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Ceasefire-Hostage Release Talks Expected To Resume In Doha; Police Kill Gang Leader In Gunfight, Residents Fight Back; Strikes Targeted Ukraine's Defense Intelligence; Apple Sued In A Landmark iPhone Monopoly Lawsuit; Lawmakers Unveil $1.2 Trillion Spending Bill; WFP 25M+ in Sudan, South Sudan, Chad Face Food Insecurity; Indian Opposition Leader Arrested Ahead of Election; World Water Day; India's Silicon Valley is Runing Out of Water; Inside TSMC in Taiwan. Aired 1- 2a ET
Aired March 22, 2024 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone, I'm Michael Holmes, appreciate your company. Coming up here on CNN Newsroom. Israel's operation in one of Gazans few hospitals that are left working has civilians trapped as the IDF says it's searching for Hamas militants and hostages claims that are being held there.
Civilians in Haiti take justice into their own hands as gangs threaten their neighborhoods.
And a new report marking World Water Day warns a lack of access to clean water is threatening world peace.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Atlanta. This is CNN Newsroom with Michael Holmes.
HOLMES: Negotiations are expected to resume in Doha in the hours ahead as the U.S., Israel, Egypt and Qatar continue to work towards a potential ceasefire in Gaza and the return of hostages held by Hamas. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Arab leaders in Cairo on Thursday, he will travel to Tel Aviv and meet with Israel's Prime Minister and war cabinet in the hours ahead.
Egypt says the U.S. has agreed to plan what they described as concrete steps to get more aid into Gaza. As for a ceasefire and hostage deal, America's top diplomat gave this assessment of the top.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Negotiators continue to work. The gaps are narrowing, and we're continuing to push for an agreement in Doha. Still difficult work to get there. But I continue to believe it's possible.
(END VIDEO CLIP) HOLMES: The U.S. says it will bring its U.N. Security Council resolution on Gaza up for a vote on Friday morning after vetoing multiple prior resolutions. This one from the U.S. will express support for the ongoing diplomatic efforts, while also calling for quote an immediate and sustained ceasefire in connection with the release of all remaining hostages. A U.S. official says it's meant to pressure Hamas to accepting the deal on the table.
Meanwhile, European leaders voiced support for a humanitarian pause in Gaza but fell short of calling for an immediate ceasefire.
Now on the ground in northern Gaza and Israeli military operation at Al-Shifa Hospital stretched into its fourth day, with thousands of civilians trapped on the premises. CNN's Jeremy Diamond reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A crowded stairwell at Al-Shifa Hospital. Dozens of women and children await Israeli military instructions. For four days thousands of civilians have been trapped here as the Israeli military raids the hospital targeting Palestinian militants allegedly operating inside the medical complex.
Soldiers are everywhere the voice on the loudspeaker warns if you leave the premises the soldiers will shoot you. We have warned you. We have come here in order to get the Israeli hostages then we will let you go.
Soon word of evacuations begins to spread. Now they're forcing out the women, the voice behind the camera says. We don't know where they're going to take us.
The Israeli military says they have killed more than 140 militants in and around the hospital and attain these five men described as senior terror operatives among more than 600 suspects the Israeli military says they've detained. Eyewitnesses say medical personnel and other civilians have also been rounded up.
Outside the hospital the fighting continues. As seen through the lens of Hamas militants who have been targeting Israeli tanks and troops around the hospital complex.
Israeli airstrikes reducing parts of the surrounding al Ramal neighborhood to rubble, sending thousands fleeing south. It's a journey marked by the sights and smells of death.
We walked over the martyrs who are dead in the street, people are reduced to body parts, this woman cries, where is the humanity. The newly displaced arrive on foot in central Gaza carrying only backpacks in plastic bags, children clutching dolls and stuffed animals.
Others like this mother and her triplets arrived with nothing at all.
[01:05:02]
The tanks and artillery we're firing at the buildings around Al-Shifa and forcing people to leave the buildings, she says. They make them leave with nothing on them. Nothing, no pillow, no blanket, not even water. Nuza (ph) isn't just fleeing the fighting, but the starvation that has left her eight-month old babies thin and frail.
You can see them, she says, each of them is not even two kilos, eight months old, and not even two kilos. Anyone who sees them we think they're only two months old. And they are eight months. It's a catastrophe, no water, no food and siege and gunfire.
But her journey is not over yet. She's heading further south in search of food and shelter, no longer taken for granted in Gaza. Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Jerusalem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: For more on the dire conditions inside Gaza, we're joined by Dr. Thaer Ahmed, he is now back in the United States after working inside Nassau Hospital earlier this year. Doctor, really appreciate your time. How would you sum up conditions when you were in Gaza in terms of what you saw at but also the resources?
