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Russia Ramps Up Support for Belarus; Microsoft: Russian Hackers Break Into U.S. Aid Agency; Obama Praises Rashford's Activism; Hundreds of Thousands Flee Threat of Volcanic Eruption. Aired 10-11a ET
Aired May 28, 2021 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:00:29]
BECKY ANDERSON, CNNI ANCHOR: Russia's president ramps up support for the leader of Belarus amid the Ryanair flight fallout.
Plus, Russian hackers allegedly target e-mails used by the U.S. State Department. A brazen assault just weeks before the Biden/Putin summit.
And presidential praise for one English footballer. Barack Obama applauds Marcus Rashford for his tireless campaigning on child poverty.
(MUSIC)
ANDERSON: It's 10:00 in the morning in Washington, D.C. It's 5:00 p.m. in Sochi. And 6:00 in the evening here in Abu Dhabi. I'm Becky Anderson. Hello
and welcome to the show.
We are right now in real time watching Russia's view of the world collide with the West. From supporting a dictator's sham election in Damascus to
backing a bellicose Belarus, to alleged hacks in America and poisonings on airplanes. Moscow's actions increasingly and even more sharply at odds with
much of the world.
And we start this hour with the latest episode of that. Russia's strong backing for an increasingly isolated Belarus on the ground and in the air.
President Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko meeting this hour in the Russian resort city of Sochi, in what is sure to be meant as a show of
solidarity to the world.
Now, this meeting coming as some European airlines face midair road blocks into Russia for refusing to fly through Belarusian air space, all part of
what is the fallout after Belarus forced a commercial jet to land in Minsk to arrest a dissident journalist. And there is new evidence today that an
alleged e-mailed bomb threat that Belarus claims caused the flight to divert was, in fact, fake.
Fred Pleitgen is connecting us to this story this hour.
Lukashenko and Putin are meeting as we speak. What are we expecting from this meeting? All eyes, I suggest is just simply a show of support for the
Belarus strongman at this point.
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Becky. I think it's going to be a lot a show of support. We're going to expect short
statements from both leaders beforehand, no questions taken, but certainly Vladimir Putin meeting with Alexander Lukashenko, despite the fact this
meeting has been in the cards for quite a awhile is quite significant that it is happening now at the end of this week, when we saw that forced
landing of the Ryanair jet really Alexander Lukashenko offering some interesting explanations, if you will, as to why that jet exactly was
brought down, what prompted the Belarusians to do so.
So you have Putin and Lukashenko meeting and it is really the case that Vladimir Putin is pretty much the last person who is still or the last
leader still on the side of Alexander Lukashenko. It's very significant that they are meeting in public. You have this public show of support. We
have seen that really throughout the course of the week.
As the international condemnation has mounted against Alexander Lukashenko, it was really the Russians who remain by his side. Not just Vladimir Putin,
but you have other Russian politicians obviously on message coming out and saying they believe that the explanations that Lukashenko was offering were
quote reasonable in all this.
And then, of course, you do have to a certain extent, the Russian authorities are making life difficult for some of those European airlines
that are now circumventing fellow Russian air space. Some of them still not able to fly into Russian air space, like for instance Air France, the
French national carrier. The Austrians, Austrian Airlines say after a day where they weren't allowed to fly, they have gotten the permission to fly
back into Russian air space.
But you do see once again how all this really increases that standoff between Russia and the west as Moscow very much in the corner of Alex
Lukashenko, Becky.
ANDERSON: Yeah, and more on that as we move through this hour. Meantime, what have we learned about this alleged bomb threat?
PLEITGEN: Well, it certainly is something that punches even more holes in the narratives of Alexander Lukashenko. You recall that the Belarusian
authorities has said that the reason they told the plane to land at the Ryanair flight with the dissident journalist, Roman Protasevich, on it was
because they had received an e-mailed threat coming -- originating in Switzerland saying that there could be or that there is a bomb on that
plane that would explode over Vilnius.
