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Connect the World

CNN International: Connection Between Suspect, Victim is Unknown; Netanyahu: Gaza can only be Demilitarized if Philadelphi Corridor is Closed to Arms Smuggling; Super Typhoon Yagi Intensifies as it Nears China; Putin: Russia "Supports" Harris in U.S. Presidential Race; Charli XCX Songs The Right Tempo for Hands-Only CPR. Aired 9-9:45a ET

Aired September 05, 2024 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

ELENI GIOKOS, CNN HOST, CONNECT THE WORLD: This was the scene in Winder, Georgia where four people lost their lives to gun violence yesterday. We

have the latest details on how America's latest mass shooting unfolded and what people are saying about those who died. It is 09:00 a.m. in Georgia.

It is 05:00 p.m. here in Abu Dhabi. I'm Eleni Giokos. This is "Connect the World".

Now, in the next hour, a key hearing in the election subversion case against Donald Trump, the first since the Supreme Court ruled on broad

presidential immunity. Plus, Vladimir Putin raises eyebrows by saying he supports Kamala Harris in the U.S. Presidential Race. And did Pope Francis

just have his own childless cat lady's moment the Pontiff weighing in on people who have pets instead of children?

All right, let the stock markets in New York will open in about 30 minutes from now, checking in on how the futures are looking. As you can see, flat

with a negative bias, and that's after two straight days down days for S&P as well as nada NASDAQ. Not much clear direction, as you can see, we've

seen another slide in tech stocks on Wednesday. And we've seen big falls in recent days for Chipmaker Nvidia, which, of course, is affecting market

sentiment overall. We'll check in on those markets in about 30 minutes from now.

Well, in the meantime, we begin in Georgia, where another U.S. community is in mourning from a deadly school shooting. Police say a 14-years-old

suspect killed four people and injured nine others during Wednesday's tragedy at a high school near Atlanta. It is the deadliest of 45 school

shootings in the U.S. this year.

Now, the suspect, a student at the school, surrendered when confronted by police. His victims included two 14-years-old students and two math

teachers. Officials say they are still investigating a motive for the killings. Now, several students spoke with CNN about the horror they

witnessed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He turns to the classroom, to what would have been my right, and he just starts to shoot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I heard gunshots. Sounded like someone was just banging on a door. And then there's a red alert popped up on the screen, and then a

light went off. And it sorts of hit me what was happening.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Another teacher was watching us, and so she was like, oh my god, oh my gosh. She's like, go into the class. Everyone goes in the

class, and we heard, like, really loud shots and stuff.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is a place where I'm supposed to feel safe, like, this is honestly a place I did honestly feel safe. Every time I walked in

the school, I never thought anything would happen to me. Like, that's honestly a place I've honestly felt protected. Now I don't even want to be

in the hallways alone.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was scared. I was going to die, to be honest. And when I heard hard lockdown, I knew it wasn't a drill, I immediately texted

my dad, and I was just like, I don't know if this is a drill, I'm really scared. And I just kept my feet up and I prayed, and I closed my eyes and

tried to stay calm and shaking. I was worried that they would hear me, but when I heard gunshots, I was just I knew.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GIOKOS: CNN Law Enforcement Reporter Mark Morales joins us now from New York. A truly horrific story, as schools are back after the summer break,

but give me a sense of what more we know about the shooter and his possible motive.

MARK MORALES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT REPORTER: Well Eleni, that's really one of the central questions that investigators are going to tear into right

now. And it's one of many questions that we still don't have an answer to. But let's just go over quickly what we do know for the moment.

We do know that the shooter was questioned by law enforcement over a year ago because of online threats that were made. Now this information is

coming from FBI and local law enforcement. They said that they went to the shooter's -- the shooter's home at the time, he was with his father, and

they asked him a series of questions.

The father did say that he had weapons in the home that he used for hunting, but that the alleged shooter did not have any access to them. And

this is significant because it marks the first time that the alleged shooter was on the radar of local law enforcement.

Now they did say that there was no probable cause to make an arrest, but they did contact the local school system and asked them to keep an eye on

him. What happened from there is, I think, something that still has yet to be determined.

