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Connect the World
Taliban Gaining New Momentum as U.S. Forces Leave; U.S. Troops Pull Out of Bagram Air Base; U.N. Security Council Meets on Ethiopia Crisis; Rescue Operations Resume Amid Safety Concerns; Rising European Anti- Semitism Blamed on Lockdowns; "Illuminarium" Creates Virtual Safari Experience, Far From Africa. Aired 11a-12p ET
Aired July 02, 2021 - 11:00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[11:00:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN, Atlanta. This is "Connect the World".
LYNDA KINKADE, CNN HOST, CONNECT THE WORLD: Welcome back to "Connect the World". I'm Lynda Kincaid filling in for my colleague Becky Anderson, good
to have you with us.
Where the United States has left the main command post on it's of its war on terror. The Afghan military is now in charge of the Bagram Air Base,
which is North of Kabul. The handover happened overnight as U.S. forces prepared to leave after nearly 20 years in the country.
Bagram was the center of operations is America and its allies hold the Taliban and Al Qaeda following the September 11th terror attacks. Well, our
U.S. troops are winding down their presence in the country and could be completely gone within days.
Meantime, the Taliban are making resurgence, fueling fears of a new war. And there are fears about what comes next for Afghanistan? CNN's Anna Coren
has more on the precarious moment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANNA COREN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): --of the U.S. military transformed this dusty airstrip into a miniature city and the
nucleus of America's longest war. Ultimately, that might be able to not transform Afghanistan.
Friday morning nearly 20 years after U.S. soldiers captured Bagram Airbase as a launch pad for the war on terror. The last U.S. servicemen and women
departed Afghanistan. A nation not left strong, prosperous or secure despite the sacrifice of more than 2400 American lives, and over 100,000
Afghan civilians according to the United Nations.
Many of those fallen soldiers repatriated from these runways. Now in the position of Afghan government forces as they continue their lonely fight
with the Taliban, they are the only ones who will consider Friday's U.S. departure of victory.
GEN. SCOTT MILLER, COMMANDER, U.S. FORCES IN AFGHANISTAN: The security situation is not good right now. And that's something that's recognized by
the Afghan security forces and they're making the appropriate adjustments as we move forward.
COREN (voice over): Taliban fighters have seized back swathes of the country Americans fought and died to liberate after once boasting a force
of over 100,000 in Afghanistan, they will remain as few as 600 U.S. troops here to provide security for American diplomats.
NED PRICE, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: We intend to maintain a diplomatic presence in Kabul. That is something that is important to us,
given our enduring desire to have a continued partnership with the Afghan government and crucially, with the Afghan people.
COREN (voice over): There forever war will continue as Joe Biden wades out of the mire. Mire trapped his predecessors in a brutal and bloody
stalemate. Bush, Obama and Trump, each bouncing in and out of Bagram, pledging Afghanistan will never be a haven for terrorists, as it was when
Al-Qaeda plotted the tragedy of 9/11.
Those terrorists long since routed out and destroyed now no guarantee that violent extremists won't reenter the vacuum left by the United States, as
the last American soldiers out of Afghanistan returned to a nation that has long waited to welcome them home. Anna Coren, CNN, Kabul.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KINKADE: We will hear from Anna a little later in the show. But first I want to bring in Fawzia Koofi. She is a former member of the Afghan
Parliament and a member of the government team negotiating with the Taliban. She joins us now from Doha, Qatar, good to have you with us.
FAWZIA KOOFI, AFGHAN PEACE NEGOTIATOR: Thank you.
KINKADE: I want to ask you and take you back to when the U.S. first began its operation in Afghanistan. We have some sound from the then President
George W. Bush, talking about taking on the Taliban. Let's just take a listen for our viewers.
I'm told we don't have that sound right now. But he was talking about the Taliban and how the Taliban would take - would pay a price for what they
had done? In terms of your talks in negotiating with the Taliban where things currently stand?
KOOFI: Well, I can see history repeating itself in my lifetime. In the negotiation table, we did not really have much progress as expected.
[11:05:00]
KOOFI: I think the least the U.S. could do is to postpone the announcement for their complete withdrawal from Afghanistan, until a peace agreement was
reached between the two sides. That could have been a window of hope for the future.
Now, given the situation very hectic, and predictable, I can see that, you know, when the Soviets withdraw from Afghanistan, almost the same situation
is happening.
KINKADE: So 20 years after the U.S. moved into Afghanistan, you think we could see a complete reversal, potentially, situation that might be worse.
KOOFI: I think yes. As I said before, you know, the regional players are now getting more relevant and more active to play their politics in
Afghanistan. As Taliban are getting more ground, I can see that the communities are re arming themselves to protect their communities.
