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Rescuers Call for Quiet as they Listen for Sounds of Possible Survivors Inside Collapsed Building; Hope for Survivors Fading as Death Toll Passes 22,000; Lula Compares Democratic Struggles in U.S. and Brazil; Syrian President Tours Quake Zone; Ukraine Makes do with some of West's Obsolete Weapons; 107 Hours Buried: "Miracle" as Teenaged Girl Pulled Out. Aired 11a-12p ET

Aired February 10, 2023 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN HOST CONNECT THE WORLD: Hi I'm Christina Macfarlane in London. Hello and welcome back to our second hour of "Connect

the World".

Relief recovery and getting people desperately needed aid. The focus is grown now on helping the millions of survivors in Turkey and Syria impacted

by the devastating earthquake. Syrian state media reports the government has approved aid deliveries into rebel held areas of Northwestern Syria.

Aid organizations say the need for additional help there is immense and can't come soon enough.

The death toll in both countries is now over 22,000. Time is running out to rescue survivors. But the search goes on and there are some success

stories. Here's a video of a rescue that happened earlier Friday in the Southeastern suburb of Turkey. That's a teenage girl pulled out alive after

spending 107 hours trapped under rubble.

It's one of several rescues across Turkey on Friday. Jomana Karadsheh has been covering all this since the start and she joins us now from Iskenderun

along Turkey's Mediterranean Coast. Jomana, of course hopes beginning to fade now at finding people alive. What have you been seeing there in these

last desperate few hours?

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Christina, more than hundred hours into this. I mean, just a short time ago, we had volunteers running

grabbing us bringing us to this building saying that rescue workers here have detected signs of life.

They say that, we spoke to some of the rescue workers engineers who are on site here. And they say that a phone signal was detected from the lower

floors of this building. And they believe that someone was trying to make calls out of the building.

So they have now resumed a search here. They're digging. They're trying to find this person. And they say that they spoke to whoever it is in there

they don't know. They're not sure if it's a woman or a man, some people think it might be a young girl.

And as they spoke to that person, they say that they were knocking on the wall. They said if you can hear us knock, and they heard knocks. So right

now this is an active search and rescue mission. And do we know what's happening right now? Yusuf, do know what's happening right now?

Are they calling for quiet again, to call for quiet, Christina? We're just going to wait to see what happened here right now? I'm going to step out of

the way as Lawrence, can you? If you want to zoom in on, what's going on up there?

So you've got the search and rescue teams digging. And then obviously, it's a very meticulous operation to try and reach potential survivors. And they

really believe right now they have one of those miraculous survival stories, possibly here.

And they call for quiet when they're trying to communicate, or try and see if they can get anything from in their home. So you can see that diggers

have stopped. People have gone very quiet here, lots of whispering. I mean, this is Iskenderun Christina a city that has really devastated.

I mean, we've been going around and you've got site after site after site like this one. And you've got so many family members who are gathering

around, and just praying for a miracle. Hoping that more than hundred hours into this, as hope spayed that they're going to be able to find anyone

alive that their loved one is going to be a success story.

And it's incredible. It's a city that is in total shock. We've been speaking to people today who were describing what it was like for them

during the earthquake and just saying that one woman saying that she woke up thinking that this was doomsday.

And everyone around here would tell you the same thing. They really are still struggling to come to terms with what has happened to them to their

city and to their country. But right now, here at this scene, you can see they're really trying hard.

They believe there's someone there. We don't know what this building was. We've been asking people around here. They say it wasn't a residential

building. They're asking for clients. I'm going to be sorry, Christina.

I think we're just going to go quiet for a few moments. I'm going to just step back and try - and so we don't know what this building was, but some

were telling us that it may have been a school for teaching the Quran.

[11:05:00]

KARADSHEH: And that's why they think that it may have been a young child who's in there. But again, we don't have confirmation. We haven't seen

family members around here yet, you know, around other sites here you see.

A lot of family members going through this agonizing way trying to figure out what happened to their loved ones, so as you can see, the rescuers are

going down there. I think we were told that this is in the lower floors of the building where they were getting signs of life.

We're just call for quiet; I'm just going to be silent for a few moments here. Just to give the rescue crews ability to focus on what's going on

there. And the quiet they need. Can you ask something for an update, and to try and get an update?