We're also learning that he is in custody, but we're trying -- still trying, to find out where exactly he goes from here. Now, he is a minor.

He's 14-years-old, so he is in custody at the moment, but law enforcement has already said that they intend to charge him as an adult because he used

for these murders.

And that he also used an AR-15 weapon, which is sort of the common theme that we've seen in a lot of these shootings that have happened. And also,

back to what we don't know. So, we're still trying to find out where exactly in the legal process he's going to be?

He's expected, at some point in the near future, to go before a judge, and that will mark the first step in what could be a lengthy legal process. I

mean, you think of other mass shooting situations, such as Ethan Crumbley in Oxford, Michigan, or the Buffalo Supermarket shooter, Payton Gendron.

[09:05:00]

It took a while before they were finally sentenced. But again, this would mark the first stop in that lengthy legal process.

GIOKOS: All right. Mark Morales, thank you so much for that update. Well, Ukraine is getting ready for a potential critical phase of its conflict

with Russia. Diplomats Andrii Sybiha has been sworn in as Foreign Minister, replacing his boss, Dmytro Kuleba, one of several cabinet members to exit

as part of a sweeping reshuffle. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his country must be ready for what's ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: I'm very grateful to the ministers and the whole government team that worked for Ukraine and the

Ukrainians for 4.5 years, and some for 5 years. We need new energy today, and these steps are related only to the strengthening of our state in

different directions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GIOKOS: All right. So, what can we expect in this new phase? CNN's Frederik Pleitgen has been reporting extensively from Ukraine during the war, and

he's with us now from the capital Kyiv. Fred always good to see you. I want to talk about this cabinet reshuffle, and we hear that Parliament has

approved Dmytro Kuleba's replacement. Give me a sense of who he is and what we know about him right now?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Andrii Sybiha is definitely someone who has been a career diplomat. He's been in

Ukraine's Diplomatic Service Eleni for a very long time. From 2016 to 2021 he was actually Ukraine's Ambassador to Turkey. After that, he went to the

President's Office.

And I think that that is something that is absolutely key. He was brought to the Ukraine President's Office by Andriy Yermak was, of course, the

Chief of Staff for Volodymyr Zelenskyy. So, you can see he's really inside that very close brain trust that Volodymyr Zelenskyy has around him.

And of course, that's one of the things that Zelenskyy was alluding to, where he said that he believes that all the institutions need to be

strengthened right now. And he also said in the last couple of days that he felt that new ways needed to be explored as far as the diplomatic and the

foreign policy sector was concerned as well.

Because he does believe that right now for Ukraine, it is going to be a very key time. The Ukrainians, of course, want to head to Washington. The

president wants to head to Washington very soon to present the U.S. with what they call their plan for victory, part of which they say is that

incursion that they started into Kursk that the Ukrainians hope will help them on the battlefield in other places as well.

And there are places where it appears as though Ukrainian forces are now able to make some gains. And here's what that looks like.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PLEITGEN (voice-over): Elite soldiers from Ukraine's Third Assault Brigade, get out of their armored vehicle and right into a massive firefight. One of

the soldiers is wounded, the others scream for a tourniquet.

But the unit keeps moving. While Ukraine's army has been losing ground in many areas in this part of the Kharkiv region, they've turned the tide.

Later taking several Russian dugouts the deputy commander says. The enemy has no results he says. Moreover, we have positive results. We've pushed

the enemy back and captured a battalion line of enemy defense.

While the Third Assault Brigade says they'll keep pushing forward Ukraine remains badly outmanned by the Russians. And the Third Assault Brigade

wants ever more combat drones to be their great equalizer. This is their drone school they call the kill house.

Drone technology is developing extremely fast on the battlefields in Ukraine, and the Third Assault Brigade believes in the future they will

need even more drone pilots, so they training as many as possible, as fast as possible, to get them combat ready.

They've already trained more than 1500 prospective drone aviators here, not just to fly the FPV drones effectively, but to use them as lethal weapons

capable of destroying even tanks and armored vehicles. The greatest effectiveness of a pilot is his or her desire the school's boss tells me.

