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One World with Zain Asher

France Rocked By Its Biggest Student Protests In Decades; Documents Reveal New Details In Cornell Police Investigation; Chicago Woman Shot By U.S. Border Patrol Agent Sues Government; Former German Spy Chief Arrested, Suspected Of Espionage; South Korea: North Koreans Fighting For Russia Ordered To Kill Themselves To Avoid Capture; New Book Examines Complex Geopolitics Of The Arctic; Aired 12-1p ET

Aired October 06, 2026 - 12:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:00:28]

ZAIN ASHER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Coming to you live from New York, I'm Zain Asher.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Bianna Golodryga. The second hour of "One World" starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are young enough to be kicked, to be gassed, but we are not old enough to be listened. So, that's -- that's pretty crazy. I

mean, we should be listened.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOLODRYGA: France is struggling to contain its biggest student protests in decades. How local teachers strike snowballed into a national crisis?

ASHER: Also ahead, aiding and abetting, why this former spy chief is being accused of treason and espionage.

GOLODRYGA: And later, turning a necessary evil into a good time. The parallel parking championship took --

ASHER: I've never been good at this.

GOLODRYGA: -- Philadelphia by storm. And we have a winner, ladies and gentlemen. His tip for the perfect parallel park.

ASHER: Oh, he just this.

GOLODRYGA: He do. Look at him.

All right. Well, what began as a local demonstration in support of striking teachers has ballooned into a national crisis.

ASHER: Yes.

GOLODRYGA: France is struggling to contain the biggest student protest in decades.

ASHER: Yes, students, teachers, parents, as well as unions, are demonstrating in Paris and other cities fueled by anger and despair over

the educational system. They want the government to act on a list of grievances, including crowded classrooms, teacher shortages, and crumbling

buildings in need of repair. One teacher says there's a blatant lack of resources.

GOLODRYGA: And more than 5,000 people have been taken into police custody in recent weeks, most of them minors with no previous criminal records.

Hundreds of schools have been forced to close.

CNN's Melissa Bell joins us now from Paris. So, Melissa, as you've been covering this now for weeks, it's clear it's not dying down, it's only

growing. How is the government responding today?

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's been a lot of criticism, of course, about what the students say is a lack of

government response to their demands over the last couple of weeks, which has been further fueled by what they say has been police violence. And that

very much of the -- part of the anger that we're seeing here today.

What's changed today? And we're here at the Place de la Nation. I'm just going to show you what's happening around us. Regularly, the police are

facing off with protesters. There's a lot of tear gas in the air. And they're really struggling to deal with the crowds that have turned out for

this protest.

What's changed this Tuesday is the presence of the unions, their parents, the teachers, the public sector workers who've come out at times standing

in lines in front of the student barricades to protect, they say, the students from police violence.

And they're out in full force as part of these marches. The one here in Paris that has arrived at Place de la Nation is huge.

This is what a student -- teacher representative and teacher union, rather, had to tell us about the fundamental demands before even they started

protesting the police violence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERWAN LE CLECH, UNION REPRESENTATIVE AND TEACHER (through translator): There is a blatant lack of resources, whether at the level of the buildings

that are poorly renovated or the buildings that are missing as well.

We have an overflow of students for each school and therefore in each class, which makes the conditions more difficult.

From the moment when too many people are put in one room, it follows that it exacerbates any tensions. There is also a lack of teachers. And the only

way out of that is to have resources to build facilities and hire teachers so that we have teaching that are much more effective.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BELL: So, one teacher representative explaining why they too are joining this student movement, for now, they say the demands haven't been met.

The problem for the government at this stage are the numbers on the streets today, the difficulties the police are going to have in keeping it under

control, but also the fact that it's swelled so much. And they feel they haven't been heard that they're already announcing another protest on

Thursday with further demands for that urgent funding that they say they need to repair their schools and get their education system up to speed.

