World Headlines; American Mother Of Eight Trapped In Eastern Ghouta
LU STOUT: All right. It's Wednesday night here in Hong Kong. Welcome back. You are watching News Stream. As mentioned, we're keeping a close eye on how the U.K. plans to retaliate against Moscow over the nerve agent attack in Salisbury. Russia's Foreign Minister says London is staging, quote, political theater by linking Moscow to the poisoning of a double agent. And will bring you the Prime Minister's speech just as it begins. Now to the fallout from another major shake up in the Trump White House. After months of disagreements on key issues, the U.S. President sacked Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. The international response has been swift. Japan's foreign Minister says he feels regret over the decision. Australia's Prime Minister thanked Tillerson for his great work in being a terrific partner. This latest firing comes just ahead of Mr. Trump's pivotal with North Korea. And Paula Hancocks has more on the possible impact of Tillerson's departure.</s>PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As we're still waiting for reaction from North Korea to the fact that the U.S. President has accepted Kim Jong- un's invitation to talk, Pyongyang now has something else to mull over, the fact that the top diplomat in the Trump administration has now changed. Rex Tillerson, who had publicly disagreed with Donald Trump when it came to the North Korean policy and who had said that engagement with North Korea was preferable, is now out. The CIA Director Mike Pompeo is in. This is what we know about his North Korean opinions at this point. Now he has, in the past, publicly said that he supports regime change. He has also been supportive of the -- that the hard-line pressure and sanctions policy that the Trump administration has been engaged in over recent months, it's of course, unknown whether or not those ideas would change if he was, in fact, confirmed as the secretary of state. He will need that confirmation, though. He'll be appearing ahead of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Hopefully they will get some more indication about what his North Korean policy will be, or his opinions, at least. And in addition to that, the South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha is heading to Washington tomorrow on Thursday. She was expected to meet with Mr. Tillerson. Clearly, that is now going to happen now. So she will be meeting with a Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan. But the Foreign Minister here in Seoul says that it's simply too important, what is happening at the moment, the North-South Korean summit happening in April, potentially this Trump-Kim Jong-un summit in May for any kind of deviation from the plans just because of personnel changes. So that meeting will go ahead as planned just with a different individual. Paula Hancocks, CNN, Seoul.</s>LU STOUT: This all comes as South Korea continues its shuttle diplomacy with its special envoy in Russia. Chung Eui-yong is in Moscow for talks with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. He asked the Kremlin to join what could be a turning point in bringing peace to the Korean Peninsula. Now, despite news of evacuations taking place in Eastern Ghouta, hundreds of thousands of its civilians remain trapped, and under the Russian-backed Syrian government's continuous military campaign. It has killed more than 1,000 people in less than three weeks. An American mother of eight is one of those trapped. Here is Jomana Karadsheh.</s>DEANA LYNN, AMERICAN, TRAPPED IN SYRIA: We woke on the sound of a Russian warplane bombing us. We're all scared, sitting in basements.</s>JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: She says her name is Deana Lynn, a 44-year-old American from Michigan, trapped in Syria's hell on earth, she wants the American President to save Eastern Ghouta.</s>LYNN: I would say to President Trump, that he has to make a move. He has to put pressure on any tyrant in this world. He has to put pressure on Bashar al-Assad and his regime. He has to put pressure on Russia and Iran. They're all a part of this -- this slaughter in Eastern Ghouta.</s>KARADSHEH: The U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley says the United States is, quote, prepared to act if the U.N. fails to demand a ceasefire. The mother of eight has been living here with her Syrian husband for nearly 20 years. Like most in Eastern Ghouta, with nowhere safe, they've been driven underground. She spoke to us over a shaky internet connection.</s>LYNN: Maybe the hardest thing in the world, to be a mother here in the Eastern Ghouta. We see our children in danger every day. I fear they will be hurt. I fear they will be injured. I fear when I hear the bomb, and I tell my children to lay on the floor, and I know it's not enough, and it's not safe.</s>KARADSHEH: The situation in Eastern Ghouta is catastrophic. Doctors without borders said bombs raining down on Eastern Ghouta have claimed more than 1,000 lives in just two weeks. Now it seems a matter of time before the regime recaptures the area.