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Israel Withdraws Troops from Khan Yunis; Indianapolis Now a Destination City for Eclipse Chasers; Yellen Keeping Busy Schedule on Final Day of China Trip; Japan Bolstering Defense During Turbulent Times; Israel Using A.I. to Identify Bombing Targets in Gaza; Remembering the 1994 Rwandan Genocide; South Carolina Beats Iowa to Win Third National Title. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired April 08, 2024 - 00:00   ET

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

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Welcome, everyone. I'm Michael Holmes. Appreciate your company.

[00:00:31]

Coming up here on CNN NEWSROOM, Israel pulls out from Khan Yunis to prepare for future operations, including its incursion into Rafah.

The final countdown to the solar eclipse. Millions of people traveling across North America to be in the path of totality.

And CNN speaks to the Japanese Prime Minister Kishida ahead of his visit to Washington. Why he believes the world is at an historic turning point.

ANNOUNCER: Live from Atlanta, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Michael Holmes.

HOLMES: And we begin this hour with word of significant progress in talks between Israel and Hamas over a ceasefire and hostage deal. Egyptian state media reports reporting that the latest round of negotiations in Cairo have been, quote, "bringing points of view closer together."

Amid the ongoing talks, thousands took to the streets in Jerusalem again on Sunday to demand the release of the remaining hostages held in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it is Hamas's demands that are preventing their release.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): Hamas's extreme demands were intended to bring about an end to the war while leaving the group intact. It will not happen.

Israel is ready for a deal. Israel is not ready to surrender.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now, those comments coming as the Israel Defense Forces says it is, quote, far from stopping operations in Gaza, even as the military withdraws ground forces from the Southern city of Khan Yunis, a critical development as Israel's war against Hamas passes the six- month mark.

Israel says, what it calls a significant force still remains in Gaza, but that the departing troops are doing so to recuperate and prepare for future operations.

Video from Khan Yunis shows the stunning level of destruction left behind. You see it there on your screen.

The Israeli military says the withdrawal from the city effectively marks the end of its ground operation in Gaza in its current form. But Israel's defense minister making clear those troops, as we said, will be back for follow-up missions, including in Rafah.

CNN's Nic Robertson is following all the developments for us from Southern Israel.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: So what you're looking at here are tanks from the 98th Division. They pulled out of Gaza overnight Saturday into Sunday.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): And what the IDF is saying here, they've pulled out the significant force, the 98th division from Khan Yunis in the center of Gaza. They've been fighting there for more than three months now, since the -- since December last year.

The IDF is not saying that this is an end of the fight. They say they are leaving significant forces in the North of Gaza. The 162nd Division, the Nahal Brigade, remain in the North of Gaza.

But these troops here are being pulled out for recuperation and preparation for future operations, that the IDF describes this --

ROBERTSON: -- as effectively marking an end of ground operations in Gaza in their current form.

And in that way, that sort of statement and the movement is potentially significant around the negotiating --

ROBERTSON (voice-over): -- talks in Cairo, where the CIA chief, the Mossad chief, the head of Egyptian intelligence, the Qatari prime minister, are expected to further explore how they can get a ceasefire, how they can get the hostages released from Hamas.

There have been so many different sticking points. Potentially, though, this offers maybe to change the dynamic. But the very clear implication from the IDF is that option to go into Rafah remains on the table. And we've seen along the border here today airstrikes continuing to go into the Khan Yunis area.

ROBERTSON: You can hear the fighter jets where, in fact, I just heard an explosion there. And you hear the fighter jets overhead. So this war is far from over. This movement, though, for the 98th

Division, that is significant.

Nic Robertson, CNN, in Southern Israel.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: An Israeli official says the reopening of the Erez Crossing in the North of Gaza for humanitarian aid has been delayed. It was set to open on Sunday, but officials say they're still making what they called logistical preparations to ensure the checkpoint can accommodate truckloads of aid. Despite the urgent need and U.S. pressure, the Israeli military agency in charge of aid deliveries says it will announce the crossing's opening in, quote, "once a date is set."