ASHER: Melissa, just talk to us about the condition inside French schools that have actually led to this. I mean, obviously, it started as one sort

of isolated protest and then it has ballooned into these protests we're seeing now.

And, obviously, we understand that it's overcrowded classrooms, dilapidated buildings, but just give us more, for those of us who are outside of

France. Give us more specifics on what French students are experiencing right now.

[12:05:09]

BELL: Well, to give you an example, this is an education system, beyond the creaky schools and the leaky roofs and so on, that has seen a cut in

teacher numbers under the two presidential terms of Emmanuel Macron.

That has meant teacher shortages. It's meant teachers not being replaced, that's at the heart of their gripes. There are 250,000 more high school

students in high school today than there were in 2008, but far fewer teachers as a result of those cuts.

It is 70 percent of French high schools today that have 30 students or more per class. Twenty percent have more than 35 students. And the kids say,

that just makes it impossible for them to learn.

What we're talking about here as well are high school students, and I think that makes it even more difficult for authorities to deal with.

When you look at some of that violence that we've seen over the last, especially the last week when it's really intensified, there have been

people wounded amongst the police, there have been wounded people amongst the teaching staff, but also amongst 15 and 16 year olds, very badly

wounded children essentially, one who's lost a hand to grenade, another who's lost the use of his eye. And that really, to many of the people out

here today, is simply unacceptable.

The difficulty now, you mentioned all of those who've been taken into custody, more than 5,000 have now been arrested, is what the justice system

is going to do with these kids. Most of them are minors. Most of them have no criminal record.

GOLODRYGA: All right. Melissa Bell, thank you.

ASHER: All right. Demands for accountability are growing at Cornell University in New York over the handling of gang rape allegations from

2024. Student-organized town hall is set for later today as faculty prepare for a possible no-confidence vote against the school's administration.

Hundreds of students joined community members on Monday to protest, chanting, shame and resign.

GOLODRYGA: Protesters expressing frustration over what they say was the university's failure to adequately address Jane Doe's initial report to

Cornell campus police two years ago. Audio obtained by ABC News reveals new portions of a call after the alleged assault between Jane Doe and a

fraternity member.

Brynn Gingras has been closely following this development. What do we hear in this call, Brynn?

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So, Bianna and Zain, this all comes from ABC News first reporting it. It's a call between Jane

Doe and one of these fraternity brothers actually one that is listed as a defendant in her recently filed civil lawsuit. This just kind of shows what

is unearthing with this investigation, what hopefully the attorneys general will find in their investigation.

But I want to play part of that audio. According to ABC News, this was three weeks after the alleged incident happened in October of 2024. Take a

listen to this audio that was again from one of the fraternity brothers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm so sorry about all, like, the backlash you're getting from this, by the way.

Oh, dude, I'm -- I'm so sorry. You know, I -- I'm very like -- I -- I feel so bad for you, dude.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GINGRAS: Now, Jane Doe's attorney confirmed to us that she did start recording phone calls that she was having with some of the alleged members

who were part of this sexual assault incident.

To that were -- in that phone call, ABC News saying, this is what Jane Doe said, "I was completely and totally intoxicated and then given multiple

sedatives. And then I was surrounded by upwards of eight to 10 men. This is classified as a gang rape."

Now, take a listen to how he responded to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why? Wait, what's -- can I -- can I ask, like, what's -- what's the purpose for why you decided to call me?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GINGRAS: You could see he sort of shifts the tone of this conversation, wondering exactly why she is reaching out.

Of course, her attorney has said that she did reach out to fraternity members as she was somewhat processing the events that unfolded on that

night.

So, again, like I said, Zain and Bianna, we'll see if some of this comes up as part of that thorough investigation the attorneys general in New York

said that she is conducting.

GOLODRYGA: Brynn Gingras, thank you.

ASHER: All right. Let's bring in the criminal defense attorney and legal analyst, Elyse Hershon. Elyse, thank you so much for being with us.

