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CNN International: Iranian Journalist Hopes To Appeal 15-Year Prison Sentence; Spanish Police Move Hundreds From Migrant Camp To Shelters; Ukrainian High Jumper Wins Third Straight European Gold. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired August 21, 2026 - 04:30   ET

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

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[04:30:47]

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN Newsroom. I'm Salma Abdelaziz in London. The White House is threatening greater economic pressure against Iran as the peace talks hit a deadlock. President Trump is warning any country that does business with Tehran will face, quote, "tremendous economic consequences."

His threat is one of an economic war of attrition in an attempt to end the nearly six months war. Vice President JD Vance says economic pressure is, quote, "the most effective tool against Iran." But he cautioned that it's a delicate dance with Tehran also able to apply pressure on the U.S. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has imposed new sanctions against Hezbollah and redesignated the Lebanese group as a proxy of Iran' Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Do not forget me. This is the desperate plea from an Iranian photojournalist, Yalda Moaiery. For more than two decades, she has documented life under the Iranian regime, including that very bloody crackdown on protesters in January, the war with the U.S. and of course, the latest campaign of repression. Now she is becoming a target herself. An Iranian court sentenced her to 15 years in prison.

This happened earlier this month and she wants to appeal the decision. She spoke to CNN's Jim Sciutto.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yalda, of course, we've been following your case closely here at CNN. First, can you tell us exactly what the Iranian authorities are accusing you of and what they've communicated to you?

YALDA MOAIERY, IRANIAN PHOTOJOURNALIST: I mean, these photography activities that I did as a photojournalist, all of them constructed as a gathering intelligence of -- for foreign entities and I mean aiding the Israel and American -- America regime. And they sentenced me to 15 years jail. And I think the only problem is that I'm not going to -- I'm not willing to work as a person in that framework of propaganda that they want to force all the journalists be there. This is the main problem.

But all of my interviews, all of my photos, all of -- all the things that I did as a photojournalist, you know, is like crime for them. And these are all of my charges, including talking with you.

SCIUTTO: Well, given that you know the risks here, do you have any concern that by talking to us again, it puts you in greater danger in any way? Why do you continue to speak out?

MOAIERY: Yes, they just tweeted me hours before that. If you talk again with someone -- of course they didn't mention your name, but if you talk to someone about this case, we are coming to your home again and we're going to raid your home again and we're going to take your cell phones. I do not care. I mean, of course I'm scared of the things that's going to happen. Fifteen years is a lifetime.

But this is the risk that I'm accepting. This is the risk that I was accepting in my whole life to tell the truth, to show the truth, to be an independent journalist and photojournalist. I'm not give up. I do not have any regret.

SCIUTTO: Your strength is remarkable. Do you believe that public or international attention to your case will help you in the long run?

[04:35:00]

MOAIERY: Oh, of course. Of course. This is -- this is my belief. We do not have -- we as a journalist, as an independent journalist, we do not have any kind of weapon. We have only the media and truth.

And this is -- this is the thing that I always try to keep. And I think when I inform the people about what is happening in my country, what is happening about me or my case, it will help to the other journalists all around the world who are living under the authoritarian, you know, the dictatorian regime and countries. I think it's like a global solution for all of us. And of course it will help.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABDELAZIZ: The FBI says it has foiled a plot to bomb the New York State Capitol in Albany. Officials say that 35-year-old Jessica Bowie conducted surveillance of a building after pledging allegiance to ISIS. She later met with undercover agents who posed as facilitators for the group and then went to Home Depot to buy what she believed were supplies for the bomb. On Wednesday, agents gave Bowie an inert explosive device before the FBI arrested her. She's been charged with attempting to provide material support to a terrorist group.

According to the criminal complaint, Bowie said she wanted to destroy as much of the building as possible and kill senators while they're meeting. Her attorney declined to comment on the case.

Coming up, Africans flooding into a Spanish territory become fuel for Europe's right wing. But many other migrants play a vital role in the European economy. We're going to go inside what's known as the continent's vegetable garden. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ABDELAZIZ: Spanish police are helping move hundreds of migrants from a tiny camp in the territory of Ceuta into temporary shelters. Many first waited in parking lots before this voluntary relocation. It comes just weeks after tens of thousands of migrants had crossed into Morocco -- from Morocco rather, into Ceuta. Spain says most of them have now returned home.

[04:40:17]

But images of those illegal crossings set off outrage across parts of Europe, even though many of those same areas rely very heavily on migrant labor. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh traveled to southern Spain to meet some of the people who help feed the continent.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Chaos and utter human despair at Spain's doors. Scenes that fast became fuel for the far right and growing anti-immigration voices on both sides of the Atlantic. But behind these images lies a more complex reality as we found on our journey to try to understand Europe's immigration debate and what drives so many to risk everything to get here.

