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Connect the World
IDF Claims Five Militants Killed in Gun Battle; Potential Polio Outbreak in Gaza; Ukraine to Present Biden Administration with Russian Target List This Week; Ukraine's Shock Incursion into Russia Becomes Long- Term Project; Harris and Walz Kick Off Bus Tour; No Clear Leader in Sun Belt States; Pavel Durov under Formal Investigation; Dozens Killed by Sudan Floods; Influencer Photos Used in Fake Pro-Trump Accounts. Aired 10-11a ET
Aired August 29, 2024 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:00:00]
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ZAIN ASHER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): All right, welcome to the second hour of CONNECT THE WORLD. I'm Zain Asher, coming to you live
from New York.
A CNN exclusive: in a few hours, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz sit down for their first joint interview with our very own Dana Bash. We'll take a look
at what is at stake.
And Israel's major offensive in cities across the occupied West Bank continues with at least 15 dead so far. The IDF says it killed five
militants already today in a counter terrorism operation. The U.N. secretary general is calling for the killing and the destruction to end.
In Ukraine, the battlefield has shifted dramatically in a few short weeks with the approach of November's election. In the U.S. increasingly the
urgency -- increasing the urgency for President Zelenskyy. We'll have expert analysis on that you as well just ahead.
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ASHER: All right.
New today in the occupied West Bank, Israel says it has killed five more militants near a mosque in the town of Tulkarem. That means at least 15
people have been killed since Israel launched a massive incursion across the Palestinian territory on Wednesday.
The U.N. secretary general is calling for an immediate end to the operation, saying the developments are fueling an already explosive
situation. Palestinian Red Crescent reports a severe shortage of drinking water in the cities of Tubas, Jenin and Tulkarem where the Israeli military
is present.
CNN's Nic Robertson is with us, joining us from Tel Aviv with the very latest.
So Nic, Israel saying that it's trying to root out militants. They're trying to thwart future possible attacks. The Palestinians in the West Bank
believe that they're, instead, just trying to broaden and expand the war that exists in Gaza. Walk us through what you're hearing and seeing on the
ground.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: In the last couple of hours, the IDF has given a briefing and they say all of those people who were
killed were terrorists. That's what they say. They say that they have killed a terrorist leader from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group.
A commander in Tulkarem, they say, was killed along with four of his fellow fighters. The same group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, has actually put out
an acknowledgement, that what the person that they call their battalion commander from Tulkarem was killed.
There are various videos of him. They essentially say that, although the IDF may have killed him, that they just will not be able to stop their
group and other groups from resurfacing and coming back at the Israeli forces.
They say that it's absolutely, for them, not a defeat. It's very clear though that the Palestinian population is caught up. The Palestinian Red
Crescent say they've lost communications with their headquarters office in Jenin.
They say that there's no internet, no hard phone lines, no landlines, if you will know, no cellular phone connection and several -- and several
telecommunication providers in the northern part of the occupied West Bank say that their services are all down.
So it's hard to get a clear picture. But what we're hearing from groups like the Palestinian Red Crescent is that civilians in these areas can't
get out to get food for children. The elderly can't get out. People can't get out to get medicines.
So it's an unclear picture precisely what's going on. But the IDF say that one of their operations was initially described as being inside a mosque
but then sort of backtracked a little bit, said that it was around and inside a mosque.
But they claimed to have found various amounts of military equipment -- machine guns bomb-making material as well. They say that they've discovered
a number -- and defused a number of roadside bombs.
But we've also seen social media video coming out from the West Bank, which appears to show some of those heavy mechanical diggers that the IDF is
using, being hit by explosive devices.
But so far at least only one area of this massive operation seems to be being wound down by the IDF; Al-Faraa, they say, that area. Now that
operation was over within 24 hours. How long the rest of the operation goes on, saying really isn't clear.
ASHER: And, Nic, just to zoom out a little bit, I mean, since the war started, about 10 months ago, we've seen an increase in these raids across
the West Bank.
[10:05:04]
And also a level of anger and discontent because of some of the violence carried out in the West Bank by Israeli settlers.
Just explain to us, I mean, is this, is this really the new normal on the ground until there is a ceasefire in Gaza?
ROBERTSON: And even then, it's not clear if it's a new normal. It's not clear if it's a new normal after there's a ceasefire.
The experience of people in the West Bank -- and we've been there to talk with them about it -- is that, since October 7th, the incursions and
military operations by the IDF, the border police and settler violence, have all gone up significantly.
According to the U.N. until Sunday, from October 7th until this Sunday, a couple of days ago, 622 people had been killed inside of Gaza. And until
Sunday, 135 of those were killed in airstrikes.
