Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Biden Calls for Calm Despite Worsening Pro-Palestinian Collegiate Protests in the U.S.; Day 10 of Trump's Hush Money Trial Centers on Payments to Stormy Daniels; May 3rd Marks World Press Freedom Day; Arizona Governor: "So Proud" To Repeal "Draconian" Abortion Ban. Aired 2-2:45a ET

Aired May 03, 2024 - 02:00   ET

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

[02:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Hello and welcome to "CNN Newsroom". I'm Michael Holmes live in Atlanta. I appreciate your company. Coming up here on the program.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: There's no place for racism in America. It's all wrong. It's on America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Violence will not be tolerated. The U.S. president calling for calm as more anti-war protests disrupt America's colleges.

Plus a secret recording about payments to a porn star. We'll break down the latest in Donald Trump's hush money trial.

And the risks in telling the truth about our planet on World Press Freedom Day. We take a look at the challenges faced by climate journalists.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Michael Holmes.

HOLMES: Universities across the U.S. have been calling for a stronger police presence to deal with pro-Palestinian Protesters and their growing encampments. Police have now arrested more than 2,000 demonstrators over the past few weeks on at least 40 college campuses in at least 24 states.

Some of the arrests of Protesters resisting arrest or refusing to leave their encampments appeared to be more violent than the protests themselves as you can see there. At least 15 people were recently detained at the University of Buffalo in New York. The U.S. President issuing his first forceful comments about the unrest on Thursday. Republicans had been slamming his relatively hands-off stance.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: The Senate is essential to democracy, but dissent must never lead to disorder or to denying the rights of others so students can finish the semester and their college education. There should be no place on any campus. No place in America for anti-Semitism or threats of violence against Jewish students. There is no place for hate speech or violence of any kind whether it's anti-Semitism Islamophobia or discrimination against Arab Americans or Palestinian Americans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Joe Biden adding that his administration support for Israel continues to be unwavering and that's put him in a real predicament as young voters protest Israel's military campaign in Gaza. U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders who's an independent drew a parallel between the current protests and those that occurred in the late 1960s when U.S. students rallied against the Vietnam War.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): Other people are making this reference that this may be Biden's Vietnam. Lyndon Johnson in many respects was a very, very good president domestically brought forth some major pieces of legislation. He chose not to run in '68 because of opposition to his views on Vietnam and I worry very much that President Biden is putting himself in a position where he has alienated not just young people, but a lot of the Democratic base.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now the pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles is now gone. 210 people were arrested on Thursday during a pre-dawn operation by police after authorities deemed the encampment unlawful and it left behind a mess as you can see there. CNN's Camilla Bernal shows us how the police action unfolded.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAMILLA BERNAL, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Violent tense and chaotic scenes at UCLA. More than 200 arrested as hundreds of law enforcement officers using flashbangs, batons, and what appeared to be rubber bullets to disperse more than 200 pro- Palestinian protesters from a university encampment.

ALEJANDRO RUBIO, SUPERVISOR, CALIFORNIA HIGHWAY PATROL, SOUTHERN DIVISION: We had fire extinguishers thrown at us, smoke thrown at us, water bottles and other various items.

BERNAL (voice-over): Officers moved in at around 3 in the morning. Police gained ground breaking makeshift barriers clearing tents and belongings and detaining protesters one-by-one.

[02:05:01]

The mostly peaceful encampment was set up a week ago, but violence erupted during counter-protest on Sunday.

And even more tense moments overnight Tuesday leaving at least 15 injured.

Last night Protesters attempted to stand their ground linking arms using flashlights on officers faces shouting and even throwing items at officers. The encampment was cleared and the protesters that were walked out in zip ties were put on buses and taken to a detention facility to be processed.

Across the country similar scenes as officials cracked down on encampments. Police in Oregon cleared out the Portland State University library where students had barricaded themselves inside with furniture.

At Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, a standoff with police before more than 90 people were arrested on campus including some who were not students.

That mirrored the mass arrest in New York City the night before where an NYPD official tell CNN roughly half of the nearly 300 people arrested at Columbia and City College were not affiliated with either school.

BERNAL: And take a look behind me cleanup efforts are underway. It's hard to believe that just hours ago the space here behind me was covered in trash tents, blankets, food, you name it. We were here and we also found a number of the casings for the flashbangs and also the rubber bullets that were used to disperse the crowd.