In some villages, and in some communities, I'm being told through my connections in Afghanistan, while we are in Doha negotiating, that they
repeat the same things that they were doing before. In terms of their attitudes and behaviors towards the public towards the woman, I'm being
told that they do not allow a woman to go to hospitals without a male company.
And it's the same thing that we have actually gone through this when they were in power. So there are signs when you look at the region, there are
signs of the regional powers reshaping themselves to influence of course, the same situation when it comes to communities arming and militias to
arming themselves to protect.
And in Kabul I think the politicians are kind of bickering, they are talking about unity and consensus. But that is just in words not in
practice. I think a lot of what is going on in Afghanistan also depends on the fact that we have shortages in terms of good governance.
KINKADE: I'm told we now have that sound from the Former U.S. President George W. Bush; I just want to play that for our viewers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, 43RD U.S. PRESIDENT: Now, the Taliban will pay a price. By destroying camps and disrupting communications, we will make it more
difficult for the terror network to train new recruits and coordinate their evil plans.
At the same time, the oppressed people of Afghanistan will know the generosity of America and our allies. As we strike military targets, we
will also drop food, medicine and supplies to the starving and suffering men and women and children of Afghanistan.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KINKADE: Fawzia, given that the Taliban is now making gains as the U.S. leaves. What exactly has the U.S. achieved during this past 20 years?
KOOFI: Many, many achievements in Afghanistan, not only with the presence of U.S., but of course, with the support of the international community led
by the United States, but also with the resilience and the strength of the people of Afghanistan.
I think you start from, you know, the freedom of speech, the very dynamic media, we have to woman's education and to above all this transformation
that has happened, the generation transformation.
Yes, you we can talk about the number of buildings that are built schools that are built, these are things that you can see as a benchmarks, but the
things that the world does not see any kind of tend to forget or abandon Afghanistan is the transformation that we have seen the transformation
that, you know, the people of Afghanistan.
The credit goes to them in terms of their interest, their support, their vocal voice, their participation in promoting and protecting their
principles of democracy. Participating in the election, we must remember that people actually put their lives at risk when they were participating
in the election.
I remember how people's fingers were cut when they were participating in the election for voting for using the ink in their fingers. So those common
kinds of struggles that we have worked very, very long way with our international community are potentially at risk.
[11:10:00]
KINKADE: It certainly sounds that way because obviously the Taliban is a group that's notorious for its treatment of women. And you mentioned a few
things earlier, in terms of not allowing a woman to leave the house without a male escort, and not allowing girls to be educated after the age of
eight, forcing teenage girls into marriage. What do you fear could happen for women like yourself as the Taliban gains more territory?
KOOFI: Women have been in the forefront of, you know, demonstrating at the front and more prosperous and democratic Afghanistan. They have been very
vocal with our international allies in protecting as I stated before, and progressing the common principles of living in peace and in harmony and
dignified life, with ourselves and with the world.
As they have been in the forefront we know that they there were enormous attack and they continue to be enormous attack against their lives. They
have also been demoralized, in terms of pressurizing them to stay home.
They are the main target, basically, when it comes to security as the situation becomes more military. Women are the main losers of this, the
question, the concern I have is, as somebody who have spent all my life in Afghanistan, my family, my daughters, my children are back home, while I'm
talking here, that how are we connect those who are actually negotiating in the in the negotiation table?
And they have been giving statements that you know, they allow a woman to go to school, they allow a woman to go to work, they respect, you know, the
woman's right within Islamic principles, to those who are actually fighting on the ground.
And we see that there are there are reports that they do not respect some of these things that the Taliban in the political office claim. So I think
people of Afghanistan expect more bold steps from Taliban to ensure that they're not going to take Afghanistan to zero location.
KINKADE: We also heard quite recently, from U.S. intelligence, who painted a picture, a pretty dire situation that six months after the U.S. withdraws
the Afghan government could fall. Talk to us about your fears, do you think that could happen?
KOOFI: Well, honestly, I think even if the potential for keeping the government and keeping the institutions were there, with such reports, and
especially making it public and demoralizing the public, and especially our security institutions, which are already, you know, struggling to regain
their morale.
I don't think this was a good idea to publicize such a report. I think the situation will continue to become more chaos in terms of, you know, war,
because both sides would probably try to gain more to have more stake in the negotiation table, to have more say, to have more share in the
negotiation table.
So even if we come to a political agreement, I think that will be on the basis of who got more power on the ground? Who has more control of the
territory on the ground? So I think when it comes to complete collapse, I don't think this is going to happen.
I think people will stick to protecting their communities, protecting their institutions. This is something we have to do. We cannot afford to see
Afghanistan lose once again. We lose Afghanistan, once again to international extremism.