DR. THAER AHMED, BOARD MEMBER, MEDGLOBAL: I mean, it was apocalyptic. It was horrific. It was miserable. It really was conditions that I don't think we've ever seen before. I work for MedGlobal, a nonprofit organization that we've been in Yemen, in Sudan, in Syria and Turkey after the earthquake all over the world. And we've never seen anything like the Gaza Strip.
I mean, not only are we talking about an intense military campaign, where 2.2 million people are close together in this very small strip of land, but we're not allowing any food, any water and the medicine in each hospital, one by one seems to be dismantled and the healthcare system has collapsed.
So people who are injured have nowhere to go. And the doctors are also being killed in an alarming number 400 healthcare workers have been killed and 200 abducted.
HOLMES: Yes, absolutely. Yes. Another doctor, Dr. Nick Maynard, he spoke recently about what he saw out at Al-Aqsa Hospital, he spoke of one particular child with burns. I just want to play that for people.
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DR. NICK MAYNARD, BRITISH SURGEON: I saw things at Al Aqsa Hospital, which I still wake up at night thinking about one child alone, never forget had burned so bad, you could see her facial bones. We knew there was no chance of her surviving that. But there was no morphine to give her.
So not only was she inevitably going to die, but she would die in agony. And what made it even worse, there was nowhere for her to go and die. So she was just left on the floor of the emergency department to die.
(END VIDEO CLIP) HOLMES: It's just impossible to comprehend that facial bones showing no more thing, no pain relief, left to die on the floor. Unimaginable. What sorts of things will stay with you forever?
AHMED: You know, I will never forget, the father begging me to continue working on his daughter after bringing her in to the emergency department at Nasser, after their house had been bombed and destroyed. And it was just a 11-year-old girl lying on the floor and the emergency department lifeless knowing that I couldn't do anything. And he was begging me. He said it's only been five minutes, please do something. It's only been five minutes.
And I didn't -- I couldn't bring myself to be able to tell him that there was nothing that we could do. And I had to watch that father, pick up his daughter in the blanket that he had wrapped her in and brought her to the emergency department for home and go and find somewhere in the middle of the night to bury her and then go and try to find the place for him in his family to seek refuge or shelter and knowing that there was nowhere for them to go.
I mean, every family has a story in the Gaza Strip. Everybody has lost someone. Everybody has been affected by this. And the vast majority of them seem to be women and children. And those numbers are what we saw at Nasser Hospital. That's the families that we had seen. And so many of them just had to say goodbye to their loved ones.
HOLMES: As a medical professional, how frustrating, frustrating is probably not the word, infuriating is that they have to work with such injuries with, you know, for example, no way to alleviate the pain of the patients to be able to treat them the way that you can outside of Gaza.
AHMED: You know, that's something that I really struggled with when I was there something that overwhelmed me. I mean, we are asking the Palestinian health care workers to do so much with so little. They don't they don't even have clean gloves. They don't even have clean equipment. They have to treat patients on the floor because there are no hospital carts. Some days there are no pain medicine. Other days there's no antibiotics.
They are watching patients suffer and die up slow and painful death and it's almost like this is something that a nurse had told me.
[01:10:02]
It's almost like you wish they would have just died initially in an airstrike or a bomb rather than them having to suffer on the floor without any of their dignity and no one around them. I mean, that is the catastrophe that's taking place in Gaza.
HOLMES: And to that point, what does the world need to do for those people in Gaza, the civilians, the women and the children? Do they feel and I imagine they do abandoned by the world?
AHMED: Absolutely. I mean, the one thing that really stuck out in my head is that everybody's asking, are we not also human beings? Are we not also people who have children that they love? I mean, I remember walking in the pediatric department of Nasser Hospital, and going to a room where a child had been killed because a tank shell burst through her window, struck her in the head and instantly killed her. And I remember turning around and seeing 11 children playing Ring around the Rosie in the department.
The world needs to realize that Palestinians are human beings too. They need to understand that they have feelings. They want their kids to grow up. They don't want their kids to die in airstrikes. And that's something -- that's the first step.
The second that we realize that the 32,000 people and the 13,000 children have faces and have stories and have dreams, that's the step we can get closer to a ceasefire. That's the step that we can get closer to aid coming in from the border and reaching the hungry and starving people. But right now, it seems like the entire world does not consider the Palestinians human enough.
HOLMES: Powerful testimony, Dr. Thaer Ahmed. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.
AHMED: Thank you for having me.
HOLMES: Now turning to the continuing civil unrest and humanitarian crisis in Haiti, the U.N. describing the gang violence, growing hunger and rising fear as quote, human suffering at an alarming scale.
The humanitarian current coordinator for Haiti says more than 2,500 people have been killed, injured or kidnapped over just the past couple of months. U.N. says more than 5 million Haitians need assistance, more than 3 million of them children and the gangs have advanced into new areas of the capital of Port-au-Prince in the past few days.
