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Russia Detains 11 in Concert Hall Attack; Catherine, Princess of Wales, Reveals Cancer Diagnosis; Late-Night Senate Vote Averts Partial Government Shutdown; U.S. Warned Russia of Potential ISIS-K Attack; Russia and China Veto U.S. Resolution on Gaza Cease-Fire; Heavy Snow and Rainfall to Impact Millions in U.S. Aired 5-6a ET

Aired March 23, 2024 - 05:00   ET

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

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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hello and welcome to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and all around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber in Atlanta. We're following developments in Russia following a terror attack near the capital, Moscow, dozens are dead with ISIS claiming responsibility

RICHARD QUEST, CNN HOST (voice-over): And good morning to you. I'm Richard Quest outside Buckingham Palace in London. Here, messages of support are pouring into for Catherine, Princess of Wales after she reveals a cancer diagnosis. I will bring you the details on what we know so far.

BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Also, the U.S. government will remain open as a spending agreement between the House and Senate squeaks by just in time.

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BRUNHUBER: Breaking news at this hour, Russian state media say 11 people, including the four gunmen, have been detained in connection with the deadly attack at a concert hall near Moscow.

Officials now say at least 93 people were killed and they expect the death toll to rise. ISIS says it was behind the attack. There's disturbing video showing the attack and people running to escape.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Other video shows the moment when gunmen opened fire inside the crowded auditorium.

In the aftermath, part of the concert hall was engulfed in fire and surrounded by emergency crews. Moscow's governor says the fire is, quote, "mostly eliminated." CNN's Ivan Watson has covered Russia extensively and he joins us now live from Hong Kong.

So first, what's the latest on the attack and those detained? IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. Well, we've learned now that the death toll, as you mentioned, has grown to at least 93 people killed with Russian authorities predicting that that death toll will continue to grow.

It will make it one of the deadliest terror attacks that Russia has seen in years. Among those wounded there are many dozens that are in serious condition, at least 44. And they include two children.

Investigators are on the scene of the Crocus City Hall, that concert venue, which was still smoking as of sunrise this morning, with emergency workers clearing some of the rubble. The roof had caved in in places.

And meanwhile, the investigators saying that they were able to find some of the weapons that had been used by gunmen as well as their ammunition, that they were going through recordings of security camera videos and starting to talk to some of the survivors themselves to piece together what exactly happened.

During this deadly attack that started around 08:00 pm local time on Friday, before the Russian band, Picnic, went onstage. Take a listen to one survivor, in fact. This is a husband of a woman who attended the concert, desperately trying to find his wife in the aftermath of the attack.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I'm in complete panic, my whole body hurts, even my heart. Blood pressure rose and all that. I took medicine and I felt better. I don't know what to do. Complete hopelessness.

My friends can only tell me just to wait for the list of victims, wait for the phone line at the hospital to open up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: Just giving you a sense of kind of the despair and the actual absolute fear that people were going through in the aftermath of this. You had calls for blood donations, with city government officials saying that this was a matter of life and death.

And there was a claim of responsibility coming from ISIS, on an ISIS affiliated Telegram account, though no evidence offered to that.

Now the latest we've just gotten from, again, the Russian government is that at least 11 people have been detained. This apparently being delivered to Russian president Vladimir Putin himself by the head of the FSB security service.

[05:05:03]

And that four are suspected terrorists that are described as directly involved in the terrorist attack on the Crocus and saying that these four suspects were detained in the region of Bryansk. That is to the southwest of Moscow.

They are being transferred to Moscow, according to the FSB. And it has gone on to say that these individuals were trying to cross the border into Ukraine.

This is going to be a potentially important development if Moscow tries to connect this terror attack to the ongoing war in Ukraine. It's been going on for more than two years. Ukrainians, a senior Ukrainian government official has come out and denied any link whatsoever between Ukraine and what took place.

Going on to say that Ukraine does not need to use terror tactics in its ongoing war with Moscow.