FPV pilots are people of a special mindset. They know how to hit the target, what ammunition to use. The ammo is becoming more lethal as well.

A different Ukrainian unit now acknowledging they're using a trial version of a fire spewing drone that drops an incendiary substance on Russian

positions. But the Russians keep hitting Ukraine with much bigger munitions, missile strikes killing several people in Lviv in western

Ukraine. Search and rescue crews recovering the bodies for hours.

Kyiv's leadership has vowed revenge for Russia's aerial attacks against Ukrainian cities, a driving factor also for the soldiers attacking Russian

positions on the northeastern front.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[09:10:00]

PLEITGEN (on camera): And of course, part of Ukraine's plans with things like that Eleni is also to try and force the Russians to the negotiating

table. That's also part of what the Ukrainian President has said his four- point plan is about as well.

One of the things that we'll be looking to when he goes to the United States and speaks with President Biden is to ask for a big another weapons

package from the U.S., but also fewer restrictions on the use of U.S. made weapons. And then, of course, also the Ukraine's have said, help from the

United States in the economic and diplomatic sectors as well Eleni.

GIOKOS: All right. Fred Pleitgen in Kyiv thank you so much. Well, France has a new Prime Minister. It's Michel Barnier, the Former Chief Brexit

Negotiator for the European Union. He succeeds Gabriel Atal, who resigned after President Emmanuel Macron's Centrist Alliance lost dozens of seats in

snap elections in July. It is unclear whether Barnier will have enough support to form a stable, functioning government.

A senior U.S. official says a ceasefire hostage release deal for Gaza is 90 percent complete, but getting that last 10 percent over the line appears to

be problematic after Israeli Prime Minister repeated his insistence that Israel will not cede control of the Philadelphi Corridor separating Gaza

and Egypt. Hamas calls that an attempt to thwart reaching an agreement. Now Mr. Netanyahu defended his stance to CNN's Jeremy Diamond when Jeremy read

him a question asked by the wife of one of the hostages still held by Hamas. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: I spoke to Aviva Siegel tonight, a former hostage whose husband is still being held in Gaza. She

told me that she believes that you are sentencing her husband Keith to die by prioritizing the Philadelphi Corridor over a deal. And she has this

question for you, is Keith going to come home alive or dead?

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: I'll do everything to make sure that Keith and all the author of hostages come back. I'm telling you that

if we relieve the pressure, if we get out of the Philadelphi Corridor, we're not going to get the hostages back. Certainly, we're going to condemn

a lot of them to stay there. We could get a few out. They'll give us that, but they'll leave a lot with them.

We won't have the pressure point, and something else will happen. We will not be able to come back. So, we won't release all the hostages, and we

won't achieve the defenses that we must have to prevent more October 7th, again and again and again. I don't stand in judgment of these tormented

souls because they're undergoing an agony that is hard to -- hard to fathom, and I understand that.

But the responsibility of leaders is not merely to share the sentiment, the emotion, but also to exercise judgment, the correct judgment, to make sure

that these horrors do not happen again. I believe that our strategy is the best way to achieve both goals.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GIOKOS: Well, Nic Robertson is connecting us from Tel Aviv. Nic, you know, one of the big questions is whether a ceasefire hostage deal is close. It's

something we've been discussing for such a long time. U.S. officials say that it's 90 percent complete, but that doesn't mean it will get signed off

by Hamas and Israel. How is this deal different to what we've seen before?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Look, I think what we're hearing from the United States when they say it's 90 percent

complete, they're talking about the many paragraphs that it has, the many points that it has, 18 points of potential agreement, and they say all but

four of those have been agreed.

So that's just four areas. And they say that they are focusing on areas like the hostage release prisoner exchange. Details around that which

remain contentious, how many Palestinian prisoners that Israeli holds in jail should be released for each hostage? What level those prisoners should

be at?

The possibility that some of the senior Palestinian prisoners, those serving life sentences, could be released, but if they were released, then

they would have to go into exile. These appear to be some of the details within those outstanding paragraphs that need to be worked out.

So, what we're hearing from the U.S. is a positivity about pushing forward. They've been overly optimistic in the past, talking about the deal being

closed, talking about being at the 10-yard line, and here it really seems to be an effort to sort of park this hugely contentious issue of the

Philadelphi Corridor to one side.