Well, before October 7th, there were almost no airstrikes whatsoever, drones or aircraft inside of Gaza -- inside of the West Bank, rather. So
those figures, 622, was inside the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
So there is a quantifiable change since October 7th, both in terms of the death toll, both in terms of what we're hearing, that the experiences of
Palestinians living inside the West Bank. And they are concerned that this is an extension of the front in Gaza.
And they're concerned -- they talk about a Gaza vacation, that this is what they can face in the future, that what's happening in Gaza -- I mean, look,
for example, they would say, of what's being done to the roads.
These huge mechanical diggers seem to be part of most Israeli operations into the West Bank, where they literally go in. They put a sort of a gouge
on behind the digger. It's an armored digger.
And then it grinds up the road, churning up the tarmac on the road, without apparently being part of surrounding a particular building or an obvious
part of a military operation. And in this way and in terms of the increased numbers of deaths, the Palestinians in the West Bank say that this makes
them look and feel like it's Gaza.
Like that their communities are getting physically destroyed as well as -- as well as all the deaths and killings, Zain.
ASHER: And Nic, just in terms of the international reaction, we're seeing, what has been the international reaction on the ground in terms of Israel
stepping up these raids in the West Bank?
ROBERTSON: Well, we've heard from the U.N. secretary general, Antonio Guterres, being very, very clear that, in the current environment, this
undermines the possibility of getting peace. And it also, he says, causes more instability.
We've also heard from the spokesperson from the U.N.'s top representative for human rights, laying out what the U.N. expects; a red line, if you
will, for Israel, which says that they must observe and abide by all international law when it comes to armed conflict and civilians.
And by the terms of what the U.N. spokesperson was saying, this sounds like, in some areas, that that line could be -- could be -- being crossed.
So the U.N. is paying close attention.
But the dynamic that not just the U.N. but many Palestinians will tell you they feel is that the international community uses words, Israel uses
actions.
And it doesn't -- Israel doesn't feel circumscribed by the words that the international community is using, either to discourage them, dissuade them,
desist them, that Israel will continue anyway, certainly that's what Palestinians tell us they feel.
ASHER: Right. Nic Robertson live for us there. Thank you so much.
All right. In addition to the raids, Palestinians in the West Bank have also been dealing with an uptick in violence by Israeli settlers since the
Gaza war began. As I was just discussing with Nic, the U.S. is now slapping sanctions on an Israeli organization and on a named individual in
connection with that violence.
They're accused of forcing Palestinians off their land and stopping them from returning.
The U.N. World Food Programme is putting on hold the movement of its staff in Gaza after one of its vehicles came under fire. The agency says the car
was struck at least 10 times while approaching an Israeli checkpoint Tuesday night. No one was injured.
The U.N. says the vehicle was clearly marked and it had the go-ahead from Israel to pass through the area. The WFP plays a key role in distributing
aid in Gaza, where famine has been raging for months. Israel's military says the incident is under review. Meantime, ceasefire talks are limping on
today in Qatar.
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The longer it takes to reach an agreement, the more suffering we are going to see in Gaza, like the story of Naveen and her baby, Abdul, who has just
contracted polio. CNN's Jeremy Diamond has more.
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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: 11-month-old Abdul Rahman is no longer the energetic baby he once was. He now sleeps most of the day,
gently rocked by his mother, who is still grappling with how quickly he went from feverish and vomiting, to partially paralyzed.
"My child started to move and crawled at an early age," Naveen says, "but suddenly everything went backwards. Suddenly he was no longer crawling or
moving or able to stand on his feet or even sit."
Doctors delivered the devastating news earlier this month. Abdul Rahman has polio, the first known case in Gaza in 25 years.
"It is a shock for a mother to hear such news. Now he is lying here in the tent in these unhealthy conditions. There's no treatment, no capabilities
and no supplements."
The course of Abdul Rahman's life cruelly twisted by the war that started just weeks after he was born, leaving him vulnerable to malnutrition, dirty
drinking water and missed vaccines. The fear now that Abdul Rahman could be the first of many.
What is your plan to keep this one confirmed case from becoming an epidemic in the Gaza Strip.
SAM ROSE, DIRECTOR OF PLANNING, UNRWA: Absolutely. The plan is to start a vaccination campaign, a mass vaccination campaign involving all children
under 10 or 640,000 children who needs to be reached. So we need to reach about 95 percent of them.
DIAMOND: 1.2 million vaccine doses have now arrived and thousands of U.N. staffers and volunteers are ready to inoculate Gaza's children. The
challenge will be getting the job done as the war rages on.
ROSE: It's a relatively easy vaccine to administer. It's dropped on tongues. It doesn't require needles. It doesn't require injections. It's
something that's relatively simple to do. The difficult part is everything else.
DIAMOND: Gaza's health system has been devastated by nearly 11 months of war and global health officials are calling for a pause in the fighting to
distribute the vaccine.
