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Alexey Navalny Sentenced for Another 19 Years for Extremism; Ukraine Behind Drone Attack on Russian Ship; U.S. Fears Putin Planning War Through 2024 Election; Hearing Set for August 18 After Trump Pleads Not Guilty; Junta Warns of Retaliation if ECOWAS Intervenes; Remembering Moments Following 2020 Explosion in Lebanon; Trump Resumes Campaign Following Latest Indictment; Family Rebuilds Silk Business in Turkey After Quake. Aired 10-11a ET
Aired August 04, 2023 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:00:44]
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: I'm Becky Anderson, live from London. This is CONNECT THE WORLD. 3:00 in the afternoon here.
Coming up this hour, Ukraine intensifying attacks on Moscow, striking a key Russian naval base. Calling himself a hostage, Niger's president urges the
United States to act in a "Washington Post" op-ed. Former U.S. president Donald Trump pleads guilty to charges over the -- not guilty for charges
over the 2020 election. And three years on, the people of Beirut remember the port blast in anguish.
Moscow claims it repelled a Ukrainian drone attack on one of its key naval bases overnight. A Ukrainian source tells CNN that one of Ukraine's sea
drones successfully attacked a navy ship. And these social media images shared Friday appear to show a damaged Russian warship listing heavily in
the Black Sea.
And look carefully at this nighttime video, which CNN was able to obtain. It appears to actually show an approaching drone.
Well, we are watching a courtroom east of Moscow at present where Russian opposition leader, Alexey Navalny, awaits the verdict in a trial that could
add, could add two more decades to his time in prison. The longtime critic of President Vladimir Putin could get up to 20 years if convicted of what
prosecutors call extremism.
He is already serving a more than 11-year term for a separate conviction, and says he expects a, quote, "Stalinist sentence" of around 18 years in
this case.
So let's bring in CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robinson, who's with us now from London to discuss all of this. And we are awaiting that
verdict. It is very unusual for a Russian court to actually acquit on a case like this. What can expect at this point?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: We can expect a harsh sentence I think from the judge because that's what the prosecution called
for in every case to do with Navalny so far, irrespective of the charge and the fact that Navalny says they're trumped up, and the judges would come
back and pretty much the harshest sentence possible.
I mean, three years ago, President Putin tried to silence Navalny once and for all by sending his agents to try to kill him with a deadly nerve agent
Novichok and he barely survived, and came back -- went to Germany, got better, came back into the lion's den if you will and was promptly arrested
as soon as he arrived at Moscow airport. He's currently serving a total of 11 and a half years, some of them running concurrently.
But that's him standing at the second from left in that line there. His armed are folded. He looks reasonably nonchalant at the moment. He shared a
joke with his -- part of his legal team on his right-hand side there. The gentleman at the far right of the picture, as you're looking at it there,
he's one of his media teams. He's also on trial here. He could get 10 years from the judge.
And it appears as if the legal team and Navalny are looking towards the judge at the moment. We can hear what the judge is saying very well. It's
going to take us a little time to decipher it. But Navalny has made it very clear, and part of the trial leading up to this point he said, look,
essentially, I'm willing to sacrifice my freedoms to get what I believe in.
He said if you want a free and rich country, if you want, you know, to parent that country, you need to be willing to wait to expect it to help it
along. And this is what he believes that he is doing.
The judge here, of course, if he does serve that sentence and do what everyone is expecting, to put Navalny in an extremely harsh and remote
penal colony, that will fit in with exactly what Vladimir Putin has been trying to do which is remove Navalny from the scene, silence him, cut him
off from his supporters. But the details of all of this of course we'll have to try to decipher in a few minutes.
We have to understand here, the camera is not physically or the camera teams, the international camera teams that are filming this, are filming it
through a video link from a room nearby.
[10:05:05]
They can't actually be -- the independent journalists can't actually be in the room with Navalny.
ANDERSON: Yes. Fascinating. All right. Well, we will continue to monitor this and as soon as we get a result from Russia, we will of course get it
to you.
Meantime, Nic, let's just talk about this maritime drone attack on a Russian vessel. What do we know at this point?
ROBERTSON: Becky, I'm sorry I missed your question. Could you ask that again, please?
ANDERSON: Yes, the maritime drone attack on the Russian vessel. What do we know?