But continue to push their narrative that we can do this, that we can work on it, and that we can address these issues. But we were just listening a

few minutes ago to Prime Minister Netanyahu speaking on television here, and he just downplayed flat out refused to accept that they're 90 percent

closely.

[09:15:00]

And he said there's no deal in the making. Unfortunately, it is not close. The 90 percent discussion is exactly inaccurate. Those were his words. So,

I think what we're hearing from the Prime Minister of Israel, he is absolutely not in lockstep with the United States. We knew that he was out

of step, but he now appears to be on a completely separate path, not connected to what we're hearing from the White House.

So, I think the takeaway from all of this at the moment is a deal is not close. And that said by one of the people whose -- who is -- who has the

biggest hand in the outcome of a deal going through or not?

GIOKOS: Yeah, really important Nic that you mentioned, that they are not viewing ceasefire hostage talks in the same light as the United States,

given what we've heard from Benjamin Netanyahu on Fox News just a short while ago, as you say that a deal is unfortunately not close.

Nic Robertson for us in Tel Aviv, great to see you. Thank you so much for that update. And still to come on "Connect the World", tens of thousands of

worshippers fill a stadium in Indonesia to hear Pope Francis deliver mass, how the pontiff is trying to promote peace through dialog.

Plus, severe weather alerts are issued for Mainland China and Hong Kong as a super typhoon intensifies in the South China Sea. The latest straight

ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GIOKOS: Welcome back. Now Pope Francis is in Indonesia, where earlier today he held mass at Jakarta's National Stadium in front of tens of thousands of

people and the world's largest Muslim majority country. This event parts of the Catholic leaders 12-day tour of Southeast Asia and the South Pacific as

he aims to strengthen bonds between faiths.

Earlier, the Pope and Indonesia's Grand Imam held an event where they vowed to unite against violence and conflict and tackle the climate crisis. At

another stop, the pope raised praise the people of Indonesia for having big families, contrasting that with other parts of the world, listen in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POPE FRANCIS, SOVEREIGN OF THE VATICAN CITY STATE: What triggers acute conflicts and how is this resolved with a law of death that is by limiting

births. Limiting is the greatest wealth a country has, which is births. And your country, on the other hand, has families with three, four or five

children that keep moving forward, and this is reflected in the age levels of the country.

Keep it up, you're an example for everyone, for all the countries that may be. And this might sound funny, these families prefer to have a cat or a

little dog, instead of a child. This is not right. Is it?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[09:20:00]

GIOKOS: OK. CNN's Christopher Lamb is following the papal tour for us, and he's in Jakarta. Christopher, I think many people are -- There's a big

discussion point in terms of what the pope said about big families and opting for having pets. Give me a sense of how that -- what the reaction

has been to that specific comment?

CHRISTOPHER LAMB, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Eleni, there hasn't been a huge amount of reaction here in Indonesia, but the President and the

other leaders of the country were in the room when the pope made it. And Francis made the remark in a slightly jokey way, but with a very serious

undertone.

Of course, this is an issue that Pope Francis has talked about a number of times in the past. He is concerned about low birth rates in Europe,

particularly in his doorstep in Italy, he has lamented couples choosing not to have children, and when it comes to pets, preferring pets over children.

Francis has often told the story that he once witnessed a woman in St Peter's Square pushing a pram, and in the pram there's not a baby, but a

pet dog. So, this is something that Pope Francis has talked about a number of times before. He is concerned about low birth rates.

He's also worked with the Italian government on this issue. And here in Indonesia, he raised this question, this topic, because he sees here

families with a number of children, and that's clearly something that has struck him and impressed him, but I think the main focus of the trip here

in Indonesia has been interfaith dialog.

And Francis this morning at the Istiqlal Mosque, the largest in South East Asia, for a very moving and powerful encounter with other religions,

including the grand imam of Indonesia, the two of them wearing white and embracing each other in a sign of that interfaith friendship and harmony

that the pope wants to promote. This afternoon, Thursday, Francis was celebrating a mass packed stadium.