I think the one thing that the major mistake over the past 20 years was that we focus so much on military strategy in Afghanistan. When I say we, I
mean the international community and our allies.
We forgot about the region and how the region actually plays in terms of growth of that military extremism. We did not really have much in terms of
control of those - their curricula, they continue to produce those military extremist groups and in a way or the other they are going to threaten the
world's security.
Afghanistan and their people are in the forefront of this war. But in the large context, I think the whole global community will be addressed if the
situation continues as it is, and we keep--
KINKADE: Absolutely--
KOOFI: --the world keeps watching instead of doing much.
KINKADE: Well, we wish you all the best Fawzia Koofi good luck as you continue to talk with the Taliban and hopefully things improve for the
people of Afghanistan thanks so much.
We heard from CNN's Anna Coren a few moments ago earlier, she interviewed the man leading the Afghan peace talks, Dr. Abdullah Abdullah; take a
listen to what he told her.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COREN (on camera): Dr. Abdullah, how can you guarantee that Afghanistan will not be a safe haven for terrorists in the future?
[11:15:00]
ABDULLAH ABDULLAH, AFGHAN HIGH COUNCIL FOR NATIONAL RECONCILIATION: I don't think that there is a guarantee. And there also Taliban are failed. They
promised that they will de link with Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. We don't have many signs of that. So that's the danger for us, as well as
for the region and beyond.
COREN (on camera): A U.S. intelligence report said the Afghan government could fall within six months once U.S. troops withdraw. Do you see the
Taliban one day toppling the Afghan government?
ABDULLAH: No. Inshallah, that may be the thinking or thinking in parts of Taliban movement. But this will not happen.
COREN (on camera): You are obviously in charge of the peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban. You've said yourself that they've
made no progress. What is the latest?
ABDULLAH: Very little progress, very slow pace. And look at the urgency of the situation. Look at what is going on in the country, and the
opportunities that we miss, as a result of the continuation of the war.
COREN (on camera): What do you think the past 20 years America's longest war has achieved for Afghanistan?
ABDULLAH: Most part of Afghanistan was under the Taliban control. Al Qaeda was freelancing, Osama Bin Laden was planning Washington and in New York
from Afghanistan. That part, of course, some challenges remain.
The situation of women in Afghanistan so freedoms, freedom of speech, awareness of the people about their rights it's very different Afghanistan
today.
COREN (on camera): We've been speaking to so many Afghans who now just want to leave the country with the deteriorating security situation. What is
your message to these people these people who were perhaps the future of this country.
ABDULLAH: Our country, our people are going through very, very difficult times. The world has supported us and they will continue to support but
it's only as who can save it. Those who believe in military takeover take responsibility for the continuation of the misery of the people suffering
of the people. And they will not have their ideas materialized.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KINKADE: That's Abdullah Abdullah they're talking to our Anna Coren. Well, as the U.S. pulls out of the conflict in Afghanistan is reengaging with
Taiwan, Washington restarted trade talks with Taipei this week, despite Beijing's objections.
They had been on hold for five years but resumed after a conversation between the U.S. Trade Representative and a Taiwanese Minister earlier this
month. Well, on Thursday, China celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party and President Xi Jinping vowed to "Utterly defeat
Taiwan independence". As our Will Ripley reports that not only means intimidating the island with its military, but also online, according to
Taipei. Will Ripley reports.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Prepare for war, the menacing message of Mainland Chinese propaganda aimed at the islands of
Taiwan. Military intimidation in real time 28 Chinese warplanes entered Taiwan's air defense identification zone.
Taiwan calls it the largest air incursion ever recorded. In this exclusive interview, the Taiwan's Foreign Minister Joseph Wu tells CNN China is
engaging in psychological warfare.
JOSEPH WU, FOREIGN MINISTER OF TAIWAN: They want to shape - people's cognition, that Taiwan is very dangerous and Taiwan cannot do without
China.
RIPLEY (voice over): More than 23 million people caught in the crossfire of battle between Beijing and Taipei of fight for their hearts and minds. I'm
flying to the front lines across the Taiwan Strait to the small island of Kinmen more than 200 miles from the Taiwanese Capital, just six miles from
Mainland China.
Kinmen is the only place in Taiwan that saw actual combat during China's Civil War ending in 1949 many buildings bears the scars. The fighting,
ferocious nationalist forces fended off communist troops, effectively shielding Taiwan's main island, warding off a Chinese invasion.
Kinmen people often say only those who experienced war can understand its horror. We have the right to say loudly we want peace. Longtime tour guide,
Robin Young takes me underground to one of the islands massive military bunkers once top secret now abandoned. He also shows me how China's
relentless artillery barrage left the island with mountains of old shells.
