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Update on D.C. Power Outage; Yemen Teeters on Brink of Chaos as Saudi Ground Invasion Looks Likely; Civilians Caught Between Syrian Government Forces, Rebel Forces; Run Off in Mayoral Election in Chicago; Pilot Brawl on Air India Flight; Aaron Hernandez Could Soon Learn His Fate. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired April 07, 2015 - 14:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:34:37] BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Brianna Keilar. We're learning more about the power outage that struck Washington, D.C. A short time ago, about 2,000 customers were affected. While power is being restored at this point and power is back up in some of the areas of downtown Washington. Some pretty important customers affected, the State Department as well as the White House and the capitol.

Listen to what White House press secretary, Josh Earnest, said about it just a moment ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[14:35:08] JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I can tell you that there was a power outage this afternoon that did briefly have an impact on the White House complex. Some parts of the White House complex did have to go on to backup power. Some of the issues have been addressed in such a way that we're now back on the regular power source. So things are slowly but surely returning to normal here in the White House complex.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: So the White House running on generators there briefly.

Check this out. This is Marie Harf, the spokesperson for the State Department, actually using her cell phone to see her notes during the State Department press briefing this afternoon. Lights went out in the middle of it. Marie Harf there being a little resourceful and carrying on with the business of the day. We'll be following that power outage. So far, we know power is being restored and has been to a lot of the 2,000 customers affected.

Well, right now, Yemen is teetering on the brink of chaos as a Saudi ground invasion is looking more likely by the minute. Fighting, killing an estimated 600 people in just more than a week. The Red Cross reporting city streets are, quote, "strewn with dead bodies." And today, a source tells CNN that three school children have been killed in a Saudi air strike targeting Houthi rebels. Amid the bloodshed, thousands are fleeing as governments across the world order their citizens out of Yemen. CNN's Nima Elbagir was there as one of many groups of Indian citizens

were evacuated.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Indian government has been running these evacuations for the last couple days. Extraordinarily difficult conditions. They're having to do it within a very tight time frame.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 50, 40, 30 --

ELBAGIR (voice-over): They've been told they'll only have half an hour to load on board the hundreds that are waiting in the Sanaa airport.

(on camera): We're on the ground. You can see the runway is unharmed, but all around it, you really get a sense of the impact that those Saudi air strikes. You can see behind me some of the military aircraft all destroyed. All the while we've been here, this Houthi military police car has been circling the plane. Time really is of the essence in this evacuation operation, and it's ticking down. We're waiting for the passengers to be brought on, but they're still nowhere to be seen.

(voice-over): Finally, they begin to come. Some run, all having to leave their lives behind.

(on camera): This plane can't carry any cargo because it'll slow it down. All these people that you're seeing, they've had to come on with only what they can carry in their hands.

(CROSSTALK)

ELBAGIR: Leave it they do as they rush to take their seats, finally safe, finally, able to close their eyes.

DR. DAMODAR THAKUR, EVACUEE: My goodness. Gunshots being fired every minute. Sometimes the sky full of sparkling lights. Some women crying, children terrified.

ELBAGIR: As quickly as they're loading up, more and more people are coming on. This isn't even all the people that are waiting at that terminal, hoping that they'll be flown out. There are still a few hundred more waiting at Sanaa Airport.

(voice-over): Sanaa still eerily quiet. This evacuation carried out during a window of respite from the bombardment. But tonight, again, it will begin. And there are thousands more still trapped inside.

(CROSSTALK)

ELBAGIR: Nima Elbagir, CNN, Yemen.

KEILAR: And thank you to Nima for that report there. The humanitarian crisis in Yemen is in dire need of help, as you can

see. Air strikes slamming so much of the country. The people there are fighting for the essentials to stay alive. If you want to find out how you can help, go to CNN.com/impact.

Meantime, we are following some developing news right now as ISIS makes a major new offensive. It's a bold push toward Syria's capital. The terror group just releasing new pictures that show militants on the streets of a refugee camp. This isn't just any refugee camp. This is right on Syrian President Bashar al Assad's doorstep. This is just miles from his palace in Damascus. The U.N. says some 18,000 civilians, including 3500 children, are in immediate danger. They must be evacuated. They're caught between Syrian government forces, the rebels fighting them, and now ISIS, an enemy of both.

Joining me to talk about this, we have CNN's Atika Shubert, who has been following this brutal assault; and we have CNN chief international correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, with us as well.

What do we know, Atika, about the movement of ISIS in this camp and really how significant this is?

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is quite significant because this is the farthest they've been able to get into Damascus. It looks like they entered the camp on April 1st. Possibly with the help of al Nusra, which is another militant group, which was previously a rival group. It's interesting we're seeing these groups work together to force out other rebel positions. Now they're just five miles away from president al Assad's palace. Very significant.