I think my question to you, I mean there's so many different legal threads to untangle here, but if you have a situation whereby multiple people are

accused, how does criminal liability sort of differ, you know, for the principal participants versus those who may have been sort of peripherally

involved, so to speak?

ELYSE HERSHON, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Good afternoon. Thank you for having me.

So, essentially, they're each charged with something a little bit different. And each of them -- each individual is going to have or has

their own lawyer. And it may be that they're addressed separately, not as a group, because they're each accused of having a slightly different role in

what happened.

[12:10:09]

So, we're just getting bits and pieces of this through discovery in the civil case, and also through different media outlets, releasing certain

pieces of potential evidentiary value of pieces of information, but we really don't have anywhere near a complete picture as to what happened yet.

GOLODRYGA: We know that Jane Doe recorded these calls without those accusers' consent. New York allows one-party consent, but would that be

admissible in a courtroom?

HERSHON: That's a great question. It's a -- it's a sort of a complex analysis. So, number one is exactly right. New York is a one-party consent

state, meaning, the person that's recording, if they are a participant in the conversation, so if one person is recording a conversation between them

and one other person, that is not illegal.

However, I practice, I'm a trial attorney in Boston, Massachusetts. That is illegal in Massachusetts. And that would never come in or almost never come

in to a trial.

In New York, it could be admissible. The next step is, this is a conversation that happened outside of court. It's called hearsay. So,

hearsay is not generally admitted unless there's an exception.

What would be the purpose of the call? They're trying to show that one of the fraternity members who's purportedly on the call is trying to influence

what Jane Doe's memory is? Or is it Jane Doe trying to fix the narrative because she's ashamed that this got out and started to ruin her reputation?

So, there could be different purposes of it as long, as it's not for what is being said is the truth. So, essentially to show her state of mind, to

show the other person's state of mind, potentially to impeach or challenge someone's credibility. There are exceptions to hearsay, but it would be a

multi-step analysis and it would be a fight to get this in.

ASHER: From the perspective of, you know, protecting somebody who might be highly intoxicated, how does the law, I guess particularly in New York,

determine whether somebody is even capable of giving consent when you have drugs and alcohol involved and -- and the level of drugs in a person's

system may actually obviously impair their ability to give consent?

So, from the perspective of protecting somebody who might be intoxicated, how does the law define consent?

HERSHON: So, there's certainly a gap in New York rape law. And essentially what their law says is that if you are slipped a drug or you're given a

drug against your will and then you're taking advantage of, sexually, as a sexual assault, that's considered lack of consent.

But the law states, if it's a voluntary intoxication, meaning, if the person, the alleged victim, drinks, decides to drink voluntarily, they're

at a party, or they decide to participate in recreational drugs, they're at a get together, and then they get intoxicated and are not able to fully

consent, New York law says that's considered consent.

So, it's very antiquated. It's -- it's a huge gap in the law. Massachusetts is not like that. A lot of states are not like that. They define three

types of lack of consent. And someone who drinks on their own, that's not considered under the rape statute there.

GOLODRYGA: Can I ask you about the governor appointing Letitia James as a special prosecutor here investigating all of these allegations and events,

given that she had publicly on social media already posted her support publicly for Jane Doe, there are those that are saying that that could

taint her objectivity to this case and that's something that the defense, I believe, has already highlighted?

HERSHON: And as a defense attorney, I would point that out as well, but prosecutors are not usually impartial. You know, certainly, they're not

allowed to have a bias, you know, a particular bias to a certain protected class.

But in terms of being impartial, it's not necessarily a requirement. And in the cases that I work on, the prosecution is looking to build a case

against my client.

So, for the governor to appoint her to investigate this and she's already made a public announcement that she supports the victim, prosecutors

usually do support victims. They usually do investigate a case. They don't represent the victim. They represent the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

They represent the state of New York. But the victim is who they feel, I think, in practice that they represent, at least in action.