BRUNHUBER: Interesting new details there that you're revealing there, Ivan, and take us through again, the Russian response to this and what we're hearing from Putin in this -- in this event.

WATSON: Well, so far -- and it's been more than 14 hours since the attack -- we have not heard from the Russian president himself. He has not come out to address the Russian people at this time, though spokespeople are saying that he is abreast and he's being briefed on this issue.

In the run-up to this and I just mentioned connections to Ukraine or alleged possible connections to Ukraine. It is important to note that ISIS has been on the horizon of the Russian security services.

At least four times this month alone, Russian state media reported of Russian counter terror operations targeting alleged ISIS militants, killing them, foiling, in their words, a plot to attack a synagogue in Moscow.

Go one step further, the U.S. embassy in Moscow on March 7th, published a warning to U.S. citizens, saying stay away from large gatherings of people, including concert halls because of intelligence of possible extremist attacks in the area.

An additional wrinkle here, on Tuesday, the Russian president himself, Vladimir Putin, came out on camera and said that these warnings coming from the U.S., which had been delivered to the Russian government, were provocations aimed at destabilizing Russia.

So we will be important to see how he then deals with the fact that there were warnings about possible extremist attacks just before this deadly, deadly incident that Muscovites are still reeling from.

BRUNHUBER: All right, thanks so much. Ivan Watson in Hong Kong. Appreciate that.

Now Ukraine says it is not involved in this attack but Ukraine says it won't stop attacks on Russian oil facilities, despite alleged pushback by the U.S. The "Financial Times" reports Washington urged Kyiv to stop the attacks because they could drive up oil prices and provoke retaliation. The newspaper quoted anonymous sources. One of Ukraine's deputy prime ministers says Kyiv understands the U.S. calm. It says Ukraine has to fight the ways and means there are available to us. Ukraine has recently targeted a number of Russian refineries, saying the goal is to cut the flow of money for the Kremlin's war machine.

All right, now I want to go over to Richard Quest, outside of Buckingham Palace in London, with the latest on the Princess of Wales,

Richard.

QUEST: Many thanks. The latest on Catherine and, from all around the world, messages of support and sympathy are flooding in to Catherine, Princess of Wales, after she announced on Friday that she's suffering from cancer.

The princess revealed that she is in the early stages of chemotherapy treatment but didn't disclose the kind of cancer or the stage of cancer that she has.

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CATHERINE, PRINCESS OF WALES: As you can imagine, this has taken time. It has taken me time to recover from major surgery in order to start my treatment. But most importantly, it has taken us time to explain everything to George, Charlotte and Louis in a way that's appropriate for them and to reassure them that I'm going to be OK.

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QUEST: Now well-wishers have been pouring in since the announcement was made. The president, Joe Biden, said on social media that he and the first lady, in his words, "join millions of people around the world in praying for your full recovery, Princess Kate"

As King Charles III remains in close contact with his daughter-in-law, offering his -- her support, the British monarch himself is undergoing his own cancer treatment.

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A U.K. source says Queen Camilla told some well-wishers while she visited Northern Ireland that her husband was, in her words, doing very well. The king has received treatment at a London hospital in January. These are the morning newspapers --

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QUEST: CNN's royal historian Kate Williams joins me now from London.

So, Kate Williams, can you hear me, first of all?

KATE WILLIAMS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I can hear you. All good.

QUEST: Excellent. Excellent. So I've got the morning newspapers here. And it says that "The Sun"

has, Kate, you are not alone, a reference to what Kate herself was saying this morning, when she told to -- talking to other cancer patients.

"Kate Reveals Cancer Shock," is the "Daily Mirror." And "The Times" newspaper says, "Princess Reveals her Cancer and Says I'm Going to Be OK."

How do you think the British press and British people are taking this so far?

WILLIAMS: Well, I mean, what a shock that announcement was yesterday and our hearts go out to her. I mean, the cancer diagnosis coming after you think you've had this huge operation but it's all gone well and you're getting better.