There were people outside an enthusiastic welcome for the pontiff. Indonesian Catholics are a minority here in the world's most populous

Muslim country. They make up about 8.6 million. Francis tomorrow, Friday is going to Papua New Guinea, the next stop in his marathon, 12 day South East

Asian and Pacific tour. We'll see how it goes for the next few days, Eleni.

GIOKOS: All right. Christopher Lamb, great to have you on the ground there for us. Much appreciated. Now, a super typhoon named Yagi is sweeping by

Hong Kong right now, effectively shutting the city down. Authorities have issued a level a typhoon warning, the first for this year, which means

schools and businesses, including the stock exchange, will be closed Friday.

Most flights in and out of the city have already been canceled due to the typhoon. Much of Hong Kong is now quiet and shuttered. CNN's Kristie Lu

Stout is in the heart of Hong Kong and what's usually a busy shopping area. Kristie, great to have you there on the ground for us.

Look, after the typhoon sweeps through Hong Kong. It's going to be moving through Southwest China and Hainan as well. Could you give me a sense of

what you're experiencing and what the expectation is for the next few days?

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, absolutely here in Hong Kong, we are feeling the effects a super typhoon Yagi is sweeps by, and this is it,

gentle breeze, no rain. Some surf has been churned up, whipped up by the storm and nearby Victoria Harbor. But authorities here are taking this

storm very, very seriously.

Before it intensified into a super typhoon, it was a tropical storm. It left a trail of destruction in the Philippines, where it took the lives of

over a dozen people. And here in Hong Kong, this city is on alert. The typhoon eight warning is in effect. That's the third highest typhoon

warning, the first time they've raised this alert this year, and that effectively shuts down the entire territory.

Businesses have been shuttered. Flights have been suspended. In fact, according to the Hong Kong International Airport, 38 flights were canceled

today, and looking forward to tomorrow, schools will be closed, as well as Hong Kong's trillion-dollar stock exchange that will be suspended during

the T8.

I'll give you some context about where I am right now. I'm in Causeway Bay, which is one of the densest shopping districts in the world, usually at

this time, on a Thursday night, it would be packed with people, families and friends, going out for a late dinner, going out for shopping, because

the shops would usually be open. Not many people are out and about tonight.

[09:25:00]

The government has issued that warning, that advisory telling people will stay indoors, and despite the mild conditions, people are heeding that,

Eleni.

GIOKOS: Yeah, all right, I want to talk about the destruction of Yagi earlier in the Philippines. Tell me a little bit about the aftermath there

and how you know, Philippines as a whole has been impacted by the typhoon.

STOUT: Yeah, absolutely. Again, before the storm intensified into a super typhoon, it was a tropical storm. It made landfall in the Philippines

earlier this week. On Monday, it put down power lines. The power grid was affected. It caused widespread devastation. It took over a dozen lives due

to the land slips and the landslides it caused, as well as flooding surge waters.

You know some people were swept in flood waters. In fact, four people were missing as a result of that search and rescue operations have been underway

to look for them in the last few days. Now the storm has intensified. It's a super typhoon sweeping past Hong Kong, at the moment, very mild

conditions, but it's going to make landfall in southwestern China and Hainan Island on Friday evening.

And Hainan Island is known as the Hawaii of China. It is famous for its five-star resorts, for its sandy beaches, what have you? Authorities there

very much on alert, much like Hong Kong, flights have been canceled, but also rail, ferries, bus services canceled on Hainan Island as well.

And authorities there have been telling both residents and tourists to stay indoors. Back to you, Eleni.

GIOKOS: All right. Kristie Lu Stout, thanks so much for that and stay safe. All right, coming up next spending trillions on tax cuts. That's how Donald

Trump wants to address America's economic issues. So how would it work? And why are economists so worried? Find out in just a few moments.

And a surprising announcement from Russia's President is Vladimir Putin trying to play mind games with the U.S. presidential election. Find out

what he's been saying just a hit. Stay with CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:30:00]

GIOKOS: And that is the sound of the sort of trade in New York and ringing the opening bell. Today, the CEO of Foot Locker, the company celebrates its

50th anniversary of founding. And welcome back. I'm Eleni Giokos, and you're watching "Connect the World". Let's check in to see how the markets

are faring in the first seconds of trading.