[10:05:04]
Well, that mail was sent from a Proton account, which is, of course, an encrypted mailing system. CNN got in touch with the proton and they said
they couldn't say whether or not the details that was inside the mail were real or not. However, they could say that it was actually sent about 27
minutes, almost half an hour, after the plane had been diverted. So, that message got in after that plane had already been told to land at Minsk
airport.
Again, it's another one of those things you already have the international community, especially, of course, the Europeans say they don't buy
Alexander Lukashenko's explanations for why that jet had to land. Angela Merkel saying it was completely implausible.
And now, yet, another piece that seems to indicate there was something else going on that be a real bomb threat -- Becky.
ANDERSON: Fascinating. I will be speaking with Lithuania's president about all this. He's sounding warning bells about Russia's support of Belarus.
That interview comes as Lithuania expels two Belarusian diplomats today. That's next hour here on CONNECT THE WORLD.
Well, Russia seems to be flexing its muscles on the cyber front. Microsoft says Russian hackers gained access to an e-mail account used by the U.S.
Agency for International Development to target more than 100 other government agencies, think tanks and other organizations. Now, Microsoft
believes the same hackers were behind last year's SolarWinds attack, which the U.S. government blamed on Russia's foreign intelligence service.
Well, this comes just weeks before the first ever summit between U.S. President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.
CNN's senior national security correspondent Alex Marquardt joining us now from Washington, D.C.
And as I understand it, Microsoft has said it believes these attacks were a continuation of an effort to target government agencies in foreign policy
as part of its intelligence gathering efforts.
What do we know at this point?
ALEXANDER MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR U.S. CORRESPONDENT: Well, Becky, it was a widespread series of attacks. Just to break it down by the numbers, they
say that these attacks took place in 24 different countries, over 150 organizations were affected, 3,000 e-mail addresses. The biggest number
here in the United States, but around a quarter of the organizations who were affected work in international development in the humanitarian space.
Human rights, these are all the kinds of groups who would criticize President Vladimir Putin.
So Microsoft is now saying that these hackers, they say were from the Russian SVR, used an e-mail platform that is used by USAID, which, of
course, is the American government aid agency. So what they were able to do is to send out all of these e-mails and make them look very authentic. Make
them look like they were coming from USAID.
We have an example of one sent out just a couple days ago. You can see it's got the USAID letterhead right there. It also says in big, bold letters,
Donald Trump has published new documents on election fraud. So that might have been your first clue this was a malicious e-mail, but if you clicked
on the link, it would install a malicious file that would then allow hackers to get in through a back-door to access all kinds of data and to
infect other computers.
Now, Microsoft has said that their blocker managed to prevent many -- much of this infection from happening, but it still is a remarkable series of
hacks not because Russia is doing it. That we expect from Russia, but the fact that Russia is doing it now just a month after the Biden
administration imposed a variety of punishments on Russia, including sanctions for their malicious cyber activity, and as you mentioned, less
than three weeks before this summit between Putin and Biden in Geneva.
ANDERSON: Yeah, let's be quite clear about this. Microsoft believes the same hackers were behind last year's SolarWinds attack, which the U.S.
government has blamed on Russia's foreign intelligence service.
Have we had a response from Russia?
MARQUARDT: Yeah, the Russians have said, well, and CNN spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, and he says, as you
might expect, he didn't have any information on these hacks. He said that he needed more explanation from Microsoft. And he interestingly said that
he did not believe this would affect the summit between Putin and Biden.
Now, the White House has not weighed in on that angle yet. They said they are still looking into this series of attacks. It's actually being handled
here in the U.S. by an agency known as CISA, which is the cyber arm of the Department of Homeland Security.
So, the investigation is still very much underway. The U.S. has not yet attributed this to the Russian SVR. The attribution for now is just coming
from Microsoft, Becky.
ANDERSON: Yeah, that Russian file is a busy one from Washington at present. Alex, thank you.
Well, an exclusive investigation reveals some chilling details about al Qaeda and the terror group's relationship with the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Now, the U.S. targeted al Qaeda after the 9/11 attacks two decades ago, as you well know. Now, President Joe Biden's plan to withdraw troops for
America's longest war is staked on al Qaeda no longer being a threat.