A month later, you're told that you need chemotherapy. And Kate's message, I think, was so moving, so emotional. You and I were talking about it yesterday. We crossed paths. And it's just I think a huge moment in our reckoning with the royal family.

We've seen royal women suffer, being chased and, over the past few months, Kate's been -- all these memes and social media and now this is outpouring of sympathy and people are starting to say, you know, what are we thinking with all this where's Kate business?

What we knew, what we were told was the truth. She was not well, she wasn't on a beach somewhere. And I think there is a lot of sympathy. And really, I think Kate's message was so dignified and so meaningful.

We know she doesn't like public speaking but I don't know what you thought, Richard, but I really -- it really reminded me of when the queen comes out there and gives messages during her reign, when Elizabeth II, in times of crisis.

And there was so important, I just think, Kate took a video message rather than a statement from Kensington Palace, really shows that she's taking control of this narrative for herself.

QUEST: The other part I thought was very telling and the more I heard it, the more personal and the more clear it became, was this bit about, I know I have a public duty and responsibility but my main priority now has to be looking after or with the children obviously, and my recovery.

This was much more personal than we've seen -- than we would expect to see from royals in the past.

WILLIAMS: Yes, Kate was talking to us really as a mother, not so much as a princess but as a mother and as, they made it clear, they've been trying to protect the children. Kate always put the children first.

And the principle of a everything now was that the children would no longer be at school, so they could deal with it together as a family. And it's just so moving, isn't it, Richard, because you and I were covering the coronation.

It wasn't even a year ago that we were there talking about all the history of the coronation. And now less than a year later, we have Charles out for the foreseeable future. We don't know when we're going to see him again in public. Certainly not until the summer.

And Kate as well and really, obviously, really sort of battening down the hatches and kept speaking to the children. And because we know that George is 10, Charlotte is 8, Louis 5. This is a tough thing to hear, to hear that your mummy has not only had a hospital operation but she's now having chemotherapy.

QUEST: So on the, since we're at Buckingham Palace, on the, if you will, official front, with Kate and the king pretty much out of commission for the foreseeable future, it leaves the queen doing a huge amount of extra work.

I think Northern Ireland and things like that. William obviously will continue his duties. I imagine Edward and Sophie, the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, pick up some of the slack.

But not being sort of -- they need more people.

WILLIAMS: They do need more people. If this was a company, it would recruit more people at this stage. But you're the royal family. You can't advertise for extra royals to join in the operation because Princess Anne -- I mean, you've been saying this. She already is doing so much.

And Edward and Sophie, they already have quite a full diary as well. Andrew is not -- we don't want him in the picture. So really with Kate out and the king out, the two big royal stars.

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The slimmed-down royal family is looking very slim and we have a big year ahead. We're probably going to have an election, a general election, and probably even a change of government. These are uncharted waters because the king would normally preside over that.

He can do a lot via video conferencing, via Zoom but not everything. So we are seeing a very different royal family family. I think certainly for this whole year.

QUEST: Kate Williams, grateful for you as always. Thank you so much.

Whichever way this turns, it always indeed comes back to the fact that the Princess of Wales has cancer, is -- or is being treated for cancer. And we really don't know much more other than what we heard yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CATHERINE, PRINCESS OF WALES: It has been an incredibly tough couple of months for our entire family.

QUEST (voice-over): After weeks of speculation, the Princess of Wales dispelled the rumors and gave us the facts.

PRINCESS CATHERINE: In January, I underwent major abdominal surgery, in London. And at the time, it was thought that my condition was non- cancerous. The surgery was successful.

However, tests after the operation found cancer had been present. My medical team, therefore, advised that I should undergo a course of preventative chemotherapy. And I'm now in the early stages of that treatment.

QUEST (voice-over): Suddenly, so clear why Kate's recovery, after leaving The London Clinic, had taken so long and why she'd avoided the public eye.