UCLA releasing a statement saying that they ultimately decided to clear this encampment because of the violent clashes that we saw earlier this weekend because this was unlawful. They also said this is one of the most painful periods for the University.

Camilla Bernal CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: And in the U.S. Capitol, dueling protests side-by-side at George Washington University so far remaining peaceful. Faculty and staff members holding signs calling for justice in Palestine the pro- Israel side included relatives of hostages held by Hamas.

Nara Milanich it she's a professor of history at Barnard College and joins me now. It's great to get your -- your thoughts on there. I wanted to start by asking if you think the narrative around these protests has been distorted bad actors. If you like outsiders getting the attention when it comes to the actual student narrative.

NARA MILANICH, HISTORY PROFESSOR, BARNARD COLLEGE: Right, so we keep hearing these really alarming narratives right about pro-Hamas mobs that are, you know, running around campus terrorizing students. And I can't emphasize enough how much that is a false narrative based on my own experience walking around campus. As a Jewish professor I might add in the last two weeks we had a pro- Palestinian encampment on the Columbia campus up until just a couple of days ago when the police came in, of course and dismantled that encampment, but the encampment itself was entirely peaceful.

It was a joyous at many times. The students were holding teach-ins on anti-Semitism. They were blowing bubbles. They were zooming into class I had students in my own class who were in the encampment and would show up on zoom. So, you know the encampment itself was entirely peaceful.

HOLMES: Yeah, I wanted to ask you because despite the vast majority of the protest is not engaging in anti-Semitism. And in fact many Jewish students are taking part in the protest within the encampments, you know, with -- with all the criticism from the outside, is there a responsibility for organizers to, I don't know, head off any antisemitism that has been occurring?

MILANICH: So we know that anti-Semitism is on the rise, right? It is a scourge like many forms of bigotry. It exists on college campuses it exists in in the city of New York and in the world right along with other forms of bigotry, Islamophobia, etc.

But I want to emphasize the fact that sending hundreds of riot police onto a college campus is not going to solve the problem of anti- Semitism or any other form of bigotry. Sending riot police onto a college campus is not going to make Jewish students or any other students safer on the contrary, right? It does exactly the opposite insofar as it brings particularly to the periphery of campus.

All kinds of folks who are kind of inflamed by -- by the repression and the violence and we've seen precisely that happen in recent weeks at Columbia.

[02:10:00]

HOLMES: Yeah, absolutely. It's interesting I wanted to ask you this too because it's a fascinating conversation and one I think is important. We've heard President Biden, of course, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu say the protests are anti-Semitic.

I mean you're Jewish, I'm curious if you feel the term has been on some levels used as a tool to silence criticism of Israeli policy government how the war has been prosecuted, things which of course are not anti-Semitic. And does that devalue the meaning of the word which because it is a very real and dangerous thing?

MILANICH: Absolutely, I think there has been a conflation of anti- Zionism and anti-Semitism and I think there's been a weaponization frankly of anti-Semitism and now increasingly of student protest by people who are not particularly interested either in the well-being of Jews or the millennial scourge of anti-Semitism or for that matter about politics in the Middle East, which is why we're seeing campus being visited by a whole parade of right-wing politicians ranging from the Speaker of the House Mike Johnson to Virginia Fox, et cetera, et cetera, and the Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes. All of whom who have paraded onto campus. They have suddenly

discovered the, you know, the problem of Jewish safety. Well, I'd like to suggest that that's not actually what is going on. What's going on is that the anti-Semitism is being weaponized by people who are hostile to the university hostile to students hostile to faculty hostile to the values of inquiry research teaching learning that are at the heart of the University.

So I really see this as a Trojan horse. This is not just about the Middle East. This is about attacks on universities not just You know in the last few weeks But that have been going on actually for years attacks on how we -- we teach the history of slavery for example, attacks on climate science, on vaccine safety, right? So I think it's really academic freedom that at the end of the day is at stake in this whole controversy. It's not just about the Middle East.

HOLMES: Fascinating analysis, I wish we had more time professor Nara Milanich, thank you so much.

MILANICH: Thank you.

HOLMES: Now to the Middle East where a Hamas political leader says the group is studying the latest hostage and ceasefire proposal quote "with positive spirit". Ishmael Haniyeh spoke with Egyptian and Qatari officials on Thursday Hamas says it plans to send a delegation to Egypt as soon as possible to continue ceasefire talks.