[11:20:00]
RIPLEY (on camera): When the battle ended, the shells kept flying. Local historians say half a million of these landed on Kinmen between 1958 and
1978. But this was not artillery. These shells were full of communist propaganda.
RIPLEY (voice over): The beginning of what experts call a decade's long disinformation war, a war supercharged by social media.
RIPLEY (on camera): How dangerous is disinformation.
PUMA SHEN, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF CRIMINOLOGY, NATIONAL TAIPEI UNIVERSITY: The danger here is that because I've been the main goal of all this
disinformation in campaign is to create chaos and create distrust.
RIPLEY (on camera): Is China doing this exact same thing in the United States?
SHEN: Yes, definitely and also in Australia, Canada, also Europe.
RIPLEY (voice over): Beijing denies disinformation warfare. China's Taiwan Affairs Office has previously called Taipei's accusations, imaginary.
Experts say the threat goes well beyond disinformation. The Taiwanese government says its hit by 20 million cyber attacks every month. Targets
include defense, computer systems, finance, communications, and even critical infrastructure.
SHEN: In information security, we believe World War III will happen over the internet.
RIPLEY (voice over): Basically, every aspect of our life from which we rely on computers could immediately be turned off.
SHEN: Yes.
RIPLEY (voice over): Taiwan's major gas company CPC was hit by a major malware attack, a ransomware attack on the colonial pipeline, which U.S.
Intel believes came from Russia paralyzed the U.S. East Coast.
SHEN: Just imagine what just happened in United States you could do nothing.
RIPLEY (on camera): Cyber is a bigger threat than nuclear weapons.
SHEN: Yes, from my point of view, because it is happening every day.
RIPLEY (voice over): Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen named cyber attacks a matter of national security. Back on Kinmen Island, this 30 foot
loudspeaker spent decades blasting anti communist propaganda to the mainland, a supersized reminder of how much things have changed. Will
Ripley, CNN, Kinmen Taiwan.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KINKADE: Thanks to our Will Ripley there. Well, so far the Chinese government has not commented on the accusations of cyber warfare in that
piece. We've requested a response from China's Taiwan Affairs Office and Minister for Foreign Affairs but haven't yet heard back.
Well, up next to the United Nations Security Council finally meets to talk about the tragedy that's been unfolding for months in Tigray. Will it help
stop the suffering we'll have a live report just ahead? And later why rescue workers temporarily stopped searching the site of that deadly
building collapse in Florida?
And a terrifying sight in Western Canada scorching temperatures, droughts and wildfires forced more than 1000 people to make a quick escape where
climate change fits into the picture we'll have that angle coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:25:00]
KINKADE: Welcome back. The crisis in Tigray in high level diplomacy, all eyes on the UN Security Council today, and that is because it's holding an
open meeting on this war ravaged part of Northern Ethiopia.
Their discussion in the coming hours may have been spurred at least in part by a CNN investigation exposing the horror of a massacre by Ethiopian
soldiers in Tigray's mountains. It follows months of a brutal civil war with the UN is being careful to point out that even after the week's
unilateral ceasefire, the situation in Northern Ethiopia remains "Extremely fluid and unpredictable".
It's the catastrophic situation for the people of Tigray, hundreds of thousands now facing famine conditions. CNN's Larry Madowo is tracking the
story for us from Nairobi in neighboring Kenya, and joins us now live. Just bring us up to speed Larry, without what we are expecting from the UN
Security Council and what's been said so far?
LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Lynda, it will be remarkable if anything substantive comes out of this public UN Security Council meeting because
this only happened after some sustained pressure from the U.S. from the UK and from Ireland and with support from other countries like France.
It's also expected that Russia and China and possibly African countries will be opposed to any sort of public statement any strong indictment of
the Ethiopian government or indeed of any of the other actors involved in this conflict.
So while those in Tigray are hoping that this really helps put the pressure on all the partners or the parties, rather to the conference to come to a
table, little elves may come out of it beyond a statement if the past is anything to go by, because this conflict has been raging for eight months,
and all we have seen is rounds and rounds of condemnation from all international actors.
In the meantime, thousands of people have died in Tigray in the North of Ethiopia, more than 1.7 million people are displaced and the World Food
Programme saying today that there are catastrophic food conditions there. More than 250,000 people are in famine conditions. And this could be
getting worse, as long as humanitarian actors don't have access to Tigray?
Where right now since Monday, the European military declared a unilateral ceasefire and pulled out but there is still no internet connectivity, there
is no phone connectivity, there is no electricity, and most roads are still closed to the humanitarian actors that need to get to the people that need
it.
KINKADE: And yet, Larry, the Ethiopian government continues to defend its actions take us through its reaction and response today.
MADOWO: The European government considers the Tigrayan fighters to be terrorists, and that they've been so declared by the national government.