[12:15:02]

And, you know, appointing this person, the governor knew that she was going to do an investigation. She's going to push this to a grand jury. And it's

ultimately going to be up to those jurors in the grand jury to vote whether there's probable cause to charge these individuals.

GOLODRYGA: All right. Elyse Hershon, thank you so much for your analysis and legal expertise. Really appreciate it.

Well, a Chicago woman who was shot multiple times by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent last year is now suing the federal government.

ASHER: Yes, lawyers for Marimar Martinez says a claim by the Department of Homeland Security that she'd used her car as a weapon was not true. The

lawsuit also claims the agent who shot her kept firing even after Martinez had driven past him.

CNN's Omar Jimenez has the story. And a warning that you might find some of the images in this report disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARIMAR MARTINEZ, SHOT BY U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION AGENT: Since the beginning of my whole case, I was being called a domestic terrorist. I

was being charged. They wanted to take everything from me quick, quick in seconds.

I was still at the hospital and I was already being labeled as a threat. They didn't even know if I was alive or dead or if I was going to make it.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Almost a year to the day since Marimar Martinez was shot in Chicago by a Border Patrol agent

multiple times and lived. Now she's filing a federal civil lawsuit against the U.S. government.

And as part of the process, her legal team worked with the shooting reconstruction expert. They used scene photos, bullet trajectories and her

wounds to help determine where Agent Charles Exum was when he fired his weapon.

MICHAEL GALLAGHER, ATTORNEY FOR MARIMAR MARTINEZ: The only defense that they have is that he was in reasonable fear of his life, OK?

MARTINEZ: Mm-hmm.

GALLAGHER: And the only way he could be in reasonable fear of his life, if you were actually driving at him.

MARTINEZ: Driving at him.

GALLAGHER: And you're going to see that that's all (BLEEP).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at this.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): Some of their findings were presented at a press conference Monday. According to their analysis, the first three shots went

through the passenger side of the windshield toward Martinez.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is shot one. That is shot two, shot three.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): This would be Exum's point of view for the fourth shot as Martinez was driving away. The analysis of the fifth shot they

believe to be the most significant, first seen here from Martinez's perspective. And then that same shot from a different angle, along with the

real time video as presented by the attorneys.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've been struck. We've been struck.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get down.

(GUNSHOTS)

GALLAGHER: We talk about Renee Good, we talk about Alex Pretti, I mean, this is a U.S. law enforcement officer standing behind your vehicle,

shooting you as you're crouched forward over the steering wheel, passed him clearly, firing at you from the back of your car window.

MARTINEZ: It shows. It's heartbreaking because I don't really remember like -- like the street. I just remember like passing him and him -- him just

shooting at me. That's all I remember. But like now it's like, damn, is coming back.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): Martinez was initially charged with assaulting, resisting, and impeding federal officers as she was accused of ramming a

federal agent with her vehicle. She always maintained, it was the agent that rammed her. And a little over a month later, the government requested

to drop its own case.

And body camera video released months later appeared to show Border Patrol Agent Charles Exum turned the steering wheel into Martinez's vehicle before

opening fire.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Be advised, we've been struck. We've been struck.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get down.

(GUNSHOTS)

JIMENEZ (voice-over): When Agent Exum was previously asked in court whether he was concerned he could be violating use of force policy in this

incident, he responded, "Not in the slightest."

But Martinez and her attorneys don't just want civil remedies here.

CHRISTOPHER PARENTE, ATTORNEY FOR MARIMAR MARTINEZ: This stuff is unacceptable in any other time in American history. This officer would be

behind bars and there would have been a full prosecution by now. The fact that it has not happened yet is crazy, but it will happen. I'm -- I know

that he will be charged.

JIMENEZ: Is that what justice looks like to you, Marimar?

MARTINEZ: It does.

JIMENEZ: Yes. You want to see him charged?

MARTINEZ: Behind bars? Yes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ASHER: Omar Jimenez reporting there.