PRINCESS CATHERINE: This, of course, came as a huge shock. And William and I have been doing everything we can to process and manage this privately, for the sake of our young family.

QUEST (voice-over): The diagnosis is still visibly raw. But CNN understands, the Princess is and has been in good spirits. Kate and Prince William are focusing, on how to explain the diagnosis,

to their young children, the three, last seen with their mother, in the now infamous and doctored Mother's Day photo. The many edits, fueling the rumors about the Princess' health, that all seems irrelevant now.

With King Charles, also recovering from cancer, the Princess' PR nightmare came at a delicate time, for the Royal Family. It left William and Queen Camilla, to hold the fort.

Now as she heals, Princess Catherine is asking for privacy and time.

PRINCESS CATHERINE: My work has always brought me a deep sense of joy. And I look forward to being back when I am able. But for now, I must focus on making a full recovery.

QUEST (voice-over): Britain has seemingly rallied, behind its Princess.

Prince (sic) Charles saying he was proud, praising Kate's courage.

And the British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, wishing her a speedy recovery, promising the love and support of the entire country.

PRINCESS CATHERINE: I am well and getting stronger every day, by focusing on the things that will help me heal, in my mind, body and spirits.

QUEST (voice-over): And now, the Princess of Wales hopes to be left alone, to focus on her family and her recovery.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUEST: The variety of ways in which this can now move forward are really quite extraordinary in the sense that, on the one level, again, this is absolutely a story of the personal medical difficulties of somebody and how that dealing with it and with their family. And then you advance it further to the, if you will official constitutional area.

And it becomes much more a story of how does the monarchy cope with all of this?

And then finally, you do have the uncertainty, which is just unknown and obviously we're dealing with cancer in some -- in the case of the king and in Kate, and uncharted territory for both.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, so many angles and implications to the story. Really appreciate it, Richard. We Quest will come back to you a little later in the program.

Meantime, the U.S. has avoided a partial government shutdown after a vote in the Senate just hours ago. To get that done, senators had to do some last-minute dealmaking that went down to the wire. We will have that more ahead. Please stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Plenty of political drama in Washington, where a partial U.S. government shutdown was averted earlier this morning. That's when the Senate passed a package of spending bills to keep the government fully up and running.

The legislation will now be headed to President Joe Biden, who will sign it into law later today, according to a White House official. But as Melanie Zanona reports, it took some last-minute wheeling and dealing in the Senate to get that done.

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MELANIE ZANONA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, a deal has been reached to avoid a government shutdown. The House earlier on Friday passed a massive spending package that would fund the remaining six government agencies that have yet to be funded.

And then they sent it over to the Senate. But over in the Senate, it requires cooperation from every single senator in order to be able to move quickly on bills. And Republicans were refusing to give their consent unless they got their desired amendment vote.

So that led to a standoff between Democrats and Republicans for hours. They went back and forth but they finally came to an agreement just minutes before the midnight deadline.

It has been such a tortured process to get to this point because Congress was supposed to have funded the government back in October. But instead they kicked the can down the road. They passed temporary patch after temporary patch.

And they finally released a massive government funding package at 3 in the morning on Thursday, leaving themselves not a whole lot of time to let lawmakers read the bill and get them through both chambers.

So this has been a long and tortured process. There's been a lot of drama over the last few months. But it looks like Congress is finally on track to avoid a government shutdown and put this funding saga behind them --

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-- Melanie Zanona, Capitol Hill, CNN.

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BRUNHUBER: U.S. House Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene is pushing to oust the House Speaker in the wake of the government funding deals. The right-wing congresswoman from Georgia says Mike Johnson keeps going getting rolled in negotiations. She filed a motion to remove him from the top job on Friday.

Saying quite a few of her fellow Republicans have expressed support for her efforts to remove Johnson but she wouldn't say when she plans to call for a vote.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): I filed the motion to vacate, today. But it's more of a warning and a pink slip. I respect our conference. I paid all my dues to my conference. I'm a member in good standing. And I do not wish to inflict pain on our conference and to throw the -- throw the House in chaos.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Now some Democrats are signaling they might vote to save speaker Johnson and especially if he agrees to bring up Ukraine aid for a vote.