ROBERTSON: This was a long reach by Ukraine. We've seen them try to use these under or semi underwater submersible remote controlled marine drones,
if you will. This one, according to Ukrainians, was carrying 450 kilograms of explosives. That's a massive punch that it appears to have delivered
which is -- can explain why this heavy, tough warship is seen towed into port, listening to one side.
These naval drones if you will seem to be able to reach at a range that we haven't seen before because this is a long way from Ukrainian soil. So
there's that. And also we understand that at the same time that that was happening, the Ukrainians had launched some regular airborne drones if you
will on a similar track towards Crimea. So it's potentially here that they were using a diversionary tactic to occupy the Russian defensive forces,
looking in the skies, when they should've been looking in the seas.
But as we've seen before, Ukraine is able to get one or two big punches like this before Russia realizes that its military assets are now in target
of Ukraine's ever improving munitions and explosives. And that's what this seems to be.
This is, you know, a morale boost for the Ukrainians and of course a dent in the armor for the Russian military, and you know, a chip on Putin's, you
know, sort of status as somebody who's getting the war right. We saw them lose the Moskva, that massive warship, last year. This is another one that
looks like it's headed semi towards the bottom of the ocean.
ANDERSON: Yes. It's fascinating, isn't it, to see the impact of these unmanned aerial and maritime vehicles.
Nic, thank you.
Well, U.S. and Western allies fear that President Putin will continue his war efforts through the 2024 U.S. elections. Four U.S. officials told CNN
they believe Putin hopes President Joe Biden will lose that election and that the U.S. will then pull back on support for Ukraine's defense. A new
CNN poll shows that a majority of Americans do not support additional funding to Ukraine.
Well, joining us now is CNN's Natasha Bertrand.
What do we make of this new poll, Natasha?
NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, this really underscores why Ukraine has been so concerned about ongoing Western
support for the war because obviously this administration, the Biden administration, has been very supportive of Ukraine. It has been sending a
lot of money and equipment to the Ukrainians, has kept the NATO alliance together.
But that could all change when it comes to the 2024 presidential election. And that is really top of mind right now for U.S. and Western officials as
they try to figure out a way to kind of codify support for Ukraine in the long term regardless of what happens if President Biden loses the election
to a Republican and particularly Donald Trump, who we should note has not been overly supportive of Ukraine.
Just the other day he said that aid to Ukraine should actually be contingent upon investigations of President Biden and his family. And so
what we're seeing in our reporting is that while there is no strong, intelligence assessment about what Vladimir Putin is thinking when it comes
to the election, U.S. officials understand that it is likely something that is factoring into his war planning because if he manages to sustain the war
and keep territory through the presidential election, through the end of next year, it is likely that he is going to get more favorable
circumstances when it comes to the U.S. perhaps lessening its support for Ukraine and perhaps the NATO alliance fracturing if of course President
Biden does end up losing that contest.
And so what U.S. officials now are looking at, going into of course this weekend, where peace talks are happening in Saudi Arabia, with countries
that the U.S. believed it can work with when it comes to Ukraine, is how do we support Ukraine for the long term in terms of providing security
assistance guarantees that they can use now and in the future.
[10:10:06]
Particularly those fighter jets, right, that if they get, then that will be kind of a long-term commitment that will then allow them to continue
prosecuting this war against Russia, regardless of who is in office in the U.S. -- Becky.
ANDERSON: Natasha is at the Pentagon with new information. Thank you very much indeed.
A federal judge has said August 28th, the next hearing in Donald Trump's election interference case. We could find out then if his third trial will
be held before or after Americans decide whether to reelect him. The former U.S. president and 2024 Republican frontrunner pleaded not guilty Thursday
to perhaps the gravest charges yet. Four felony counts accusing him of lying and conspiring to stay in office after losing in 2020. Trump says he
is being politically persecuted.
CNN senior U.S. justice correspondent Evan Perez was in the courtroom. He joins us now.
We heard from the former U.S. president. What do you make of what was said and what we heard in court yesterday?
EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Becky, in court yesterday, the thrust of what we heard from the magistrate and from the
judge who will be overseeing this case, she wasn't there, but she left instructions that this case is going to move quickly. That's what they are
trying to do. In contrast to the case in Miami, where one of the codefendants of Donald Trump has stretched out his arraignment over one
month, he spent a month of the calendar just trying to get a Florida lawyer so he could be arraigned.