CNN has learned that one of the Haitian gang leaders was killed in Port-au-Prince on Thursday night. According to a source he was killed in a gunfight with police and now residents are fighting back against the gangs as CNN's David Culver reports. We do want to warn you some of the images might be disturbing to some viewers.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRRESPONDENT: Oh my god. Body just sitting right in the middle of the street there. And people are trying to figure out best way to get around it.
CULVER (voice-over): Across the street, this family rushes into a truck shielding their little ones eyes and effort to preserve what innocence is left here in Haiti. The gruesome sights slowing but not stopping the morning rush hour.
CULVER: And you can even see here look at this. A police car is just going right past and it'll continue on. Doesn't even stop.
CULVER (voice-over): A neighbor explains how an overnight gang attack ended in vigilante killings.
CULVER: This is gunfire. Shooting here.
CULVER (voiceover): This man says he and more than 50 others immediately set out to find those terrorizing their neighborhood. They surrounded a man they didn't recognize.
CULVER: And you believe he was a gang member.
CULVER (voice-over): Carrying machetes he tells me, they carried out justice as he sees it. The only way they know to defend themselves.
When they come in shooting all around trying to scare us to flee, we won't just let them kill us. They have to die, he tells me.
CULVER: The way you see this is kill or be killed.
CULVER (voice-over): Police don't condone the killings, but they are overwhelmed and overrun and they don't have time to stop them. There are daily gun battles in the capitol as police struggled to push the gangs back. The officers have willpower, but little else.
We see that firsthand as we patrol with Haiti's National Police.
CULVER: There are no front lines in this war, the boundaries are blurred and they're constantly shifting. And these officers know driving around in an armored vehicle like this. Well, they expect to be shot and they're moving targets.
CULVER (voice-over): They cruise through gang territory revealing a city in ruins and on fire. At this intersection, we find another gruesome scene. Three bodies half eaten by dogs and still smoldering. People desperate for food and for shelter, even if it is in the shell of what was once a government building.
I mean this is just a symbol state collapse here.
[01:15:00]
CULVER: More than 1,500 have now occupied this building and made it their home. Mostly children from (INAUDIBLE).
CULVER (voice-over): And there were those who line up for hours trying to get visas to go anywhere but here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's no security, but there's no jobs. There's no jobs, we're running after us whenever we are.
CULVER (voice-over): The gangs and now targeting more affluent areas.
CULVER: What's left of an ATM is still in there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're trying to show themselves as Robin Hood's or stuff, but there just is, they're just thieves. They're criminals.
CULVER (voice-over): For street vendors like this woman who still have fruits to sell, no customers to buy them.
CULVER: Because folks can't afford most of these items.
CULVER (voice-over): More troubling for her, the horrors she witnesses on the streets. Many people have died, she tells me, and they have to make trips to pick them up. We see that for ourselves as we head back just before curfew.
Medics clearing the remains of that suspected gang member. They hurry not to save a life, but to pick up two more bodies on the same street.
Here in Haiti, humanity has disintegrated into a brutal fight for survival.
CULVER: Late Thursday a Haitian security source confirming to us that police killed a gang leader and an operation that played out in the downtown area that same area in which we were embedded with police. Police also, according to the source, killed several gang members. However, for officers, it's always a question as to how long they can hold the line. David Culver, CNN, Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
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HOLMES: A Ukrainian defense source telling CNN that Russia's latest missile barrage on Kyiv was targeting the country's defense Intelligence Directorate, that is the Ukrainian agency behind a string of recent high profile attacks and cross border raids into Russia. The source says the conclusion was reached after looking into the trajectory of Russian missiles fired on Kyiv on Thursday. CNN Fred Pleitgen with more.
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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIOANL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): After more than a month of relative calm Ukraine's capital once again under sustained Russian missile fire, more than a dozen injured mostly from falling debris as the Ukrainians shot the missiles down.
This is a ruthless extermination of the Ukrainians and an attack on the civilian population that was just sleeping, this man says. We feel hatred, terrible hatred, he says. This is not fear. This is hatred towards Russia generally and every one in particular.
Russia is new missile blitz on Ukraine's capital coming just as Vladimir Putin was officially announced as the winner of the Russian presidential election, which was never in doubt.
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): The elections have shown that Russia today is one big friendly family. We work together on the historical path chosen by us confident in ourselves in our strengths and in our future. Thank you.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): But some Russians fear their path after Putin's victory could lead them straight into military service and the battlefields in Ukraine. As Russia burns through soldiers while achieving only minor gains, and the Russian Defense Ministry says they will drastically increase the size of the Russian military by tens of thousands of troops.
SERGEI SHOIGU, RUSSIAN DEFENSE MINISTER (through translator): The plan is to form by the end of the year two combined arms armies of 30 units including 14 divisions and 16 brigades.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): All this as the Ukrainians are already drastically outmanned and outgunned. Ammunition stocks running dangerously low, Kyiv says. The EU now wants to step up and use profits from Russian assets frozen in Europe to pay for arming Ukraine.