I mean, Christina, these sort of missions as you know, they had been going on now for days. And even once they actually locate someone this can go on

for hours and hours and hours if they want to. It's kind of a surgical sort of procedure where they need to go in there very carefully, and to try and

pull them out because obviously, they're going to need medical treatment after this. We don't know what their condition is.

So they have to be very, very careful when they do this. But from what we're hearing from everyone here, they really believe that they have

located a survivor, after more than hundred hours since this earthquake.

MACFARLANE: Jomana. If you can hear me I don't want to interrupt too much. I know you have to be quiet there. But after what is it hundred hours now

of this rescue going on? Is this the first indication you've had today that there might be someone alive under the rubble? How rare is this at this

moment?

KARADSHEH: You know, Christina, we've been in Iskenderun. This is our second day here. We spent all day here yesterday. And we were at a site to

another devastated building where the rescue workers had been. And it was volunteers really who were doing a lot of the work.

They were searching for one young man, just one man who was left unaccounted for in that building. And they spent days and all day

yesterday, going through the building and they were hopeful that they were getting to the bottom floor maybe that they would be able to locate him.

We had his family and his friends at the scene and they really were still holding on to the hope that maybe he would emerge alive. And then by end of

the day, the tragic news came that they pulled his body and you know his mother, his sister and other family members there just broke down

absolutely heartbreaking scenes.

And we've been seeing this all across the city. Just now before we rushed over to this scene we were seeing caskets driving past us, people walking

past us crying. It's just everywhere Christina, just every corner you look in the city.

Its things like this, but this I can tell you are the first time we have come across a possible success story a rescue that might happen in

Iskenderun not many really in the past couple of days that's for sure.

MACFARLANE: We really hope Jomana that is what we're about to see here. We will have to leave you there for now. But our hearts and thoughts are

obviously with the person buried under that rubble. Jomana Karadsheh there live for us, thank you for now Jomana.

Well, the Turkish President meanwhile was back in the disaster zone again today. Recep Tayyip Erdogan says the government will cover rent for quake

survivors for one year. This comes in the wake of criticism that Ankara was slow to respond with an election looming. Analysts say the tragedy could be

a game changer for the President's political career.

Well, my next guest was in Turkey when the quake hit. She lost family members in the tragedy. Gonul Tol says anger at the government and

President Erdogan was palpable in Hatay one of the most affected provinces.

In a radio interview, the Founding Director of the Middle East Institute's Turkey Program said "I cannot imagine him not being impacted by this

because of the level of frustration. I saw that anger firsthand. I am sure it will have an impact".

[11:10:00]

MACFARLANE: I am sure it will have an impact. And Gonul Tol joins me now live from Washington, DC thank you so much for your time. Firstly, let me

express my deep, deep sympathy at your devastating loss. When did you first hear the news about your family?

GONUL TOL, FOUNDING DIRECTOR, MIDDLE EAST INSTITUTE'S TURKEY PROGRAMME: And right after so I was in in Marston, which is a few hours' drive from Hatay,

which is one of the worst hit areas in the country. And just a couple hours later, we received a phone call from my sister's husband, saying that the

city and had been leveled to the ground and family members were trapped under the rubble.

MACFARLANE: Just describe to me what you saw while you were in Hatay.

TOL: It was like it was going it was as if someone dropped a bomb and people screaming for help. There were dead bodies on the street, a lot of

anger, a lot of frustration and heart-breaking scenes.

MACFARLANE: And we know that, you know, there was no real immediate response in Hatay. This was not the first earthquake though to hit Turkey.

Another devastating earthquake happened in 99. At that time, Erdogan rose to power promising more efficient responses to the disasters; did he really

deliver on that?

TOL: No. And actually, I was in 1999, when that earthquake hit North- western Turkey. I was a student in college and I was part of the civil society organization that went to the earthquake and area to deliver aid to

the victims. And there were many organizations there.

The military had been dispatched, there were civil society organizations on the ground, there were rescue workers on the ground rescue agencies there.

And none of them were there initially in Hatay and other really badly hit areas. We waited for hours, my family waited for hours and hours and hours.

And only after 48 hours, the rescue agency, the government rescue agents showed up only to tell us that they could not help us because they had

other priorities to look into. So that's how many people my family and thousands of others lost their loved ones.

MACFARLANE: So, you have really lived through this twice, which is astonishing. I think what people are alarmed by is the scale of destruction

that how quickly these buildings came down. How much of that is to do with building regulations that the government was a part of?

