to be seen to be taking assistance from an enemy. And in fact, the U.S. did that after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when Cuba offered much-needed medical assistance, and that was declined.

[02:10:09]

But other countries also offered assistance, which was not needed, and the U.S. quite rightly declined. So, when we see this government of Colombia saying, actually, we want the rescue teams to know what they're doing, that is very sensible. We then do analyzes to determine whether or not politics do influence those appropriate and pragmatic decisions.

WATSON: OK, well, Venezuela it is still reeling from the deadly earthquakes that struck that country in June. Are there any lessons from that deadly disaster experience that can apply to the rescue and recovery efforts in Colombia, or are we dealing with a completely different kind of society and economy there?

KELMAN: The two main lessons from the horrific Venezuela earthquakes and the Colombia one, as well as many other disasters involving earthquakes, are first that earthquakes tend not to kill people, collapsing infrastructure does. We know exactly how to build infrastructure, buildings, bridges, and others, which do not collapse even in the earthquakes that we've seen in Venezuela and Colombia. It is always a political decision not to do so, which leads to the catastrophe.

And the second lesson is that prevention is better than cure. In fact, prevention is cheaper than cure. If we accept that collapsing infrastructure kills people rather than earthquakes, it's up to us to make that decision to avoid the collapsing infrastructure. We not only will save so much money, but far more important, we will save so many lives. Those two lessons come from Venezuela and Colombia and all the other earthquakes and disasters that we've witnessed over the past decades.

WATSON: OK, important perspective there. Ilan Kelman from University College London. Thank you very much for speaking with me.

OK, to the Middle East now, with no progress on a U.S.-Iran peace deal in sight, a top adviser to the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps says he believes Iran is in control of the war and that Washington is conducting a, "War without strategy."

In an interview with PBS, he also spoke about attaining deterrence to prevent future attacks, saying, "One way is to prolong this war until we get to the next term of the presidency and cause attrition, so that if anyone else wants to attack Iran, they will know there is a cost." He went on to say, "The longer this war lasts, the more experience we gain. We had never seen a real war to gain real experience to learn how to fight with America."

In the meantime, the International Energy Agency says there's a growing urgency to reopen the Strait of Hormuz as the world rapidly burns through its oil stockpiles. Traffic through the critical waterway remains low, with just 14 vessels reported to have crossed the strait on Tuesday.

We are now learning more about Donald Trump's secret presidential plane switch last month in Turkey after a potential Iranian threat against him. Specifically, according to a source, the threat to Air Force One by a shoulder-fired missile. Now, the Washington Post is reporting new details about that intel.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAN LAMOTHE, NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER, WASHINGTON POST: The Washington Post will be reporting very shortly that the threat -- the threat stream that raised all these concerns and prompted these extraordinary actions, came from information shared from Israel. The CIA had low confidence in that information, but given the threat, given the seriousness of the issue, given the long-running concerns about Iran's interest in going after the president, they put all of this in motion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: OK. Now, according to a source, when the president secretly moved off Air Force One via a catering container and then onto a military aircraft. He was joined by several close personal aides, and they included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Executive Assistant Natalie Harp, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Stephen Miller. They were among those who remained on board Air Force One, as well as the traveling White House press corps. Interesting details.

Still to come, a Palestinian home came under siege by Israeli settlers in the West Bank. Details of what happened when the Israeli military showed up. That's next.

Plus, life is on hold for many staff members and their families at U.S. embassies across the Middle East. What they're hearing from the State Department about the war with Iran. Stay with CNN.

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[02:19:40]

WATSON: Welcome back. I'm Ivan Watson, broadcasting live from Hong Kong. Now there were dramatic scenes in the West Bank as Israeli troops cracked down on settlers who had set up an outpost in front of a Palestinian home.