While the Kremlin is threatening to retaliate, the Ukrainians say they will come to measure with the U.S. funding still held up by House Republican leadership, even though National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, on the visit to Ukraine said he remains hopeful.
JAKE SULLIVA, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: From our perspective, we are confident we will get this done. We will get this aid to Ukraine.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): Just hours after Sullivan's remarks, Putin's missiles came raining down on key of a reminder that when it comes to getting weapons stocks replenished the Ukrainians don't have a moment to lose. Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Berlin.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Coming up here on the program, a landmark law against Apple why the U.S. Justice Department says the tech giant has too much power in the marketplace. You're watching CNN Newsroom. We'll be right back.
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HOLMES: The U.S. Justice Department and more than a dozen states are suing Apple in a massive antitrust lawsuit tech giant is being accused of illegally controlling the smartphone market. CNN's Brian Todd with more on that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's one of the most iconic, powerful brands in the world now worth more than two and a half trillion dollars. It sold more than a billion iPhones worldwide. And Apple's ability to maintain that hold on the marketplace has put it squarely in the crosshairs of the U.S. Justice Department on Thursday justice filing a sweeping antitrust lawsuit against Apple accusing the tech giant of illegally monopolizing the smartphone market.
MERRICK GARLAND, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: For consumers that has meant fewer choices, higher prices and fees, lower quality smartphones, apps and accessories and less innovation from Apple and its competitors.
TODD (voice-over): At the heart of the antitrust suit the allegation that Apple has set up its own closed ecosystem that limits Apple users to only using Apple products. That's also known as the walled garden at the center of the walled garden, the iPhone.
TRIPP MICKLE, TECHNOLOGY REPORTER, NEW YORK TIMES: And that's really you know, the centerpiece of Apple's empire. It's what has made it such a dominant company for so long.
TODD (voice-over): One example of unfair practices alleged by the Justice Department that Apple degrades the text that iPhones received from Android phones, those green texts iPhones get from non-iPhones.
BRIAN FUNG, CNN TECHNOLOGY REPORTER: The Justice Department says that messages that are sent between iPhones are more secure because they're encrypted. But when you're messaging with a non-iPhone user, that -- those messages are not encrypted and thus less secure.
TODD: Also a difference in picture quality. A picture sent from an Android to an iPhone could be of lesser quality.
FUNG: Yes, according to the Justice Department when those messages or images get exchanged, the quality is less. You know, images might look grenier videos might look grenier.
TODD (voice-over): Another example of what the Justice Department calls Apple's quote exclusionary conduct, these days good luck trying to use anything but Apple Pay if you're using your phone at the checkout counter.
GARLAND: Apple has blocked third party developers from creating competing digital wallets on the iPhone. They use what is known as tap to pay functionality.
TODD (voice-over): And Justice says Apple watches only work well with iPhones forcing owners to buy nothing but Apple phones. The Justice Department says unlocking more competition for Apple products will lead to more innovation and lower prices for consumers.
FUNG: On the other hand, Apple says, look, if you if the justice department gets its way, then that effectively makes Apple devices much more like Android devices and consumers don't want that.
TODD: Apple responded to this antitrust suit by saying that it quote threatens who we are and the principles that set Apple products apart in fiercely competitive markets.
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Apple says if the lawsuit is successful, it would hinder Apple's ability to create the kind of technology people expect from it. And the company says the lawsuit is wrong on the facts of the law. Last fall, Apple did introduce plans to make texting from Android phones just as good as texting from iPhones. Brian Todd, CNN Washington.
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HOLMES: Authorities in El Paso, Texas say the situation is under control now after a large group of migrants breached a barricade on the border with Mexico. It's not clear what caused the rush but officials describe it as an isolated incident.
Between four and 600 people were arrested for illegally crossing the border between ports of entry. Additional personnel have been deployed to the area patrols have been increased. A government official though says there hasn't been any significant rise in the number of migrants crossing in El Paso, which has averaged about 1,000 a day for the past few months.
U.S. lawmakers have unveiled a $1.2 trillion funding package that includes tens of billions of dollars for border security. The House and Senate are now facing a major time crunches a number of critical operations. We'll run out of money at the end of the day Friday. CNN's Manu Raju reports.
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MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CRRESPONDENT: Now nearly three in the morning on Thursday, congressional leaders and top appropriators released a bill that is more than 1,000 pages in length $1.2 trillion to fund the federal government, the rest of the federal government until the end of the current fiscal year and they have to pass this bill before Friday at 11:59 p.m., giving lawmakers very little time to review the details.
