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IDF Takes Control Of Gaza Side Of Rafah Crossing; Stormy Daniels Details Sexual Encounter With Trump; Ukraine Claims It Foiled Russian Plot To Assassinate President Zelenskyy; U.N.: Nearly 20,000 Children in Gaza Orphaned in Conflict; Putin Inaugurated for Fifth Term as Russian President; Two New Separate Cases of Americans Being Detained in Russia; Another Monthly Heat Record Broken; Biden to Visit Wisconsin to Showcase Economic Wins; TikTok Moves to Block Prospective U.S. App Ban. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired May 08, 2024 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead here on CNN Newsroom.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): Seizing the passage in Rafah today is a very important step.
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VAUSE: Israel slowburn to an all-out military offense upon Rafah as a hostage and ceasefire deal with the mass hangs in the balance.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Probably so I would like to I mean, I think so.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Well, Donald Trump testify in his own defense and his hush money trial after hours of sexually explicit and explosive testimony from the star witness, Stormy Daniels, and foil high ranking Ukrainian officials a key part of a Russian plot killed not only the Ukrainian president, but also the head of security services and the head of military intelligence.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Atlanta. This is CNN Newsroom with John Vause.
VAUSE: Israel's military offensive on rougher in southern Gaza is now underway despite weeks of very public opposition from Washington. And now one U.S. official tells CNN last week the White House paused a shipment of 2,000 pound and 500 pound bombs to Israel are the concerns of high civilian casualties if used by Israel offensive on Rafah. Right now Israeli forces control the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing,
all at the same time, negotiators from Israel and Hamas are in neighboring Egypt, trying to broker a deal for a ceasefire and release of hostages.
But since this Israeli military operation began less than 24 hours ago, panic Palestinians have been fleeing Rafah in search of safety. But aid groups are criticizing so called expanded humanitarian zones as being inadequate. Rafah's last functioning hospital pleading for all available medical teams to help treat the wounded. At least 27 people have been killed so far.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant visited an artillery battery at the Israelis Gaza border near Rafah on Tuesday, and he outlined the IDF mission.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
YOAV GALLANT, ISRAELI DEFENSE MINISTER (through translator) This operation will continue until we eliminate Hamas in the Rafah area and the entire Gaza Strip. Or until the first hostage returns. We are willing to make compromises in order to bring back the hostages. But if that option is removed, we will go on and deepen the operation. This will happen all over the strip in the South, in the center, and in the north. We know that Hamas only responds to force.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: CNN's Scott McLean following developments live this hour in Istanbul. So Scott, with regard to the negotiations, we know that when the Hamas acceptance came, the Israeli said it was more of a counteroffer. And there were substantial differences between the two sides.
Do we know where those differences are? And where those negotiations are at the moment with regard to what the board is keeping these the sides apart?
SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we have a pretty good idea, although we don't know the specific precise details, John, but basically what Hamas held the press conference yesterday in Beirut and said that the deal that it agreed to, which of course is not an Israeli proposal, really ticks its boxes, it would involve the withdrawal of Israeli troops, movement of people from north to south who have been displaced and an end to the siege.
And the wording of that last point is important here because according to a diplomatic source familiar with these talks, speaking to CNN, they said that what's in this deal, which is the rebuilding of Gaza, during a period of sustainable calm, is a way of essentially agreeing to a permanent ceasefire or effectively a permanent ceasefire without calling it that because Hamas, of course, is insisting that any ceasefire be permanent.
And the Israelis are insisting the precise opposite, that they will not agree to any kind of permanent ceasefire, because the war will only end when not only the hostages are returned, but also when Hamas is completely destroyed.
Now, if you ask the White House, they say that look, if you look at the text of what each side is willing to agree to they're not far off, there should be a way to make a deal in there. But this is at odds with what the Israelis are saying that there are still significant gaps between the two.
Of course we heard the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu say yesterday that this deal in his mind that Hamas put forward or said that it agreed to was just a way of foiling or torpedoing this invasion into Rafah, which did not happen.
Of course, Netanyahu and Israel has been saying since day one, that the best way to get the hostages back is with military pressure and it seems like they're sticking to their own advice there, John.
VAUSE: And that helps us a little bit all adults here because the Israelis are saying this military incursion into Rafah will increase in intensity slowly or be incremental in order to keep the pressure on Hamas to agree that ceasefire deal.
[01:05:09]
At the same time Hamas is saying, well, there is a military operation in Rafah, they will not agree to a ceasefire deal. So how does this play itself out at the end?
MCLEAN: Yes, so this is not the full scale operation that Israel has been warning about for some time. But perhaps it is enough to satisfy the hardliners in the Prime Minister's government who are insisting that he go ahead with this operation in Rafah, or that they'll threaten the or they say that they'll topple his government, if they don't, or if he doesn't.
The reality, John, is that there are pressures on all sides here. Hamas, of course, is feeling pressure to get a deal because its survival may well depend on it. Of course, there are pressures on the Israelis at home, we're seeing the protests, we're also seeing polling data that suggests that most Israelis would rather see or think that the first priority should be to bring the hostages home and make a deal rather than the military operation or the goals of the military operation.