[02:20:01]

OK, the troops they used tear gas to try to remove the settlers, but it's unclear if they were fully dispersed. The military has come under increasing pressure to halt rogue land seizures by settlers. A Palestinian resident described what her family went through in recent days.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUQAYA HASSAN ABU REEDA, HOUSE BESIEGED BY ISRAELI SETTLERS (through translator): The settlers established an outpost close to the house, around six meters. Since that day, we have been subjected to daily attacks by settlers during the day and night, and harassment on the road. They tried to cut off water and electricity networks many times. We fix it, and they recut it again two days later, as well as attacking the workers who come to do the maintenance work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: The West Bank has seen a surge in settler violence since the beginning of the war in Gaza, the war with Iran has put life in limbo for many U.S. embassy staff and their families across the Middle East.

CNN's Senior National Security Reporter Jennifer Hansler has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JENNIFER HANSLER, CNN SENIOR REPORTER, NATIONAL SECURITY: The U.S. State Department is asking us embassies in the Middle East that are under ordered departure, meaning they've been operating with only emergency personnel on the ground to make plans for a continuation of that reduced staffing.

At the same time, sources told CNN that the State Department has increasingly been approving curtailments for diplomats who have been displaced from the region, meaning they can end their assignment early.

Taken together, these developments indicate that the department does not expect to be able to return to normal staffing in the region in the near term as the war in Iran continues on.

Now, under State Department rules, after six months of ordered departure, an embassy is required to either return to normal staffing or move into restricted operations. Now, final plans have not yet been approved. However, once they are,

they could grant some clarity to the diplomats and their families who have been dealing with more nearly six months of uncertainty.

At the start of the war against Iran, the U.S. had not drawn down personnel from the majority of its embassies in the Middle East, it wasn't until weeks into the fighting, as the Iranians were targeting U.S. diplomatic facilities, that they ordered non-emergency personnel and family members to leave and return to the U.S.

In that time, these folks have not been able to make long-term plans because they were not sure if they would be returning to the region.

One diplomatic spouse described moving from house to house because they weren't sure if they could sign a long-term lease. Now, some families are having to make those decisions to stay, especially with the school year about to begin.

That diplomatic spouse told me, "We had no idea when we walked out of our house in March that we not only wouldn't be returning in six months, but now the reality is we won't be returning at all."

Now, former diplomats told CNN that there can be an impact when there are fewer diplomats on the ground, and that there are some things that just need to be dealt with face to face. This is especially true when it comes to promoting U.S. business interests or finalizing agreements that are made on a higher level, these diplomats said.

The State Department disputed the idea that any U.S. interests were impacted by not having as many diplomats in the region. They also said that they would not comment on internal deliberations, but that the safety and security of their personnel is paramount.

Jennifer Hansler, CNN, the State Department.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WATSON: To Zimbabwe now. That's where rescue crews are searching the waters of the world's largest man-made lake. They're looking for survivors after an overcrowded ferry capsized on Tuesday, killing at least 44 people. Police say the boat was built to carry 90 people, but may have had more than 120 passengers on board as it crossed Lake Kariba. Police say the ferry overturned after it was hit by strong waves. Zimbabwean media reports rescue divers fear people may still be trapped inside the capsized boat.

All right, Ukraine faces an onslaught of Russian airstrikes just as its stockpiles of air defenses run dangerously low.

Still ahead, Ukraine's president explains how many interceptors he needs to stop all the Russian missiles.

Plus, new allegations of. Espionage against two former Chinese service members. What police say they were after in South Korea. That's coming up after the break.

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[02:29:16]

WATSON: Welcome back to CNN. The president of Ukraine is making a new plea for U.S. Patriot missile interceptors. Russian strikes have been ravaging Ukraine in recent months as Moscow tries to exploit Kyiv's shortage of those weapons. So much so that the U.N. says July was the deadliest month for Ukrainian civilians in more than four years. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke with CNN's Nick Paton Walsh.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Mr. President, Kyiv feels very different than it has over the last few years. People used to just walk calmly during air raid sirens. Now we see them run to the subway to shelters. How do you prepare a city of this size for the extra shock of this new wave of Russian ballistic missile attack?