And of course this was six months late the first deadline. The deadline to refund the federal government is actually October 1st of last year but unable to get an agreement at that point they passed a short term extension that led to the ouster of the then-speaker Kevin McCarthy amid a revolt on his right flank. Then after a messy period, the new speaker came in Mike Johnson, they had to agree this several more short term extensions of government funding, ultimately leaving -- leading to this process that led to a bipartisan deal.
Mike Johnson cutting with Chuck Schumer, the Senate Majority Leader, along with the White House, they had to draft this bill behind closed doors, ultimately dropping it in the lap of Congress and asking their colleagues to simply voted up or voted down and risk a government shutdown. And that's where the -- why there are so many members who are frustrated with this process.
And some of them are not ruling out the prospect that eventually Mike Johnson, his job could be at risk. While no one is explicitly warning that they will actually use what's known as the motion to vacate the House to Mike Johnson for the speakership. They know this is a threat that hangs over the speaker, if he continues down this path.
If you have something you can use to force the speaker to do what you want, why not use it, the motion to vacate?
CHIP ROY, U.S. HOUSE REPUBLICAN: Well, we all have to sit down and decide what's in the best interest of the country. What's in the best interest the party. This bill is bait. OK, so we got to decide after this bill, what are we going to do next? But I don't want to hear any nonsense about supplementals.
MATT GAETZ, U.S. HOUSE REPUBLICAN: If we vacated this speaker, we'd end up with a Democrat. You know, when I vacated the last one, I made a promise to the country that we would not end up with a Democrat speaker and I was right. I couldn't make that promise again today.
RAJU: Jonathan's job is safe.
GAETZ: It is.
RAJU: Now Johnson has ignored those threats from his right flank as he has decided to work with Democrats when it comes to funding the government. The bill that is expected to pass on Friday will get a sizable amount of Democratic support likely a majority of Democrats in the House, the questions how many Republicans ultimately vote for it will be more than Democrats that is uncertain at this point. But we do expect it to pass on Friday.
The question will be how quickly does it get processed in the United States Senate and requires all 100 senators to agree to a time line to actually have the vote on the floor of the Senate any one senator can drag this out for several days beyond the 11:59 p.m. deadline potentially leading to a shutdown over the weekend or early into early next week.
But the expectation is this will eventually pass. Ultimately, there is a shutdown. It will happen on a short term basis over the weekend. And then Congress can put this very messy episode behind them as they look into the new fiscal year. The fight that is coming up in the fall to fund the federal government next year. Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.
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HOLMES: As conflict rages in Sudan, the most vulnerable in this crisis mothers and their children face starvation. We'll have more when we come back.
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HOLMES: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM with me, Michael Holmes.
Now the U.S. special envoy for Sudan is calling methods used by Sudanese paramilitary groups deplorable and wants accountability.
This reaction came after a CNN investigation found that the RSF or Rapid Support Forces used intimidation, torture, and execution to recruit men and children in Sudan. The individuals were also denied food and medical aid.
Rival factions have been fighting for control of the country since civil war broke out nearly a year ago.
Meanwhile, the U.N.'s World Food Programme is warning that more than 25 million people across Sudan, neighboring South Sudan and Chad are facing a spiral of food insecurity. Another U.N. agency says around 220,000 severely malnourished children could die in Sudan if food doesn't reach them in the coming months. But conflict has kept that much needed aid from those who need it
most.
Joining me now is Mary Ellen McGroarty. She is the World Food Programme's country director for South Sudan.
It's good to see. How does what's happening in Sudan, the conflict there, impact South Sudan, which is your area of focus.
MARY ELLEN MCGROARTY, WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME COUNTRY DIRECTOR FOR SOUTH SUDAN: Yes. Good morning, Michael.
Yes. The war in Sudan is having a devastating impact here in South Sudan. A humanitarian impact and an economic impact, Over 610,000 people have fled the war in Sudan into South Sudan into a country where we already have over 7 million people acutely food insecure, and 1.6 million children at risk of malnutrition.
Many of these people coming are coming with absolutely nothing and they're arriving into very difficult conditions.
It's also having an economic impact. Weve seen the price of the food basket double since the war began. And when you have a population where they spent 75 percent, 80 percent of their money on food alone any price increase is devastating
HOLMES: Yes.
I saw a statistic that said the number of people requiring humanitarian support right now represents 73 percent of the country's population -- 73 percent.
How does that scale of need play out on the ground? How are people's day-to-day lives impacted?
MCGROARTY: Yes I mean what. You have is yes, I mean -- this was before we had the war in Sudan that's add another layer of complexity.
It basically means because of climate change, because of conflict, because of economic shocks families, mothers can't put a square meal a day on the table for the children.
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MCGROARTY: And at the moment, we're hurtling towards what we call the lean season and then when it gets (INAUDIBLE) for harvest to come in, it gets more and more difficult.
And currently over the last two weeks, we're also experiencing a heatwave, which has also probably an impact on the agricultural season.