[00:05:14]

The World Food Programme's executive director, Cindy McCain, says a massive amount of much-needed food is just waiting to get into Gaza. But she says it's important that the right kinds of foods are getting in, especially for children in desperate need of nutrition.

Here's what McCain told CNN on Sunday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CINDY MCCAIN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME: WFP stands ready. We have right now amassed outside, on the border, food for 1.1 million people for three months. We just need to get it in. That's why these crossings are so important. And more crossings are needed, as you know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Well, it is the final countdown to solar eclipse Monday in the U.S., the day millions of people in the U.S., Mexico and Canada have been waiting and even traveling for is finally here.

However, the forecast for parts of the eclipse's path of totality could thwart the once-in-a-lifetime experience for many people.

CNN's Kristin Fisher reports from Indianapolis, where many eclipse tracers are routing in hopes -- in hopes of getting a better view of the cosmic extravaganza.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SCIENCE AND DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT: Indianapolis has always been one of those key major cities along the path of totality for this eclipse.

But over the last few days, it has really taken on even more significance, because --

FISHER (voice-over): -- so many eclipse chasers have seen the forecast down in Texas and in Southern parts of Arkansas and said, Hey, we don't think we're going to get to see the eclipse if we stay here.

And so they are all coming to Indianapolis, some going to other places like Vermont and Maine, places where there's supposed to be, you know, picture-perfect blue skies.

But here, this is really a central part of America. And now all these folks are coming into town.

Originally, Indianapolis was expecting about 100,000 people to come here for the eclipse. Now they're expecting even more.

FISHER: And many of those people, about 40,000 of them, are going to be spending those precious few minutes of totality at the Indianapolis motor speedway.

And some of the things that make this eclipse so unique and different from the one in 2017, is that the moments of totality are about double the length.

The maximum amount for this eclipse is going to be --

FISHER (voice-over): -- a little over four minutes, compared to about two-and-a-half minutes back in 2017.

And the other thing that makes this eclipse so cool is the fact that back in 2017, that eclipse was timed to a period of pretty subdued solar activity. But this one is timed almost perfectly to coincide with a period of peak solar activity.

So when the moon fully crosses in front of the sun, you should be able to see some really cool activity. Those solar flares and coronal mass ejections coming off the sun's surface.

FISHER: So now it really just all comes down to the weather and everyone here hoping that the rain and the clouds clear just in time for totality, which is set for 3:06 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday.

In Indianapolis, Kristin Fisher, CNN.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: For more, I'm joined by astronomer Tom Kerss. And it's good to see you, Tom. You've been busy preparing for this. You flew in from the U.K. to Dallas.

Now, let's start with this. The path of totality, which by the way, should be the name of a movie. How wide is it? How dark will it get in that belt? What will it feel like and look like?

TOM KERSS, ASTRONOMER: Well, if you've never seen a total solar eclipse before, you're in for a treat. And if you have seen one before, you know, you're in for a treat.

So the totality, the path of totality is the line that is traced across the surface of the Earth, in this case from Mexico through America, and up into Canada. And it's about 115 miles wide. And that is essentially where the very center of the moon's shadow silently slips across the face of the Earth.

So if you're standing in the path of totality, the center of the moon's shadow will pass right over you. You will find yourself right in the moon's shadow itself, which from space looks very dark. And from the ground also looks very dark. In fact, it's been compared to a sort of artificial night. Really, it's a natural kind of night.

But a very short one that lasts just a few minutes. And you'd be forgiven for thinking that night has fallen. And in fact, you might find that wildlife around you thinks that night has fallen, as well. And birds like to go and roost and then wake up again.

So it's a very strange experience. For some people, it's spooky. But for me, it's just kind of overwhelmingly awesome. I mean, it's -- it's almost a spiritual experience, almost a religious experience.

HOLMES: I'm sure. And what about for those outside the path? I mean, I'm in Atlanta in Georgia, in the Southeast, for example. No path of totality for peons like me. What -- what will we see?

[00:10:10]

KERSS: Well, the beauty of the solar eclipse is, like -- like this is that of course, we do get this path of totality, which means the absolutely spectacular total solar eclipse is visible to, in this case, millions of Americans.