Israeli authorities who launched the drive to vaccinate their troops last month haven't committed to that. But they say quote, "routine humanitarian
pauses will facilitate the inoculation drive."
In central Gaza, Naveen fans the flies from her son's face. She is helpless to fight off the disease that now grips his small body.
"Abdel Rahman needs treatment," she says, pleading with the world to take her son out of Gaza. She's still waiting for someone to answer her cry --
Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Tel Aviv.
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ASHER: Thanks to our Jeremy Diamond for that really powerful piece.
Ukraine is reeling from what it calls another massive aerial attack on Kyiv from Moscow. The overnight strike is Russia's third on the Ukrainian
capital in the past four days. This is also a week Ukraine's president has been telling the world he would have a victory plan. And Kyiv's recent
incursion into Russia is only the beginning.
It's part of Ukraine's effort to push the U.S. to lift restrictions on the use of American weapons against Russia. To that end, CNN has learned two
top Ukrainian officials are gearing up to give the Biden administration a list of Kyiv's targets inside Russia.
Let's bring in Oren Liebermann, reporting live from the Pentagon.
So Oren, what more do we know about the list of targets being presented here?
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Zain, we don't have the specific list of priority targets that Ukraine is trying to hit inside
Russia. But all of these are deeper inside Russian territory and require the ability to use U.S. long-range weapons to strike them.
That's the goal of presenting this list to the Biden administration.
Andriy Yermak, the head of the office of the president of Ukraine, and Rustem Umerov, Ukraine's defense minister, will be here tomorrow, meeting
with their counterparts as well as other Biden administration officials to try to get a green light to be able to use long range U.S. weaponry to
strike those targets deeper inside of Ukraine.
So far that has been a no-go for the Biden administration. Instead, the use of U.S. weapons in Russia is limited effectively to occupied Ukraine as
well as a small area inside of Russia, essentially cross-border attacks, to be able to defend against a Russian offensive.
It's within that framework that Ukraine has carried out this Kursk offensive. But the Biden administration has been reluctant and has so far
refused to allow them to go beyond that; to allow them, for example, to use long-range ATACMS missiles to hit military bases deeper inside Russia.
[10:15:03]
Because of that, Russia has simply moved its own high value assets and military aircraft, for example, deeper inside of Russia, outside the range
of U.S. weaponry. And that's what Ukraine is pushing for.
Ukrainian lawmakers have said they need that green light from the administration to be able to change the course of the war, that as Ukraine
has suffered in the face of a Russian offensive in the Kharkiv region, where Russia is still gaining ground there, even as Russia loses ground in
its own Kursk territory.
So this has been a point that Ukraine has made very publicly. For example, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said it repeatedly, urging the
U.S. and other Western countries to ease the restrictions on the use of long-range weapons inside of Russia.
But so far, the Biden administration has not budged on this point. However, Ukraine has seen -- and frankly, we've seen this as well -- that in many
instances, the Biden administration, the White House has said, no, no, no, no and then relented and said yes.
We've seen that with Patriots. We've seen that with F-16s Abrams tanks. And that's what Ukraine is hoping happens in this case as well.
ASHER: Oren Liebermann live, live for us there, thank you so much. I appreciate it.
All right. Much has changed on the battlefield in the last couple of weeks. As our Nick Paton Walsh writes, it is perhaps the fastest moment of change
in the conflict since it began.
It heralds Kyiv throwing everything it has down on the table to try to bring palpable results before the U.S. election alters its fate, maybe
irrevocably. Nick Paton Walsh joins us live.
Now, Nick, I mean, obviously part of the sort of game changing moves we've seen by Ukraine is the incursion into Russia. Just walk us through how much
Putin is feeling the pressure of this particular incursion, especially given the fact that he has diverted thousands of troops toward trying to
halt Ukraine's advance.
And he hasn't been able to do so.
What are Putin's options at this point?
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: On the surface, Putin is trying to portrayed -- it's almost -- Kursk, almost a bit
like a natural disaster.
Some analysts say something there is sort of slightly out of his control, that local officials need to get their grip on.
Now it's Ukrainian officials who say that Russia has diverted 30,000 of its troops from the front lines in occupied Ukraine to try and stop this
movement in Kursk. But that simply hasn't worked.
And indeed, in the last 24 hours, we've seen Russian officials ordering the evacuation of some settlements in the Belgorod region, also bordering
Ukraine, because, it seems, of further Ukrainian moves in that direction as well.
So this incursion, expanding continually, even with reports in the last hours as Kurchatov (ph), another town deeper inside Kursk, may have
movements for Russians in there, restricted by local authorities. So that continues to move forward.
The gesture from President Zelenskyy to ask both President Biden and Donald Trump and Kamala Harris to authorize U.S. supplied weapons to be used
deeper inside Russia does have a performative element to it.