All right. Still to come on "One World," a former spy chief accused of spying. The arrest raising serious questions in Germany.

GOLODRYGA: And new signs that the Ebola epidemic in eastern Congo is making an impact across borders. We'll have the latest on the outbreak, which has

already infected more than 8,000 people.

ASHER: Plus, North Korean troops fighting for Russia face severe consequences if they're captured. CNN speaks to a defector about what's at

stake.

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[12:20:14]

ASHER: All right. We are keeping a close eye on protests in France as night falls there. It's about 6:00 or 7:00 p.m. It's early evening there in

Paris. These are live pictures where the protests, the biggest protests are happening right now.

Thousands of students, teachers, others have been taking to the streets to demand a lot of changes to the nation's education system. They're

protesting crowded classrooms, dilapidated buildings. Protesters have really blocked a lot of people from attending school. So, you have a lot of

schools across Paris and beyond that are closed for the day.

We'll continue to keep you up to speed in terms of what's happening on the ground there.

GOLODRYGA: Meantime, we're following another major story shocking Europe. Germany's former spy chief is being accused of betraying his own country's

secrets.

80-year-old August Hanning was arrested in southern Germany earlier on suspicion of treason and espionage. The federal prosecutor's office says it

strongly suspects that he passed state secrets to a foreign intelligence service.

ASHER: For more on this, let's bring in CNN's Nic Robertson who actually interviewed Hanning back in 2018. Obviously, the irony here isn't lost to

anyone. What more do we know, Nic?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes. And 2010 as well, I interviewed him back then because he was very much involved in the sort

of dealing with the rising terrorism, Islamist terrorism at that time facing Europe. And he was heavily involved in it, heavily involved in

conversations back then with other intelligence agencies, partly trying to track down Osama bin Laden, but -- but obviously keeping track of -- of

radical groups in Germany and across Europe working with Middle East partners.

That -- none of that explains what we're witnessing today. When I met him, he seemed very much like a -- a very buttoned up and -- and -- and if I can

say, archetypal intelligence official. But these -- these charges of treason are huge, that he has received up to 2,000 documents that he has

used potentially in part of his work as a consultant since he left the intelligence services.

He was the head the foreign services intelligence chief there, the BND, from 1998 to 2005. And then went off to -- on to have a top civil service

job in government handling again intelligence, but the nature of this is that he is being accused of with his former chief of staff, somebody

identified as Manfred D, who after Hanning retired, Manfred D continued in a high -- highly security vetted intelligence position that Manfred D was

able to pass documents to August Hanning, who we don't have details on which country, but the accusation is that Hanning was sharing this

information, political information with a foreign intelligence service.

[12:25:14]

Through his career, as -- as -- as will it be obvious to any intelligence official, he will have dealt with many other intelligence agencies and

absolutely know the cost of what he's being accused of today.

And apparently, this is where the -- this is where the prosecution is on this, this ties back to an event of an abduction of -- of the children of a

Hamburg, German Hamburg businesswoman from her former husband in Denmark in 2024.

And apparently. it was a result of that that led to investigators to unearth this information that now apparently puts August in the position of

being questioned about treason.

ASHER: All right. Nic Robertson, live for us there. Thank you for that.

GOLODRYGA: Well, earlier today, Kenya confirmed its first Ebola case and is now the third country to link -- with a link to a case. The epidemic in the

Democratic Republic of Congo was the first to report.

According to Kenya's Health Minister, the Kenyan citizen had been living in the DRC for seven years. Over the weekend, he boarded a flight to Nairobi's

International Airport and passed through health screenings there. He was later taken to Nairobi Hospital before passing away on Monday.

And right now, health authorities are working to trace passengers and crew who may have been in contact with him on the flight. We continue to follow

this story.

All right. Still to come on "One World," one of the coldest places on Earth is heating up on the world stage. In just a moment, we'll explain how the

Arctic Circle plays a major role in geopolitics.