Meanwhile, the Israeli prime minister met with Holocaust survivors in Jerusalem, Benjamin Netanyahu facing growing international Opposition to the war in Gaza. He told the group he welcomes but does not expect non-Jewish support.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): If we have to stand alone, we will stand alone. If it is possible to recruit the Gentiles, that's good. But if we don't protect ourselves, no one will protect us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: In Tel Aviv, families of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza blocked a major highway. They're demanding the government do more to bring their loved ones home.

Now a new report from Medecins Sans Frontieres or Doctors Without Borders is calling attention to the looming crisis in the southern Gaza City of Rafah. The group says the quote, "necessary conditions for survival there are absent." The report claims the fate of more than a million Palestinians is unclear and it calls the situation a deliberate man-made crisis that could result in tens of thousands more deaths even with a ceasefire.

Jennifer Tierney is the executive director of Medecins Sans Frontieres in Australia. She joins me now live from Sydney. It's good to see you. We of course know about the number of deaths in the direct war if we can call that. Nearly 35,000; 12,000 children and so on, but this report talks of silent killings. Briefly, what are those deaths?

JENNIFER TIERNEY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES AUSTRALIA: So those are the deaths that we're not seeing in the headlines. Those are the things that are happening behind the traumatic injuries that people are experiencing. So things like diabetes which in normal circumstance in a health care system that's functioning.

You'd be able to get your medicine and go on with your day. But in this case because people are cut off from health care things like diabetes can kill you. And so people suffering from cancer or complication from pregnancy the things that they were able to access health care for before they are unable to get, and this coupled with the living conditions which are, you know, people living in tents without clean water mean for a health care system that's overwhelmed with disease that typically will not kill in Gaza.

HOLMES: Yeah, because yeah, you've got your dialysis treatments not being available diabetes you mentioned there and cancer.

[02:15:03]

What -- what other factors play into these silent killings, but presumably Malnutrition, there's a lot of unsanitary conditions and diseases, they're just not in the official death toll?

TIERNEY: That's right. I mean you're going to be challenged to capture the official death toll in a health system. That's so decimated but what we're seeing is a big rise in malnutrition particularly in young children.

We treated more than 200 children for malnutrition in the first quarter of 2024 and that didn't exist before the war and that is because in Gaza, before the conflict about 90 percent of goods commercial goods were being brought into the country, but those goods are being cut off at this stage so people are not able to get access to the food they need.

And of course because of the insecurity Food is unable to be cultivated as well inside Gaza.

HOLMES: Yeah, and I guess you know, how ongoing could these unnecessary deaths be. I mean the report says a current situation could result in, in quote "tens of thousands of non-trauma related deaths in the next six months" even if there is a ceasefire.

TIERNEY: I mean, we are going to have to rebuild the entire health system for Gaza after this conflict is over after the siege is over. We, MSF, have had to move on from nine medical facilities which have been damaged or threatened during the conflict, you know right now we are seeing facilities that have been raised to the ground by Israeli strikes.

We also are having difficulty getting clean water and sanitation inside the hospitals and the clinics where we're working because there's a lack of fuel that's able to get the desalination plants running and get that clean water, keep the lights on make sure that the machines that we need to make sure that everything is appropriate for surgery. Those aren't able to run there. There are many, many aspects that are impacting negatively health care.

HOLMES: Now that this MSF report comes as the World Health Organization. I was reading their recent report. They say since October 7 they've documented 443 attacks on health care in the Gaza Strip resulting in more than 700 deaths nearly a thousand injuries, damage to more than a hundred facilities and a hundred ambulances. Again even once this conflict stops what -- what's going to be left for Gazans in -- in terms of health care not to mention of course mental health resources?

TIERNEY: I mean the teams and people within hospitals have been attacked and threatened and killed since the beginning of this conflict. So we have seen huge violations on humanitarian assets inside Gaza.

The mental health toll that that's taking on the people of Gaza is extraordinary. They are seeing extraordinary and continuing levels of violence. You know we have one particular story of a woman who left North Gaza with her three children when it came under siege.

She's now moved to Rafah along the way. You know her child who is as young as six years old had to see dead bodies on the road .You know pieces of people's bodies that they were unable to pick up along the way, they now live in crowded conditions in a tent, you know, without the community that they're used to without access to the things they need.

So, of course the mental health situation is going to be is now and will continue to be a generations-long trauma that is going to have to be dealt with.

HOLMES: Yeah, I heard you say in another interview children as young as five talking about a suicide I mean it just beggars belief. We've got to leave it there. Unfortunately, Jennifer Tierney in Sydney with MSF. Thank you so much.