TOL: It's a big part of that. I think what I saw there in Hatay was the combination of several things. And one of them is Erdogan's own policy

since he came to power in the last 20 years that he's been in power. He hollowed out institutions; he placed loyalists in key positions. And he

wiped out a critical civil society organizations.

And he basically granted government contracts to a handful of cronies who had little regard for building codes and safety regulations. And I think

what I saw in Hatay was the combination of all those factors.

MACFARLANE: So Gonul, how do you think this is going to affect his chances in the upcoming election, you know, where his plans are to extend his role,

you know, well into a third decade?

TOL: Well, I think the first impact that we've seen is, I've seen the anger on the ground, people are really frustrated, and they lost their loved

ones. And they hadn't really seen any government agencies initially, initially in the areas that were affected. So, there was a lot of

frustration and anger directed at the government and Erdogan.

And also, those construction companies that have been building all those buildings, thousands of buildings, and many of them are on fault lines. And

for instance, the Hatay airport that was again built by one of Erdogan's closest associates was built on a fault line. So, there's a lot of anger.

And I think that will have an impact on his prospects. And the other implication is the opposition Erdogan has been blessed with a weakened

divided opposition. But what we've seen since the earthquake hit is your position is putting the blame on Erdogan delivering a strong response

sending their own organizations to help people on the ground. So, I think those factors will have an impact on the election results.

MACFARLANE: Yes, it feels as if there must be repercussions in some quarter about this. But for now, Gonul Tol, thank you so much for joining us. And

again, we're very sorry for your losses in this earthquake.

TOL: Thanks for having me.

MACFARLANE: Thank you. For more on what the earthquake could mean to Mr. Erdogan's re-election bid, check out our newsletter "Meanwhile in the

Middle East". We take a closer look at the situation in the president's strongholds.

[11:15:00]

MACFARLANE: And what the opposition is saying that's at cnn.com/mid-East newsletter. A new uptick of tensions in East Jerusalem after a man rammed

his car into a crowd of people waiting for a bus. A six-year-old child and a man in his 20s were killed and several people were injured.

Police say they shot and killed the driver and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered his home to be sealed and destroyed. We're

finding out more about the driver. Let's get to CNN's Hadas Gold in Jerusalem. Hadas, what more are you learning?

HADAS GOLD, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, police are calling this a terror attack. They say it was carried out by a man from a Palestinian

neighborhood in East Jerusalem who was in his early 30s. He apparently drove the car straight into a crowded bus stop and remote which is in north

east Jerusalem. And as you noted, a six-year-old child was killed as well as a 20-year-old man.

Several others were injured among them another child who is reportedly in critical or serious condition police saying that actually was an off-duty

officer who shot and killed the man shortly after he rammed into that bus stop. And as you noted, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu already

saying calling for the suspects home to be sealed and demolish this is something Israeli authorities often do to the homes of suspected attackers.

We're also seeing videos from the suspects' neighborhood in East Jerusalem, very heavy police presence. And we're also hearing that several of his

family members have been detained but not much more information beyond why they are being detained. Now, no militant group has claimed responsibility

for this attack, although Hamas, the militant group that runs Gaza has praised it.

As you noted, it's been already a very deadly first month and a half of the year for both Palestinians and Israelis. It was exactly two weeks ago

actually not far from in the neighborhood not far from this attack earlier today, where there was that attack on the synagogue that killed seven

people.

The attacker in that situation also was from East Jerusalem. We're also hearing from the Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir. He says and

he's in charge of Israeli police. He says he is calling on police to put up barriers all across the neighborhood where this suspect was from. He wants

everybody coming in and out of this neighborhood to be checked.

And he's also calling for even a further operation in East Jerusalem. He says he, as he was saying, and I'm going to quote him saying he wants to

reach the terrorists homes and to stop terrorism before it comes to carry out attacks. But I can tell you, Christina that barriers in East Jerusalem

would be a very drastic step that will likely already even further inflame what's already been an incredibly tense and violent few weeks here.

We know that Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was just here about a week ago, I've seen your staff to stay on to continue consultations

conversations between Israelis and Palestinians to try to keep the calm in some sense, but it's clear that there's a lot of work left to do,

Christina.