Plus.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:30:06]

ASHER: All right. According to new intelligence, North Korean troops fighting for Russia have been ordered to kill themselves if they're

captured.

GOLODRYGA: North Korea has been sending troops to aid Russia in the war, although little is known about their presence there. CNN's Will Ripley

reports on what's at stake for those servicemen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): South Korean intelligence says North Korean troops have explicit orders to kill themselves to avoid

capture. They say at least one soldier even shouted General Kim Jong Un before pulling a grenade.

THAE YONG HO, FORMER SENIOR NORTH KOREAN DIPLOMAT: All the people in North Korea are brainwashed.

RIPLEY (voice-over): One of Pyongyang's highest-profile defector says when North Korean soldiers die fighting for Russia, their leader praises them as

heroes. Doors open for the soldiers' grieving families. Brand-new apartments on a special street in Pyongyang. Their children promised places

in elite revolutionary schools, a path to privileged jobs.

YONG HO: The social status of your family would be upgraded to a kind of, you know, elite or ruling class. Your house, your -- your parents would be

moved from countryside, a very remote area, to the capital of North Korea, Pyongyang.

RIPLEY: But North Korea's former deputy U.K. Ambassador, Thae Yong Ho, says if a soldier is captured alive, like these two carried out of Russia's

Kursk region last year, the consequences can be reversed.

YONG HO: There would be a very heavy punishment. Their social status would be downgraded.

RIPLEY (voice-over): Of the thousands of North Koreans sent to fight for Russia, only two are known to have been captured alive. In Ukrainian

captivity with their identities concealed, they told CNN affiliate MBC, "I don't know if my mom is alive. I worry she could be in trouble because of

me. If I had a hand grenade, I could have killed myself and not become a POW."

Seoul's National Intelligence Service says they decided to go to South Korea, arriving by their own freewill earlier this month.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: These guys are not easy to capture alive.

RIPLEY (voice-over): South Korea was shocked when Ukraine's president revealed the transfer at the U.N. Seoul wanted to keep it secret, in part

to protect the soldiers and their families, but Ukraine says there was no confidentiality agreement.

YONG HO: I am protected by South Korean border guards 24 hours.

RIPLEY (voice-over): Thae defected with his wife and two sons. I met the brother and sister he left behind in Pyongyang. In what they called a

voluntary interview, they disowned him.

RIPLEY: In South Korea, Thae said that he did this to break the slavery chain.

"One hundred percent evil propaganda," his sister told me. Thae feared his family was being forced to speak against him.

His brother said, "If I don't wash this sin away by myself, my sons and future generations will have to work harder to pay for this."

Now, Thae says Ukraine should target North Korean troops with leaflets and loudspeakers, telling them they don't have to die.

YONG HO: They are very young, in early 20s. They have a very bright future.

RIPLEY (voice-over): But Ukraine says thousands more may soon be headed to battle in the name of their leader.

Will Ripley, CNN, Taipei.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ASHER: All right. Trade routes, resources and military dominance. Is the Arctic the next great battleground for global power? As polar ice melts,

new routes are beginning to open up to shipping.

CNN's contributor Rana Foroohar argues the Arctic could become the most consequential geopolitical theater in the world.

GOLODRYGA: And time now for The Exchange. Rana Foroohar joins us to discuss her new book, "Sea Change: America's New Great Game in the Arctic Circle."

Rana, we always have you on, thankfully, to talk about whatever economic, business news of the day, but it is such a treat to have you on to talk

about this very important topic and something that you've been researching for a while now.

You traveled across the Arctic for this book. What did you see that convinced you that this is the next struggle for global power and how it

will play out?

RANA FOROOHAR, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, thank you so much, Bianna, for having me. Really glad to be here.

You know, there are so many things, and I would start with climate change. Climate is one of the main reasons that we care about the Arctic right now.

When it was frozen solid, you couldn't really do much there.