TIERNEY: Thank you.

HOLMES: Turkey is halting all trade with Israel due to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. That's according to Turkish state media citing the Ministry of Commerce. The government says all imports and exports have been stopped and will stay that way until Israel allows the uninterrupted flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza. Israel's foreign minister accusing Turkey's president of breaking trade agreements and Behaving like a dictator.

All right, we'd take a quick break when we come back --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: A long day in court has always but very happy about the way things are going.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Day 10 of the former U.S. president's criminal trial, the lawyer behind Donald Trump's hush money deal with an adult film star takes the stand.

Also, it is World Press Freedom Day, a time to honor journalists and the work they do, we'll talk to an expert about the importance of freedom of expression. Coming up on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The FBI director said that he worries about the right now, don't worry about the right the right's fine, worry about the left because this is the movement from the left, he's a radical left lunatics. And they got to be stopped now because it's going to go on and on and it's going to get worse and worse. And you know, they take over countries. Okay, and we're not letting him take over the USA.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Radical left lunatics, that was Donald Trump outside his hush money trial addressing the pro-Palestinian anti-Gaza war protests gripping college campuses across the U.S. calling for a protest crackdown. The presidential candidate says watching the police raid a Columbia University building occupied by students was a quote "beautiful thing to watch."

Trump has been making his stance clear a political move for his Republican base. Meanwhile in the courtroom of the hush money trial Trump watched as adult film star Stormy Daniels' former lawyer, the man who brokered the hush money deal returned to the stand. Trump's defense sought to paint the key witness as untrustworthy and the hush money deals as extortion. CNN's Kara Scannell was in the courtroom.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): New Details from a key witness. The ex-attorney of an adult film star and Playboy model who brokered hush money deals at the center of former president Donald Trump's criminal case.

TRUMP: Getting ready to spend another day in the courthouse, which is bogus trial.

SCANNELL (voice-over); Keith Davidson back on the stand on day 10 of Trump's trial cross-examined by Trump's attorney who attempted to discredit Davidson by painting him as a shady lawyer.

Meanwhile prosecutors tried to show how Davidson's arrangement with a tabloid and Trump's ex-lawyer Michael Cohen to kill two bombshell stories about Trump's alleged affairs directly impacted the 2016 election. Trump denies both affairs. In his testimony Davidson recalled texting "National Enquirer" editor Dylan Howard on election night in 2016 as results came in in favor of Trump.

Davidson said he texted Howard, What have we done? Oh my god, Howard replied. Davidson testified, there was an understanding that our efforts may have in some way strike that our activities may have in some way assisted the presidential campaign of Donald Trump.

Prosecutors played an audio recording of Cohen saying Trump hates that they paid off adult film star Stormy Daniels. Cohen was heard saying I can't even tell you how many times he said to me I hate the fact that we did it and my comment to him was but every person that you've spoken to tells you it was the right move.

The payment and conspiracy of Trump's involvement in Daniels' hush money deal is the crux of the prosecution's case. Prosecutors also questioned Davidson about Daniel sitting down with Jimmy Kimmel in January 2018. Before the interview, Daniels and her attorney released a statement denying an alleged affair with Trump. But hours later, she told Kimmel it didn't look like her signature.

[02:25:02]

JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST, JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE: Did you sign this letter that was released today?

STORMY DANIELS, FORMER PLAYBOY MODEL AND ADULT FILM ACTRESS: I don't know. Did I?

KIMMEL: Wait a minute, that you can say--

DANIELS: That does look like my signature, does it?

SCANNEL (voice-over): After Davidson said Cohen threatened to rain legal hell down upon her and threatened to sue Daniels multiple times and saying, don't F with us, you don't know who you're effing with.

Later that year, Daniels said she felt she had to sign the letter denying an affair which she said was a lie.

ANDERSON COOPER, 60 MINUTES CORRESPONDENT: If it was untruthful, why did you sign it?

DANIELS: Because they made it sound like I had no choice.

SCANNEL (voice-over): Throughout the sometimes testy cross-examination Trump's attorney Emil Bovee sought to paint Davidson as untrustworthy. He zeroed-in on a 2012 FBI investigation into possible extortion involving the selling of former wrestler Hulk Hogan's sex tape. Davidson said he was not charged in connection to the case. Bovee attempted to tie Davidson's involvement with Hogan's alleged extortion plot to his hush money deals for Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal.