But along with our reporting, the United Nations says the Taliban and al Qaeda are sharing shelter and bomb making advice. Al Qaeda maintains its
connections to other terror franchises around the world.
These are very troubling revelations uncovered by our international security editor Nick Paton Walsh, who joins us now from London -- Nick. .
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: Yeah, extraordinary really to see how after all these years, these decades almost, the threat
of al Qaeda, the original reason for the invasion of Afghanistan after 9/11 that that persists, and startling not as you may have thought in the past,
leaders hiding out in caves on the run, people who were originally it seems on 9/11 active communicating with other cells globally and the
communications were intercepted leading we understand to American strikes, a sign of a terror group still very much thriving and back in the place
where they were originally based and possibly looking to be able to expand their operations there as the insurgency takes further ground in the
future.
Here's what we found.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WALSH (voice-over): Al Qaeda, the reason the U.S. went to Afghanistan are greatly diminished, the Biden administration said.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's time to end America's longest war.
WALSH: But a CNN investigation discovered al Qaeda very much alive and thriving in Afghanistan, linked to global cells the U.S. is hunting.
Senior Afghan intelligence officials tells CNN al Qaeda are communicating with their cells worldwide from Afghanistan, getting shelter and support
from the Taliban in exchange for expertise and could be able to attack the West from there by the end of next year.
U.S. Treasury in January said al Qaeda was, quote, growing in strength here. But Afghan intelligence officials I spoke to go further, saying it's
more substantial than that, that Al Qaeda provide expertise like bomb- making, but also in finance and moving cash around.
Core al Qaeda members number in the hundreds most assessments conclude, but it's not how many, but who which is most telling.
Key is senior al Qaeda Husam Abd-al-Rauf known as Abu Mushin al-Masri here on an FBI wanted poster issued in 2019. An al Qaeda veteran, he was in on
9/11 before it happened, said Afghan officials.
Al-Masri crossed into Afghanistan from Pakistan in 2014 and over six years, I was told, moved around different provinces in Afghanistan. Something that
senior Afghan intelligence officials would only have been possible if he had the assistance of top Taliban officials.
But he was in October tracked down to here, a tiny Taliban-controlled village in Ghazni that we can only see on satellite images. Afghan Special
Forces lost a soldier raiding this compound, so fierce were the Taliban resistance, and al-Masri died of injuries here.
When they went through al-Masri's position, his computer, they found messages communicating with other al Qaeda cells around the world, talking
about operational matters, not necessarily attacks, but also about how soon Afghanistan could be a much freer, easier space for them to operate in.
Then something curious happened, revealing a lot about al Qaeda and Afghanistan's global connections, particularly in this case to Syria. There
were two rare U.S. strikes in al Qaeda cells in Syria immediately afterwards. This one on the 15th of October and another a week later both
in Idlib.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. military said they were, quote, not aware of any connection to the Afghan raid. But a senior Afghan official told me they
were most likely connected because Americans asked the Afghans to delay announcing their raid for over ten days.
During that delay, before the Afghans broke the news, both Syria strikes happened. Strikes on al Qaeda figures are often announced by Afghan
intelligence who present the threat as why the U.S. must stay.
[10:15:05]
A Taliban spokesman rang CNN to say the claims were false and designed to keep American money coming to Afghanistan. He also said the Taliban had
agreed to kick out terrorists as part of their peace deal with the United States.
I was told there's evidence at this stage that al Qaeda is plotting attacks on the West from Afghanistan. But still as they grow in freedom of
movement, it is considered simply a matter of time until that may happen, raising the question, is the reason why the U.S. came to Afghanistan in the
first place going to end up the reason they have to come back?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALSH (on camera): I have to say, I was somewhat taken aback to receive a phone call from a Taliban spokesperson in English, stressing their point
here that it's against their interests and looking for a peace deal to allow a reason why the U.S. came to Afghanistan in the first place to
persist in the country. And reminding me they say twice they have, in fact, told all their fighters to kick out foreigners. In fact, they risk court
appearances if that's the case. Acutely sensitive to them, but frankly, theirs is the only assessment that says al Qaeda are not getting shelter
and providing assistance in exchange for that inside Afghanistan -- Becky.