ZELENSKYY: Each night, you have attacks. And four, five times per month, we have massive attacks. People live -- people try to have some sun and try to spend, of course, because of terrible nights, very heroic, very resilient people, really. But they tired, understandable.

PATON-WALSH: Are you out of interceptors now? Do you have none left?

ZELENSKYY: No, I will explain you how it works. So this year, we have two-and-a-half times less interceptors than we had in 2025, first. Russia has two times more ballistic missiles per month than they had before. We pay 100 percent to Americans. I have the package from the United States and then my personal involvement.

It doesn't work either way. It's my personal talks, meetings, and phones, phone calls each day. With everybody, I try to exchange something to missiles.

This year, I'm asking American partners to sell me five percent, five percent of missiles what they have in their stocks. If they sell us five percent, we will go through the winter and save people's lives. If they can sell us 10 percent, we will destroy all the Russians' ballistic missiles.

PATON-WALSH: And has that request been answered yet? Have you had a clear indication as to whether --

ZELENSKYY: The answer is for today is next. I have one percent. This is in what I live each day. From one percent to five percent, I have some months and a million phone calls and anything else. What can I do? I do some things which I can't even share. It doesn't mean that it's out of the law, no, but I can't speak about it.

PATON-WALSH: Have you picked up the phone to President Trump and asked for that assurance since you met in Washington?

ZELENSKYY: To be honest, I'm asking him through -- directly. I'm asking him when I have meetings, when we have phone calls, and be sure. I'm asking him through different other people also.

PATON-WALSH: You suggested yesterday that you made new proposals to the American side for a peace deal. Were there specific new ideas in this?

ZELENSKYY: No, I don't want now to go to some details. Yes, we -- first, my opinion that we need more involvement of the American side to the peace plan. I know that they have some dialog with Russians. I don't know details really, but it's normal. Putin doesn't want to stop this war now. And not enough pressure on him now.

PATON-WALSH: But there was one idea that was floated in earlier versions of the peace talks where, potentially, you might cede the remainder of Donbas in order to get a more lasting peace. And a year later, lots of those areas of Donbas are very hard for Ukrainian civilians to live in from drone attacks increasing. Does that concession seem more possible to you at this stage than it was a year ago?

ZELENSKYY: No, the problem is security for Ukraine. We always speak about territory. Russia begins to speak about this war and they speak about territory. The key question is why he will not come again with one, two additional million soldiers after the big pause or small pause, why he will not come again to occupy us. What security guarantees you have?

And this is -- there is no answer, there is no answer, clear answer for us that he will not to try again to occupy Ukraine.

PATON-WALSH: Do you feel there is a risk that he may escalate against NATO, or is he too weak for that at this stage?

ZELENSKYY: He doesn't know how to end this war without big occupation or big victory for his society. He doesn't understand how to do it. It's more simply to find some smaller country. For him, it will not be important this country in NATO or not in NATO.

[02:35:00]

He wants quick victory, 100 percent be sure that he will win, occupy, or destroy, all control. It can be any country.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

IVAN WATSON, CNN ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWSROOM": OK, I'm going to turn to Afghanistan now because this week marks five years since the Taliban regained power in that country, following the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan. And new reports from the U.N. reveal the dramatic changes to Afghan society, particularly for women and girls, since the Taliban took over. The U.N. says an estimated 2.4 million girls have been stopped from continuing their education beyond a primary school level over the past five years.

The Taliban only allow girls to attend school until the age of 12. Beyond that age, they're excluded from higher education. And the U.N. warns the longer those restrictions are in place, the greater the impact would be for the country. And new data released by the U.N. Women Agency reveals half of Afghan women now leave their homes only once or twice a month -- a month, get that -- as the Taliban have barred women from most public sector jobs and curtailed their freedom of movement and participation in public life.