HOLMES: Yes, top U.N. officials have said the conflict in Sudan again has plunged the country into quote, "one of the worst humanitarian nightmares in recent history and could trigger the world's -- the world's largest hunger crisis. Again, your focus is South Sudan, but do share that view that concern?
MCGROARTY: Yes, I mean, what we're seeing on this side of the border, I man as I said, we already had a -- South Sudan down is already grappling with its own hunger crisis. Over 600,000 people arrive into and many of them going back to areas in South Sudan that are already severely food insecure.
You know, those numbers are just going to increase and (INAUDIBLE) as we come towards the lean season. When you put together, you know, the people at risk across the three countries, the numbers are just staggering.
HOLMES: You touched on this and I think it's worth revisiting. We know the impact of the war, obviously horrific, but speak to the effects of climate change and how its playing into hunger in the region.
MCGROARTY: Yes, you know, South Sudan has had four years of unprecedented flooding that displaced over 2 million people and basically, you know, flooded agricultural lands. Also in parts of the country, they're also suffering from a drought, which means they can't grow any crops.
And currently were in two weeks of unprecedented heat wave. You know, that will, and it's the beginning of the agricultural season, you know, the impact that that will have and also the impact that it will had on livestock.
South Sudan is at the front lines of climate change as you know, with greater heat, more water, and you were expecting more flooding over the next couple of months as, you know, torrential rains in places like Uganda as enough water starts to come our way.
HOLMES: Yes, just a horrible confluence of all the effects.
The director for Save the Children in Sudan, I think Dr. Arif Noor, he said, I'm quoting him here. He said "the world looks away."
There are so many crises globally -- wars, other disasters. We've just been reporting on Gaza, Haiti, on and on, Ukraine. Has Sudan and South Sudan been? forgotten in a way by the world? How difficult is it to raise the alarm over the noise if you like, for want of a better word of the other crises.
MCGROARTY: Yes I mean I think what's happening right across the world is just terrible and crises competing with crises. And it is hard to get -- you know, raise the profile of the crisis, the war in Sudan, and the impact that its having on the neighboring -- the neighboring countries.
And this is why, you know, speaking to you this morning as a welcome opportunity. Just to remind the world of what's going on, on this side and what the impact of this devastating war is having on on places like Sudan, the people of Sudan and the people of Chad.
You know, people already that were extremely vulnerable, you know, and protecting -- you know, I've been up at the border and (INAUDIBLE) time (ph) since the war began are just meeting the women, the families, the children, you know, that are out of school, that had their lives completely upended because of this war. It's just tragic.
HOLMES: It is, and it does need to be more up the top of the priority list. Thanks for all the work you do, Mary Ellen.
MCGROARTY: Thanks.
HOLMES: Mary Ellen McGroarty there. Thanks so much.
MCGROARTY: Thank you
HOLMES: One of India's top politicians and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's staunchest critics could face corruption charges just weeks before the country's general election.
Delhi's chief minister Arvind Kejriwal was arrested on Thursday in an alleged corruption case.
Local media reports say that he will appear in court Friday. Were charges against him will be made public.
CNN's Vedika Sud joins me now from New Delhi to talk more about this. Tell us more about these accusations, what they mean for the election and what the opposition is saying. They're not happy.
VEDIKA SUD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're suddenly not happy, Michael and that's because this arrest of a sitting chief minister of Delhi comes at a time when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government stands accused of cracking down on political opponents and critics of the Modi government using or rather misusing according to critics, some of the agencies that come under the federal government.
The enforcement directorate, which is a federal financial crime agency and investigating agency also comes under the Modi government. And according to the political opponents of Modi, he is misusing and its political party they alleged -- is misusing the enforcement directory to arrest a sitting chief minister.
[01:39:49]
SUD: Now the case against Arvind Kejriwal is a serious one. It's of corruption. According to the enforcement directorate, a lot of his cabinet ministers and other politicians, including Arvind Kejriwal, face charges of corruption and taking kickbacks from an alcohol licensing policy, a charge that Arvind Kejriwal and his colleagues have denied over the last few months.
We will be hearing from the Supreme Court in a few minutes or hours from now, we don't know when that case is going to be heard, but it will be heard today where Arvind Kejriwal is now pleading for a stay against his arrest.
Now, talking about the larger picture here with the general elections just a few weeks away, opponents say that this is a calculated and orchestrated move by the Modi government, ahead of the elections, because Arvind Kejriwal as you pointed out right at the top, is one of the fiercest opponents and critics of the Modi government.
Yes, he does have relatively small party. It is a relatively new party, but this man has won the state elections in Delhi two times over. And not only in Delhi, his party has won the elections even in the state of Punjab.
He is seen as an opponent to the Modi government and Arvin Kejriwal has made it public and has declared in the past that he wants his party to be a national party and is hoping to work towards gaining that momentum across India.