In the District of Columbia court yesterday the judge made it clear that this case should move much more quickly. The judge Tanya Chutkan set a
hearing for August 28th which is about five days after the first Republican primary debate. And what she's ordered is that the two sides, both Jack
Smith, the special counsel, and the Trump team, need to put forward their briefs. Each of them get seven days. And then she is going to set a trial
date.
So the question is, whether that trial will happen before the 2024 election. That seems to be what the court is trying to do. Now immediately
after the magistrate said that from the bench, the former president's lawyers stood up and raised objections. They said this is a voluminous
amount of information that they haven't even gotten yet from the government as part of the discovery process.
They also pointed out, their constitutional questions, that they're going to try and litigate. And as you know, Becky, the former president has made
clear, his legal team has made clear that they want both of his cases to be put back, to be pushed back, and have this happen after the election for
obvious reasons. And so now we'll see how this plays out over the next period of months. Can they try and slow this down?
I'll tell you this, in that courthouse, which is right across from the U.S. Capitol, where the January 6th attack happened, the judges repeatedly have
said that one of the reasons why they've been pushing to adjudicate the hundreds of cases of these rioters is because they want to have a deterrent
effect. They want to make sure that after the next election, nobody tries to do what happened then again -- Becky.
ANDERSON: Good to have you, sir. Thank you.
PEREZ: Thank you.
ANDERSON: We started this hour looking at a courtroom where Alexey Navalny was anticipating a verdict.
CNN's international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson back with us. We have one, Nic. What is it?
ROBERTSON: Yes. The prosecution had asked for 20 years. Navalny in his tweet this morning estimated it would be 18. The judge has pitched it right
in between 19 years, accusing Navalny of being guilty of seven episodes under six articles of the criminal code. That's the terminology the judge
has used. Navalny of course has said he is innocent of all these charges. They're bogus. They're politically motivated.
What we're trying to establish at the moment, trying to get a better read on this from the court, as I said before it's hard hearing what the court
is saying or what the judge has been saying. But is this 19 years that's being quoted as being an additional 19 years, is that 19 to be added on to
the nine that he is already serving or is this to be run concurrently? It's not clear.
But if it were to be added on, again, I don't think he would be surprised. I don't think his supporters would be surprised. And I don't think anyone
who knows how President Putin has been trying to silence Navalny for years would be surprised at all. And I think the other key point that we're
hearing here is that he is going to serve this in a special regime colony.
Again, the words from the judge there. Special regime colony which means an even more harsh regime of isolation, of incarceration, of being cut off
from his supporters, and from his family frankly.
[10:15:12]
ANDERSON: Nic Robertson, on the story. Alexey Navalny sentenced to 19 more years for extremism.
Well, tensions escalating in Niger in the wake of the military coup there. The junta warning on state television that any military intervention from
the West African regional block known as ECOWAS will be met with an immediate response. Well, ECOWAS has threatened to use force if Mohamed
Bazoum is not reinstated as Niger's president by this weekend. The junta also announced it has dismissed the country's ambassadors to France, the
U.S., Nigeria, and Togo.
And it has revoked various military agreements with France because of its, quote, "offhand attitude" to last week's coup. France however is rejecting
the junta's move to cut military ties.
Let's bring in David McKenzie on this.
You are watching developments from Johannesburg. And we are just a couple of days away from the deadline that ECOWAS has set to intervene if Bazoum
is not reinstated. What do you make of the developments today?
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I think it's fast moving and slow at the same time. It's a very strange coup. That's because
in previous coups in the Sahel over the last few years, pretty quickly you got a sense that the coup leaders have consolidated their power, and that
the game was up for the president or leader at the time.
It doesn't appear like that now I have to be honest. You have the junta as you say cutting ties with the French militarily. But the French are just
dismissing that, saying that they aren't the genuine government of Niger. And also hinting in their statement, the French saying that they're just
elements of the military. So there is an open question now whether there is broad based support of this coup takeover by elements of the security
forces in Niger.
You've had this diplomacy today, the ECOWAS, the regional group sending senior former leaders and diplomats into the country to try and hash out
some kind of negotiated settlement. That clearly hasn't happened yet. And as you say, the clock is ticking. ECOWAS has been much more forthright and
aggressive in potentially dealing with this coup, saying they could send in troops, and that the deadline would be some time maybe Sunday into Monday.