Yes, they certainly want to use those weapons if they can. And I think providing a limited list of targets is designed to make it potentially
easier for the White House to fill. This isn't going to be some wide rolling campaign by Ukraine across the Russian mainland.
But it's also trying to force this issue into the electoral campaign to try to make everyone be a Russia hawk, essentially, or dare one to prohibit
this kind of use going forward.
It may work; it's clear that Ukraine is already using its longer-range drones and missiles deep inside Russia on oil depots, ammunition sites,
other areas, too; smoke billowing across many Russian towns over the past week from these strikes.
And in fact, officials up in Murmansk, near the Arctic Circle, a week ago had to sound a warning because they feared incoming drones too. So the
range quite extraordinary.
This seems to all be about Ukraine trying to massively up the ante ahead of both the U.S. election and possibly a winter coming in November-December,
which will see the fighting potentially slow, maybe talk of the need for diplomacy to gain in volume.
And so we're seeing incursions into Kursk, slightly Belgorod now, deep ranging Ukrainian strikes inside Russia. But bear in mind, too, this is not
all good news for Kyiv. They are losing fast in Donetsk, Dnipro (ph), Pokrovsk -- a key Ukrainian military hub. They appear to be on the back
foot there relentlessly.
Despite calls from the Ukrainian commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi today, that they were going to do what they can to try and shore that up, praising
troops in the fight there. They're on the back foot certainly.
And if they lose Pokrovsk, that could be very damaging for their positions in the winter ahead, because that is one of the last major towns. And you
start heading toward the Dnipro River.
So a lot at stake, a lot moving very fast. And I think a sense here amongst them, some analysts, that Zelenskyy is throwing everything he can at this
right now -- new weapons, new ideas, new tactics -- tearing away the notion that there are red lines simply they can't cross with Russia, doing
everything they can.
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Because possibly they may see a Trump administration that has floated, without evidence or details, the idea they could stop this war in 24 hours
or maybe, at some point next year, a slowing in NATO cohesion about how much aid and support they're willing to give Ukraine.
I think Kyiv sees their moment as being now and they appear to be trying to seize it.
ASHER: Yes, the election is absolutely going to be an inflection point in this war.
Nick Paton Walsh live for us there, thank you so much,
Right. Still to come with just over two months to go, speaking of which, the race for the White House enters its final stretch as both candidates
cross through some very key swing states today.
Plus Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, sit down exclusively with our very own Dana Bash to make their
case for the White House. A preview of that pivotal interview next.
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ASHER: All right, 68 days and counting until America picks its next president and the candidates are locked in a battle for the battlegrounds.
Kamala Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, are on a bus tour through Georgia, which wraps up later today with a rally in Savannah.
Donald Trump is headed to the Midwest as he hits the trail for the first time this week. He has a rally in Michigan, followed by a town hall this
evening in Wisconsin. He's expected to focus on inflation and the economy at both events.
It comes as new polling suggests Harris is gaining some momentum in some very crucial swing states, states that President Biden was trailing in
before he bowed out of the race. Our Priscilla Alvarez is following the Democrats. She is in Savannah for us.
So Priscilla, this will be the first time that a general election presidential candidate is essentially campaigning in Savannah since the
1990s.
What you're seeing here is that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are actually trying to make a play for areas that traditionally they don't, Democrats
don't usually go to.
What can we glean from that?
PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this is an aggressive strategy that the Harris campaign is employing.
They're using a playbook actually from 2022, when Senator Warnock had success in his December 22 runoff by essentially peeling voters off from
Republicans in the rural counties of South Georgia, while also winning big in Metro Atlanta.
Now the person at the center of that strategy is now also at the center of the Harris campaign strategy. And so he is trying to bring that same
playbook here. That's what he told me.
And he thinks that the path to victory is going to be winning in Atlanta but also trying to lose by less in the rural counties in South Georgia. So
that is notable about what the campaign has decided to do over the last 24 hours.
And doing these two stops yesterday in south Georgia, Tim Walz and Vice President Kamala Harris going to a high school and then a barbecue joint to
talk to voters.
[10:25:03]
The vice president continuing that today, where she will also stop at two small businesses. And again, they know this is a crucial battleground
state, one that President Biden won by less than 12,000 votes in 2020.
And so they are trying to find new and creative ways to try to get those votes, knowing that it's going to be close. And there is some momentum that
they are seeing. Polls showing that she has a slight edge over former president Donald Trump in Georgia, along with other battleground states.
But that edge is within the margin of error. So there is no clear leader. So they are opening offices in areas that typically quickly wouldn't bode
well for Democrats. They're having the vice president go as well as her vice presidential nominee in hopes, again, of keeping this in play.
ASHER: Right.
Priscilla Alvarez, live for us there. Thank you so much.