But when you are outside of the path of totality, there's an opportunity to see what we call a partial eclipse. And in Georgia, you're not that far away, in fact. So you will have the opportunity to see a very spectacular partial eclipse.

Now, the important thing to understand about a partial eclipse is that you can't look directly at the sun during this phase. It would be dangerous to do so. So you need to make sure you have a safe way of viewing that.

But if you do have some eclipse glasses, for example, or an eclipse viewer, or if you can project the image of the sun, you'll be able to see the sun take on a crescent shape as it is partially covered up by the face of the moon.

HOLMES: Yes. Are you surprised at the level of public interest in this eclipse? I mean, there's been a massive fervor surrounding it. I mean, huge numbers of people traveling to that path of totality. Hotels have been booked for months in advance. Blanket media coverage.

Is it surprising, or is it -- you expect that?

KERSS: Well, there's two answers to that. I think that, obviously, we live in an age where the news of such events gets around. I mean, an eclipse can now have its own hashtag. It can be a viral sensation.

And of course, the phone cameras that we all carry, these ubiquitous cameras, are so good that people can just whip out a camera out of their pocket and take an extraordinary photo of an event like this in the sky, which would have been a bucket list phenomenon for just a few people before.

HOLMES: Yes.

KERSS: But I think it's worth remarking, as well, the unique quality of the United States. I mean, Americans, I love being in the U.S. for eclipses, because Americans love eclipses. And being a very large land mass, they do scoop up a lot of eclipses like this.

Now, it is also worth pointing out that the next time an eclipse anywhere near as spectacular as this happens in the U.S., that won't be for another 21 years.

So I think part of the surge of interest in this eclipse is just understanding that if you're in the U.S. and you don't want to travel outside of the U.S., you really want to make sure you get to see this one, because it might be the last one you get any opportunity to see.

HOLMES: Yes. Yes. Good point. Now you've described it, and you touched on this earlier. You've described it as a unifying event for people. What do you mean by that?

KERSS: Well, I think an eclipse gives us the opportunity to reflect on the world that we all share. Maybe we don't think about this every day, but the moon is actually an important object in our lives. It's intimately tied into the history of our joint culture. But it's also tied into the history of life on Earth.

And the moon is one of three objects that are so important to us, the others being the Earth, of course, and the sun. And the sun, the Earth, and the moon are all coming into an alignment for this particular special event.

So it's an opportunity for us to reflect on this little part of the cosmos that we call home.

It's also just an extraordinary and thrilling and overpowering event to witness with other people. And it's something that you'll share with your friends and family for the rest of your life.

So in my opinion, it's probably the most unifying thing that you can see in the sky.

HOLMES: What -- what a great way of looking at it. Astronomer Tom Kerss, good luck. Enjoy it. You've got your camera there behind you. You're all set and good to go. Thank you for making the time.

KERSS: Thank you, Michael. And I hope you get a great view from Georgia.

HOLMES: Still to come here on the program, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has her last meetings in China on the final day of her diplomatic trip. We're live in Beijing with the latest for you.

And ahead of a key meeting this week with Joe Biden, Japan's prime minister tells CNN the world is at a historic turning point. We'll explain why. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:16:05]

HOLMES: U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is wrapping up a trip to China for talks on the U.S. and Chinese economies and partnerships for the future.

Yellen has met with both local and national leaders over the weekend. She says it's a continuation of the dialogue between U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, started in November at the G-20 summit.

CNN's Beijing bureau chief, Steven Jiang, has the latest for us. Good to see you, Steven. Janet Yellen had a list. She was to talk with the Chinese about.

How has she done in terms of success?

STEVEN JIANG, CNN'S BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF: Well, Michael, if you read both governments' readouts, they are obviously trying to put some positive spin on some of the new initiatives they're launching in terms of conversations on topics such as anti-money-laundering and, quote unquote, "balanced growth" in the domestic and global economies.

Presumably, that's a platform where they can talk about China's industrial overcapacity, one key item on Secretary Yellen's agenda. That's about China dumping cheaply made goods and products on the global markets, depressed prices, and affecting other economies negatively.

Now ironically, of course, Yellen herself probably belongs to that generation of economists -- economists who used to see cheap Chinese exports were beneficial to global consumers. How time has changed.