Here's the response from a spokesperson of the coup leaders.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AMADOU ABDRAMANEADOU ABDRAMANE, NIGER MILITARY SPOKESMAN (through translator): ECOWAS being impersonal, any aggression or attempted
aggression against the state of Niger will be met with an immediate and unannounced response by Niger's defense and security forces on one of its
members with the exception of the suspended friendly country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCKENZIE: Now, the question is of course we will know if there is a buildup of forces, particularly on the northern border of Nigeria and Khana state,
whether they do anticipate actually sending troops in. There are some analysts who are saying, well, while that deadline was given, there may
well be some wiggle room if it looks like there is a chance for a successful negotiation to bring back democracy somehow to Niger.
The U.S. in particular while it's talking in strong terms hasn't called this a coup as we've spoken about. And interestingly, the Pentagon has said
that that very large base in Agadez, a drone base of the U.S. which is critical for intelligence gathering and for anti-terror operations, is
still operating in some shape or form, and they are still cooperating with the military.
When you put all of this together, it means that this is a very fluid situation and certainly hasn't settled one way or the other -- Becky.
ANDERSON: And we do know that the president has been in touch with the Americans. Indeed, as we understated it, the Secretary of State Anthony
Blinken has spoken to them. And we have heard from Mohamed Bazoum in an op- ed that he has penned for the "Washington Post." What did he say?
MCKENZIE: Well, it's pretty extraordinary. I mean, again, in coups that I have covered in the past, you don't necessarily have the leader who is
disposed being in the position to either write or have one of his aides write an op-ed in a publication like the "Washington Post." The very first
sentence is, "I write this as a hostage." It's a dramatic letter to the public.
And really, Becky, it's aimed at the international sphere. Not to Nigerians because he's asking for more assistance. One paragraph where he talks about
the troubled Sahel region. He says that Niger stands as the last bastion of respect of human rights. He goes on to later say the success of the coup
would have devastating consequences far beyond our borders.
[10:20:08]
This is squarely aimed at the U.S., at the European Union, at those countries which can both squeeze the coup leaders financially and possibly
have the leverage to get him back into power. Whether it has any effect inside Niger or on those coup leaders, they, for now at least, are seeming
to be intractable and they're digging in -- Becky.
ANDERSON: The next 48 hours will be extremely important. David, thank you.
Coming up, three years on from one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions ever recorded. We reflect on the Beirut blast, and ask why no one has been
held accountable.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: How long would you fight for justice if you witnessed part of your city leveled in the blink of an eye? If your home's windows were
blasted in and shattered all around you? If hundreds in your city were killed and no one was ever held accountable?
Well, three years ago today, one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions ever reported blasted through Beirut in Lebanon. Now in the third anniversary of
that devastating explosion, a day of mourning is being observed.
We do know that the blast originated in a warehouse full of ammonium nitrate that had been improperly stored for years. But to date, no official
investigation into the cause of the explosion itself has been completed.
Well, I was on air when CNN got word of that explosion. And I will never forget those images. No one in Lebanon quite frankly could.
CNN's Ben Wedeman was based in Beirut at the time and he witnessed it, he felt it and he lived through it. And I just want to take you all back to
what was that dreadful moment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: We are just getting some pictures into CNN of what is a large explosion in Lebanon's capital Beirut. Witnesses including our own
correspondents there have heard an explosion. They have seen smoke rising. No word yet on the cause.
This video, just coming into CNN, showing the moment of the blast, the first of these images taken from a nearby boat.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What? What?
ANDERSON: And this video, another video that's just come in showing the moment of that explosion.
[10:25:03]
In this next video, you'll see a huge cloud of smoke and flames. The Lebanese Red Cross giving some idea of the scope of the impact of this. The
disaster facing Beirut today, tweeting, quote, "More than 30 teams are responding to the explosion." This the Lebanese Red Cross, "Please make way
for our ambulances."
Well, Ben Wedeman is amongst the damaged, joining us from Beirut.
Ben, what do we understand to have happened at this point?
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this explosion took place in the port area. It was proceeded by some sort of fire it
appears in a warehouse, which according to the official Lebanese National News Agency, contained fireworks. But to what we felt, and in this
building, this is where CNN's office used to be, it felt like an earthquake followed by a huge blast that blew out the windows in this what was once
our studio, and the window frames as well.