Later today, Kamala Harris will sit down for her first major interview since ascending to the top of the Democratic ticket as the presidential
nominee. Harris, with her running mate, Tim Walz, will answer questions from CNN's Dana Bash in Georgia.
Our Stephen Collinson writes for Digital.
"While Harris sparked intense enthusiasm at last week's star-studded Democratic convention in Chicago, as well as in joyful rallies among
Democrats who were previously demoralized over Biden's chances of reelection. she's yet to enter a forum where her answers and policies can
actually be cross-examined."
Stephen Collinson joins us live now from Washington.
I mean, Stephen, you're absolutely right because this has been a very long honeymoon period for Kamala Harris. She hasn't really been tested in the
pressures of a TV interview quite just yet. And this will no doubt be a test of her credibility. Just walk us through what we can expect tonight.
STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, this has become a little bit of a hurdle for Kamala Harris, just because it's taken 39 days
for her to give a major television interview.
All of her events so far have been scripted. They've worked out very well, from the rollout of her own campaign; the vice presidential nominee, Tim
Walz and the convention. She's going to come up in this interview with some pushback to some of her answers, some demands for better ideas about what
she would exactly do as president.
And the Trump campaign has been really goading her into doing this interview because it believes that some of her performances in her 2020
primary campaign and as vice president, when she has been put in spontaneous situations, have caused her to stumble into gaffes and be very
imprecise on policy.
I think what will be very interesting to see is -- now she's the nominee; she's making her own case and not President Joe Biden's -- is whether she's
evolved as a political figure.
ASHER: Yes.
I mean, a lot of people are talking about the 2021 interview with ABC's Lester Holt. It was somewhat of a bruising interview. But there has been
some criticism as to why she's doing this interview alongside vice presidential candidate, Tim Walz.
Is that a fair criticism?
Because obviously we've seen this before.
COLLINSON: Well, she hasn't done a solo interview yet, so there is some basis to that. Republicans are accusing her of using Walz as a crutch,
although it's not at all unusual for a candidate to come out of a convention with a new vice presidential nominee and give a joint interview.
In fact, Donald Trump did exactly that with JD Vance a month ago. Harris did it herself with President Joe Biden in 2020. And going back through all
the presidential races. So it's not unusual.
I just think the paucity of her exposure to questions and to journalists is exacerbating this idea that she's perhaps more comfortable with someone to
help her out during the interview than not.
But this is also I think a big opportunity for Harris to try and make some kind of emotional connection. If you look at a lot of the polling and focus
groups, you find that she got a hearing because she was so successful rolling out her campaign.
The convention was an appealing event last week. But there are still voters -- moderates and independents and swing voters -- that need to be
convinced. They'd like to know a little bit more about Kamala Harris.
So while we in the media are demanding more details on policy and trying to box her into exactly what she would do as president, there is also an
opportunity for her to try and reach out to some of these voters.
And continue that momentum and set herself up, I think, for the biggest event of the rest of this campaign, the presidential debate on September
10th.
ASHER: And actually, we just showed some polling for swing states.
If you just pull that up again.
Because what we're seeing here is, I mean, it's -- Stephen, it's within the margin of error, right?
[10:30:00]
There's no clear leader in a lot of these swing states.
So how much will the upcoming interview we're going to see on CNN tonight and the debate on September 10th, how pivotal will those two events be in
terms of moving the needle among swing state voters?
COLLINSON: I think it's going to be very important. What those numbers there show, the Sun Belt swing states, is that Harris has so far put those
states back into play. Under the Biden campaign, for example, in Nevada and Georgia, most Democrats thought that they were already gone.
And they were going to go to former president Donald Trump in November. That left Biden with only one route to the 270 electoral votes needed for
the White House through the blue wall states of Pennsylvania and Michigan and Wisconsin.
Most campaigns, when you need to run the table like that on a very narrow route, you lose. So what Harris has done so far is to expand the political
battlefield and give herself more options.
I think those figures are quite troubling to the Trump campaign. Not necessarily. We don't know if they're brought out by other polls. But the
trends in this race are all in Harris' favor at this point.
ASHER: Right.
Stephen Collinson, live for us there. Thank you so much.
COLLINSON: Thanks.
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ASHER (voice-over): All right and a quick reminder for you, when you can see this major interview with Kamala Harris and Dana Bash, right here on
CNN, 9:00 Eastern time Thursday, which is 9:00 am Friday, if you're watching from Hong Kong.
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz sitting down with our very own Dana Bash for their first in-depth interview since President Biden dropped his bid for
reelection. And video of that conversation will be available on CNN's online platforms as well.
We are back after this short break, stay with us.
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ASHER: Welcome back to CONNECT THE WORLD. I'm Zain Asher.
French prosecutors have placed the founder of the messaging app Telegram under formal investigation. In French law, that's a step short of being
charged with a crime. Russian-born Pavel Durov was seen leaving court on Wednesday.