ANDERSON: Is it clear what happens next?
WALSH: Yeah. I mean, the problem is the Americans are leaving very fast indeed. They were most likely continue their counterterrorism mission in
the years ahead. They are 25 percent of the way out at this stage. It may be from neighboring countries, a very different world of counterterrorism
in 2021 can continue to look out ask prosecute al Qaeda inside Afghanistan as they clearly will grow in freedom of movement.
Every week or two, we hear from Afghan intelligence services they hit another al Qaeda figure to some description. It's hard to work out the
seniority of these individuals, but there's such a consistent pattern, it seems, of these sort of instances and that particular al-Masri raid, this
is one of the original guys who knew about 9/11, he was still hiding out there crossing in from Pakistan in 2014, say intelligence officials, being
moved around over six years most likely with the knowledge of senior Taliban, they alleged.
Extraordinary frankly this hierarchy is still there 20 years on, but it still per persists. As you saw the communication these people are able to
have with other cells are things the Americans want to get their hands on and seem to launch drone strikes after receiving.
So, it is an extraordinary sign, frankly, of how persistent and active these cells are of men, al Qaeda leaders who knew about September 11th,
Afghan authorities alleged, before it happened. To me, 20 years, remarkable.
ANDERSON: Absolutely. Nick Paton Walsh, thank you.
Well, coming up, fears of another volcanic eruption lead to mass evacuations in the heart of Africa.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): They said our houses could collapse because of the earthquakes. So we're leaving because we're afraid.
A crack already appeared under my bed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: We're live in the Democratic Republic of Congo for you as hundreds of thousands flee their homes.
And the waters off Sri Lanka are on the verge of an environmental disaster. We'll update you on efforts to stop a burning tanker from doing more harm.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: Four hundred thousand people have fled the town of Goma on fears over another volcanic eruption grow in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Mass evacuations were underway after 10 neighborhoods in the city were told to evacuate. The volcano that erupted Saturday killed dozens of people and
could erupt again at any moment.
More than 100 earthquakes have shaken the area. Toxic ash is in the air, and they say the threat of gas exploding underneath a nearby lake.
Scientists call the disaster unprecedented.
Well, Larry Madowo has been covering the disaster and filed this report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A state of chaos and panic as people flee the city of Goma following what scientists called an
unprecedented situation. Residents of ten neighborhoods evacuated homes with only with what their can carry, mattresses, essential items and little
else.
Hundreds of thousands hit the road on Thursday, according to aid agencies.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): They said our houses could collapse because of the earthquakes. So we're leaving because we're afraid.
A crack already appeared under my bed.
MADOWO: What sounds like a description of an apocalypse is a reality facing this part of Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The eruption on
Saturday puts them in the high-risk of lava flow or a catastrophic implosion from magma underground and earthquakes have led to fear of a
second eruption.
This is a scramble to leave the danger zone of Goma. Thousands of people using every mode of transportation available to try to get to the safety
zone in Sake. We're about eight miles out and traffic is backed up all the way.
More people are trying to cross the border into the safety of neighboring Rwanda.
UNICEF projects that up to 280,000 children could be displaced in the aftermath of the volcanic eruption. This mother left everything behind
except her kids. It's all in the hands of God, she says.
The government says the priority is preservation of human life. But the crowded evacuation route leads to small towns like Sake that are hardly
prepared for the influx of internally displaced people.
Aline Mugisha prepares a small dinner for her three children outside the church, but worries about where their next meal will come from.
ALINE MUGISHA, EVACUEE (through translator): We don't have the means to take care of ourselves. There's limited food. We are sleeping on the floor
and we are suffering too much.
MADOWO: The latest eruption that killed dozens and displaced tens of thousands cause indescribable stress on an already worn down population.
The Norwegian Refugee Council, a leading humanitarian organization, says the DRC is the world's most neglected displacement crisis in 2020.
JAN EGELAND, SECRETARY GENERAL, NORWEGIAN REFUGEE COUNCIL: It has the richest mineral base, this country, but the people living on top of this
mineral reservoir are among the poorest people in the world and the most neglected.