Bovee asked Davidson if he goes right up to the line without committing extortion. Davidson responded, I don't understand the question. After court, Trump said he's pleased with how his team is doing.

TRUMP: We had a long day in court has always but very happy about the way things are going.

SCANNEL (voice-over): Kara Scannell CNN, New York

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: The current U.S. president is calling close ally Japan xenophobic at a Washington fundraiser on Wednesday Joe Biden argued that Japan along with Russia and China would be better off economically if they embraced more immigration. Biden, you might remember, hosted the Japanese Prime Minister for a state visit just last month. Japan experiencing a demographic crisis affecting the country's workforce. Meanwhile Biden facing political pressure at home over his own immigration policies

When we come back on the program, on World Press Freedom Day, we're taking a closer look at Environmental journalists and the special challenges they face. Stay with us

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Major flooding outside Houston, Texas is submerging homes and sweeping away vehicles. The heavy rainfall hit the region over the past few days, the governor expanding the state's disaster declaration to cover 59 counties. Evacuations have been ordered in several areas. Conditions are expected to get worse. More heavy rain expected over the next two days with water levels in some places that rival what was seen in 2017 during Hurricane Harvey.

[02:30:01]

And people in Kenya are bracing for more heavy rainfall in the coming days, weeks of catastrophic flooding caused by a heavier than normal seasonal plane has killed nearly 200 people, dozens of missing around the capital, Nairobi, and across the country. The government now warning people in flood prone areas to evacuate, or they will be moved by force for their own safety.

And at least 29 people have died in heavy rains and flooding in southern Brazil. Officials declaring a state of calamity in the affected areas. They say close to 10,000 people and now displaced with at least 60 people missing.

This area of Brazil has been increasingly hit by extreme weather in recent years partly due to climate change. Thirty-one people died there in September following heavy rain names and floods.

Today marks World Press Freedom Day, honoring journalism and the journalists who take risks to tell important stories.

This year, UNESCO is dedicating the day to, quote, journalism in the face of the environmental crisis. In a statement, UNESCO said, quote the role of journalists is crucial. It is through their work, their carriage, and their perseverance that we can know what is happening across the planet. They worked on the front lines of our collective struggle for our planet's wellbeing and livable conditions.

The international press institute recently issued a report highlighting the risks that many climate and environmental journalists face, including serious physical attacks, the tension and arrests. Digital attacks, legal harassment, and restrictions on freedom of movement.

Scott Griffen is the deputy director of the international press institute and joins me now from Vienna in Austria. And thanks for doing so.

Tell us more about the dangerous face, specifically by climate and environmental journalists and why?

SCOTT GRIFFEN, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL PRESS INSTITUTE: So good morning. Thanks very much for having me and happy world press freedom day.

So just, just to frame the issue once more, as you mentioned, the climate and environmental crisis is one of the greatest, if not the greatest crisis of our time. In order to solve this crisis, we need accurate, independent, and investigative journalism which requires journalist to be able to do their jobs safely and freely.

Our report found that and we looked we did interviews with about 40 journalists in 21 countries around the world. And we found that journalists face to be a risks and challenges. And you mentioned some of those already, ranging from physical threats to legal harassment.

HOLMES: Yeah. The report says, and ill just quote journalist who cover climate and environmental stories are targeted by powerful private and state actors. How far are those actors prepared to go?

GRIFFEN: Well, very far. You know, what we have here is that journalists who are reporting these stories are going up against powerful vested interests, you know, different interests who are profiting from environmentally destructive activities. And we found that this has really often a nexus among corporations, companies, organized crime in many cases and state or government officials who are profiting in some way, often through corrupt arrangements.

So these are really serious and dangerous stories that journalists are working on. And, you know, when you go up against these powerful interests, they will push back. And that is what we are seeing in some cases, a journalist risking their life to tell these hugely important stories.

HOLMES: Absolutely. The report says, and I'm going to quote again now. It says certain stories which vary from region to region are effectively off limits for journalists due to the dangers associated with covering them.

What sorts of stories and how do the risks these journalists face impede efforts to protect the environment and climate?

GRIFFEN: Well, the risks that we face here is the risk of not having information. So we don't know what is going on in many in many of these cases because journalists are not able to get in there and safely and freely tell these stories. And just to give you if you examples of what were talking about, we're talking about illegal deforestation in the Amazon or in Central Africa. We're talking about a nickel mining or other forms of highly invasive mining in Indonesia or sand mining in India.