Donald Trump has until Monday to post a nearly $0.5 billion bond in his civil fraud case as New York prepares to seize his assets. Now the state attorney general's office is rejecting Trump's claims that he can't find an insurance company to cover the $464 million bond.

Prosecutors say Trump should try to get the insurance companies to band together to underwrite it. Despite Trump's legal team telling the court he doesn't have enough cash to post the bond, the former president claims in a Truth Social post he has almost $500 million in cash. But that's for his campaign.

The death toll from a terror attack on a concert hall near Moscow is rising. And Russian state media is reporting arrests. We'll have the latest on this breaking story next on CNN NEWSROOM.

Also ahead, the latest diplomatic efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza.

Plus five days under siege at Al-Shifa Hospital, as Israeli forces carry out a major military operation. Those stories and more when we come back, please stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all you watching us here in the United States, Canada and around the world, I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

Russian state media says 11 people, including the four gunmen, have been detained in connection with the deadly attack at a concert hall near Moscow. Russia now says 93 people were killed and they expect the death toll to go higher.

ISIS is claiming responsibility for the attack. Now there's stunning and disturbing video, showing gunmen opening fire on a crowd gathered for a concert.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Other video shows people taking cover inside the concert hall when the shots were fired. In the aftermath, part of the concert hall was engulfed in fire and surrounded by emergency crews.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: I want to bring in Matthew Schmidt, who's an associate professor of national security at the University of New Haven and a former professor of strategic and operational planning at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. And he joins us live.

Thanks so much for being here with us.

So just to start, what do you make of the attack itself and the way it was carried out?

MATTHEW SCHMIDT, FORMER PROFESSOR, U.S. ARMY COMMAND AND GENERAL STAFF COLLEGE: Well, first of all, I just want to say this was absolutely horrendous and my heart goes out to the victims and their families.

As for how the attack was carried out, the accounts that we have is that it was well-planned, that it was sophisticated. And that means that it seems to have taken some time to do. And the perpetrators have had access to significant resources to plan and conduct the attack, military resources and training resources.

BRUNHUBER: And the people behind it. I mean, ISIS is claiming responsibility for this.

Why would they target Russia?

SCHMIDT: They are an organization, ISIS-K stands for Khorasan, which is an ancient kingdom that spans from Afghanistan to Iran to Turkmenistan, which is central Asia, former Soviet central Asia.

And they are trying to push Russia's influence out of that region. They view Russia as supporting the Taliban government in Afghanistan. And they're trying to split that support. They also engaged in a terror attack at the Russian embassy in Kabul in September.

BRUNHUBER: All right.

So Russian security service says that four suspects were detained near the Ukrainian border and intended to cross into Ukraine.

What do you make of this and how Russia might try to implicate Ukraine in this attack?

SCHMIDT: Well, first of all, I would -- I would take these announcements with a little bit of a grain of salt. It's pretty amazing that these perpetrators, purported perpetrators were arrested this quickly.

But this sets up Putin, who hasn't yet spoken, which is also strange, to connect the narrative of the attack to Ukraine. This is despite the fact that the FSB, the state security service, came out early after the attack and said that they ruled out Ukraine as a perpetrator.

So this seems to be a way in for Putin if he wants to take it to threaten increased military action in Ukraine. But he ends up saying that these, these perpetrators had some connection there.

BRUNHUBER: Yes. Now the U.S. had warned Russia that an attack might be imminent.

Are you surprised those warnings were so publicly dismissed by Putin and not taken seriously?

SCHMIDT: No, not at all.

From Putin's standpoint, if he's handed intelligence from an enemy, then, if he takes it, he looks weak, right?

He looks like, well, his intelligence services don't know as much as the American intelligence services do. So it makes sense politically for him not to have announced that he had access to any of that information or really even to believe it.