The judge ordered the tech billionaire not to leave France and to report to police twice a week. His bail was set at $5.5 million. Durov was arrested
in Paris on Saturday on a warrant related to failures to remove or report criminal activity on the popular app. His lawyer says the investigation is
ridiculous.
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DAVID-OLIVIER KAMINSKI, PAVEL DUROV'S LAWYER (through translator): I'd like to add that it's totally absurd to think that the head of a social
network could be involved in criminal acts that don't concern him either directly or indirectly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ASHER: Denis Cenusa joins us live now from Frankfurt. He's an associate expert at the Eastern European Studies Center.
Denis, thank you so much for being with us. Just to jump off of water (ph), Durov's lawyers were saying that how rare or common is it for the CEO of a
social media platform to be held accountable for corporate misdeeds?
How common is that, particularly in Europe?
DENIS CENUSA, ASSOCIATE EXPERT, EASTERN EUROPEAN STUDIES CENTER: This is - - hello. This is rather an unusual situation because you don't have that many platforms in Europe that can be regulated and the owners of which are
held responsible.
But in this particular case, Durov was told for many years to start regulating the content on Telegram. So it was definitely his mistake to not
take seriously this request from European as well as French authorities.
ASHER: I think what's interesting is that when -- I was just speaking to my producers about this earlier this morning -- what's interesting is that
in the U.S., for example, when we've seen CEOs be held accountable, whether it's Sam Bankman-Fried or, I don't know, Bernie Madoff, they're held
accountable for what they did do.
But Durov is being held accountable for what he failed to do.
Just in terms of what sort of impact this will have on social media companies going forward, especially apps like Rumble, for example, What
impact do you think this particular case will have on the way they regulate content, if at all?
CENUSA: I think that this is a positive precedent that is being set by the French authorities, which are actually implementing the E.U. directive. So
it's not just French legislation.
It's in general the approach of the E.U. in protection of the integrity of the content that is consumed by the public and which, in some situations,
can lead to destabilization of political nature within the E.U.
So I believe that this is a positive trend. But it costs money. So all these platforms, all this are types of applications, messengers, they will
have to find resources to finance the regulation, which obviously also involves a lot of human resources.
So speak about money and people that have to be attracted in this type of activity.
ASHER: Yes, it's interesting, because Durov has previously boasted that Telegram only employs 30 full-time engineers.
So to your point, if they do end up moderating content more seriously, they will have to invest in terms of human resources.
So what does this actually mean for users of Telegram?
People who use Telegram, they see this news that Pavel Durov has been arrested, that he's now under a lot of pressure to restrict and moderate
content and the way information is shared in the platform.
Users of Telegram see this and they think what?
CENUSA: I believe that there are different types of users that are relying on this application. And we have even governments, we have state agencies
in different countries that are using Telegram to communicate with their public.
So in times of crisis, especially in times of crisis, Telegram was a very useful platform for anti-government protesters and for state institutions,
including during the COVID. So I believe that it has it has its function that should be protected.
But at the same time, we will definitely see non-state actors, like criminal groups that are going to exploit the possibilities of not -- of
non-moderation on Telegram. So we have these two sides.
And on the one hand, we obviously have supporters of Durov, including in Russia. But also have many critics and they are mainly in Ukraine. I think
that Ukraine is a big critic of Europe not helping Ukraine to fight Russian propaganda through Telegram.
ASHER: As you touched on in one of your earlier answers, Telegram has long been closely monitored by law enforcement agencies because of their failure
to moderate content. Obviously, Durov himself has boasted about the limited way in which they moderate content and the importance of free speech on the
platform.
So based on that, based on the fact that they have been monitored by law enforcement for so long, can you explain the timing of his arrest?
I mean, why now?
CENUSA: Yes, you're asking the big question that nobody can really answer, why he did it by himself.
Was it a benevolent action, that he decided to really give himself to into the hands of French prosecutors?
[10:40:00]
What we can definitely say is that probably he was fearing that Russia can try to get to him. So maybe this is a way for him to protect himself
against Russian special services that have been trying to convince him to cooperate on the basis of what Telegram can give in terms of communication.
ASHER: Right.
Denis Cenusa, live for us there, thank you so much. Appreciate it.
CENUSA: Thank you for your invitation.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ASHER: One person is in the hospital and at least six others are injured after severe turbulence rocked a United Airlines flight. The Boeing 737 was
headed to Chicago from Cancun, Mexico, on Wednesday.
The airline says it ran into severe turbulence, forcing an emergency landing in Tennessee. U.S. aviation regulators are investigating. CNN's
aviation correspondent Pete Muntean joins us live now.
So Pete, obviously turbulence, unfortunately, on aircraft is extremely common.