Now, the Chinese, of course, have been pushing back very strongly on this and saying this is a purely politicized accusation, aimed at smearing China, because they say this is something, in terms of having exports, excess goods and products, you know, once domestic demand has been met. That's something that's been practiced by the U.S. for a long time.

From their perspective, they, of course, have been pointing a finger at the U.S. increasingly stringent export controls of key technologies targeting China, with Chinese leader Xi Jinping himself telling President Biden during their most recent phone calls, that it's something they are not going to sit idly by if the Americans continued down with this policy.

So all of that is really a reflection of the differences between their strategic perception of how they view themselves and the other's intentions.

One of the things Secretary Yellen has also mentioned, of course, is warning China not to provide any material support to Russia's defense industrial complex to aid its war effort in Ukraine. But as we speak, Michael, the Russian -- the foreign minister, Lavrov,

is actually arriving in Beijing for more talks and presumably to strengthen Moscow and Beijing's so-called no-limit partnership.

So that is really how the Chinese have made their choice in terms of aligning themselves more closely with Russia to -- to really reshape this American-dominated world order.

So all these talks with Yellen and the officials here may be good, and the Chinese may make some tactical adjustments because of the economic headwinds they're facing.

But fundamentally, it's very hard to see any of the economic realities and geopolitical tensions between Washington and Beijing to change, especially in a U.S. election year -- Michael.

HOLMES: All right. Great wrap-up there, Steven. Thank you, Steven. Jiang in Beijing for us.

Now, Japan's prime minister is warning the world is at an historic turning point, with geopolitical tensions rising in parts of Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.

Speaking to CNN ahead of a key meeting this week with U.S. President Joe Biden, Fumio Kishida said that Japan had no choice but to move away from its decades of pacifism and greatly bolster its defense capabilities.

He spoke with our correspondent in Tokyo, Hanako Montgomery, who joins me now.

Fascinating interview. Tell us more about your conversation and what the prime minister said.

HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Michael, during our conversation with the Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, he emphasized the need for strong bilateral ties between Japan and the United States, especially now, as Japan faces increasing threats in terms of geopolitics and security in the region.

[00:20:02]

Take a listen to what Kishida had to say about some of those threats.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FUMIO KISHIDA, JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER (through translator): In our neighborhood, there are countries that are developing ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons, and others that are building up their defense capabilities in an opaque way.

Also, there is a unilateral attempt to change the status quo by force, in both the East China Sea and South China Sea.

(END VIDEO CLIP) MONTGOMERY: So, at the state visit this week, we can expect Kishida and Biden to upgrade their relationship to the next level in many different areas, including artificial intelligence, semiconductors, space, and of course, defense.

And some of the experts that I spoke to about the state visit said that it looks as though U.S. President Joe Biden and the Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, are trying to cement as many agreements and pacts as possible before the upcoming U.S. presidential election in November.

And when I asked Kishida what he thinks about a potential presidency under Trump, he said that he hopes the U.S. and Japan alliance would remain strong, no matter which power, which party was in power, Michael.

HOLMES: Yes. As you pointed out, I mean, Japan has long had a pacifist approach. Tell us more about what the prime minister is saying about building up the military and Japan's posture, and what that might look like.

MONTGOMERY: Michael, under Kishida's leadership, we've seen several decades-old military agreements and pacts overturn and just change.

For instance, the Japanese government has decided to increase its defense spending from 1 percent of its GDP to about 2 percent.

It also looks to acquire counterstrike capabilities, specifically Tomahawk missiles that are produced and made in the United States. We actually saw the first round of infield training of these Tomahawk missiles, the U.S. forces training, of course, the Japanese self- defense forces.

Now, Japan, according to Kishida, needs these counter-strike capabilities, a break from its decades-old pacifist stance, because of course, although international relations and geopolitics are very, very important to maintaining stability in the region, Kishida says that also Japan, as a country, needs to have its own defense capabilities. So that in the event of a potential geopolitical conflict, Japan has that at the ready, Michael.

HOLMES: All right. Fascinating interview. Hanako Montgomery, thank you so much there in Tokyo for us.