MACFARLANE: Yes, let's hope that that doesn't escalate tensions further still, as you say. Hadas Gold there live for us with the latest

developments from Jerusalem. Thanks, Hadas. All right still ahead, CNN sits down with Brazil's President Lula as he prepares for today's summit with

Joe Biden at the White House.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:20:00]

MACFARLANE: Now two men who know first-hand how fragile democracy can be, we'll have a summit at the White House today. Joe Biden and Brazil's Luiz

Inacio Lula da Silva have more in common than the title of president that each defeated right wing populists in contentious elections, elections that

ended with opposition supporters, resorting to violence as they refuse to accept the vote count.

77-year-old Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva or Lula was sworn in for a third presidential term last month, his journey back to the office was

complicated. Six years after the end of his second term, Lula was found guilty of corruption and sentenced to nearly a decade in jail.

Consequently, Lula was banned from running for office.

But in 2021, all convictions against him were annulled, clearing the way for a third term as president. Well heads of his White House visit, Lula

sat down for an exclusive conversation with CNN's Christiane Amanpour, who joins us now live from the White House lawn.

Good to see you, Christiane. So, following the attacks on Brazil's government in democracy on January the eighth, Lula is in Washington today

to try and restore relations with the United States. Did he give you a sense of what he's expecting from the Biden Administration?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Yes, basically, he wants a new era because the Biden Lula era will be very different than the

Trump Bolsonaro era. And Bolsonaro had downgraded relations with the United States, you know, after Trump had left office, so they want to talk about a

new relationship.

They'd want to talk about shoring up democracy, obviously, because, as you say, both have had their capital insurrections, and they want to talk about

protecting the climate and human rights. But I also started by well, I asked him in this conversation about the fact that the country needs to be

unified. Brazil needs to be unified in order that democracy has a chance. This is how he responded to my question.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: People who are looking at Brazil's democracy are looking, as I said, at the divided nation. You saw probably a recent article that was

written about you saying that, you know, half the population loves you, half the population despises you.

I wonder what you think about that. But also, more importantly, the fact that unifying Brazil is apparently going to be the key to shoring up

democracy and making sure that Bolsonaro's - does not come back after your term in office. How do you do that when half the population, as I said,

despises you?

LUIZ INACIO LULA DA SILVA, BRAZILIAN PRESIDENT: Well, we're going to have elections in Brazil after the U.S. elections. And let's see what's going to

happen in the U.S. because here there's also a split much more or as serious as Brazil, the Democrats and Republicans are very split up. Love it

or leave it that's more or less what's going on.

So, in Brazil, we are a country that has more peace, the Brazilian way in his way of life. He likes to enjoy music and soccer and carnival. We're not

a warrior. We're not a people that have that culture to hate. We don't have the hatred culture.

What happened is that we had a fake news manufacturing industry that was not damaged to fight under equal conditions. And I am convinced that not

everybody that voted for Bolsonaro, it follows Bolsonaro-ism. And the election will always be split when you have two candidates run.

It's always split in Germany and split it in France. You saw my close election in France, there was a split in the nation here in the U.S. The

only strange thing that happened was happening here at the Capitol; because we never could we imagine that in a country that was the symbol of

democracy in the world.

Someone could try to invade the Capitol, or that's one good being as inhuman as Trump was. And Bolsonaro is a copycat, a faithful copycat of

Trump, as if what you would put in a machine and take a photograph, photograph has to be the same thing. Bolsonaro and Trump saying, they don't

enjoy trade unions.

They don't like business sector. They don't like workers. They don't like women. They don't like black people. They don't like to talk with the

business sector debt. It's him and his life. It's just him and he doesn't enjoy talking to the press. And so, we changed all that, we changed all

there my dear Christiane. And Brazil slowly will come to, have an encounter of it and democracy will prevail, that's my commitment.

[11:25:00]

SILVA: And I hope that from four years from now, you can come back and make another interview with me. And you'll see how Brazil, it has still

continued democratic. And let me tell you one more thing, Bolsonaro, there's no chance for him to come back to the Presidency of the Republic.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: So, on that note, he said his mission, the reason he ran was to, "Return Brazil to the Brazilian". So, on many issues, he will be having

very, you know, common views with President Biden. But on Ukraine, it could get a little tricky, because Lula believes in non-intervention.