BRUNHUBER: But I mean, the U.S. and Russia were, before the war in Ukraine, I mean, they were collaborating in ways in terms of intelligence, in terms of the threats of ISIS and so on. Talk to me about the type of intelligence sharing that the two countries were engaged in.

And why you think that sort of broke down?

SCHMIDT: Sure.

After the 9/11 attack, Russia actually became critical to U.S. efforts in Afghanistan because a large amount of our supplies actually traveled across the Trans-Siberian Railroad and had Russian support to get into Afghanistan. And so we developed an intelligence sharing relationship with Russia around the global war on terror.

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SCHMIDT: And so that's where this idea is coming from, that the U.S. would give Russia access to this information or at least to give them a warning of information that we had, that an attack would be imminent. So this is longstanding.

But the war in Ukraine has strained all of these things and has made the Russian security services loath to take this kind of information because it makes him look bad domestically.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, absolutely. It makes them look bad. Also, a black eye for Putin just coming after an election, him trying to project this aura of strength.

SCHMIDT: Yes, absolutely.

And I think it's important to remember that we're just a few days out from this election. And I think there's no question that the timing is important, that ISIS-K must have been thinking about the timing of this event to sync up to the election.

BRUNHUBER: Interesting, appreciate your analysis of this. Matthew Schmidt, thank you so much.

After vetoing prior U.N. resolutions on Gaza, the U.S. saw its own draft resolution rejected by the Security Council on Friday. The measure received 11 votes in favor of what Russia and China use their veto powers to dismiss the proposal and called for an immediate and sustained ceasefire, tied to the release of all remaining hostages.

It used language the U.S. had previously not been willing to use before. Israel's ambassador to the U.N. said the draft resolution would have been the first time the U.N. condemned the Hamas attack on Israel. He criticized the Security Council for rejecting it.

I want to go live to CNN's Paula Hancocks in Doha, Qatar, where negotiators have been discussing a potential ceasefire and hostage deal.

Paula, plenty of news on the diplomatic front. So bring us up to speed on what's happened so far and what we're expecting.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We've really had a three-pronged diplomatic attack from the U.S. on Friday, coming into the weekend as well. You have the talks that we believe are still ongoing here in Doha, trying to secure a temporary ceasefire in Gaza.

You also have that U.N. Security Council resolution that the U.S. led and proposed. That was voted down. And also the U.S. secretary of state, Antony Blinken, was in Israel on Friday to meet with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and also the war cabinet.

So if we start with that, he was there really to push for more humanitarian aid to be allowed into Gaza, to push for the talks to succeed in trying to secure that ceasefire and also to try and convince the Israeli prime minister and the war cabinet that a major ground offensive in Rafah would be a mistake.

The Biden administration has been very open and blunt about the fact that they do not support that operation. You have up to 1.5 million Palestinians, more than half of the population, sheltering in this area.

And they say it would create a humanitarian catastrophe. Also bearing in mind that the main land crossing for humanitarian aid to come in is in Rafah as well. Now we did hear Secretary Blinken pushing for that message. And we then heard from the Israeli prime minister shortly afterwards, appearing to not take it into consideration.

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BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL (through translator): I met today with Secretary of State Blinken. I don't think that I greatly appreciate the fact that, for more than five months, we are standing together in the war against Hamas.

I also told him that we recognize the need to evacuate the civilian population from war zones. And of course, to take care of the humanitarian needs, we are working for this.

But I also said that we have no way to defeat Hamas without entering Rafah and eliminating the rest of the Hamas battalions there. And I told him that we hope we will do it with the support of United States. But if we have to, we'll do it alone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANCOCKS: Now we also understand here in Doha that the talks are continuing to try and secure that short-term cease-fire in return for some hostages being released and some Palestinian prisoners being released. And now we know that there were talks on Friday.