We are also seeing pressure from the outside on Israel, namely from the United States. And that reporting that you mentioned from our colleague, Oren Liebermann, citing a U.S. source that a shipment of U.S. bombs destined for Israel has been paused over concerns that those bombs could be used in densely populated areas of Rafah, we're talking about some 3,500 bombs, about half of them are 2,000 pound bombs, the other half or 500 pound bombs.
And when we're talking about these 2,000 pound or one ton bombs, these are things that will leave massive craters, they'll shoot shrapnel hundreds of yards perhaps. And so this is not the kind of weapon that is meant for a densely populated area. The U.S. says that, look, this has nothing to do with its ironclad
resolve, or its ironclad commitment to Israeli security. But it is one more piece of evidence, perhaps of the pressure piling up on the Israelis. And perhaps there's also pressure on the Americans as well, because it is worth noting, John that today is the deadline for the Secretary of State Antony Blinken to report to Congress to confirm that assurances that is Israel has given that U.S. weapons will only be used in accordance with international law.
Blinken needs to assess whether that those assurances are credible and reliable. So again, just one more piece of a very complicated puzzle here.
VAUSE: A lot of moving parts right now. Scott McLean in Istanbul helping us to work out what's moving what's going on. Thank you.
Joining me now from Washington, retired U.S. Air Force colonel and CNN military analyst, Cedric Leighton. Good to see you, sir. Thanks for being with us.
CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Good to be with you, John.
VAUSE: So leading up to the Rafah offensive the White House made it pretty clear, it did not support any major all-out offensive on Rafah. And now that opposition is playing out in real time. We're learning that the White House has withheld the supply of about 3,000. more than 3,000 bombs or 20,00 pound bombs, 7,100 pound bombs, fearing they would be used in Rafah. What sort of impact could this have on the Israeli operation?
LEIGHTON: It could have a significant impact, John. One of the key things about these bombs is that they're designed to hit a variety of different targets, particularly hard targets. So one of the things that the Israelis have been looking at doing is going after the tunnel network that Hamas has.
And in the past few months, they've employed 2,000 pound bombs to go after that tunnel network because they have the capacity to destroy those tunnel networks. And when it comes to these kinds of bombs, the other problem, though with them is that they can actually destroy large sections of the city, for example, several blocks worth. And that is why the administration apparently has decided -- the U.S. administration that is has decided to keep those bombs from being sent to Israel at this particular point in time.
It doesn't mean that they're not going to get there eventually. But it certainly means that there's a pause in the shipping.
VAUSE: Is this part of an agreement that Israel had signed that it would abide by international law in the use of any U.S. supplied weapons. I mean, all countries have to sign that offensive weapons, but Israel in particular, had to sign it.
LEIGHTON: Right. So they'll say -- the release will always say that they actually are abiding by that agreement. The U.S. has a fairly strict interpretation of what that actually means. And in this particular case, the U.S. administration, they may not be saying this out loud, but what they really mean is that they want the Israelis not only to abide by the agreement, but not to use the 2,000 pound bombs, especially on civilian targets, and they're worried that they will be used in Rafah in that manner. In addition to of course, targeting Hamas.
The fact is that it will be almost impossible for them to distinguish between civilian targets and Hamas targets.
VAUSE: This operation has been underway for almost 24 hours or so. And the first objective has been achieved that's taking control of the Rafah border crossing on the Gaza side.
Here's the Israeli Prime Minister explaining why.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NETANYAHU (through translator): Seizing the passage in Rafah today is a very important step, an important step in the way to destroy the remaining military capabilities of Hamas, including the elimination of for terrorists battalions in Rafah and an important step to damage the governmental capabilities of us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: So with Israel in control of Rafah, I guess there's one less escape route for Hamas fighters, but just in terms of a military operation is typically how a major offensive like the one Netanyahu has been talking about would actually begin. If that's the case, what do you expect to happen next?
LEIGHTON: Yes, he's generally consistent with what I would expect the Israelis to do in a situation like this. Basically, what they want to do is they want to cut off the escape routes that Hamas might be using in order to get out of any possible danger that they would be facing from the IDF as they're doing this.
So, the IDF is actually moving to encircle a lot of what Hamas is controlling. And they basically want to destroy us, just like they've said they would go after their governmental structures and go after their military structures. So this is precisely what the Israelis are doing.
And the other part of this, of course, is that they're cutting off the resupply routes, that these that the Hamas forces have news illicitly from Egypt. So that's the kind of operation that the Israelis are mounting totally consistent with what they said they would do.
But it is also part of a larger operation. And that operation would include finding locating and destroying the rest of the Hamas forces and the first thing they would do is cut off the border, then moving to other parts of Rafah, which would indicate that they would be moving after a places that we could potentially house leadership or like Yahya Sinwar, and others that are part of the Hamas hierarchy at this point.