And he's trying to, you know, perhaps try to talk to Putin, he told me to Xi, the President of China, to the Indians, who will form the BRICS

alliance to try to kick start some kind of peace process to end the invasion of Ukraine to end the war there. That's what he says about that.

MACFARLANE: And Christiane hanging over this meeting today is the perhaps one issue of the fact that Jair Bolsonaro still residing in the United

States in Florida. I mean is that something that's likely to be raised between the two leaders and that Biden is likely to come under more

pressure for?

AMANPOUR: No, no, I don't think so. Because I asked him specifically and he said, I'm not here to talk about Bolsonaro. This is a legal matter. He's

been, he's wanted in Brazil, in connection to activity around the January insurrection. He also said that he believes Bolsonaro should be

investigated use the word genocide for the hundreds of thousands of deaths under his policies during COVID.

And also, for the disruption of the indigenous people in the Amazon. The Yanomami people, some 500 or more have died much, much more than

previously. And they've died recently because there have been illegal people who've come in to try to mine for gold and they've poisoned the

water.

And it's very, very, very difficult for the indigenous people there. So, on those issues, he says he should face justice, but he said he's not going to

raise this issue with President Biden.

MACFARLANE: Fascinating insights. Christiane, I really look forward to seeing that full interview later today in your show. But for now,

Christiane Amanpour there live from the White House. Thanks very much.

AMANPOUR: Thank you.

MACFARLANE: And as I was saying, you can see Christiane's full interview with Brazil's President in about an hour and a half from now here on CNN

International and more on the earthquake and its aftermath. When we come back, we'll focus on Syria, where international aid has been slow to arrive

in rebel held areas. We'll talk to a researcher who's on the ground in northern Syria.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:30:00]

MACFARLANE: I am Christina Macfarlane in London. Welcome back to "Connect the World". Returning now to our top story, the mounting grief and

desperation in Turkey and Syria the death toll from Monday's devastating earthquakes in the two neighboring countries has now exceeded 22,000. Hopes

are fading for finding survivors.

The focus now is turning to the pressing need for aid. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday; the Turkish Government will cover one

year's rent assistants who have been displaced. And now to a major development, the Syrian government has just approved humanitarian aid

delivered in rebel held territory in north-western Syria.

That's where their White Helmets group says tens of thousands of families have been left homeless. Today in a second UN aid convoy crossed into the

region from Turkey. There is only one humanitarian corridor between the two countries and that was blocked for a time due to the damage of an access

road.

Well, meantime desperation is growing for survivors as they lose hope of finding loved ones alive this man in Syria digging with his bare hands

through the rubble for days without sleep. He's searching for 30 of his relatives so far has been able to retrieve the bodies of 10 of them. The

other 20 remain under the debris.

He said the whole family is gone and all our memories are buried with them. More now on getting food and clothes and other supplies to the people who

need it most. CNN Salma Abdelaziz joins us live now from a distribution center in Istanbul where a massive collaborative effort is going on there.

Salma, just tell us the types of aid that are being dispatched from there.

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's a huge hangar that's been turned into an aid distribution center. There's hundreds of volunteers here

working around the clock, they say they've received over 2 million individual donations.

These are all coming from the people of Istanbul organized by the city of Istanbul from residents, businesses, anyone who wants to help out and it's

the basic, its non-medical supplies, I think of food or blankets, clothes for the children, basic sanitation kits, anything and everything that those

people made homeless by this earthquake needs.

And it's an enormous need on the ground. The volunteers here tell us they'd been able to send out some 252 truckloads of just to that affected area.

And I emphasize this is only one distribution center here in the heart of Istanbul. You're seeing these efforts repeated all across the country.

I want to compare that now to what Syria is getting. I said 250 trucks leaving from this center alone, well Syria so far has only received 14

trucks today, coming with some sheltering equipment, and six trucks yesterday. That's all they got. So far, a tiny, tiny, tiny trickle when it

comes to the enormous need on the ground.

And really, there was some hope that survivors would be found in the early days, we saw those very heart-warming videos of white homeless being able

to pull people out from the rubble but that hope is now faded and grief is truly setting it up. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ABDELAZIZ (voice over): This is what funerals look like in the quake zone. Burials and mass, there are just too many bodies. Baby clothes are all that

remain of Nasser's little girl Elef (ph), she died cradled in her mother's arms, her mom is dead too. And this is a little note written by his

daughter Hibah (ph) also killed in the earthquake.