We understand from sources close to those talks, you have the intelligence chiefs of Israel, the U.S., Egypt here, along with the Qatari prime minister. Now we haven't heard that any of them have left. So we can assume that the talks could be continuing with very little information, as you might imagine, coming out of that.

A very sensitive matter, we heard publicly really only from the U.S. side, Secretary Blinken, saying that gaps are narrowing but there are still gaps. So cautious optimism it appears at this point. We'll let you know if anything comes from those talks. And then finally that third element here, the U.N. Security Council

resolution that the U.S. had proposed.

[05:40:00]

Calling for a ceasefire tied to the hostage releases and also humanitarian aid being allowed in, a substantial proposal but one that was voted down by Russia and China, who said that they have another proposal that they want to be voting on.

They rejected the U.S.-led one, saying it didn't in call for an immediate ceasefire. And that is what they're looking for. So there is another proposal that's being worked on by 10 non-permanent members that potentially could come to a vote next week.

BRUNHUBER: All right, thanks so much. Paula Hancocks, live in Doha.

Meanwhile, in northern Gaza, the situation continues to deteriorate at Al-Shifa medical complex due to an ongoing Israeli military operation that began on Monday. Smoke was seen billowing into the sky over the hospital on Friday as fighting raged.

The Israel Defense Forces said on Friday, they've killed 150, quote, "Palestinian militants" in the operation. And they have arrested hundreds of what they call suspects.

The Gaza health ministry accuses Israel of detaining civilian patients, their companions as well as medical personnel. Thousands of people had sought shelter from the war at the hospital before the raid began. And many remain trapped, unable to leave him amid the ongoing fighting.

All right, now I want to go back to Richard Quest outside of Buckingham Palace in London.

Richard.

QUEST: Kim, I'm grateful. Thank you as we continue to get and understand what's happening with Catherine, Princess of Wales. We're going to be talking about the reaction of the British people. Look at the newspapers and how they are -- what they're making of it.

And then the question of the internet memes, the conspiracy theorists who made so much of Catherine's lack of visibility since the beginning of the year. All of that and more from London after the break.

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QUEST: Now to return to one of the major stories we're following for you on CNN, it's the cancer diagnosis of Catherine, Princess of Wales. The princess made the announcement in a video released on Friday afternoon.

She said she's in the early stages of chemotherapy treatment. However, she did not reveal the kind of cancer that she has and asked for privacy as she focuses on her health and explaining the current situation to her children, the three of them, George, Charlotte and Louis.

CNN's Nada Bashir is with me outside Buckingham Palace and joins me.

I've got the newspapers here, which I think sort of reflect what people have been saying here, cancer came as a huge shock. That's a direct quote from the princess, suggesting, "I'm well and getting stronger every day. I'm going to be OK," says the "Daily Mail."

What are people saying?

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's definitely caused a lot of shock amongst the British public globally, of course but there has been an outpouring of support as well for the Princess of Wales.

She obviously gave a message of strength. She was in positive spirits during that speech, that address, it has to be said. What we have been hearing from people in the streets who are expressing their support and their well-wishes for the Princess of Wales, take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wow, obviously like I'm just completely shocked and it was just crazy that like I was actually like right in front of Buckingham Palace when I found out and it's just -- it's just shocking considering now King Charles was already just diagnosed with cancer.

And it's just -- and then all the like rumors, the speculations about Kate and then, finally, we know what happened. That was just complete shock.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Obviously it will be a big disruption to the -- to probably her operations and William's family and William's duties. And, yes, I can imagine it would have a big effect on what they do and how they do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: Now one of the big issues, of course, has been the meme trolling, the conspiracy theorists and all of those. I'm trying to find "The Sun" newspaper. Here we go, if you just hold those a second for me, whatever, there we go.

Now "The Sun" newspaper, which, of course, has never buckled at coming forward, it says, "A fortnight ago, initially, she tested negative.

A fortnight ago, "The Sun" urged all those spreading baseless conspiracy theories about the princess to lay off. We hope the trolls who continue to have vile behavior hang their head in shame today.