Just panning the camera around, you can get an idea of the level of damage that happened. And this damage of course is duplicated throughout much of
central Beirut.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: Well, it became clearer over the hours of the devastation. This is a country that has endured tragedy after tragedy, year after year,
decade after decade. Lebanese people have lived through a horrific 15-year civil war, followed by another bloody war with Israel less than a decade
later. Not to mention the crippling economy that has been in the state of demise for years.
On August 4th of 2020, people frantically rushed around the city in search of their missing loved ones wondering why their fate had yet again
subjected them to another tragedy, and why they're leaders had done nothing to protect them from this horrific blast.
I reflected on all of this in the wake of the explosion. And sadly much of what I said then still holds today. Have a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: This is whatever way you cut it the manifestation of the multitude of endless avenues of miserable corruption in Lebanon. What is
seen as a political oligarchy has for decades hollowed out the entire country from the inside in an endless and ceaselessly worsening series of
dysfunction and theft.
Yesterday, on Tuesday, August the 4th, in the early evening, we saw the most tremendous example of it. With much of the city laid waste in a blast
unlike any it has ever seen. And so many are left wondering, why was that ammonium nitrate stored at the port? How long was it there? Who knew about
it and its risk? And who turned a blind eye?
This, though, is just the latest and clearest example of a much wider system of dysfunction as government after government in Lebanon fails to do
its most fundamental job and look after its people. So now, Beirut once adored as the Paris of the Middle East, nestled between the aquamarine
waters of the Mediterranean and those stunning hills of Mont Liban, sits scarred and ruined in a scale still incomprehensible yet again.
This blast wasn't inevitable. The economic crisis wasn't inevitable. Nor the power cuts, nor the lack of jobs and basic systems. Across Lebanon's
political spectrum, one ideology reigns supreme. What's in it for me? And then so what's left for the people? Nothing all too often but despair.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: Well, another depressing anniversary. It has been six months since a massive earthquake hit Turkey and Syria. We report on a family
trying to rebuild a traditional business. Coming up.
You're watching CONNECT THE WORLD. I'm Becky Anderson for you today in London, where the time is just before half past 3:00 in the afternoon.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:32:47]
ANDERSON: Well, a day after pleading not guilty to perhaps the most serious charges yet, former U.S. President Donald Trump is heading back on the
campaign trail. He is scheduled to appear before Alabama Republicans tonight. He still leads the party's pack, the 2024 presidential nomination,
despite facing four felony counts over his alleged attempt to overturn the 2020 election results.
Now, look, this is the third criminal case against him, a trial date could be set later this month. We are hearing Donald Trump left the courthouse
Thursday feeling dejected.
CNN's Alayne Treene is in Bedminster, New Jersey, where Trump spent the night as we understand it, and he's sort of on the move once again. But
what do we understand to be his mood and the mood in his camp?
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. Well, Becky, Donald Trump is very frustrated. And you're right, he is dejected. I'm told from my
conversations with several of his advisers that he is really frustrated by the mounting legal troubles that he is facing. And it's weighing on him.
And I do think you could see that yesterday.
Our great reporters who were inside the courtroom during his arraignment, reported that he appeared somber. He appeared glum. He had his arms crossed
over him. And you could also see during his remarks to reporters shortly before he boarded his plane back to New Jersey that he wasn't the defiant,
more excited, animated former president that we're used to seeing in public.
I think, you know, Donald Trump is very good at compartmentalizing, I know through my reporting that he has long been angered by these indictments, he
is not happy about them of course. But he's been pretty good in the past about keeping that, you know, behind closed doors and in public giving
viewers and his voters what they want to see, which is a more jacked up Trump, an excited Trump.
But yesterday you can really see how this was weighing on him. But I do think, you know, he will be in Alabama later today. He'll be addressing a
room of Republicans. I think you can expect him to try to go back to that defiant rhetoric that we know he tries to use in person when talking about
these charges.
[10:35:05]
But behind closed doors, the scene is quite different -- Becky.
ANDERSON: Thank you. That's the story from Bedminster.
It's been six months since a massive earthquake struck near the Turkish- Syrian border. The quake and its aftershocks killed tens of thousands of people and left cities in ruins. Well, survivors are now looking to rebuild
homes and indeed their livelihoods.