You are my heart it reads. And now his heart is broken. Six of his children and his wife killed in an instant. His home lies in ruins. We are used to

airstrikes rockets, barrel bombs, but this an act of God. He says I kept calling out my children's names one by one. No one answered. This is a

rebel held area in Syria ravaged by war.

Residents here are all too familiar with death. They can endure no more. In government-controlled areas there is relatively more assistance. As the

crisis entered its fifth day, President Bashar Al Assad toured the affected area drawing criticism for his delayed visit.

Aid is coming in from his backers, Iran and Russia, Pakistan and Algeria sending help as well. And the U.S. is authorizing aid that would otherwise

be prohibited by tough sanctions to flow through here for a period of 180 days.

[11:35:00]

ABDELAZIZ (voice over): But help is still limited and English is everywhere. Public spaces have been turned into shelters for the hundreds

of thousands made homeless. I wish we could just feel safe that our children can feel normal. She says no one cares about us. A nation long

neglected, struck by yet another catastrophe without any means to withstand it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABDELAZIZ: I know you mentioned that agreement that's been reached. And it is a significant agreement across line agreement to essentially send aid

from the government held territories into rebel held territories, of course, negotiated by the United Nations and other aid agencies that do

offer a glimmer of hope.

But I have to caveat that with the fact that look, people in opposition held areas simply do not trust the government that bombarded them for over

a decade is not going to step in to try to help them that the very President, President Bashar Al Assad, who was leveling homes and

neighborhoods in that region is now going to try to help them in this crisis.

Yes, this might allow some trickle of aid to come in. But we know that there are hundreds of thousands of people made homeless by this tragedy.

There was already millions of Syrians before this earthquake who wholly relied on international aid just to get by.

Now, of course, their tragedy even more compounded, but it's a catastrophe within a catastrophe. And aid agencies are warning that they're running out

of supplies that those basics that they have in their stores, those are running out quickly, and they need help now.

MACFARLANE: Yes, help needed now of course in the second phase of this disaster as we move to survival in the freezing temperatures, as well.

Salma Abdelaziz there live from Istanbul. Thank you, Salma. Well, our next guest has been tweeting about the dire situation in northern Syria.

She says I am now in northern Syria, hearing the reasons of teenagers and adults who have just fled from Dear Ezzor, Raqqa, and Hasaka. They arrive

here in great numbers, Arabs and Kurds, girls, boys, men, women and children. The situation is worse than I thought before I came here last

week Wednesday.

Rena Netjes is an independent researcher and has written about the area. She joins us now live from Tal Abyad in northern Syria. I understand that

you are near or close to the border there. Can you just begin by describing to us what you're seeing on the ground there?

RENA NETJES, ARABIST RESEARCHER: Yes, good evening. It's evening here. Thanks for having me. I'm in Tal Abyad. What I'm seeing here let me start

with a positive point is that trucks and convoys are leaving from this city which is not as much hit like cities more in towns more in the west of

Syria.

Every day a convoy with several trucks is leaving from Tal Abyad via Turkish territory to the border crossing back Salama, which is near to

Afrin, Azaz and Afrin. So, there are more crossings. Let me explain this to you. There are three more crossings into northern Syria near to Afrin, but

they're not being used.

They are open. I heard some European politicians say that the crossings are closed. This is not the case. I checked it with myself also. I checked it

myself. The crossing also to Abyad to Turkey is open, some aid is coming in but it's not much needed. Here it's much more needed to towns in towns more

in the west.

But every day from this part from - Tal Abyad convoys are leaving and you also need to know that this is a very impoverished area. There is a lack of

everything here but despite this entire people are gathering blankets, tents, food and medicine to bring it to the fellow Syrians in opposition

areas in the West.

MACFARLANE: So just to clarify what you're saying that you're saying that there are additional routes that have been open, I think you said three

routes but that people are just not aware yet that they are fully functional.

NETJES: Yes, you have Jarabulus which is more east of Afrin, then you have Arai, which is already much more close. And then you have Azaz which is

actually a neighboring town of Afrin, just 23 kilometers. I was the last time; I was in the area in October. And these border crossings are open and

even there 24/7 open, we visited the director of a border crossing, the border crossing into in Tal Abyad and we asked about this point.