</s>LYNN: I think, my message to the world is, let your voice be heard. Don't just -- don't just be quiet. We have to say something. I've been here for five years under siege and I was quiet. I feared to say anything, but now I'm coming out, because it's life or death. It's life or death for the people.</s>KARADSHEH: A message to a world that many feel has turned its back on Syria. Jomana Karadsheh, CNN, Amman.</s>LU STOUT: We are celebrating My Freedom Day here at CNN. It is a worldwide event driven by students to raise awareness about the impact of slavery and human trafficking. Did you know that more than 40 million people live in slavery around the world today? Women and girls, they represent more than 70 percent of those victims. Now, we have dispatched correspondents across the globe to cover this story, and they will be bringing us live reports through the coming hours. Now, for more on My Freedom Day, Farai Sevenzo joins us now from the International School of Kenya. Farai, how are the students there marking this day?</s>FARAI SEVENZO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, they've been fantastic, Kristie. They have been really prepared for this day. They had a debate for us early on, in which they talked about all the salient points of human trafficking and in slavery, and one of them composed a song for this Freedom Day. Her name is Paulina (ph) and her song is called Human.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The voice of this weak is amplified by the voice of the strong -- voice of the strong. The voice of the weak must be amplified by the voice of the strong -- voice of the strong. Don't be a bystander. Don't be a bystander. Don't be a bystander.</s>SEVENZO: And there you go, the voice of the weak must be amplified by the voice of the strong. Don't be a bystander. Exploitation means there is nobody -- we are all dehumanize. I put it to them at one point, Kristie, the students that if I am a man in Northern Libya who owns a boat, and every time I put a hundred people on this boat, I make $10,000. How is it my fault if they drown? They have given me their money. And they were very passionate about how this is exploitation. This is the very thing they are talking about, that I'm using human souls to make capital. So they get it. They absolutely get it, what freedom is all about. And it's been an astounding day for them remembering this, and of course the question is -- yes, this is the passion of adolescence, but can they keep this on into adult hood, and keep this awareness of what freedom really means to them.</s>LU STOUT: Yes, you mentioned that passion of adolescence. And it is so inspiring to hear and see these students so motivated to undertake My Freedom Day, but there are over 40 million people in the world today living in modern-day slavery. The challenge is so daunting. When you talk to the students about the task at hand, are they still optimistic?</s>SEVENZO: They are very optimistic, Kristie. And bear in mind, I mean last year, we were in the central area province, in a much poorer school. This is the International School of Kenya. The parents are well healed. They will never be in trouble. And they acknowledge that, that they would never face something like human trafficking. They would never have to scramble out of Chad or Nigeria, and across the desert, and then end up perhaps in those awful slave auctions we saw from our colleagues earlier in the year. But they acknowledge that the awareness -- they also said, they must question where they buy their t-shirts. Are children making these t- shirts? And they are very in-tune with what's going on. They've read the U.N. reports on human trafficking. They watch our channel, obviously, and they are very, very into it.</s>LU STOUT: It's great to see and hear these young people making such -- you know just committed activists, and very passionate about the cause. Farai Sevenzo reporting live from Kenya, thank you so much and take care. CNN's My Freedom Day coverage continues next. Between 2011 and 2016, nearly 90 million people experienced some form of slavery. We've been asking young people around the world what freedom means to them. Here's what students from the Hong Kong International School had to say.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Freedom means the ability to choose. Whether it be to choose the one you love, or choose what you want to do with your life. And that's why I stand against slavery, because to encroach on one's ability to choose, to me, means to encroach on one's basic human rights.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Freedom to me is essentially one's capability and innate right to think, act, and speak freely however they want without any objections, or restrictions imposed on them.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Freedom to me is the power over my body, choice, my actions, and my thoughts. Freedom is so I can explore who I want to be.