[14:50:36] KEILAR: This is obviously very important. You have a lot of civilians who are in the middle of this. This is a camp that's been under siege for a long time.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is a really disastrous situation. The U.N. is demanding immediate access there to be able to try to give these people some food. According to the U.N., they're subsisting on 400 calories a day, where they need 2,000. You can imagine how little food and water they have. This comes after two years of this camp being surrounded by Bashar al Assad's forces, pounded by barrel bombs, and starvation and disease and just a terrible situation has developed for the civilians there. It used to be home to about 150,000. Now 18,000 because people have tried to flee throughout these years of war. Palestinians in there are still trying to fight back against ISIS. We heard for the first time about the Free Syrian Army. Remember those rebels the U.S. was meant to be helping? The bulwark against Bashar Assad? Well, apparently they're helping a little bit to try to push back ISIS.

But, yeah, it's bad. ISIS gets whacked in Tikrit and pops up here. We have this balance that's going on the whole time.

KEILAR: If you have ISIS and al Nusra working together, you have some parts of al Nusra sympathetic to ISIS, some that are not. Do we see them banding together in a way that really threatens the Syrian government? And how serious is that threat? Could we see them push further into Damascus?

SHUBERT: We could, but I think it's too soon to say right now. What we're seeing is switching allegiances all the time, literally street by street. And what's happening with the civilians there is they're getting caught, not just between the street battles that are happening with ISIS and al Nusra and other groups there, but then you're seeing the regime bomb the camp with barrel bombs. One activist on the ground tells us that, in fact, this is where most of the casualties are coming from, from the regime's attempts to push this offensive back.

KEILAR: You would think a lot of people would wonder, why are they targeting a refugee camp?

AMANPOUR: Because they can. Just to get as far and as fast forward as they can, to get as much territory and power as possible. You know, the West has abandoned Syria. This is the result. It is a massive humanitarian catastrophe. 200,000 people-plus have been slaughtered by Bashar al Assad in the last four years of this war. And Bashar Assad's policy of starve, besiege, and try to force surrender was taken to Homs, we saw. At the same time, as Atika says, all these terrorist groups are switching allegiances, trying to get where they can. The vacuum that's been created over the last several years has been filled by ISIS right now. A little bit of al Nusra here, a little bit of this there, but really, ISIS is the dominant force here. In Yemen, again, it's al Qaeda, which is really out there, making hay out of this current civil war.

KEILAR: Do we expect that civilian assistance is attainable? Is there going to be help that comes? The U.N. is saying there must be intervention, but you're shaking your head.

AMANPOUR: I'm shaking my head because they don't even know who to talk to. As the U.N. said, we don't know who ISIS is. We don't know who their leaders are. Who are we going to negotiate with? Bashar al Assad has been famously slow, in fact, paralyzingly slow about meeting the basic demands of the international community, which is for humanitarian aid, much less get around a table and negotiate an end to this conflict. So no cares, to be honest. Nobody cares.

SHUBERT: The best they can really do is get aid to the neighboring areas. But even that is so sporadic and -

(CROSSTALK)

[14:44:16] KEILAR: And challenging in Syria.

All right. Atika Shubert, Christiane Amanpour, thank you so much.

Next, it's a heated race to become mayor in Chicago. It ends today in a runoff election. A relatively unknown politician, known as Chuy Garcia, could he give former White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, a run for his money? We're live in Chicago next.

Plus, a fight breaks out on a plane, this time, in the cockpit. Two pilots reportedly locked in a violent confrontation with passengers behind them. That story ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: It's an historic day in Chicago. The city's first ever mayoral runoff election, and incumbent, Rahm Emanuel, facing off against Cook County commissioner, Jesus Chuy Garcia. Emanuel became mayor in 2011 after giving up one of the most powerful jobs in politics as President Obama's chief of staff. The latest poll shows Emanuel with a double-digit lead going into today's vote, but Garcia says that doesn't reflect the reality on the ground.

CNN's Ryan Young is live in Chicago.

Ryan, tell us what is at stake here and what voters turnout looks like so far.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is an unexpected fight. You can see the gray skies here in Chicago. Light turnout from what we've seen so far. This really seems like almost an election about Rahm Emanuel. There's been a lot of talk about how he's been mayor over the last two years. In fact, there was a fight where he closed some 50 underperforming schools. That really infuriated a lot of people. Then there was the fight with the teachers union. There were words going back and forth. This really became a mandate for how he actually was the mayor for the first two years. He's even had commercials to talk about his personality. Since then, you see Chuy Garcia, the challenger, that no one expected to come out of left field. Now he's giving it his all in terms of trying to win this election. A lot of people have been talking about this, but so far, over the last few days, it seems like Rahm Emanuel has been able to distance himself from Chuy Garcia. And of course, we're here at a polling station and we haven't seen a lot of people going in and out to do those votes today.