[11:40:00]

NETJES: And he showed us that the statements of the interim government, which is the opposition government, and they gave an order that all the

crossings from Turkey to opposition held areas should be open 24/7. So, he explained to us, he has a crew that is 24/7, so also at night at the border

for emergencies for aid.

So local aid is going from these areas and from Jarabulus and Azaz from other towns in northern Syria to Afrin so, there are three crossings open

to the area that's just hit.

MACFARLANE: That is good to hear on that. On that point, I just want to bring up a video that you sent us earlier today of an aid convoy. I'm

hoping we can show this to our viewers and that you can just, if you can just explain to us what we're seeing in this video.

NETJES: Yes, this is a video from --, the town that we were a few days ago. We were there a few days also. And this convoy is led by - Ziad Maliki. He

is Christian, a Syrian Catholic member of the local council over there.

And they gathered blankets, tents, food and medicine also with the help of the Arab tribal leaders over there and they brought it yesterday to Azaz,

to Azaz which is near to Afrin. I say Azaz was that's the border crossing.

MACFARLANE: Yes. So, as you say, the tribal leaders bringing aid those aid groups though are open and all three of them and currently, you know,

accessible. Unfortunately, we are going to have to leave it there. But thank you so much for bringing us that vital piece of information and we

really do wish you the best in your aid efforts that are ongoing there. Thank you so much for your time.

NETJES: Thank you.

MACFARLANE: Well, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is back in Kyiv. After meeting EU leaders in Brussels Thursday, he wants again appeal for

more sophisticated weapons including tanks, missiles and Western fighter jets. Western fighter jets to fight Russia. Kyiv has now officially asked

the Netherlands for F-16 fighter jets.

Meanwhile, Mr. Zelenskyy says Russia's new wave of missile and drone strikes on Ukraine are terror attacks that must be stopped by the world.

Ukraine said it shot down most of the missiles 61 of this 71 launched at Ukraine. On Friday the attacks cause blackouts and emergency power outages

for millions of people.

The strikes hit the south eastern city Zaporizhzhia, these images so some of the damage caused there. Ukraine says it shut down several Iranian made

drones overnight in the Kharkiv region. Western military aid has been a lifeline for Ukraine's military almost from the start of the war. But some

of the weapons provided to Kyiv were made decades ago. Sam Kiley reports on how Ukrainians are making do with military equipment from another era.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Carrying weapons designed 75 years ago, these Ukrainians are grateful that they're

training with an American vehicle, even if it's from another age. There a mixture of combat veterans and relatively new recruits, but all has been

fighting in Ukraine's eastern front with Russia in the Cauldrons of Bakhmut and Soledar.

The Commander-in-Chief Volodymyr Zelenskyy has begged the West for modern NATO standard equipment, and he's been given some modern weapons, but not

the strategic weapons like long range missiles and jets that he says he needs.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's war is expected to intensify and Ukrainians make do with old Soviet weapons. And workhorse hand me downs like these M-113s,

Aluminium troop carriers, which the U.S. army started using in 1960. About 400 have been given to Ukraine by the U.S. and others. This has been

patched up since it took a direct hit in Bakhmut where the top gunner was killed.

To say that it's old where it looks old, but it just looks battered, but it does the job, 100 percent, he tells me. Ukraine has been given better air

defenses, better artillery, better missile systems than it had before. But Zelenskyy said that's not enough in any way. It's not the best equipment,

often, not even second best.

The Ukrainian military are keen to stress that they're really, really grateful for all and any help that they're given. These under personnel

carriers from America are better than some of what they started the war with. And they're an important part of the battlefield replacement.

[11:45:00]

KILEY (voice over): They've been here since the summer this one already needs a new engine. Ukraine captures a lot of what it needs from Russia.

It's desperately cannibalizing ancient equipment for parts, like a 20th century nation under siege, not a nation that's backed by America and by

NATO allies. Making do is what Ukraine has done.

Privately though commanders here make it clear that is going to take more than an ironed will and hand me down weapons for them to win this war. Sam

Kiley, CNN in southern Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: Now finding clues about climate change where you may least suspect them. Still ahead what scientists are learning by analyzing new and

ancient bubbles?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACFARLANE: Today on "Call to Earth" we're taking a closer look at something common in nature but often overlooked. They form in ocean waves

and when raindrops hit the surface, they are easily trapped in ice when the ice melts, they even make a sound.