Now, ice -- icebergs are melting and that's opening up new sea pathways. China actually just launched a weekly transpolar route a few weeks ago.

Russia is shipping record amounts of gas through the -- through the northern sea route, which it has militarized and claims largely as its own

territory.

[12:35:00]

This is coming at a time when other geopolitical choke points, the Strait of Hormuz, the Suez Canal, the Panama Canal, are all becoming harder to get

through.

So, this is America's backyard. And you don't really realize it. But, you know, when I was on the one Coast Guard icebreaker in the Arctic, the

Healy, for a two-week tour up into the Arctic Circle, you look at maps that -- that show the world from the top down and you suddenly see, wow,

Russia's a much bigger part of things here, Canada's important, the U.S. has, you know, skin in the game with Alaska.

But this is something that is happening, this new hunt for resources, hunt for trade and securitization and intelligence operations is happening in

America's backyard. And so it's going to become a much bigger part of security in the U.S., I think.

ASHER: It's interesting because you talk about sort of Russia's ambitions in the Arctic and also China as well.

You know, has the U.S. been relatively slow to understand the strategic importance of the Arctic? And if so, why?

FOROOHAR: A hundred percent and I would put that down to two things. One, business has not been focused on the area. You know, we've had this kind of

just-in-time way of moving things around the world.

But, you know, the war in Ukraine, the war in Iran. COVID have taught us that there are chokepoints and you need to have different ways of getting

goods to, you know, to places that you want them. That's why the Arctic's become important.

But also, the -- you remember the Donroe Doctrine, which was something that was referenced when Donald Trump came into power for the second time. It's

a -- it's a, you know, hearkening back to James Monroe who said, look, we're not concerned with the entire world. We want to look at what's

happening in our own backyard.

And this is something that the Trump administration has made clear. It knows China is going to have influence in the South China seas and Asia. It

knows that Europe is its own, you know, has its own sphere of power, but the U.S. is going to look after the northern and western hemispheres. He

said that a number of times early in the administration. And so the Arctic becomes way more important when you were looking at that.

Also, going back to climate, I think there's going to be migration further north, as the years go by. And I just think that, you know, when you look

at how geostrategy is moving, this is an area you're seeing more military exercises.

You know, I -- when I was on the boat, we actually saw a Russian ship. It was very interesting. You realize suddenly the Bering Strait is narrow and

the U.S. and Russia are a lot closer than you think.

And if you assume that Russia is really as I do a vassal nation of China, then you have to think this is a new theater for a modern great game

between the U.S. and China.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. Because under that frozen water or previously frozen water and penetrable water and ice, are rich resources, rare earths minerals, all

this that we've heard from President Trump and his quest for Greenland.

But what would success for the -- in the Arctic look like, Rana, for the people who live there as opposed to the countries that are trying to gain

dominance over this region from an economic perspective?

FOROOHAR: Well, Bianna, I'm really glad you brought up Greenland. You know, in this, as in so many things, I would argue that President Trump has kind

of come at an important issue, but perhaps in a wrong-headed way.

Greenland matters. And Greenland is a country that is at the frontlines of NATO security. It has been since the 1960s, really. And its people need

infrastructure. They need healthcare. They -- they need resources.

If Greenland were to, at any point, become independent from Denmark, which is something that Greenlanders have talked about over the years, then you

might see them looking to various countries, the U.S., Canada, European nations, but also China to say, who can help us? Who can build?

And if you look again at what China has done through the One Belt, One Road pathway, and actually now through a new Polar Silk Road that they want to

build, they're saying, sure, we'll step up. We will -- we will help build infrastructure. We will support countries that have resources.

The U.S. needs to really get wise about these things. And alienating the Danes and the Europeans by saying, we're going to take over Greenland, was

not the way to do it. I would argue that working with allies, you know, Scandinavian and Nordic nations, Canada, who, you know, that's a major own

goal that the administration has alienated the Canadians, that's the way forward in an area that is going to become so much more important

geostrategically.