But how rare is it to actually disrupt the course of a flight, so much so that pilots make a decision to issue an emergency landing?
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's pretty rare, Zain, but it keeps happening. And that's the larger story here, that this could keep rising
with climate change, at least according to United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby.
He said just a year ago that, with climate change, it creates more heat. He calls it Thermodynamics 101. That leads to more thunderstorms and, ergo,
more turbulence. And we keep seeing this over and over again; 71 people injured on a Singapore Airlines flight not long ago; one person killed
because of severe turbulence on that flight.
There was a severe turbulence incident on an easyJet flight not long ago. Also on an Air Europa flight; 30 injured on a flight between Spain and
Uruguay. So this keeps making headlines over and over again.
In this case, this United Airlines flight on its way from Cancun, Mexico, to Chicago O'Hare at 34,000 feet, United Airlines said, encountered this
brief period of severe turbulence. That was over the state of Louisiana.
So the flight crew decided to divert to Memphis, Tennessee, where the plane made a relatively uneventful landing there, although you can see the
curlicue approach there into Memphis.
This happened during a time when this continues to grab headlines. And the NTSB says that the turbulence is the top cause of injuries onboard
commercial flights in the United States, that causes of turbulence are pretty well known.
Often thunderstorms, that could be a cause. The FAA and the National Weather Service here in the United States also says that it could because
of mountain wave; essentially, when wind hits the side of a mountain and causes air to rise.
There's also clear air turbulence, which can be very invisible. So pilots have no warning. Then there can be also wake turbulence from another
airplane in front of another airplane, causing essentially like riding in the wake of a boat.
So there can be different causes of this. And it's something that the airlines are keenly paying attention to. They're pouring tons of money of
investment into trying to forecast and avoid turbulence. There's more and more investment from the private sector as well.
A company called ForeFlight, even putting boxes on planes, of private airplanes, to try and detect turbulence as airplanes are flying, to report
it to pilots ahead. The old school method may be best.
Pilots do something called PIREPs, pilot reports, where they report turbulence to the planes essentially behind them on the same route. So the
technology is getting better, although these problems keep happening over and over again, Zain.
The big thing here is that United Airlines says that the seat belt sign was on during this brief period of turbulence that led to those seven injuries,
one taken to the hospital.
ASHER: Yes. So that's something that we can learn from this. I have to say every time I speak to you, Pete, my fear of flying literally goes through
the roof.
(LAUGHTER)
MUNTEAN: Sorry, Zain.
(CROSSTALK)
ASHER: Literally every time. It's like, oh, God, what's he going to report this time?
(LAUGHTER)
ASHER: Hopefully I'll get over it.
Pete Muntean, live for us there. Thank you so much.
MUNTEAN: Thanks, Zain.
ASHER: And we are back after a quick break, stay with us.
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[10:45:00]
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ASHER: At least three people have been killed after typhoon Shanshan made landfall in Japan, bringing heavy rains and winds. Officials issued
emergency warnings for flash flooding and landslides in Japan's southern island.
Wind gusts of up to 185 kilometers per hour were reported east of where Shanshan came ashore. The typhoon is expected to move east and weaken to a
tropical storm by the end of the day.
In Sudan, the death toll has risen to at least 100 after torrential rain caused a major dam to burst, just another disaster for a country already
plagued by civil war and major food shortages as well. CNN's Paula Newton has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA NEWTON, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dozens dead as floods ravage an already crumbling Sudan.
MALEHASHIM MOHAMED, FARMER (through translator): We lost everything and we could barely rescue our families. The water washed away our farms,
vehicles, livestock and crops. It's the worst waterflows I've seen in my life.
NEWTON (voice-over): Locals are burying their neighbors as more than 100 people are found dead due to severe floods. According to government
officials flash floods in the country caused a dam in eastern Sudan to burst. It swept through villages, destroying more than 12,000 homes.
The U.N. says the death toll could still be higher. Many people are still missing under the rubble.
ABU ALI AHMED, ARBAAT RESIDENT (through translator): The situation is catastrophic to be honest. We have children, families and elderly and
others that need continuous medication and this is the fourth day.
The water came onto them and destroyed all the villages. And we don't know the circumstances they are going through now.
NEWTON (voice-over): The aftermath of these floods could be more fatal still in Sudan, a country already plagued by civil war. A new independent
report found that more than 20,000 people have been killed in Sudan since the start of the conflict in April 2023.
The country is suffering from a humanitarian crisis. According to the U.N., more than half of the population faces acute hunger. The growing crisis
affects the education of millions of children as well with schools in Sudan either destroyed or shut down.
ASRAR SABER ESSAM, DISPLACED STUDENT (through translator): I have lost my normal life and my dreams have been shattered. I aspire to become a doctor.
But with the school closed I feel as though my future and the meaning of life have slipped away.