Well, Mexico's presidential candidates have just wrapped up their first debate ahead of the general election in June. They're presenting their platforms on education, health care, fighting corruption, and ending violence against women.

The front runners are both women, meaning Mexico may soon have its first female president. Claudia Sheinbaum is leading in the polls. She represents the ruling party of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Xochitl Galvez is close behind. She represents a coalition of opposition parties. Mexico says it will report, meanwhile, Ecuador's raid on its embassy in Quito to the International Court of Justice. Ecuadorian police on Friday forcefully entered the embassy to arrest the former Ecuadorian vice president.

Mexico's foreign minister says her country plans to denounce the move and expects the court will agree, ordering Ecuador to repair damage to the embassy.

Meanwhile, Mexican diplomats arrived back home after the country broke its diplomatic ties with Ecuador in response to the raid. Mexico's foreign minister greeting them and their families when they landed in Mexico city on Sunday.

Still to come on the program, artificial intelligence in Israel's war against Hamas. The U.N. secretary general says he's deeply troubled. I'll talk to an expert about how the IDF is using technology in Gaza. That's coming up.

Also, CNN's Christiane Amanpour looks back on the genocide in Rwanda and the atrocities that shocked the world 30 years ago.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:26:36]

HOLMES: Welcome back to our viewers all around the world. I'm Michael Holmes. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

Now as CNN has previously reported, the Israeli military has been using artificial intelligence to help identify bombing targets in Gaza, sometimes with very little human oversight.

That's according to an investigation by "+972 Magazine" and "Local Call," an online publication run jointly by Israelis and Palestinians.

It found that the A.I.-based tool is called Lavender and was known to have an error percent of at least ten.

It alleges that the Israeli army, quote, "systematically attacked targets in their homes," usually at night when entire families were present.

The investigation comes amid intensifying international criticism after Israeli strikes killed seven aid workers who were delivering food in Gaza. The U.N. chief says he's concerned turned about the A.I. findings.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONIO GUTERRES, UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY-GENERAL: I'm also deeply troubled by reports that the Israeli military's bombing campaign includes artificial intelligence as a tool in the identification of targets, particularly in densely populated residential areas, resulting in a high level of civilian casualties.

No part of life-and-death decisions which impact entire families should be delegated to the cold calculation of algorithms.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: The Israel Defense Forces have not denied the use of A.I. on the battlefield in Gaza, but in a statement, they say, "Contrary to claims, the IDF does not use an artificial intelligence system that identifies terrorist operatives or tries to predict whether a person is a terrorist. Information systems are merely tools for analysts in the target identification process."

Antony Lowenstein is a journalist and author of the book, "The Palestine Laboratory." He joins me now, live from Sydney, Australia. Good to see you again, Antony.

I want to talk with you about facial recognition, as well, in a moment. But first, this reporting by "+972 Magazine" about this A.I. system. And it says that, you know, humans may be taking 20 seconds to confirm the A.I. data.

Israel says it doesn't use it to make life-and-death decisions, but you've reported extensively on Israeli military tech. What do you make of the reporting?

ANTONY LOWENSTEIN, JOURNALIST/AUTHOR: I think it's very credible and the journalists behind it, Yuval Abraham, has a good track record. He's an Israeli journalist. So I think the reports are credible.

And essentially, what the report says in great detail, in a thousand words story which follows up another story he did a few months ago, which also explained how A.I. was being used by Israel.

Essentially, the overriding message is that after October 7, Israel -- and this is a quote from one of his sources -- is looking for revenge. And Israel was looking for targets. And over many, many months, they were getting that information, huge amounts of data from their own intelligence, from drones, from Americans who also were providing information from Pine Gap, which is a U.S. military base in the center of Australia, which has also been used by the Americans to help the Israelis.

All this data feeds into a system. And what essentially the report shows -- This is also backed up by my reporting in the last year, because Israel has been using A.I. in warfare before October 7. Not on this scale, though. Is that precision is not the aim here, that the idea was to go after potentially low-level Hamas operatives.

[00:30:09]

It's important to note that who the -- how is it defined what a Hamas operative actually is. And civilian casualties were not a concern.