CNN's Jomana Karadsheh reports on one group trying to resurrect a traditional family business. Have a look at this.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is Antakya, Turkey, just a few months ago an ancient city largely reduced to rubble by a deadly
earthquake that took over 30,000 lives. Entire neighborhoods have been flattened and survivors described the scene as a war zone, even
apocalyptic. But now some who survived are rebuilding their lives. Like this family business restarting so production at their cooperative workshop
in the city.
FIKRET DUMAN, SILK PRODUCER (through translator): When you listen carefully, they produce an orchestral symphony, the most beautiful music in
the world.
KARADSHEH: The Dumans produce and re-silk using traditional cruelty-free practices, an ancient trade in Turkey. When the earthquake hit, their
building became a shelter for about 100 people and the family focused on helping their community.
EMEL DUMAN, SILK PRODUCER (through translator): After the earthquake, for two months we couldn't think about ourselves at all. All we could think
about was how to help others. That we were alive, and thought it was our duty.
KARADSHEH: Finally, the Dumans are starting their business back up. Before the earthquake, they had 70 employees, mainly women. But only a handful
have come back. Now the Dumans are employing Syrian refugees to kick start production.
E. DUMAN (through translator): We're struggling to get the women back into production, to get the weavers back. It's hard to get back into production,
but we're doing everything we can to get there, and we are trying to motivate ourselves to keep going.
KARADSHEH: The family has named their product the peace silk of Hatay Province while industrial soap production boils the cocoon to kill the
worm, the family's workshop allows them to live into adulthood and become moths. They breed their own worms instead of importing them in order to
preserve the biodiversity of Turkey's native species.
E. DUMAN (through translator): Our elders, who wasted nothing and respected nature, used these cocoon remains to make clothes and sheets. So I said to
myself, that I should also produce in this way without harming the silkworms, by letting them become butterflies.
KARADSHEH: After a painful tragedy, the family is weaving new bonds of peace with their craft and within their community.
Jomana Karadsheh, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: And we'll have more on the earthquake aftermath next hour, including my interview with actor Ashley Judd. Here's part of that
conversation with Ashley. She's a U.N. goodwill ambassador who recently visited quake-hit parts of Turkey.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ASHLEY JUDD, ACTOR: The situation within these settlements is very difficult. It's hard to access safe drinking water and even the water that
they used to wash their clothes is so dirty that when they put their clean clothes back on, their skin itches. You know, and so many women of
reproductive age, they're having their periods, they're still pregnant, they're giving birth. They need diapers. You know, they don't have
refrigeration so they're living on pasta and other foods that they can cook without, you know, a cooling mechanism for their foods. Life is very, very
difficult.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: And you can see more of that interview with Ashley Judd coming up in the next hour of CONNECT THE WORLD.
Well, excitement building for the knockout round of the Women's World Cup. Still ahead, I look at the three African teams who are making history.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:41:09]
ANDERSON: Well, the first Palestinian woman to ever referee a Women's World Cup game had her debut on Thursday. Heba Saadieh officiated her first game
as China faced off against England. FIFA says her success inspired another Palestinian woman Yasmin Nayroukh who expects to get her international
refereeing license this year. Super.
And teams preparing for the knockout round in the Women's World Cup include a number of African teams who are making history. Andy Scholes up with
"WORLD SPORT up next.
Morocco, South Africa, and Nigeria all playing in the round of 16, Andy.
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Certainly exciting for the continent of Africa there, Becky, to have that happen for the first time.
Three different nations making it out of that group stage. You know, and that group stage, it was so exciting. Arguably one of the most exciting
we've ever seen in the Women's World Cup. Now can, you know, South Africa and Algeria, Morocco continue their magic and pull off some more upsets? We
will have to wait and see as we get to that round of 16.
We're going to talk to an African expert, a soccer expert coming up here on "WORLD SPORT." And he's going to break it all down for us. But cannot wait,
you know, the group stage is always fun, Becky, but when it gets to those knockout stages, that's when the action really gets going.
ANDERSON: I'll tell you what, as a football fan, this tournament is the gift that just keeps giving. It is so exciting,
Good stuff, insight and analysis with Andy and "WORLD SPORT." That after this short break. I'm back for you at the top of the hour, stay with us.
[10:45:18]
(WORLD SPORT)
END