These are all activities that have a huge and potentially very damaging impact for our climate and environment. And journalists who are telling these stories face the interests that are behind these activities, and face against serious potential retaliation, including physical -- including risking their physical safety.

And what we found also is that a lot of these stories are being told, you know, journalists need to go into very remote areas where they lack the support, they lack support structures and many of them are freelance journalist or local journalist. We don't have these, you know, big support structures are networks that are larger media organization can offer

[02:35:01]

And that was one of our most important recommendations that comes out of this report is that we need to make sure that these journalist who are on the ground and on the front lines of reporting stories have the support and the network that they need to feel safe and be protected from these risks and potential retaliation.

HOLMES: Absolutely vital that they have that. It was interesting, too, that we're talking about the powerful interests that are behind a lot of the opposition to environmental voting, but the report also says impunity for attacks on environmental journalism is rife.

How worrying is a lack of official governmental or law enforcement concern or action, in some parts of the world?

GRIFFEN: It couldn't be more important and it couldn't be more problematic. Without, without accountability for attacks on journalists, it basically means that the government or states, and they send a signal that it is okay, that, you know, journalists can be attacked with impunity. And this fuels further violence and further attacks.

So it is critical that governments really take action here, that when journalists are attack, that those two are responsible are brought to account. This is a core issue that affects not only climate and environmental journalists, but all journalists reporting in particular investigative stories. And unfortunately, this is an issue that is still very much alive today, this impunity for attacks on journalists.

And so, this report makes it very, very clear call on governments to change that and send a signal that attacks on journalists covering these stories with her. So important for our entire globe, for our entire societies, that these attacks will not go unpunished.

HOLMES: Yeah, that is so important, really important topic.

Scott Griffen, thanks so much for discussing it with us. Really appreciate you doing so.

GRIFFEN: Thanks so much. And again, happy World Press Freedom Day.

HOLMES: Yeah.

Up next on the program, thousands of Georgians turned out again to protest what critics call the Russian law. We'll have details after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're against autocratic regime and we will never give up, especially Georgia and use is very confident and we will fight until the end.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Young people, old people, everyone will be here until this Russian government, the Georgian regime will go away.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Yes, some of the thousands of protesters rallying against the controversial foreign influence bill in Georgia's capital. Hours ago, demonstrators took to the streets of Tbilisi, once again, local news report saying they block roadways around Heroes Square, a monument to those who have fought for German -- a Georgian independence.

[02:40:04]

The bill has been called the Russian law by critics due to its similarities with a measure used by the Kremlin to crack down on dissent.

A victory for abortion rights activists in the U.S. state of Arizona after a contentious and hours-long debate on Wednesday. State lawmakers narrowly pass the measure repealing Arizona's 160 year-old near-total ban on abortion. Governor Katie Hobbs signing the bill on Thursday and commending Arizona lawmakers on overturning the civil war era ban.

(BEIGN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. KATIE HOBBS (D), ARIZONA: They have for 160 years extreme politicians came up with every excuse imaginable to maintain this draconian ban, a ban that was passed by 27 men before Arizona was even a state, a time when America was at war over the right to own slaves, a time before women could even vote. Today we are doing what, 23 governors and 55 legislatures refused to do. And I'm so proud to be the ones that got this job done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: China is set to send a spacecraft to the moon in the coming hours. The goal is to bring back samples from the far side of the lunar surface, which could help scientists peer back into the evolution of the Earth's closest neighbor, and the solar system. This is a key milestone in Chinas push to become a dominant space power. The nation plans to land astronauts on the moon by 2030 and build a research based on its south pole. China became the only nation to land a probe on the far side of the moon in 2019.

And finally, a remarkable discovery, scientists in Indonesia say they observed an orangutan intentionally treating a wound on its face with a medicinal plant. This is the first time this apparent behavior has been documented. Rakus treated a wound on his face by chewing leaves from a plant, extracting its juice and then repeatedly applying that to the wound. He then covered the wound with the chewed up leaves, which are typically used by humans in traditional medicine, according to a scientific paper published on Thursday. Scientists say the observation provides new insights into do they existence of self- medication in our closest relatives. They concede it could have been accidental and studying whether other orangutans repeat the behavior.

HOLMES: I'm Michael Holmes in Atlanta. Thanks for spending part of your day with me.

"WORLD SPORT" is coming up next. And then Kim Brunhuber whoever takes over CNN NEWSROOM at the top of the hour. I'll see you tomorrow.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:45:00]

(WORLD SPORT)