MADOWO: The city of Goma emptied into the night as panic spread. Many who had yet to reach their final destination slept rough on the streets,
anxious about a potential disaster.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: Larry is just outside the city of Goma and he joins us now.
Larry, these mass evacuations, where are people going?
MADOWO: So, people are being sent east, about 25 kilometers from here to Sake, which is what you've seen in that package. But there's no plan for
them. There's no camp. There's nowhere to hold all these moment who are going there.
The local government telling us about 400,000 people have left the city into some of them to Sake, some of them to Rwanda and others.
We're standing on the foot of Mt. Nyiragongo. This is what led to this entire crisis. What you see on the back there is there seems to be some
smoke coming out of the crater again and the local governor has told us that the crater appears to be expanding. That's one danger, another
eruption.
The second one, Becky, is what you see here. This is the lava that's seeped through the wooded area, and it's now cooled off. It's igneous rock.
But it is still in a state where some of it is still -- all right, this is quite dangerous.
[10:25:02]
It kind of breaks like charcoal, it feels like charcoal, but the seismic activity that's been observed from the Goma volcanic observatory says the
magma underneath, there's a possibility that it could implode without warning. So that covers parts of the city of Goma, but also the neighboring
Lake Kivu. That's why they gave this mandatory but preventative order for people to evacuate because they are afraid that if something happened
without warning like the eruption on Saturday, hundreds of thousands of people would be in the direct path of this most active and dangerous
volcanoes in the entire world.
If you want to understand, Becky, how serious this is -- if you look to this other side, this used to be a major highway connecting two main
provinces in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. That got wiped out entirely. They only tend to rebuild it right now, but it looks like there
was nothing here, even though there was. That's a danger. That's why the government is trying to get people out of harm's way as quickly as
possible.
ANDERSON: So you spoke to Jan Egeland in the past couple days. You made some underlying just how difficult, dangerous things are for people in the
region. I mean, what is the solution here at this point? I mean, clearly, this is a very short term issue. People are getting displaced as a result.
What's the long-term solution here?
MADOWO: So that's a complicated question, Becky, because there's no simple answer for it. Part of it this eastern part of the DRC already has a lot of
problems, banditry, armed conflict, disease outbreaks, there's just so much suffering already in this part of the world. The displacement crisis is
about 6,000 people almost every day. That's what the Norwegian Refugee Council says is the most neglected displacement crisis in the world.
On top of that, they live in the path of an active volcano which could erupt at any time and swept their entire lives. There's still 40 people
missing from this last eruption. There are 280,000 children who risk getting displaced if it erupts again. There are something like 80,000
homes, 80,000 households that have had to leave because of this impending danger.
So, the solution is complicated. Some say they need to move the city further away. There used to be a warning system. And there used to be a
warning system. There's a Goma volcanic observatory, but then it lost funding after a corruption scandal, and so they were not just able to do
regular checks and worn people in advance. So if you walk around the city, there are flags to indicate the alert level. It's been red since the
volcanic eruption. But they don't know when the next one could be coming.
ANDERSON: Larry, it's a pleasure. Thank you, sir. Important stuff.
A major effort underway to try and prevent an environmental disaster off the coast of Sri Lanka. A container ship carrying 300 tons of oil and other
chemicals has been burning off the coast for more than a week now. There are fears that it could sink any moment. If it does, it will spill its
contents into the sea.
Sri Lanka officials say the structure of the vessel does seem intact, but already oil and debris from the container ship has coated some beaches. The
island nation deploying more than 900 troops to help clean that up.
Well, coming up, trying to make sure children have enough to eat. And English football takes up the course of child food poverty. And it's
getting high praise from a form U.S. president.
Plus, Prince Harry putting up a chair, joining forces with Oprah again for a town hall and tough conversations about mental health. That is all just
ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:31:17]
ANDERSON: Mental health and climate change are society's two most pressing issues. That from Prince Harry, who is teaming up with Oprah Winfrey once
again to keep the conversation going about mental wellbeing. They are hosting a town hall that is streaming from today.