ASHER: How important is America's shipbuilding capacity in all of this? I mean, you've talked about this idea of ships being the new chips. It's

interesting that America's shipbuilding capacity has been sort of left to decline at a time when, as you're -- as you're talking about, maritime

power is now strategically that much more important.

FOROOHAR: Yes, absolutely. And the truth is it's always been important. And if you look back in the history of great empires, there's always been an

interconnection between maritime power commercial power and military power.

In the 1970s, the U.S. was a major maritime power. We decided to let that industry go. It was sort of part of the cheap goods, cheap capital bargain

between the U.S. and China.

At the same time, China was actually, in the last 20 years or so, making maritime a strategic industry, something that is specifically under state

control. And that's part of ring-fencing global commerce, global logistics.

[12:40:09]

The Chinese have 5,500 ocean-going vessels. America has, you know, if you're being generous, a little under 200. That doesn't look good for the

U.S., particularly when a lot of military supply is actually carried on commercial vessels.

So, you have to think about the world as being somewhat more regionalized. Countries need to think about where they're going to get emergency

capacity, how they're going to secure supply chains, and maritime is very, very important to that.

GOLODRYGA: All right. Rana Foroohar, fascinating read. Thank you so much for bringing it to us. Appreciate it.

ASHER: Thank you, Rana.

FOROOHAR: Thank you.

ASHER: All right. Drivers battled for bragging rights at Philadelphia's inaugural Parallel Parking Championship event. The event drew big crowds.

This is hilarious. I can't even continue. This is so funny.

Who looked on as contestants maneuvered their vehicles into very tight spaces. Nine hundred applications were whittled down to just 15 for the

actual contest. That is according to -- can you do that, Bianna?

GOLODRYGA: My cousin Igor can. I should have told him about this.

ASHER: I just give up, normally. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADAM WODKA, PHILADELPHIA PARALLEL PARKING ASSOCIATION COMMISSIONER: We had 15, 14 here compete. They were chosen by going through all of those

applications by myself and the incredible team of the PPPA board.

And the crowd brought it, so I'm just so happy. Like the energy was great. We got so lucky with the weather. Super, super happy about how it went.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOLODRYGA: I get there's a parallel parking association. Contestants were ranked across three challenges, a one-shot round, a tight squeeze event,

and then an under duress, that's usually me, round that tested parking abilities with distractions. No backup cameras were allowed.

And finally --

ASHER: No beep, beep, beep?

GOLODRYGA: Yes. Finally --

ASHER: No beep, beep, beep?

GOLODRYGA: No -- no cameras, Zain. Just your neck.

ASHER: No sensors? Oh, my gosh.

GOLODRYGA: You turn your neck around. You turn the music down and you focus. Till finally.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARIO ZUCCA AKA "ONE-SHOT MAR", CONTEST WINNER: When they announced it, I saw it on social media. A bunch of friends shared it with me because they

know that I love to parallel park and pride myself on it.

So, yes, I -- I have submitted an entry like immediately the day out.

My car is a 2012 Mazda 3, old school car, no backup camera, no assist or anything. And I think that ended up helping me because I've always been

used to just craning my neck and looking back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ASHER: Did he -- did he -- did he say everyone knows I love to parallel park?

GOLODRYGA: Yes.

ASHER: OK. According to local reports, the grand prize was $76 to cover the next potential parking ticket, a trophy resembling a piece of the curb,

and, of course, the title, best parallel parker in the city of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia.

GOLODRYGA: I love this story so much. All right. Congratulations.

That does it for "One World." I'm Bianna Golodryga.

ASHER: I'm Zain Asher. Thank you so much for watching. She'll be back in about 15 minutes with "Amanpour." African Voices, though, is up next.

GOLODRYGA: I'll be working on my parallel parking.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:45:00]

(AFRICAN VOICES)

[13:00:00]

END