NEWTON: The arrival of aid, complicated by civil war that continues to ravage the country. As peace talks in Switzerland led by the U.S. and Egypt
are ramping up, so too are diplomatic efforts to secure food and medicine.
For the first time in six months, humanitarian aid resumed in Sudan's famine-threatened Darfur region. The convoy of food is a short but much
needed relief to the thousands of people at the brink of this tragedy.
Now in the eastern part of the country, thousands are reeling with the aftermath of floods. People are cut off from the capital, Port Sudan and
many are searching for the bodies of their loved ones -- Paula Newton, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ASHER: All right. Still to come on CNN, why some European fashion influencers are outraged over the use of their images in pro-Trump social
media accounts. We'll have that story after the break.
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[10:50:00]
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ASHER: All right. Several European fashion influencers have become the faces of some fake pro-Donald Trump accounts on X. Their images have been
stolen and reposted to promote a pro-Trump agenda, as well as conspiracy theories. As Katie Polglase reports, some of those influencers are
outraged.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATIE POLGLASE. CNN INVESTIGATIVE PRODUCER (voice-over): Debbie is heading home from work in Luxembourg, Northern Europe. Crossing the border into
Germany, she races back to her son. And Lou.
But Debbie's day doesn't end there. She's also a professional model. Her image, not only her identity but her source of income helping support her
and her son. But it's been stolen, used in a pro-Trump account on X, attracting nearly 30,000 followers in less than six months.
POLGLASE: Here's Luna.
DEBBIE NEDERLOF, MODEL AND SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER: Yes, that's very crazy.
POLGLASE: And when you see these views, you know, it's saying, vote for Trump in 2024. What's your reaction?
NEDERLOF: My, to be honest, "What the fuck?" was my reaction.
That was my reaction because I have nothing to do with the United States, with Trump or the political things over there.
POLGLASE: And if people following this account believe that this is you, what do you want to say to them?
NEDERLOF: That it's definitely not me. Definitely it was never me and it will never be me. And they have to unfollow, please.
POLGLASE: In fact, Debbie is not alone. In partnership with the Center for Information Resilience, CNN found nearly 60 fake Trump-supporting accounts.
And from these, we identified nearly a dozen women, real women from across Europe, from Denmark to the Netherlands and as far away as Russia, whose
identities are being used in accounts telling voters, American voters, to vote for Trump in the upcoming U.S. election.
POLGLASE (voice-over): Let's take a look at some of these accounts. Like Alina, 33, and voting for Trump. But she's not. She's really Kamilla from
Denmark.
KAMILLA BROBERG, INFLUENCER: I think it's weird. Anything that can discriminate other people on my account because it's my little universe, I
don't think it's fair.
POLGLASE (voice-over): And this one, Neriah. She even has a verified blue tick, which is supposed to weed out fake accounts.
NERIAH TELLERUP, INFLUENCER: You feel very taken advantage of, also because it's kind of my image. I don't want to think people think that I do
what those profiles sometimes are promoting.
POLGLASE (voice-over): We ran the suspicious ex-photos through a reverse image search engine and found they were lifted from Instagram posts.
Certain patterns emerged. The fake accounts repost each other. It's a sign of a coordinated campaign.
Here, several of the fake accounts post the exact same wording. If you're voting for the man who survived an assassination attempt, I want to follow
you. It's another sign the accounts are linked.
And that's not all. Some of the accounts manipulated the images of these women. Have a look at Debbie's post, the original on Instagram and now the
fake one on X. Her hat now reads, Make America Great Again. Look at this T- shirt, before, and then Trump 2024.
For now, we don't know who is behind all these accounts. But the former U.S. National Security Council spokeswoman, who also used to investigate
fake accounts for Twitter, told us this.
EMILY HOME, FORMER SPOKESPERSON, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: I don't think it's unreasonable to ask questions about could there be a state actor
involved.
[10:55:00]
We know that there are multiple state actors who have been using social media to try to sow disinformation campaigns in the run up to the 2024
election.
POLGLASE (voice-over): But regardless, the accounts are reaching influential politicians. Doug Mastriano, a Republican state senator for
Pennsylvania, follows Debbie's fake account. CNN contacted the senator about the account but has not heard back.
Back in Germany, Debbie is shocked and upset that her image is being used in this way. With President Trump now back on X and Elon Musk, the owner of
X, throwing his weight behind him, fake pro-Trump content appears to be flourishing, silencing the real women affected.
Once again, women's rights at the very heart of this presidential election -- Katie Polglase, CNN, Trier, Germany.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ASHER: And important to note that CNN has reached out to X regarding these accounts but have not received a response so far. However, the majority of
them were taken down before CNN first published this report.
All right. That's it for CONNECT THE WORLD. Stay with CNN. "NEWSROOM" is up next.
[11:00:00]
END