As you can see, the DOW is slightly to the positive. NASDAQ still, as you can see in the red, slightly and S&P also basically flat. It's been a

sluggish start to the month with lingering concerns over manufacturing data and talk over potential Federal Reserve interest rate cuts.

And this is also waiting on Friday's key jobs reports, which will give another indication of how the economy is faring and will certainly impact

investor sentiment. Meanwhile, a big day ahead for Donald Trump. In the next hour, a federal judge will hold the first hearing in Trump's election

interference case since the Supreme Court ruled that he has broad immunity for official acts he took as president.

The judge will hear arguments about the potential next steps in the case. Trump himself will not be present, but we'll be covering that as the

hearing goes on. All right. Instead, the former president is gearing up to make his economic pitch to voters. He will speak at the Economic Club of

New York in the next few hours.

Among his proposals, if elected, trillions of dollars in tax cuts and big tariffs on imported goods. Some economists already sounding the alarm bell

about what that would lead to. Matt Egan is here to explain that for us. Matt, good to see you. I want you to give me a sense of what this proposal

entails and what exactly we're expected to hear from Donald Trump?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, Eleni, over the years, I've talked to a lot of economists about a lot of different policy ideas. And I'm not sure I've

ever heard them as uniformly alarmed about an idea as they are about Trump's trade agenda. Remember, he waged a trade war during his first term

in office, and he's basically calling for tripling down on that, right?

He says he wants a 10 to 20 percent tariff on all $3 trillion of U.S. imports. Not only that, but he wants a 60 percent tariff on all U.S.

imports from China. 60 percent that is massive. Now, in theory, those tariffs could be used to bring in trillions of dollars of revenue that

would maybe help pay for his massive tax cuts.

Maybe Trump will argue that this will also be a way to punish China and other countries for trade tactics that Republicans and Democrats agree, are

unfairly hurting American workers. But in reality, mainstream economists that I talk to their word that all this is going to backfire, that the

tariffs are going to make inflation worse, kill jobs and potentially set off a global trade war.

JP Morgan's David Kelly, he told me this is a very bad idea. He described tariffs as, quote, magical economic proposals that can actually cause

inflation and put you into a recession at the same time. Douglas Holtz- Eakin, a Former McCain and George H. W. Bush Advisor, he told me that this is, quote, terrible economic policy.

The concern is that all of us are going to be paying the price. Recent research from the Peterson Institute found that the typical middle-class

family would pay an extra $2,600 a year because of these Trump tariff proposals. That's a year. And importantly, that doesn't even account for

the almost definite retaliation that we'd see from other countries that are obviously not going to take this lying down.

Now the Trump campaign, of course, is pushing back here. They're arguing that Trump successfully was able to cut taxes and impose tariffs and create

millions of jobs along the way. Trump campaign spokesperson told me that so called economists and experts doubted President Trump's economic plans in

his first term, and they will be proven wrong then. They were proven wrong then, and they'll be proven wrong again, Eleni.

GIOKOS: All right. Matt Egan, thanks for breaking that down for us.

EGAN: Thank you.

GIOKOS: Now, a surprising endorsement from Russian President Vladimir Putin. He says he supports Kamala Harris for U.S. President over Donald

Trump. The Russian President has long been considered friendlier with Trump and this year's Republican nominee, but it sounds like that's all changed.

And with two months until the election, the U.S. Justice Department is accusing the Russian state media company of RT of funding a Tennessee

company to spread propaganda.

[09:35:00]

It was meant to influence the U.S. presidential election and help put Donald Trump back in the White House. Prosecutors say another goal was to

weaken opposition to Russian interests, especially its ongoing war in Ukraine. CNN has confirmed that the company referenced in the indictment is

tenant media.

Officials say it's linked to right wing commentators with millions of subscribers on YouTube and other social media platforms. Here to break it

down for us, we've got CNN, Clare Sebastian, who's been following the story for us from London. Clare, good to see you.