[14:50:25] KEILAR: It's such a message to mayor Emanuel that someone who's a relative unknown is getting this close to him, Ryan. What has he been doing the last few days, and how is he sort of acknowledging that this is a referendum on his approval?

YOUNG: There's been a lot of conversation about that. Rahm Emanuel was able to raise $30 million ahead of this election. There's some people who say he's a downtown mayor, more for the businesses. There's also Chuy, who says he's a neighborhood person, somebody who's going to galvanize outside the city and work with those neighborhoods and unite Chicago. But in the last few days, the mayor has been able to point toward Chuy Garcia, saying he did not have a plan for dealing with some of the financial issues that this city faces in the next few months.

KEILAR: All right. Ryan Young for us there in Chicago. We'll be waiting.

We'll be back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) KEILAR: In the wake of Germanwings flight 9525 and revelations that the co-pilot locked the captain out of the cockpit and took down the plane, we're learning of another incident inside the cockpit of a passenger jet. This one, reportedly involved a fistfight.

Rene Marsh investigates.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(SHOUTING)

[14:55:48] RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION & GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We've seen passengers behaving badly --

(SHOUTING)

MARSH: -- even a pilot having a midair meltdown in the cabin, but on board Air India flight 611, the problem was in the cockpit. "The Times of India" reports two pilots went blow for blow in an all-out cockpit brawl just minutes before taking off to New Delhi.

FRED TECCE, COMMERCIAL PILOT & ATTORNEY: The breakdown in the relationship between pilots can have deadly, deadly effects. When you're in a cockpit, it's a team effort. Everything from one pilot reads a checklist to the other pilot responds and does the items on the checklist. You need this kind of cooperation.

MARSH: CNN can not independently confirm "The Times of India's" account. According to the paper's unnamed sources, the pilots were fighting over preflight paperwork. The captain reportedly told his co-pilot to write down critical information like the number of passengers on board, weight, and fuel. The co-pilot took offense and reportedly, quote, "beat up the captain." Although ten minutes delayed, the flight still took off.

Commercial pilot, Fred Tecce, says it shouldn't have.

TECCE: If you have a problem with an airplane, you need to address that problem before it ever pushes back from the gate. If there was a physical fistfight between these two, that compromised the passengers' safety.

MARSH: Air India denies the fistfight, saying, quote, "It was just a minor argument."

Following the Germanwings flight 9525 crash, pilots' mental health is in sharp focus. The Air India co-pilot reportedly had other altercations. Three years ago, he told the captain of a flight to exit the cockpit, remove the stars on his shirt collar, and fight him. In another incident, a captain reportedly questioned the co-pilot's mental health.

(on camera): Many pilots say when there is tension or an ongoing dispute in the cockpit, the proper procedures is to report the problem is before takeoff so a different crew can take over. The captain of this Air India flight reportedly did not do that in order to prevent the flight from being canceled.

India as a whole has struggled with aviation safety. The FAA downgraded the country's safety rating just last year.

Rene Marsh, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: Top of the hour. I'm Brianna Keilar, in for Brooke Baldwin.

Right now, two big cases in the hands of separate juries. First, the terror trial in Boston. A jury is behind closed doors deciding the fate of alleged Boston Marathon bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. We'll take you live to the courthouse in a few moments.

First, an hour south of Boston, there's another high-profile murder case, and it's reaching a critical moment. Former NFL star, Aaron Hernandez, could soon learn his fate. He's accused of killing semi- pro player, Odin Lloyd, in 2011. Lloyd was found shot to death in an industrial park less than a mile from Hernandez's home. The trial has taken months, 131 witnesses, 430 exhibits, and right now jury instructions that have now gone on for more than an hour. But it all comes down to this: Did the state prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Hernandez killed Lloyd?

The prosecutor asked jurors to consider the evidence and Hernandez's behavior after Lloyd's alleged murder.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[14:59:11] WILLIAM MCCAULEY, PROSECUTOR: So the gun in the house, he's got it in the house in his hand after the homicide, and who would? After a homicide, who would be walking around with a gun in his hand like it was a trophy of some sort? Keeping a gun in the house. You know who would? Aaron Hernandez would because, guess what? No one would ever believe it, right? A jury like yourself wouldn't believe he could do -- he was involved in this. So why would he do this? Why would he do this? That's what he's thinking. No one's going to think I had anything to do with it. I can keep the gun in my house.