And as soon as this report came out a few days ago, international lawyers in the U.N. expressed profound concern, because without proportionality, these are war crimes, mass war crimes. And tens of thousands of people died in the first month, based on this. HOLMES: Yes. There was also "New York Times" reporting on the widespread use of facial recognition that was picked up by the Israeli media and elsewhere, as well.

You've written in your book about this technology and the company quoted in the article. What are your chief concerns about facial recognition use in the context of Gaza, where by all accounts, the reporting is it's been very widespread?

LOWENSTEIN: Hugely widespread. And facial recognition technology has been used across Palestine for years. As you say, I looked into this, particularly in the West Bank.

And I've been seeing footage, both video and photos after October 7, from Gaza of Israeli tech that -- that was presumably for this kind of purpose, facial recognition technology.

And we've discovered through that "New York Times" report, but also my own sources that this is done to document every single Palestinian there. So the 2.2 million Palestinians, their information, their dates, their biometric data. And it's not done with consent. It's important to note that.

And it also says in that story, which is also backed up in my own reporting, that often it's imprecise, that it's trying to find, so Israel claims, Hamas operatives where often Israel does not actually know who is Hamas and who is not.

And more importantly, how they define that is incredibly overly broad.

And the company behind that you mentioned, Corsight, has worked extensively with repressive police forces around the world and including armed occupation forces in the West Bank. So a pretty dark record.

HOLMES: Yes, and to the point you were just making there, there've been several Palestinians detained who say they had been previously cleared or that there was no reason for their detention.

We know from other cases around the world that facial recognition technology is far from infallible.

But the thing is, in Gaza, misidentification could mean not just wrongful detention. It could mean death.

LOWENSTEIN: And in fact, there's been a lot of reports in the last few days by Israeli media, particularly Haaretz, the Israeli newspaper, which has found at some of the prisons that Israel has been running in Israel itself, or in the detention camps in Gaza.

So one doctor, Israeli doctor who was a whistleblower -- he was anonymous in this report -- essentially found that the torture by Israeli forces on Palestinians was so bad they had to amputate limbs. This is how bad it's -- and as another journalist called it, Israel is having its own Guantanamo Bay, which is a totally sealed off, no Red Cross visits, no investigation, no oversight. This is what's happening away from the public eye.

HOLMES: Yes. And again, some of those prisoners were then released without charge, without any other accusation. And they were picked up with facial recognition. That would be enormously worrying.

We're almost out of time. I wanted to, few real quick, though, your book, "The Palestine Laboratory," talks about Israel, you know, in a way, testing technologies in the Palestinian territories and using the results to boost exports of that technology.

Real quick, is that what you're seeing with this sort of stuff?

LOWENSTEIN: Well, hugely, to the point where we're already seeing stories in the international press of Israeli A.I. companies that are battle-tested in Gaza. That's their words. Trying to sell them, promote them, that they have been battle tested.

There was a major Israeli arms fair -- sorry, a Singapore arms fair one month ago, where Israeli tech has again, had been battle tested in Palestine, was going to be sold globally.

This is what's happening. These are being tested live, as we speak, on Palestinians for a global market. So you will see, in months and years ahead, huge amounts of this repressive tech in other conflicts around the globe, unless there is an arms embargo imposed, as the U.N. Human Rights Council last week called for against Israel.

HOLMES: Fascinating. Antony, always good to see you. Antony Lowenstein there in Sydney. Appreciate it.

LOWENSTEIN: Thank you.

HOLMES: Well, Rwandans are remembering the genocide that devastated their nation 30 years ago, when an estimated 800,000 people, mostly members of the Tutsi ethnic minority, were slaughtered during a 100- day spree of killing and raping, acts committed by Hutu extremists.

CNN's Christiane Amanpour looks back on how the violence unfolded; the international community's utter failure to act, even when they knew it was happening; and the reconciliation period that followed in Rwanda. A warning, many of the images are disturbing to watch.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR (voice-over): A genocidal rampage that wiped out nearly 1 million people in just 100 days.

Men, women, and children hacked to death with machetes, clubs, and bare hands when extremists from Rwanda's dominant tribe, the Hutus, set out to exterminate the Tutsi ethnic minority 30 years ago.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They threw grenades at us and started hacking us all over our body.

