Women Rescued After Five Months
ALLEN: Welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I'm Natalie Allen. Let's update you on our top stories. Hundreds of thousands of anti-independence protesters are calling for a unified Spain. Madrid dissolved Catalonia's parliament after the region declared independence Friday. New elections are set for December. Spain has threatened to charge the suspended Catalan leader with rebellion. The U.S. Navy is investigating whether two of its elite members killed this U.S. soldier. Staff Sergeant Logan Melgar with the Army Special Forces was found dead in June at a U.S. government compound in Mali. A medical examiner says the Green Beret may have been strangled to death. Saudi Arabia says it will let women into three sports stadiums as spectators starting early next year after long baring women from arenas. The Saudi crown prince is promising other ambitious reforms for women. Starting next June, women will finally be allowed to drive on Saudi streets. We are waiting to find who will be indicted into investigation into Russian election meddling. The charges were approved Friday and an arrest or arrests could come within hours. The White House has not made an official statement, but President Trump has been tweeting. He calls the probe a witch-hunt and demands an investigation into an Obama era uranium deal reportedly involving bribes to Hillary Clinton. So says the president. Russia is at the heart of both of these political controversies in the U.S. Let's go to Moscow now where Oren Liebermann joins us. And Oren, Russia has often called this story hysteria by the U.S. media. Any new response to news about these pending indictments?</s>OREN LIEBERMANN, CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Russophobic hysteria, a term we've heard quite often in terms of how Russia views the U.S. investigation into election meddling. But there has been no response since CNN broke news on Friday that charges could be maybe public as early today. And that's not surprising because Russia tends to be conservative with their answers and their comments and they hedge quite a bit until they have the full details. So, although they might say something like they're concerned or they're watching, a full response will only come after we learn more that is after the charges are made public and we find out who is being charged, who those charges are against. But from a big picture perspective, it's important to remember that Russia has continuously and repeatedly denied the purpose of the investigation which is to say into election meddling. Russia has continually denied any involvement in the U.S. elections and any attempts to meddle there. So that's not likely to change regardless of what these charges are or who has charged. They call the investigation. And again, hysteria and an attempt by the U.S. to essentially smear Russia. That's not likely to change, regardless of what we learned either today or later on this week, Natalie.</s>ALLEN: Right. At all times, you know, the U.S. and Russia are not in a good place when we've got the North Korea situation where they should be working together on that. So that's quite unfortunate. Oren Liebermann for us there in Moscow. Thank you, Oren. Now we turn to the amazing saga at sea. Two friends along with their two dogs lost and adrift in a damaged boat for five long hope-starved months. The two women set off on a trip from Hawaii to Tahiti, but were knocked off course by a storm that incapacitated their boat. They lost communications. And after months of drifting, they also lost hope. But last week, the women were rescued by the U.S. Navy. And now their feet and their dogs' are on dry land. Ivan Watson is there at White Beach, a U.S. naval facility in Okinawa, Japan. You've got the talk to these women. And certainly every time I've seen them make comments, they are just ecstatic to being rescued, ecstatic to be alive.</s>IVAN WATSON, SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Absolutely. Euphoric and incredibly grateful to the mean and women of the U.S. Navy who aboard this large vessel the USS Ashland, rescued these women from their stricken sailboat, 50-foot sailboat which was effectively floating at sea for more than five months of what was supposed to be an 18-day journey from Hawaii to Tahiti. Instead, because a very different ordeal when successive storms knocked out the mast and the engine, and the communication devices aboard their sailboat. Take a listen.</s>JENNIFER APPEL, RESCUED AFTER FIVE MONTHS AT SEA: We had no VHF, no range on it. No weather com, no SSB, single side band. We didn't have our ham radio. And our radio telephone inside the boat was not working. And also our Iridium sat phone was not working. So we had no way to realize that we were about to enter a typhoon that had winds of 100 to 150 miles an hour and minimum wave heights of 40 foot in height.</s>WATSON: How it is possible that all of these different communications devices malfunctioned?</s>APPEL: They are dependent on the antenna.</s>TASHA FUIAVA, RESCUED AFTER FIVE MONTHS AT SEA: Yes.</s>APPEL: And when the antenna went out, everything went out.</s>WATSON: So how did the women and their two dogs survive this long period at sea? They say they depend very heavily on a desalinization unit that basically purified ocean water for them to drink on board the sailboat. They also had months and months of stocks of dried food that they relied on as well. They claim that at some point along the journey their vessel was being hit by tiger sharks, which were circling the vessel and of course scaring them. They also say there were opportunities for possible rescue when they drifted past Wake Island, a U.S. island in the Western Pacific, and they were able to connect with a coastal station there. But by their communications device, but were told that they needed to get to the southern end of the island to the harbor to be rescued. And they could not do that since their engine and sails would not function. That was one of their darkest days. That's when Jennifer Appel said she started crying for the whole afternoon as they drifted out of sight of the island. And she credits the dogs who licked the tears from her face for giving her hope. Natalie?</s>ALLEN: And you also told us that they turned to their bible to try to keep themselves hopeful and optimistic. I know that they were really sad that they had to leave their boat behind that was their home and that was their dream. When will they be reunited with their families? And what's next for them, do we know?</s>WATSON: I think that's a very big question mark. And as one of the women said, we feel very lost right now like we're in kindergarten again. Because it's true. That 50-foot sailboat was their home. They lived on it on Hawaii before embarking on this incredible nautical adventure. And when the USS Ashland got a distress call and steamed to their rescue, and technicians went aboard the sailboat, they deemed that vessel unseaworthy. And the women had about an hour, they said, to decide to leave their home behind as well as most of their material possessions. The good news, as they came out alive with their two very lovable dogs. I got to pet them and hang out with them some. But yes, they had to leave their homes behind. And now they have to find their way in this world again. Again, there is a happy ending. They were able to make satellite phone calls from the ship to very concerned family members on the U.S. mainland to say we're alive. And as far as I know, the father of one of the women told the commanding officer aboard this ship, thank you. You save my daughter's life. Natalie?</s>ALLEN: All right. We don't know what's next for them. But these women are resilient, and they survived. I think they're going to be all right. Thank you so much. Ivan Watson for us there in Okinawa. Oscar Winning actor Kevin Spacey is apologizing after another actor accused him of an unwanted sexual advance. Anthony Rapp claims the incident happened back in 1986 when he was 14 and Spacey was 26. Spacey responded with a statement on Twitter saying, "I'm beyond horrified to hear his story. I honestly do not remember the encounter. It would have been over 30 years ago. But if I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate, drunken behavior." Spacey added that Rapp's allegation encouraged him to go public about his sexuality. He wrote, "As those closest to me know in my life, I have had relationships with both men and women. I have loved and had romantic encounters with men throughout my life. And I choose now to live as a gay man. I want to deal with this honestly and openly, and that starts with examining my own behavior." CNN has not independently verified those allegations from Rapp, and we reached out to both Rapp and Spacey's representatives. Still ahead here, Puerto Rico's national rainforest used to be sprawling with tree and animals and life. But after hurricane Maria, you can't recognize it. That's coming up.