Now a lot of people from political parties, opposition parties have come forward in support of Arvind Kejriwal. One of them is one of the most prominent opposition leaders from the Congress Party Rahul Gandhi. He put out a post on X and he said, and I'm going to quote him here, "A scared dictator wants to create a dead democracy."
That's what he said. And this is the concern leading up to the elections. Is the BJP, is the Modi government misusing their investigating agencies against political parties here in India before the campaigning begins and before people go to vote in this upcoming election.
Back to you.
HOLMES: All right. Great wrap up there. Vedika, thank you. Vedika Sud in New Delhi for us.
Well, as World Water Day is observed around the globe, in the coming hours some staggering numbers from the United Nations on the lack of access to clean water and its impact.
We'll have that and more after the break.
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HOLMES: A new U.N. report released to mark World Water Day on Friday warns that a lack of access to clean water is threatening peace worldwide. It says that water is often a tool and a target when it comes to warfare and regional tensions over water.
The report says more than 2 billion people do not have access to safe drinking water. It also says 3.5 billion people lack access to sanitation that is safely managed.
[01:44:46]
HOLMES: And with the climate crisis, nearly 1.5 billion people are being affected by droughts between 2002-2021. The report concludes the world is not on track to meet the United Nations goal of ensuring everyone has access to safe and clean water by 2030.
Earlier, I spoke with UNESCO's editor-in-chief of the World Water Development Report, Richard Connor and asked him to share some of the real-world impacts from these numbers from the U.N.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICHARD CONNER, UNESCO EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, WORLD WATER DEVELOPMENT REPORT: Well, I guess the first and Most obvious is food and energy security. Because really water underpins, YOU KNOW, 80 percent of electricity production worldwide. Not to mention of course the entire food supply.
Real-world I think employment, prosperity overall, but employment in particular. In developing countries, 80 percent of jobs are water dependent. They're mostly in agriculture, but also the people that work in the markets or even the banks in rural areas that support the farmers.
HOLMES: Yes.
CONNOR: So it's really -- the impact is really across the board including prosperity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: UNESCO's Richard Connor speaking with me earlier there.
Now officials in southern India say drought and major unexpected growth are putting a severe strain on the demand for water there and families tell us they're suffering.
CNN's Kristie Lu Stout with more.
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KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: India's Silicon Valley, its IT hub is running out of water. Bengaluru needs about 2 billion liters of water each day. And currently, its only getting around half of that according to the chairman of the Bengaluru Water Supply and Sewage Board. The result is a daily struggle for the city's nearly 14 million residents.
"If there is no water and we're not able to bathe, we will get sick." Mother of four Kumkum says. Her youngest child suffering through a fever.
Families like Kumkum's are now reliant on water tankers like these and have to pay for the privilege.
"Domestic worker Cecilia (ph) says she earns just $24 per month and spends half of that on water, pushing her finances to the brink.
The tankers are commissioned by the Karnataka State government, but that's no guarantee that supply can keep up with demand.
Meher Taj (ph) arrives to collect water for her family and seven children but is forced to return home empty handed.
"There was no water here," she says, "Even when I opened the tap, there is no water.
Drought means the water supply from the city's Cauvery River and man- made lakes is dwindling. Bengaluru's deputy chief minister says thousands of the city's groundwater borewells dug hundreds of meters into the earth have run dry.
Authorities have responded by fixing rates for tankers and handing out fines to those caught misusing drinking water.
Kumkum says there has been little improvement.
"The local authorities tell us they have put in an application, have filed a complaint, but nothing happens," she says.
Bengaluru's population has ballooned in recent years, as tech workers have flocked to the city's thousands of startups, as well as international firms from Adobe to Infosys. Experts say that boom, alongside unplanned urbanization have contributed to the water crisis.
VISHWANATH, BENGALURU BASED WATER RESEARCHER: If you do the distribution well, there's enough water if we tighten our belt for all of us. But if you don't do the distribution all the resources that come in will only go to a few.
STOUT: As India prepares to go to the polls the situation has turned into a political blame game. But that doesn't mean much to Bengaluru poorest people bearing the brunt of the water shortages even before the summer heat sets in.
Kristie Lu Stout, CNN, Hong Kong.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: CNN has contacted Bengaluru's Water Supply and Sewage Board, but is yet to receive a response.
CNN gets rare access to the world's largest chipmaker, the Taiwanese giant TSMC. We'll have details on its global expansion plans after the break.
[01:49:28]
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HOLMES: A mission to the International Space Station is on hold. That's the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The launch of the Soyuz rocket was aborted just 20 seconds before liftoff.
NASA says one of the service towers next to the rocket failed to initiate an engine sequence start triggering an automatic abort. A NASA astronauts and two other crew members are safe. And engineers are trying to figure out what went wrong.