Well, CNN's royal correspondent Max Foster is joining us live from Hampshire in England, not far from London.
You have been keeping an eye on this, Max. Harry with a clear message on the causes close to his heart. And this town hall, of course, follows the
release of a docu series "The Me You Can't See" which released on Apple TV last week. How has it been received?
MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's been received really well. It's incredibly well on the platform, the series, which is why they added
this bonus special. A town hall going back to many of the people involved in the series and discussing it in further depth helped by a real A-list
cast, Lady Gaga, Glenn Close, for example, talking about some of the issues they care about.
And Harry touching upon suicide, which is something he learned about through the experience of his wife. He famously talked in that initial
Oprah interview about how Meghan had suicidal thoughts and he wasn't equipped to deal with it at the time.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRINCE HARRY: I think it's so interesting because so many people are afraid of being on the receiving end of that conversation because they
don't feel as though they have the right tools to be able to give the right advice. But you're saying is you're there, listen, because listening and
being part of that conversation is without doubt the best first step that you can take.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: Fewer references about the rest of his family on this one in the series there were references. It got a lot of press, a lot of pick up. One
of the reasons perhaps, Becky, that that did so well on the platform.
ANDERSON: Yeah, the docu-series was well-plugged. We knew about it.
What else do we know about what either Harry or Meghan are up to?
FOSTER: Well, they are continuing to build these projects really. They tell us about them one by one. They are working on them. They are working
at an incredible rate if you consider how much they produced just in the time that they left their royal roles.
I think what's interesting about this one is the viewership. So if we look at the viewership, apple tells us that the viewer ship on the Apple
platform went up 25 percent when this series dropped last weekend. And in the U.K. alone, the number of people viewing was up 40 percent.
So I think this is a bit of a message perhaps to many of the cynics that say Harry couldn't switch from being a prince or producer, didn't know what
he was doing, but early days I guess he was working with Oprah after all on this. He had a huge amount of support. There were references to the royal
family in it.
I think the big challenge going forward if he can continue touching on these issues he really cares about climate and mental health without
referencing the royal family and whether or not that brings in the ratings. It's looking pretty positive for him so far, I have to say, Becky.
ANDERSON: Max Foster on the story for you, thank you, Max.
Prince Harry's sister-in-law Kate Middleton has -- she's kept a promise to a 5-year-old cancer patient. The duchess met with Mila Sneddon, who is
currently fighting leukemia after speaking with her last August.
Now, Kate told the young girl if they were to meet, she would wear Mila's favorite color, pink. Mila and her father had to be separated during the
first lockdown so she could stay safe at home as she underwent chemo. Well, this poignant picture was chosen by the duchess to feature in her Hold
Still photography project showcasing the U.K. during lockdown.
[10:35:05]
To an English football star is getting recognized for his work off the pitch. Former U.S. President Barack Obama is praising Marcus Rashford for
his efforts to tackle child food poverty. Now, Rashford successfully campaigned the U.K. government to provide free school meals during the
pandemic.
And during a video call the 23-year-old footballer talked about reading and education and how young people can make a difference.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARCUS RASHFORD, FOOTBALLER: For me being in sports, I just knew that my life could change very quickly. And if I wasn't mature enough for a certain
level in my own head, it makes stuff like fame and things like that even more difficult. So you can grow yourself in whichever way you want. Rather
than somebody keep telling me to do this and do that. And books allowed me to do it my own way.
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: The entire worlds are possible in books. You can grow and discover and make connections that you might not
otherwise have made. Just by the simple act of picking up and opening a book.
When you look at the history of big social movements, big social change, it's usually young people who initiate this. Marcus I think is way ahead of
where I was at 23. I was still trying to figure it out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Well, Marcus himself has called that video call with Barack Obama surreal. Good lad. Well, for his work, he was made a member of the
Order of the British Empire.
Coming up, the Japanese prime minister extends the coronavirus state of emergency as the clock continues to click down to the Olympic Games.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:39:07]
ANDERSON: Just 55 days until the Summer Olympic Games are scheduled to start and yet today, Japan extending its state of emergency until June
20th. The other country remains in the grip of a fourth coronavirus wave, although cases have dipped in recent days.