And they've been waging this operation in Tigray that they call a law enforcement operation even though the government of Ethiopia and its
Eritrean partners have been accused of atrocities, including ethnic cleansing.
There have been accusations of atrocities to be fair on all sides of rape, and starvation as weapons of war. And it's remarkable that this is
happening for the government of Prime Minister Abby Ahmad, who only two years ago won the Nobel Peace Prize because he's a reformist, he ended the
war with Eritrea.
And now the Eritrean army is supporting his operation in Tigray and when he wins the election that is likely to be that he won last week's election and
is declared president and has that is declared prime minister rather and has that popular mandate, then he really has to deal with conflict, which
is so far has considered a law enforcement operation that will be quickly done, and he's essentially declared victory.
KINKADE: Larry Madowo for us in Nairobi, thank you. Well, almost a year after an explosion devastated Beirut's port judge will begin questioning
high profile Lebanese officials for their possible role in the tragedy. The explosion left hundreds dead and thousands injured crippling much of the
city.
Caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diaz is among those who is expected to be interrogated, along with the General Chief, Security Chief and the Former
Head of the Army. The explosion happened in a warehouse where more than 2700 metric tons of ammonium nitrate had been stored since 2013. It's not
known what triggered the explosion?
Well, still to come half the building fell the other half needs to come down. We'll show you how rescue operations in Florida are being affected by
the portions of the condo that is still standing.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:30:00]
KINKADE: Welcome back. Rescue operations have resumed at the side of that building collapse in Florida. Work was temporarily halted Thursday amid
concerns that the site was unsafe, and that portions of the building that had not fallen might be in danger of falling.
The officials are trying to figure out how to bring the rest of the building down without damaging the rescue area. There are still 145 people
unaccounted for after Thursday's collapse. Well, our Brian Todd is in Surfside, Florida for more on all of this. Brian, talk to us about the
fears that the building that still stands could actually collapse.
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Lynda, I'm going to show you exactly what is kind of fueling those fears. We have basically really good access here, the
building next door to this area that collapse here. And we have a view of the rubble of the collapse building over here over my right shoulder.
Our photojournalists - is going to kind of take you in, in a little bit closer here. And Jose can come out and kind of just zoom in to look at that
you can see where the building was sheared off in the collapse.
And you know I can illustrate for you Lynda, kind of what the concerns are. This is part of the reason why they did a pause in the rescue operation
yesterday because they said, there were shifts in the rubble, some columns, or at least one column shifted several inches.
And they said that column was a hanging column. Now, I just spoke to a structural engineer who has been hired to investigate this whole thing he
got up here on the balcony with me, and he looked at this, he is not sure if that column that you see there, you see that large column hanging.
He's not sure if that hanging column is the one that they described. But it certainly looks like it. That's a large column. And they don't know how
stable that is. They think that it could pose a danger or it may not.
It really depends on what it's hanging from how many bars are supporting it, you know, at the point where it's kind of attached there. But that
could be something that pose - is posing a danger because they did speak yesterday about a hanging column that had shifted.
And that was one of the reasons that they called off the rescue operation for several hours, and then resumed it. So there you see that's a potential
danger there. One of the things that the structural engineer told me a short time ago, he is concerned about the tropical storm that is coming, it
could hit Sunday, it could hit Monday, tropical storm, Elsa is coming this way.
He says it all depends on the wind strength in what way the direct - what direction the wind is coming from, whether it's going to kind of come
straight in and affect this building and maybe just toss some debris and some other things off that building and onto the rescuers.
That's a key concern right now, it really could complicate this. It could even bring down that column that we just showed you, depending on the wind
strength, depending on how strongly that column is kind of more to the building at this point.
So this tropical storm coming in the next couple of days Lynda is a big complication. Jose can maybe train you in here on the rescuers; we just
talked about the rescuers with a structural engineer.
He said, look, if you look at what they're doing down there, they're taking buckets, little by little just buckets, they're just kind of digging and
then tossing the buckets into a larger cart. Each of those buckets could have some clues, some evidence.
[11:35:00]
TODD: But this is part of the process of trying to find people underneath this rubble looking how painstaking it is. They have several people working
there, some clues, some evidence, but this is part of the process of trying to find people underneath this rubble, looking how painstaking it is.
They have several people working there. He even pointed out to me, he goes, these guys could be in some danger now, because we just don't know at this
point how much of this other structure that is remaining here is stable. So this is something, Lynda that they are really monitoring now. And you can
see what can cause their concern.
KINKADE: Yes, absolutely incredible position you and the cameraman there right now to give us that sort of perspective. I want to ask you also Brian
about the integrity of the building in the lead up to this collapse, because it seems every single day, we hear about some of the thing with the
building that was overlooked or dismissed.