KARADSHEH: We are in the middle of a sea of plastic so vast it's visible from space, greenhouses everywhere you look. This is Almeria in southern Spain. It is often described as Europe's vegetable garden. Because of this concentration of greenhouses, it produces millions of tons of fresh fruit and vegetables every year enough to feed half a billion people.

KARADSHEH (voice-over): In the shadow of one of Europe's agricultural heartlands exists a darker side rarely seen. Slums like this one that have been around for years, home to part of the massive African workforce helping feed this continent. In a scene of squalor in modern day Europe, we find migrants from north and West Africa. In his previous life, Amoateng Foster was a math teacher in Ghana. Two years ago, he left it all behind, saying he paid smugglers about $2,300 for a perilous journey through Libya and across the Mediterranean, eventually making it to Spain.

AMOATENG FOSTER, GHANAIAN MIGRANT WORKER: I'm not going to recommend anybody to do so. Very dangerous.

KARADSHEH (voice-over): He shows us around this rundown shack he shares with another worker.

FOSTER: So there's nine place.

KARADSHEH (voice-over): Amoateng's story is that of so many parents enduring these subhuman conditions all for the future of his kids, he says, to save enough to put them through college.

KARADSHEH: A lot of people are saying we don't want any migrants. Close the borders. I mean how does it make you feel? FOSTER: It become a little bit worrying. Everything that they are doing here is farming and the workers that they are using, all of us are immigrants. These white people, they can't do it. The government saw that we are helping them they are also helping us. It's a mutual benefit.

KARADSHEH (voice-over): The Spanish economy relies on migrant workers so heavily that the government announced an amnesty in April offering legal status to hundreds of thousands already in the country. Amoateng hopes being here legally would bring him rights and respect.

FOSTER: If you are outside the fence, you may think that it's rosy here. It's not rosy here. Look at the environment that we live in. But when you are outside you may think that, oh, Europe is European. No, no, no, no. There's no roses here because you suffer before you can get a cent.

Do you know how much they are giving us -- how much they give us here, to work in this farm? For one hour they give you five euros. This hot environment like this, you kneel down like this, work continuously, just like that, and they give you five euro.

KARADSHEH (voice-over): We get a glimpse into that grueling reality Amoateng described inside one of the countless greenhouses. These men spend hours delicately planting tomatoes. Their hard labor will soon fill the shelves of European supermarkets. In the sweltering summer heat, temperatures must remain constant in here.

KARADSHEH: We've been here for a few minutes and this heat is intense. I'm sweating and I can't begin to imagine what it's like for these guys working in these conditions, in this heat. Apparently it hit 44 degrees or 111 Fahrenheit earlier today and they have to do this for hours and hours.

KARADSHEH (voice-over): The owner of this greenhouse told us he only hires documented workers and pays the legal minimum wage. But across Almeria, you find so many who are undocumented, vulnerable to exploitation, some of it happening in plain sight. At roundabouts and street corners, they wait to be picked up for off the book jobs that pay well below the minimum wage. Off camera, business owners told us they pay what they can afford to still make a profit.

The arrival of foreign labor helped revive a region that was once in decline. All around here you find thriving migrant communities that have left their mark on this place. And the far right has seized on that.

[04:45:12]

In suburbs like La Canada that overwhelmingly voted for the populist radical right party Vox in the last election, we find pensioners echoing the rhetoric of these parties.

If they can work and have papers, great. The rest is an invasion, they tell us. They are people who don't want to integrate. It's a narrative that's been gaining traction across Europe. Fears of demographic change and migrants being blamed for the rise in the cost of living. Scattered graffiti hints at brewing tensions. This one reads, no Muslims, no NGOs.

Perhaps a message for the groups on the frontline of this crisis, like the Mercedarian Sisters of Charity. The calls for help to this Catholic NGO, helping migrants get back on their feet seem nonstop during our visit.

Sister Francisca turned 80 this month. But there's no rest for this woman on a mission.

SISTER FRANCISCA, MERCEDARIAN SISTERS OF CHARITY (through translator): The most common thing is that ask us for is a sandwich, and they tell us, "I'm hungry."

KARADSHEH: So they come saying, we're hungry, we want a sandwich.

SISTER FRANCISCA (through translator): Of course, they come here asking for something to eat.

KARADSHEH (voice-over): At their food distribution center, the hungry queue for donations from local supermarkets. Amal (ph) tells us she hasn't eaten today. Sometimes she doesn't have money to buy water and bread. She had to leave her six and four-year-old children in Morocco, she tells us, and came here on a contract to pick strawberries. After a dispute with her employer, she found herself on the street begging for any work.