AMANPOUR (voice-over): The systematic campaign of mass murder was sparked after the Hutu president's plane was shot down April 6, 1994.

And when I first traveled there, the scale of the atrocities was only just emerging.

AMANPOUR: Investigators have now turned up evidence to suggest that the massacre of Tutsis was preplanned by the Hutu-led government. The U.N. report calls that slaughter genocide.

AMANPOUR (voice-over): While the international community failed to act, hundreds of thousands fled for their lives. The scenes were biblical. To neighboring Tanzania, to Zaire, now, the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The genocide finally ended when the Rwandan Patriotic Front took control of the country. That army was led by Paul Kagame, who eventually became president and remains so today.

AMANPOUR: Did you expect the international community to intervene?

PAUL KAGAME, PRESIDENT, RWANDA: Absolutely. Along we thought, that's why they were here.

AMANPOUR: And why do you think they couldn't and didn't?

KAGAME: They didn't care.

AMANPOUR (voice-over): A 2022 Freedom House report found that, while Kagame's regime has maintained stability, it has also suppressed political dissent through pervasive surveillance, intimidation, and torture.

Kagame denies any of those accusations.

After the bloodshed in 1994, I saw the country's jails overflowing with alleged perpetrators.

Everyone in prison claims to be innocent. Human rights workers say at least one in five people may have been falsely accused.

The government pursued a policy of unity and reconciliation, which often sees perpetrators and victims living side-by-side, as I witnessed when I returned to Rwanda years later.

Iphigenia (ph) was preparing a plate of food and serving it to John Bosco Bisimana (ph), one of the men who murdered five of her children.

AMANPOUR: It's amazing for us to sit here and share food with families who've been through so much. Did you expect Iphigenia (ph) to forgive you and give you mercy?

JOHN BOSCO BISIMANA (PH), RECONCILED WITH FAMILY WHOSE MEMBERS HE MURDERED (through translator): I felt that they would forgive me.

AMANPOUR (voice-over): As for international accountability, in 1998, President Bill Clinton apologized to the victims. BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We did not act

quickly enough after the killing began. We did not immediately call these crimes by their rightful name: genocide.

AMANPOUR (voice-over): But the scars run deep in Rwanda, and mass graves are still being found 30 years later: a painful reminder of the country's darkest hour.

Christiane Amanpour, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: And when we come back, women's college basketball has a new national championship -- champion as March Madness begins to wrap up.

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HOLMES: Well, it was sweet revenge for South Carolina. The Gamecocks now have their third NCAA women's basketball national championship. They dashed Caitlin Clark's title dreams with an 87-75 victory over Iowa.

The Hawkeyes knocked Carolina out of -- South Carolina out of the tournament last year. That's the revenge part of this.

Donning her Iowa jersey for the last time, Caitlin Clark said, despite the loss, she doesn't have time to, in her words, "sulk" and called her team's season special.

CNN's Brynn Gingras has more on this much-anticipated showdown.

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BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We're here on the court at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland, where South Carolina still celebrating that national championship win.

Dawn Staley, their coach, cutting down that net as she led her Gamecocks to an undefeated season. That has not happened since 2015 by the UCONN Huskies.

It was an incredible game. Both teams going back and forth. The Gamecocks leading at the half, and really, Iowa Hawkeyes couldn't come back from that.

Of course, Iowa Hawkeyes led by 22, Caitlin Clark. Any time that girl scored, everyone was out of their seats. That -- that is, though, the last time that Caitlin Clark will be putting on a jersey for the Iowa team, not able to clinch a national championship.

You know, she said that winning would be the cherry on the top of what she really hopes for, is that she has made people love the game of basketball; that she has inspired younger generations. And there is no doubt that that is the case. Even Dawn Staley's saying that she has elevated this game.

But what a win for South Carolina, undefeated, in the national championship.

Brynn Gingrass, in Cleveland, CNN.

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HOLMES: Our supervising producer is heartbroken.

Thanks for watching, spending part of your day with me. I'm Michael Holmes. WORLD SPORT coming up next. I'll see with more news in fifteen minutes.

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