I want to start off with President Putin's comments. It seems as if he is trolling Kamala Harris. And we often know that what President Putin says

and what he actually means are not really synonymous with one another. Give me a sense of what people are reading into this endorsement, so to speak.

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. I mean, I think we can't really see this as an actual endorsement. This is sort of rhetoric. And as you

say, trolling from President Putin. He said back in February, remember that he prefers Biden because he's more experienced and predictable.

He said, which, of course, was counterintuitive at the time, given just how fiercely Biden has criticized Putin and opposed the war in Ukraine. And he

was asked again today at this forum, you know, who would be his favorite now that Biden is out of the race. So, we took the opportunity for a little

sort of mockery of the U.S. political system, something he never misses an opportunity to do.

And of Kamala Harris herself, I think there's an awareness there as well that perhaps she does not stand to benefit from this. So, take a listen to

what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR PUTIN, PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA: As I said, our favorite, if you can call it that was the current president, Mr. Biden, but he was removed from

the race, and he recommended all his supporters to endorse Ms. Harris. Well, that is what we will do too. We will support her. And also, she

laughs so expressively and infectiously that it means that she is doing well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN: Yeah. So, you know, slightly sexist comment at the end there about Kamala Harris's laugh. You can see that's sort of part of the

trolling that we see here. But the fact remains, of course, that Putin is going to favor whichever candidate is least likely to continue supporting

Ukraine.

GIOKOS: Yeah.

SEBASTIAN: His overarching goal right now is to continue taking territory in that war. And of course, we know that the Republican ticket is more

skeptical and that these comments come one day after the Justice Department and FBI unveiled these allegations of sort of widespread disinformation

campaigns which seem at least in part to have been designed to favor Trump, Eleni.

GIOKOS: All right. Clare Sebastian, good to see you. Thank you. Well, still to come, another win for champion pole vault Mondo Duplantis, and for once,

he managed to keep his feet on the ground. Details, when we return, stay with CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:40:00]

GIOKOS: All right. That's a cool song, but it could also save your life. That's the song by Charlie XCX. The American Heart Association says the hit

song 360 and spring breakers are 120 beats per minute, and that is the correct speed for performing hands on CPR. So, they can be used as a tool

to help you remember the tempo in a pinch.

The Heart Association also thank Charlie XCX for quote, the vibe and for this life saving beat. Well, champion pole vault Mondo Duplantis delighted

his fans at the Olympics by walking away with gold. But where do you go next when you're on top of the world?

For Duplantis, the answer was, we'll take to the track on Wednesday, he lined up for 100 meters against a formidable opponent Karsten Warholm,

who's a world record holder in his one right at the 400 meters hurdles. And the race came up as a result of some friendly banter.

I'm going to let Amanda Davies tell you exactly what happened next. By the way, I didn't Google the results, but I'm waiting for you to tell me. So,

this is going to be a total surprise for me, Amanda.

AMANDA DAVIES, CNN WORLD SPORT: You know, some people are just too talented, Eleni. And I remember, I sat in Paris the morning after Mondo had

not only won Olympic gold in the pole vault, but set a new world record on the way. He was enjoying life. Let's say he had a glass of champagne in

hand. I think he'd had a fair few before speaking to me.

You'd think that might affect your athletic performance, but no, since then, he's already raised his world record in the pole vault again. And

then look at this. I mean, Usain Bolt's 100-meter world record, 9.58 not in danger, but 10.37 on the track from Mondo Duplantis beating a friend, a

Norwegian rival in Karsten Warholm.

Warholm said it's one and done. But I think apparently, as a Norwegian, the fact he's got to line up at the Zurich Diamond League later today wearing

Swedish kit. It's not going to go down particularly well, but you can see, I mean, they very much enjoyed the moment.

And there were so many stars lined up to watch this, because they are two absolute superstars in their respective events. It was like they walked out

like a boxing contest.

GIOKOS: Yeah.

DAVIES: But a really, really brilliant moment to carry on the fun really that we've seen over the last couple of months in fact.

GIOKOS: -- really, brilliant. Yeah. I mean, as you say, Amanda, some people are just far too talented, but I would love to see a rematch on that and

retake on that. Amanda Davies will see you after the break.

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