The voyage from earth to the space station takes about three hours. The next opportunity to launch will be Saturday. The U.N. General Assembly has passed its first-ever resolution on artificial intelligence. The nonbinding measure adopted unanimously is aimed at guiding A.I.'s development globally, while also the monitoring it for risks. There are fears that A.I. could be used to hurt democracies, hinder human rights and steal personal information.
Rogue actors can also use it for espionage and fraud.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LINDA THOMAS-GREENFIELD, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: We're working on A.I. The private sector, the business sector is moving forward Very, very quickly on A.I. And this is why we felt this resolution that we put forward was so important that it lays a foundation for how A.I. will Operate.
So we see this resolution as putting some, some barriers in place, some walls around how A.I. can be used.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Meanwhile, demand for A.I.-powered technology is booming and TSMC in Taiwan is riding that wave. The world's largest chipmaker is expanding its global operations, while managing competitive, technological, and geopolitical risks along the way.
Will Ripley was granted rare access to the company's headquarters in Taipei.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is Taiwan's epicenter of technological revolution where precision meets
innovation and tiny chips power big dreams.
This is TSMC, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, commanding more than 50 percent of the global market, producing more than 90 percent of the world's most advanced chips.
To say it's difficult to gain access to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company would be the understatement of the year or maybe two years because that's about how long it's taken my team and I to get permission to come here.
Behind these walls, some of the world's most advanced, highly secretive technology. It's so secret you have to check your phone, your laptop, anything that emits a signal just to walk through the door.
As demand for A.I. driven technologies soars, TSMC is the go-to global manufacturer, sending stocks skyrocketing. The company's workforce, 77,000 strong and growing. A far cry from its humble beginnings in 1987, says the senior vice president of human resources, Lora Ho.
What is it like to run HR for what is arguably the most important company in the world right now?
LORA HO, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES, TSMC: I think now HR is very different than the HR then because we are fast expanding our global footprint.
RIPLEY: TSMC says it needs to hire thousands of new employees over the next few years to fill chip factories or fabs under construction right now across Taiwan and around the world.
Last month, TSMC opened its first fab in Kumamoto, Japan with the help of billions of dollars in government subsidies. They're also building new fabs in Dresden, Germany and Phoenix, Arizona.
RIPLEY: What's the most challenging location where you're trying to build a factory right now?
HO: I think Arizona is more difficult. Regulations and the culture is different. We have to adjust to local culture and different employees.
[01:54:52]
RIPLEY: Why the decision to do the more advanced technology in Arizona?
HO: Our leading-edge customers are mostly American companies. So, to serve their needs in their home country, that's the objective.
RIPLEY: That Arizona fab is facing chronic delays.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need some more help with it though, for sure.
RIPLEY: The price tag skyrocketing. Making chips outside of Taiwan and making them profitable will likely require huge government subsidies.
KRISTY HSU, DIRECTOR, TAIWAN ASEAN STUDIES CENTER, CHUAN-HUA INSTITUTE FOR ECONOMIC RESEARCH: The estimated cost in the U.S. compared with Taiwan is about 40 percent more expensive.
But right now, because of the inflation, all these kinds of issues, and right now they think it's probably two times or three times more expensive.
RIPLEY: TSMC's overseas expansion must overcome massive hurdles, an expansion world leaders say is necessary to protect the global chips supply chain from potentially disastrous disruptions.
We got a taste of that during the pandemic, months-long waits for new phones, laptops and other tech.
Any major disruption could mean waiting years for cutting-edge tech. Taiwan is a volcanic island prone to earthquakes, typhoons, and other natural disasters.
HO: There's earthquake, for example, earthquake. I think all engineering knows it needs to go back to the company soon. It doesn't matter what time it is. If it is midnight, they will come back. RIPLEY: Perhaps the biggest threat to TSMC's supply chain, also one of its biggest customers, rising tensions with China. The company's stock is surging anyway, as other nations scramble to catch up with Taiwan.
HO: I don't think it would take away the strength, because we are still very highly concentrated in Taiwan, and the most leading-edge technology were absolutely starting from Taiwan.
RIPLEY: Beyond its core semiconductor business, TSMC is exploring new frontiers in advanced packaging, paving the way for enhanced processing power and energy efficiency, pushing the boundaries of what's possible in today's fast-moving world of tech.
Will Ripley, CNN -- Taichung, Taiwan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: A treasure hunter has unearthed a gold nugget believed to be the largest ever found in England. We hasten to say, we've had bigger ones than this in Australia. The nugget is about the size of a British 50 pence coin. And was discovered near the Welsh border.
Auction house Mullock Jones says it weighs almost 65 grams, that's around 2.3 ounces, and could be worth more than $50,000. The man who found it had been struggling with a failing metal detector and switched to older equipment when he made the find. It's up for auction until April the 1st. Tiny.
Thanks for watching. I'm Michael Holmes.
CNN NEWSROOM with my friend and colleague Kim Brunhuber is up next.
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