And now researchers at the University of California San Diego are using data gathered from these naturally occurring objects to better understand

the impacts of climate change across the planet.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice over): At the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, a trio of scientists each from different disciplines is gathering important

data from the same and somewhat surprising source.

KIMBERLY PRATHER, ATMOSPHERIC CHEMIST, SCRIPPS INSTITUTE OF OCEANOGRAPHY, UC SAN DIEGO: What are those called those little things in the water.

GRANT DEANE, RESEARCH OCEANOGRAPHER, SCRIPPS INSTITUTE OF OCEANOGRAPHY, UC SAN DIEGO: The bubbles, it's all about the bubbles.

PRATHER: The bubbles tell you everything.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice over): Atmospheric chemist Kimberly Prather focuses on how human activity influences the atmosphere, climates and our

own health.

PRATHER: One of the biggest questions is what the planet was doing before humans came along? And we can't answer that right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice over): Oceanographer Grant Deane has spent his career studying the role of the ocean in weather and climate.

DEANE: My interest is primarily in the roughly 20 feet of sea level rise locked up in the Greenland ice sheet.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice over): Paleoclimatologist Jeffrey Severinghaus concentrates on greenhouse gases trapped in glacial ice, particularly from

Antarctica.

JEFFREY SEVERINGHAUS, PALEOCLIMATOLOGIST, SCRIPPS INSTITUTE OF OCEANOGRAPHY, UC SAN DIEGO: Yes, so this is what an ice core looks like.

We're going to slice off a little bit so that you can really see the bubbles.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice over): For all three renowned researchers, bubbles hold the key to unlocking a wealth of potentially ground-breaking

information.

SEVERINGHAUS: It's a really a cornucopia of things you can learn from the air bubbles re-found ice as old as 3 million years now.

DEANE: Seriously?

SEVERINGHAUS: Yes, yes.

DEANE: That's fantastic.

SEVERINGHAUS: So, we know what the co2 concentration was 3 million years ago.

DEANE: Wow!

[11:50:00]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice over): Severinghaus says that having this type of data from the past tells us how much humans are warming the climate today.

Meanwhile, one of Grant Deane's areas of focus is on using acoustic monitoring to measure the ice melting, a process that produces an ample

supply of bubbles.

DEANE: I'm going to play you the audio clip of what this glacier ice sounds like, as it melts. You hear it was popping sounds like bacon frame gets

really bright, energetic, like fireworks going on. Each one of those pops is a bubble bursting out of the ice into the water. And we need to count

those bubbles. If we can count them, we can figure out how much ice is melting. That's important, because so much of our civilization is in

coastal regions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice over): For Kimberly Prather, it's all about the aerosol particles and microorganisms that burst out of the bubbles formed

by breaking waves known as sea spread, and how that interaction can either help warm or cool the planet.

PRATHER: So, we've been trying to look at the connection between the microbes in the water and how they change the chemistry. I'm a chemist, and

then how that chemistry changes what gets out, and how that changes how the clouds form. And so you know, you look over the oceans, you know, three

quarters of our Earth. And without those clouds, we're in trouble.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice over): On this day, she's in the midst of running the maiden research campaign on a cutting-edge machine called soars. The

Scripps ocean atmosphere research simulator, designed to replicate oceanic storms.

PRATHER: We can understand how these this frame modifies the hurricanes, and then we can start thinking about can we stop a hurricane before it hits

land?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yep.

PRATHER: Right. That's the wild idea we can do that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice over): Deane helped develop soars as a bridge between the lab and the open ocean, offering his significant means of

control and an endless supply of bubbles to potential game change that will help scientists understand the planet in unprecedented ways.

DEANE: When I tell people that one of the things, I work on is bubbles in the ocean, their action is are you serious? Is that really a serious

scientific study? But it turns out that bubbles are very serious business.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: Bubbles, who knew? Well, let us know what you are doing to answer the call with a #calltoearth. I will be back after this quick break.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACFARLANE: Thank you so much for watching this hour. I'm Christina Macfarlane. And as we close out "Connect the World" this week, we wanted to

take a few moments to witness the strength of the human spirit.

Amid the terrible destruction from the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, we are seeing some moments of triumph as people are pulled from the wreckage,

some of them more than 100 hours later. Here are just a few of those moments that startled even the reporters there, as you'll hear.

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END