And most recently, we're hearing about some repairs that the pool needed in 2020. Last year that weren't done. What more can you tell us?
TODD: Well, Lynda, you know, CNN and we have a great team of people digging up some of these documents and letters and your minutes for meetings, which
illustrate that clearly, at least as far back as 2018, the fall of 2018, when a structural engineer Frank Morabito consultants came here and did an
assessment of this building, and said that there was significant structural damage.
There were opportunities to address it then, there were opportunities to address it, you know, for the next couple of years. And the problems were
pointed out in 2019 and in 2020.
And you had members of the Board of Directors of this condo association resigned, because these things were not being addressed. That's kind of the
some of what we have been able to put together here.
Now, the key question is those structural problems that were cited in Frank Morabito's report and in subsequent reports, and problems reported by
residents, cracks in the garage, water leaking into the garage, were those that trigger possible triggers for this?
That's the key question that we still don't know the answer to. All those problems that were outlined in those reports, the problems reported by
residents, the pictures that you've been seeing, were those the trigger? That's what we don't know.
And the structural engineer who I just talked to said, everybody wants that - right now. We don't know, we may not know this for many, many months,
because it's going to take them.
Look, he said, once they get this cleared off and they find the bodies that they're going to find and everything else that they need to try to find
immediately, then they've got to go in and do a more thorough excavation, and then really kind of look at it with that microscope to see other points
of possible failure. So people have to be patient. We're not going to get answers to this right away.
KINKADE: No, it certainly are, but as you say, the great scene and team behind this. We are getting more and more information every single day.
Thanks so much, Brian Todd, we'll leave it there for now. I appreciate it.
Whether it's more intense Harkins in coastal communities or deadly heat wave in the Pacific Northwest, the climate crisis is now affecting global
weather in dangerous ways. And we are seeing this in western parts of the United States as well as Canada with temperatures that are literally off
the charts.
One village in British Columbia, Canada hit 49 degrees Celsius this week, the highest temperature ever recorded in Canada, more than 200 people have
died from scorching temperatures. And that heat is also fueling wildfires and causing extreme drought conditions.
Elizabeth Wolkovich is in the midst of those searing temperatures. She is a Professor of Conservation and Forestry at the University of British
Columbia and joins us now from Vancouver. Thanks for being with us.
ELIZABETH WOLKOVICH, PROFESSOR, CONSERVATION AND FORESTRY, UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA: Happy to be here.
KINKADE: I want to ask you about the temperatures you're seeing right now where you are because before Sunday, temperatures in Canada had never
passed 45 degrees Celsius.
And for the last few days, we've been seeing that record break day after day where you are in British Columbia, reaching 49.6 degree Celsius. What's
going on?
WOLKOVICH: Yes, well, these are astonishing temperatures in many ways. 49.64 people in the U.S. that's 120 Fahrenheit, just really high
temperatures and they're part of a little bit of a natural climate.
We do have heat waves off and on. But they are exacerbated and made much higher and much warmer by human caused climate change. So this is a
predicted outcome that we expected to see as scientists with continued global warming.
And we're seeing it today it is just catastrophic in person compared to a prediction that you may have heard at a conference or decades ago. We're
seeing it now.
KINKADE: And just take us through what you and people in that region are experiencing right now as a result of these unexpected extreme conditions?
[11:40:00]
WOLKOVICH: Yes, well, it's starting to abate in the last day or two. But what we've had is what we would call a heat dome. So a large area of
pressurized air that's quite hot, sort of centered on Oregon and Washington, also affecting British Columbia, where we're just getting
extremely high temperatures.
So 49.6 in my province, that's 120 and up in Fahrenheit. And that is going to be something we continue to see in the future, because we've contributed
a lot of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. And we haven't even felt the full effects of that.
So high temperatures and of course, with that comes extreme drought in parts of the Western North American continent.
KINKADE: And I want to ask you about that Professor, because we are seeing, obviously, the extreme heat also in the United States in the West, and is
really, historically bad drought.
WOLKOVICH: Yes.
KINKADE: How does this latest multi year drought compared to years gone by?
WOLKOVICH: Oh, well, that's a good question. And we actually have new evidence that the drought we're seeing in the U.S. West, which has been
going on for approximately 20 years now and apologize for the background noise.
And multi year drought is one of the most extreme in the last 1200 years on record. So we can compose tree ring data, look back at the climate that
this area has seen for the past over 1000 years. And this is likely the second worst on record.
And that is caused by human climate change. We estimate that if this hadn't been a period where humans had increased global temperatures, it would be
maybe the 11th worst drought. So it would be a bad drought. But we've made it much, much worse by increasing temperatures through greenhouse gas
emissions.