Now for more on this, I'd like to bring in Fereshta Abbasi. She's a researcher at Human Rights Watch focusing on research and documentation of ongoing abuses in Afghanistan, and she joins me now from London. Thank you very much for joining.

I just want to ask if it's possible at all to kind of explain some of the impact on Afghan society when 2.4 million women and girls are blocked from secondary school and university education. What does that look like? What does that feel like there?

FERESHTA ABBASI, AFGHANISTAN RESEARCHER, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: Let me begin by saying that five years after the Taliban in power in Afghanistan, Afghanistan is experiencing one of the worst human rights crisis in the world and is the worst women's rights crisis in the world. As you mentioned, in 2026, it remains to be the only country where its own girls do not have access to secondary and higher education.

Obviously, this has a huge and long-lasting impact on the future of women in Afghanistan. Whenever I talk to women in the country, they are very disappointed. They feel helpless. It's impossible for them to imagine a better future under the Taliban rule because they do not have access to education. They do not have access to -- in many forms of employment. There are restriction on their freedom of movement, restrictions on freedom of assembly and association. And women in Afghanistan feel as if they're trapped in a prison.

And I want to repeat a quote of a woman that told me last year, when I was talking to her. She's in the country. She told me that I feel I'm in prison, but I don't know what crime I have committed. I think that explains very well the situation of women in Afghanistan right now.

WATSON: Ms. Abbasi, you authored a piece in July. It was titled, "I Can't Feed My Children" and it stated that only about 20 percent of Afghan households are getting sufficient food without assistance. So millions of Afghans are facing acute food insecurity. The numbers I think are staggering. So can you try to paint a human picture on what the country and the population are going through right now when it just comes to basic daily nutrition.

ABBASI: Yeah, according to the U.N., more than 17 million Afghans which is around, 40 percent of Afghanistan population, will face food insecurity by the end of this year. The U.N. Humanitarian Response Plan is severely underfunded. The U.S. aid cuts because U.S. used to be one of the major donor to the Afghanistan aid. They used to provide around 40 percent of Afghanistan aid, has had huge impacts on the humanitarian crisis in the country. At least 400 health clinics have been closed down since and also, U.K., the second largest donor, has also made significant cuts to Afghanistan's aid.

In very basic words, people do not have enough food to eat. I have spoken to parents that have lost their kids to malnutrition. I have spoken to families in different provinces of Afghanistan that basically do not have anything to eat and are struggling to find foods on a daily basis. That's how this humanitarian crisis is impacting lights in Afghanistan. And I'm very worried that if this continues like this, we are going to lose lives in Afghanistan.

[02:40:00]

In 2026, people are going to die out of hunger basically because there isn't enough funding and there isn't enough food for people in Afghanistan.

WATSON: So we're looking at five years since the Taliban took over. In that period, Western aid being curtailed significantly, as you just pointed out. But in addition to that, you have millions of Afghan refugees who were deported, sent back from neighboring countries like Pakistan and Iran, as well as from further abroad, countries like Turkey and the European Union.

What kind of consequences has that flow of humanity had on the broader Afghan society?

ABBASI: Well, it is overwhelming the system. Humanitarian organizations that have been trying to mitigate the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan have been warning about this. Afghanistan's neighboring country, Iran and Pakistan, have deported millions of Afghans since September 2023 back to Afghanistan.

And these Afghan refugees are coming back to a country that is already facing a humanitarian crisis. I have spoken to Afghan refugees who have been forced to return back to Afghanistan, even after six months, they still struggle to find a job. They still struggle to find shelter, access to drinking water because of the ongoing humanitarian crisis.

And that's why Human Rights Watch has called on the international community, including Afghanistan's neighboring country, to halt any deportations to Afghanistan at this point because it's not a safe country and those who are forced to return will face a humanitarian crisis.