All of this amid growing calls to cancel the games. It's still not clear whether spectators will be allowed if the games go ahead.
Selena Wang looks at measures the country is taking to keep the athletes safe.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WANG: Well, for the next two months, some 90,000 Olympic participants from more than 200 countries will be flying into Tokyo, suddenly opening the
flood gates for a country that's had its border closed for most of the pandemic. COVID-19 cases are surging in Japan. Tokyo and large parts of the
country are under a state of emergency.
[11:40:02]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Olympics will add another burden on the health system which is already overstretched. As opposed to the symbol of unity
and peace and hope at the Olympics, it becomes the nightmare with a super- spreading event in Tokyo.
WANG: Just around 2 percent of Japan's 126 million people have been fully vaccinated. The rollout slowed down by bureaucracy and a lack of medical
staff to administer them. At the current rate to the rest of the adult population won't be eligible for the vaccine by the time the Olympics
begin.
Organizers claim the games will be held in a safe bubble. At this Olympic Village, athletes will be tested and monitor with a contact tracing app.
Vaccines are not required, but officials say more than 80 percent of the Olympic Village will be. They are asked to practice social distancing, wear
masks except when training and competing and to only use public transport when necessary.
Now experts say, though, that is impossible to keep the massive games completely safe. Plus they say there are plenty of ways for this bubble to
be punctured as the Olympic participants come into contact with tens of thousands of unvaccinated volunteers who live outside the bubble.
Olympic venues are all over Tokyo with a marathon and some soccer matches held 500 miles north in Sapporo. So whose responsibility is it to keep all
these Olympic participants safe?
The Olympic playbook puts the ultimate responsibility on the athletes, rather that organizers or the Japanese government.
Japan is spending more than $15 billion on these games, the most expensive Summer Olympics on record, including $900 million in COVID countermeasures.
But poll after poll shows that the majority in Japan do not want these games held.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I definitely don't think Japan should go ahead with the Olympics. I'm very sacred.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Everyone thinks we shouldn't hold the Olympics, but the government is in a position to say that.
WANG: Ultimately, it's largely not up to Japan. Contracts are written to favor the IOC. So public opposition, a medical system headed for collapse,
cost overruns are all burdens Tokyo will have to bear. The IOC has a legal power to cancel the Olympics but they plan to plow ahead.
Selina Wang, CNN, Tokyo.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: A group of women in Gaza are using boxing as a way to empower themselves. Meet Gaza's first all-female boxing team. These women came
together despite years of conflict, living under a blockade and cultural stereotypes as one of what the women's role should be.
Don Riddell is covering this story in "World Sport."
And I know that you really enjoyed putting this story together. Tell us a little bit about what we're going to learn.
DON RIDDELL, WORLD SPORT HOST: Well, I think you're going to see a side of Gaza that the world doesn't often get to see. We have seen during the last
cup couple weeks how the news media portrays Gaza. It's a troubled land, of course. And that is what the headline tends to be.
But I think these women are incredible, inspirational. They are changing the script is doing it for not just themselves, but in the Arab world and
women everywhere.
You're going to see a film on "World Sport" and also a digital that will come out next week. I have been so inspired by these women.
One of them Rima Abu Rahme, I've gotten to know them very, very well. We have been speaking over the last few weeks. I personally find her really
inspirational and I think you will too.
ANDERSON: Excellent. We're looking forward to it very much, been looking forward to this for a couple of weeks when you first told me that you were
putting this together. Great tough stuff. I look forward to it.
"World Sport" is up next with Don. Do stay with us for that. We are back at the top of the hour for the second hour of CONNECT THE WORLD.
(WORLD SPORT)
ANDERSON: Fantastic. I look forward to reading that article that you've written.
She's right. Sport has the power to change the world. Nelson Mandela once said that. We have talked about that a lot over the years. And let's just
hope that they are safe, they are well and they are, as you say, an absolute inspiration.
And thank you, Don.
RIDDELL: All right.
ANDERSON: CONNECT THE WORLD is next.
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