KINKADE: So we always want to know about solutions. What can be done about these conditions? What can be done in terms of living with drought? Talk to
us, short term and long term. Let's start with short term solutions. What can people do?
WOLKOVICH: Sure. Short term people are already doing the most obvious thing, which are water conservation methods. So lots of cities and counties
and other regional or statewide districts have put in measures to try to limit the amount of water that people use.
So stop watering your lawn, and certainly for the West Coast, that means real impacts on agriculture. 80 to 90 percent of all the water that the
U.S. West is using goes directly to agriculture. We have a lot of areas that are effectively desert where we add enough water to grow water hungry
crops.
So a lot of those farmers are hearing that they might not get the water they expect. That's the short term solution is just do what we can for the
next several months, because we won't be seeing rain in California until September, October, November to try to make do with the low amount of water
that they have.
KINKADE: And in terms of long term solutions, especially for climate skeptics, what's your advice, Professor? What do we need to be looking at
right now?
WOLKOVICH: I mean, for a long term solution, I think we know that the greenhouse gas emissions that humans have put into the atmosphere have
exacerbated this drought.
We know they've caused the warming that we're seeing that's causing the heat waves, the heat waves increase the drought, the drought actually
increases the heat in the atmosphere.
So we get these feedback cycles. We well understand that science; we predicted what we're seeing today 30 to 40 years ago, quite accurately. And
the question is now how do we create a pathway forward.
And so I think one of the most difficult parts of being a scientist right now and climate change is that I spend a lot of my time guessing what the
future emissions will be to try to come up with multiple scenarios.
And as soon as we could limit emissions and have a path forward, we can start to actually plan for the future.
The warming, the drought we see today is not going away, it is definitely part of a new normal. And so we really need to come together to figure out
how to manage that. We certainly are - to think about infrastructure. So much of the water in the U.S. West comes from snowpack.
It's not going in as snow anymore. And that means we'll probably need to be major infrastructure products to think about how we use water when it's
coming in mainly as rainfall when it's coming in high amounts when it's just coming in a totally different way.
And then additionally, I think going back to the question of how do we use the water and conserve the water will come back, so, so much of the water
does go to agriculture. All across North America, we eat the fruits and the vegetables that California and other areas produce through using massive
amounts of water.
And there's certainly a question going on about whether that will be sustainable given the new normal that we have with climate change.
KINKADE: Yes, the new normal indeed Professor Elizabeth Wolkovich, good to get your expertise and analysis on this important situation that we are
dealing with right now. Thanks so much.
WOLKOVICH: Thank you.
KINKADE: Anti-Semitic attacks are on the rise across Europe. So what is behind this wave of violence and how is the Jewish community working to
stop it? We're going to have more on that on "Connect the World" when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:45:00]
KINKADE: Welcome back in the age of COVID-19 conspiracy theories have thrived online and in a concerning trend. Many of them are specifically
aimed at Jewish people. Europe has seen a measurable rise in anti-Semitism.
And a survey showed nearly half of Europeans now believe anti-Semitism is a problem in a country. And Human Rights Watch recorded a spike in hate
crimes. Melissa Bell has been looking into this for us and has this in depth report from Paris.
MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is nine out of 10 European Jews who say that anti-Semitism is rising in their country. That's according to European
Commission survey. And when we decided to look into that what we found was not the usual cyclical outburst of anti-Semitism linked to what was
happening in the Middle East, but something far older and far more European.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BELL (voice over): Elie Rosen knows all about where heat can lead. His grandparents survived the Holocaust. They always warned him to keep his
head down because there might be more to come.
Last August, they were proved right. Rosen was targeted along with his synagogue in the Austrian city of grants. Its walls made from the bricks of
the synagogue destroyed in 1938 defaced.
ELIE ROSEN, ATTACK VICTIM: After this attack those warnings of my grandparents had kind of flashback. And this made me very, very sorry and
brought tears into my heart.
BELL (voice over): A few days later, just outside the synagogue Rosen was chased by a man wielding a baseball bat, but managed to get back into his
car just in time.
ROSEN: Certainly I was scared of being physically attacked, or is a dimension that's different than being verbal attack, which I'm used to
because anti-Semitism has risen within the last year.
BELL (voice over): In 2020 anti-Semitic incidents in Austria reached their highest level since the country began keeping records 19 years ago and in
Germany incidents rose as much as 30 percent according to a German watchdog.
Much of the rise in both countries is being blamed on harsh COVID-19 lockdown restrictions. Protesters demonstrating against the restrictions
held signs depicting forced vaccination by Jews. And two people in Berlin were shouted out by a man who they believed blamed Jews for the pandemic.
KATHARINA VON SCHNURBEIN, EUROPEAN COMMISSION ANTISEMITISM COORDINATOR: I think that anti-Semitic conspiracy myths have been there for centuries. And
in fact, whenever there is a pandemic, they have come to the fore again.