WATSON: OK. Fereshta Abbasi speaking from London for Human Rights Watch, thank you very much for bringing attention to the growing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan five years after the Taliban took over.

All right. We're going to move to South Korea now, because that is where police say two former Chinese military servicemen have been arrested. They're accused of trying to obtain information about South Korean military operations and U.S. forces. One of the cases centers around Camp Humphreys. That's the largest U.S. overseas military installation.

Now, CNN's new Seoul Correspondent, Gage Goulding, is live here in Hong Kong for now with the details. Gage, what's going on there? What are the charges and what's Beijing saying about this? GAGE GOULDING, CNN SEOUL CORRESPONDENT: You know, Ivan, this is very interesting, and I want to start with these are two very separate cases. They're not working together. Just ironically, the charges and arrests coming down just at the same time this week.

Both of these suspects are ex-Chinese service members. They're veterans from the Chinese service, and they're both facing several charges, but both facing charges of aiding an enemy state. And this is where I want to start, with the one at Camp Humphreys.

An ex-Chinese service member in his 40s formed a relationship with a woman that was working inside of this airbase. All of this, according to Korean media, this guy paid the woman for information about an upcoming military operation. Now, this was all back in 2022, according to Korean police. That operation is Ulchi Freedom Shield. It's a joint operation between the United States and Korea, and it's actually happening now, starting next Monday.

But there's no indication that the information obtained is in relation to this upcoming exercise. It's something that happens yearly. Now, whenever questioned by police, this man told police that he needed this information for his military supply business that he runs near the base. He's operated that for several years. He was charged.

Now, a second incident, an ex-Chinese service member in his 60s, he was arrested on Monday for allegedly using a small radio device at a different airbase about 110 miles south of South Korea's capital city of Seoul. Now, here's where it gets interesting, is that this man entered South Korea numerous times starting in January 2024, checked in at a hotel near the airbase and used this technology to intercept military transmissions at the airport.

And the airport itself is a mixed use. It's civilian and military. And that is where U.S. fighter jets are actually based with the U.S. Air Force. Now, what investigators in South Korea are trying to figure out is exactly what kind of communications were intercepted and what exactly, if anything at all, was sent to China.

Now, the China Foreign Ministry says, quote, "They are not familiar with the situation." United States Forces Korea and the South Korea Foreign Ministry, both declined to comment to CNN. Ivan?

WATSON: All right, Gage Goulding, thank you very much for that update. And I look forward to more of your reporting from Korea. Stay with CNN. We'll have more news after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:49:40]

WATSON: Welcome back. People across Europe were treated to a rare celestial sight on Wednesday as the first total solar eclipse in decades passed across the continent. For several moments, the moon appeared in perfect alignment with the sun, turning day into dark as crowds gathered in several countries to witness what's known as totality.

[02:50:00]

Our Saskya Vandoorne had the view from Paris.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SASKYA VANDOORNE, CNN PARIS BUREAU CHIEF: Experiencing the eclipse here in Paris was such a unique and rare experience. I remember the last one in 1999. I saw it when I was 12-years-old and it really is something that stays with you. You remember where you were when you saw your first eclipse.

And I have two women here, Mathilde and Eliza. This was your first eclipse. How did it feel?

MATHILDE ENGELMANN, ECLIPSE WITNESS: It was very exciting. I'm so glad I got to see it for the first time. And yeah, the colors were amazing. Just overall great.

VANDOORNE: Eliza, was it what you expected?

ELIZA PROSPERINI, ECLIPSE WITNESS: It was, but it was also a bit lighter than what I expected. I expected a lot of orange and darkness, and it is still light and still really warm. So that's a surprise.

VANDOORNE: It was surprising to see just how much light 10 percent of the sun can produce. It wasn't as if we started hearing, you know, birds do something funnier, but a lot of people go on about animals suddenly going quiet. We didn't quite experience that, but it was eerie.