Will they? BASHIR: Well, look, there has been intense scrutiny over the last few weeks. We've seen the memes, we've seen conspiracy theories on TikTok. We've seen, of course, media outlets as well, questioning where the Princess of Wales has been.

The last time we saw her in public before that video released by "The Sun" came out was during Christmas. So, of course, there has been a lot of questions about her well-being, where exactly she is.

And the princess actually kind of touched on that in her address. She said that she needs time. She needs privacy as well. And this is a personal moment for the family.

QUEST: Can we assume that, in Britain, the press will back off?

But it's really about the online stuff. It's about the paparazzis from overseas.

BASHIR: Well, it certainly has changed. There is a huge amount of concern him amongst the British media, how their relationship is with the royal family. That has suddenly shifted from perhaps, let's say, the Prince of Wales' mother, Princess Diana, of course.

There has been a huge shift in how the royal family is scrutinized by the British media. But this is a very different time. We are talking about the era of social media where many are very interested in cause the ins and outs of what is going on behind closed doors of the royal family.

QUEST: And yet, you constantly or one constantly comes back to this dual row that they play. They are central to the constitution of the United Kingdom. She will be queen one day. The British public want to know.

BASHIR: Absolutely. And that has definitely played into why she gave this video address. Of course, this is very unusual, quite unprecedented for the royal family, just wasn't a written statement. This was a very personal message delivered directly and on her own from the Princess of Wales.

So there's clearly an understanding that there is very much an interest from the British public. And what is going on behind closed doors. But there is also still a family here. This is still a very personal matter.

QUEST: Can they negotiate that?

BASHIR: We'll have to see.

QUEST: (INAUDIBLE) the question.

BASHIR: Well, time will tell whether or not the British papers and the British tabloids will respect that.

QUEST: Very windy out here today.

It's a blustery spring day here in London.

Nada, I'm grateful for you. Thank you very much indeed.

And so the way the development has moved forward, we just don't know at the end of the day, Kim, we just don't know how this is going to proceed in the same way that we really don't know what the medical -- well, obviously we don't know.

And we're not going to be told and nor should we, to be blunt. It becomes almost prurient, the level to which all of us, to some extent, want to know what's happening.

[05:50:04]

Thank you.

BRUNHUBER: Yes. Well said. All right. Thanks so much. Richard.

We'll, have more on that coming up in the hour ahead. In the meantime, here in the U.S., March came in like a lion but no signs it'll go out like a lamb. Meteorologist Chad Myers will explain.

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CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Very heavy rainfall and heavy snow already coming down at this hour. Forecasts coming up.

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BRUNHUBER: Major League Baseball is investigating allegations surrounding superstar pitcher Shohei Ohtani and his longtime translator. The Los Angeles Dodgers fired the interpreter on Wednesday after Ohtani's lawyers accused him of massive theft tied to gambling.

Reports say Ippei Mizuhara is accused of stealing millions and placing bets with a bookmaker under federal investigation. The sports network, ESPN, reports that Ohtani's representatives now say he has no knowledge of Mizuhara's debt after he said initially said he was aware.

Now it may be the first week of spring here in the Northern Hemisphere.

[05:55:00]

But the weather across parts of the U.S., they'd say otherwise. More than 30 million Americans are under winter weather alerts from Montana to Maine. And parts of the Midwest could get more snow in the coming days than they did all winter long Meanwhile, tens of millions along the Eastern Seaboard are under flood

watches and the Northeast and South Florida could see excessive rainfall this weekend.

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BRUNHUBER: United Airlines says the Federal Aviation Administration plans to take a closer look at its operations after nearly a dozen incidents this month. United told employees in a memo Friday that the FAA would be reviewing several areas of the company's operations over the last few weeks.

The company says it's to ensure it's doing all it can to promote and drive safety compliance. The FAA says the agency routinely monitors all aspects of an airline's operation.

That wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM, I'm Kim Brunhuber, "CNN THIS MORNING" is next.