[11:50:00]
BELL (voice over): Across Europe, anti-Semitism attacks have been rising for years. From a deadly standoff in 2015, at a kosher supermarket in Paris
to Vienna, where four people were killed in a rampage outside the star temple synagogue last year.
And then there is the desecration of Jewish graves, like these in eastern France. In Brussels, Rabbi Albert Guigui now wears a baseball cap when he
goes out to hide his very identity.
ALBERT GUIGUI, CHIEF RABBI, BRUSSELS: Of course, I wear a yarmulke at home, he says, but outside I prefer to cover my head less conspicuously. It's not
healthy, he explains, to live in an atmosphere of fear and where you feel hunted. I think that as well as being vigilant, we must tackle the evil at
the root of the problem. And that is about being different.
BELL (voice over): The Holocaust killed an estimated 6 million Jews in Europe, but as living memory gives way to feeding footage. So denial grows
and hate speech returns.
As well as the tension around COVID lockdowns, the violence between Israel and Hamas in the Middle East may also drove hate towards Jews across
Europe, like here in Berlin or in Brussels, where the chants spoke of ancient battles between Jews and Muslims.
BENJAMIN WARD, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH'S EUROPE: Do you see a cyclical increase in expressions of anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic violence
linked to events in the Middle East. But if we look more broadly at the phenomenon of anti-Semitism in Europe, we see that it's much older and also
much wider, and it's really a European issue.
BELL (voice over): The hate is also spreading online according to Human Rights Watch. Horrific cartoons like this one, depicting Jews with a big
hook nose or this one in France of a conspiracy theory blaming Jews for the pandemic, and shared he says mistakenly by a candidate in recent regional
elections. The European Commission has a deal with tech companies to remove offensive content within 24 hours, but only once it's been alerted.
BELL (on camera): This is the memorial in the very heart of Vienna to the 65,000 Austrian Jews who were deported during World War II, most did not
survive. It's a reminder of where words and conspiracy theories can lead. But it's also a reminder of Europe's own very violent, homegrown history of
anti-Semitism and anti-Semitism that has never quite disappeared.
BELL (voice over): Prayers continue to be heard all over Europe from the center of Paris to the old star temple synagogue in Vienna. Elie Rosen says
that his grandparent's approach of keeping a low profile after the Holocaust was understandable, but ultimately misguided. European Jews
keeping their heads down, he says, has not prevented anti-Semitism from rearing its head once again.
ROSEN: Contrary to my grandparents, I will tell my son or I will tell young Jewish people to be proud of being Jewish.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BELL: The pandemic has fueled the return of hate speech to Europe; 80 years after the Holocaust began just a lifetime before Europe begins to forget
precisely what the world had vowed it never would. Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.
KINKADE: We're going to take a very short break. We'll be right back after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:55:00]
KINKADE: Welcome back. Travel may be slowly getting back on track. But the pandemic isn't the only thing that keeps us from having far flung
adventures. Most of us are limited by distance or cost.
But there's a new virtual experience that takes you to exotic destinations that you might not otherwise see. They call it "Illuminarium" and as a
camera's got a look at the very first one here in Atlanta.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALAN GREENBERG, CEO, ILLUMINARIUM EXPERIENCES: Our first spectacle is wild safari experience. And you're going to feel like you're in Africa.
BRIAN ALLEN, EVP OF TECHNOLOGY AND COTENT, ILLUMINARIUM EXPERIENCES: We project on 22 feet high walls and the entirety of the floor. So the entire
room as you step into Illuminarium is all media in itself.
GREENBERG: We filled all of that originally in Africa. And none of that is CGI; the species themselves are all actually in the wild. You're going to
feel them when they walk by you through the haptic low frequency systems in our floors. You're going to smell them through our scent systems.
And you're actually going to be able to affect the experience through our interactivity where if you're walking down the dirt path on the floors of
the Illuminarium you might kick up dust or leave footprints on the path.
ALLEN: Right now we're walking into the Illuminarium lab facility. Here we're testing our next production called Spacewalk. The most satisfying
moment for me is when people come in and experience it for the first time, the first time they see an elephant projected 22 feet high, or footprints
on the moon.
GREENBERG: People who've been kind of cooped up are going to look at this as an opportunity to do something so special, together with people that
they care about, with their family with their friends. So in many ways, I think our time and he was absolutely perfect.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KINKADE: As Safari close to home and a Spacewalk next year. Well, there are plans in the works to open some 40 Illuminariums right around the world.
I'm looking forward to checking out the one here in Atlanta.
Well, that does it for "Connect the World". Thanks to our team and thanks to you for joining us. I'm Lynda Kinkade, have a good weekend.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