PROSPERINI: Yeah, it was. I think it was still very, very beautiful. That was a surprise for me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: All right. If you can't wait until 2081 to see the next total solar eclipse in Paris, you can catch one next year a bit further south. It's being billed as the 'eclipse of the century.' It's forecast for August 2nd. More than six minutes of totality are expected to stretch from southern Spain to North Africa and the Middle East. So plan for that one.

And now for something a little different. Here at CNN International, we have a new streaming show. Meanwhile, in Asia, in it, Senior Producer, Kunal Sehgal and I dive into the stories that make the Asia- Pacific region tick.

This week, we're looking at over tourism and bad tourism, and how different countries try to deal with having lots and lots of visitors all at once.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WATSON: Look at you, sun hat and sunglasses. LILIT MARCUS, CNN TRAVEL PRODUCER: I'm always in the mindset.

WATSON: There's a reason why I'm wearing this ridiculous shirt.

KUNAL SEHGAL, CNN SENIOR PRODUCER: Well, we are wearing this ridiculous shirt.

WATSON: Yes, but I think, let's be honest, mine's way dumber.

(LAUGH)

WATSON: The reason is we're going to be talking about tourism and what kind of impact did COVID have and how has it contributed to these issues of overtourism right now?

MARCUS: The minute that Japan reopened to foreign tourism, it was just this big whoosh. They called it 'revenge travel,' which isn't a term that I love, but I get what they were trying to say is, hey, I spent two years quarantining and wearing masks and not getting to go anywhere. It's my turn. Like, let's go.

I'm going to say, as someone who covers the travel industry, you can about 50/50 split my email down. When it comes from tourism destinations, like cities or famous attractions getting in touch with me, I would say 50 percent of them are, hey, have you heard of our destination? You should write about it. You should tell people to come here. Like, we need the money. We want to grow tourism.

SEHGAL: Right.

MARCUS: And the other 50 percent is, never write about us. Please don't tell anyone that we're here. We have too many tourists. Make them go away.

(LAUGH)

MARCUS: One thing that Japan has tried to do, they know that they're not going to be able to stop tourism from happening.

SEHGAL: How's that going so far?

MARCUS: So for example, JAL --

SEHGAL: OK.

MARCUS: -- which is one of the two Japanese national airlines, came up with this program where if you're flying into Tokyo or Osaka from another country, for free, you can have a free connecting flight somewhere in Japan to another region of the country.

I don't have numbers from the airline about how it's working, but what I can tell you is the feedback that they're getting on social, which is everyone thinks it is a great idea for someone else.

(LAUGH) (END VIDEOTAPE)

WATSON: That's CNN's Travel Editor, Lilit Marcus. You can watch that entire episode of "Meanwhile in Asia" on our streaming site, "CNN All Access," including me in a Hawaiian shirt.

He's won dozens of trophies and awards over his career, and now footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, is sporting a new piece of hardware on his finger. Details on his long-awaited wedding coming up next.

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[02:56:41]

WATSON: After a decade together, football star Cristiano Ronaldo and his girlfriend Georgina Rodriguez have tied the knot. The couple showed off their wedding rings in a photo on Instagram. They got married Tuesday on the coast of Portugal.

The rep said it was a private and intimate ceremony attended by their five children. The 41-year-old Ronaldo heads back to work with his Saudi team, Al-Nassr, on Saturday.

Eurovision has changed its rules regarding host countries. The international competition says countries in an armed conflict or a sensitive geopolitical situation cannot host the contest, even if they were the winning country the year before. Organizers said those countries could affect the safety of the event.

The rule change comes after five countries boycotted Israel's participation in the 2026 contest and Ukraine winning Eurovision in 2022. The 2027 Eurovision Song Contest will be held in Bulgaria.

All right, thanks for watching. I'm Ivan Watson in Hong Kong. "CNN Newsroom" continues next with my colleague, Polo Sandoval.

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