It was poverty that brought me here, she says. If I had something back home, I wouldn't have come.

Sister Francisca remembers a time when there were no migrants here. Then the greenhouses came. The road to a better life has led so many to this miserable place. It is in this land of plastic and shattered dreams where Europe's paradox is laid bare.

Jomana Karadsheh, CNN, Almeria, Spain.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABDELAZIZ: Still ahead, the Ukrainian high jumper who's dominating her field, CNN sits down with the three-time European champion.

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[04:51:24]

ABDELAZIZ: Ukrainian high jumper Yaroslava Mahuchikh is now a three- time European champion. To add to her Olympic and world titles, she just took gold for the third time in a row at the European Championship. She spoke with "World Sport's" Amanda Davies about her success and her pride in representing her country.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) YAROSLAVA MAHUCHIKH, OLYMPIC AND EUROPEAN HUGH JUMP CHAMPION: I like high jump and this is my passion. So I want to be the best of the best and it's why I showed the results. And of course a few days ago I won this brilliant gold medal, my third gold medal of European championship. And of course this medal I dedicate to Ukrainian people because I want to give them happiness time despite this terrible thing that happened now in my country.

AMANDA DAVIES, CNN "WORLD SPORT" ANCHOR: Yes. And it's -- I mean it's not only your third European title, but it's your third since the start of Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine, isn't it? We had more stories just overnight of at least 16 people killed in Kyiv after more attacks. I mean, how do you allow yourself to feel as much emotion about the war and the intensity of it, yet still focus on the competition after such a long time?

MAHUCHIKH: Yes, you know, this really hard focus on high jump mentally because your heart always with your country and every day you read the news and today I read the terrible news about the big missile attack working against Ukraine in Kyiv. This is terrible. But you know, I know that the track and field helped me because I know that this is my event, this is the field where I can speak about the Ukraine, that we continue fighting, we continue defense our independence country and we want to be liberty.

DAVIES: I mean, what is -- what is the balance? How do you deal with it when you wake up in the morning? How much do you focus on the athletics and the competition? How much do you focus on the news?

MAHUCHIKH: You know, day of competition, I tried to not read so much news and my coach say to me, because mentally it's really hard, but I know that when I go to track, I do all my best to show the best results to people and to show and -- to show again that Ukrainians are strong and with strong nation that support each other in difficult situation. Because I received a lot of good messages from Ukrainians, people who watch this competition. Some of them tried to sleep, you know, because now sleeping in Ukraine, it's really hard. But we're not air signals. They try to sleep.

But after that they sent me a video message of thank you so much for this emotion because it was really happiness time for us.

DAVIES: I mean, you spend so much time traveling abroad, but did make that very conscious decision to return home to Dnipro at the back end of last year and for the winter, at the toughest conditions of the year, to live in Ukraine. Why was that so important to you?

MAHUCHIKH: Yes, I think it was like a good decision for me because I was so exhausted mentally. I want to spend time with my family, with my friends, who -- I want to be at home, you know, just how my life. But of course it was tough because really in the winter I trained because it was so cold, you know, and there's not heating, no lighting. And I remember that I trained in a sweat pants, you know, because it was so cold. And when I come home, we didn't have light.

[04:55:17] They have light only for two hours per day and night. And it was so crazy. But I spend a lot of time with my parents and family who give me energy. And I have started my season, indoor season in Lviv where a lot of children come to support me and a lot of children come to see how I jump. And they gave me a big motivation to jump because every person who come, they clap me.

They say that we would like to be like you. We'd like to show all war that Ukraine is so strong. And they gave me so big motivation for my outdoor season and winter season.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABDELAZIZ: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have a new home base in Europe. A spokesman says the couple bought this 19th century castle in southeastern Ireland. The gothic style mansion overlooks a river and is located about 120 miles from Meta's European headquarters. The property is reportedly worth as much as $35 million. A spokesperson for Zuckerberg said he and his family are looking forward to spending time in Ireland.

Ethel Caterham is waking up in England this morning to a very great day. She has just turned 117 years old. Happy birthday to you. She was named by Guinness as the world's oldest living person several years ago. She was born in 1901 and is the last living subject of King Edward VIII, the eldest son of Queen Victoria.

She says her secret to a long life is to say yes to every opportunity because you never know where it's going to lead. Ethel's own adventures began at 18 when she left England for India on her own.

Thank you so much for watching. I'm Salma Abdelaziz. CNN "Headline Express" is coming up right after a quick break.

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