VAUSE: The Israeli say they're moving slowly, incrementally in Gaza slowly up in the military pressure on Hamas, in order to reach a ceasefire deal. Here's how Hamas is reacting to all of this.
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OSAMA HAMDAM, HAMAS OFFICIAL (through translator): If the aggression continues, there will be no ceasefire, because the Israelis are the ones attacking and shooting, it is normal for the resistance to respond to this aggression, to respond in defense and to respond in order to defeat the occupation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: That statements kind of ritual a number of levels, you know, Hamas wanting to be seen as the victim here. But, you know, this is about as far from the truth as possible. But there is a value to this isn't there in terms of international perceptions?
LEIGHTON: Absolutely. And of course, war is also a battle of perceptions, not just what's going on the ground, but what people think is going on in the upper ground, and also what people think is just and in this particular case, Hamas has certain advantages, because a lot of the world's population, especially on college campuses in the U.S. and university campuses, in other parts of the world, they're looking at this as being a basically an oppression of Hamas.
There's, of course, a lot more to it than that. But the basic idea is that Hamas is casting themselves as the victim in this case, and they might just be able to get away with it in the world of public opinion.
VAUSE: Cedric Leighton. Sir, thank you so much for your time this evening. Really appreciate it.
LEIGHTON: You bet John. Anytime.
VAUSE: Donald Trump's trial for alleged mishandling of classified documents is now being postponed indefinitely. The Trump appointed Judge Eileen Cannon giving Trump and his legal team. The lengthy delay they had long been hoping for.
Judge Cannon said she would not announce the starting date because of the high number of pre-trial issues which needed to be resolved all of them raised by the Trump legal team. She did say the process could take until at least late July, which means this trial could then conflict with Trump's two other federal cases, making it much less likely the documents case will go to trial before November, and Trump could be elected president again and the next attorney general could simply make the charges disappear.
Meantime, the adult film star at the center of a hush money payment to a wholesale trial to Donald Trump took the witness stand Tuesday, divulging salacious details about her alleged affair with Trump. Some of Stormy Daniels remarks were so explicit the judge cut her off
a number of times and the defense demanded a mistrial, which was denied.
Trump did not say a word about Daniels after court ended but he claimed the prosecution's case is fully apart. More now from CNN's Kara Scannell.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On the stand Stormy Daniels, the former adult film star and director at the center of the first criminal trial of Donald J. Trump, the $130,000 deal in exchange for her silence is at the heart of the prosecution's case.
On Tuesday, prosecutors tried to paint Daniels as a credible witness having her reveal specific details on her alleged encounter with Trump and the events surrounding it. Trump denies the affair.
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Meanwhile, during cross examination, Trump's attorneys tried to undercut Daniel's testimony by attacking her motivations, credibility, and demonstrating how much she hates Trump. Daniels testified she met Trump while working at a celebrity golf tournament in 2006. That's when Trump invited her to dinner.
Later in Trump's penthouse suite, she said they talked for two hours and Trump asked thoughtful business questions. She explained she went to the bathroom and when I exited, he was just up on the bed like this in boxers and a T shirt she said while demonstrating his pose for the jury.
She noted it was not in a threatening manner. Daniel said the next thing I know I was on the bed. She described their relationship in a 2018 interview with Anderson Cooper for 60 Minutes.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: So he definitely wanted to continue to see you.
STORMY DANIELS, FORMER ADULT FILM STAR: Oh, for sure. Yes. And this was not a secret. He never asked me not to tell anyone. He called several times when I was in front of many people and I'd be like, Oh my god. He's calling like shut up. The Donald.
SCANNELL (voice-over): During her testimony, Trump nudged his attorney repeatedly who objected to questions and answers when Daniel suggested she didn't want to be alone with Trump again. The judge agreed and struck several of our answers from the record.
When the Access Hollywood tape came out before the 2016 election, Daniel said she spoke with her publicist about selling her story.
DANIELS: Suddenly people are reaching out to me again offering me money. Large amounts of money. SCANNELL (voice-over): She soon learned Trump and his ex-attorney Michael Cohen are interested in paying for a story in a $130,000 deal that came with a nondisclosure agreement. Daniels testified how she wanted the deal done before the election because she was worried I wouldn't be safe or that he wouldn't pay and there would be a trail to keep me safe.
Prosecutors then turn to Daniels 2018 statement denying a sexual affair with Trump, a head of a Wall Street Journal article that was going to outline their deal. Daniel said she did not want to sign it because it was false. The day it was released she was interviewed by Jimmy Kimmel and denied it was her signature.
KIMMY KIMMEL, TV HOST: Did you signed this letter that was released today?
DANIELS: I don't know.
KIMMEL: Wait a minute that you can say, right?
DANIELS: But that's -- looks like my signature does it.
KIMELL: It doesn't.
SCANNELL (voice-over): Daniels testified she purposely signed her name and a different way to tip off Kimmel. After a court break, Trump's team moved for a mistrial pointing to aspects of Daniel's testimony. Trump's attorney Todd Blanche argued this is the kind of testimony that makes it impossible to come back from. Judge Juan Merchan ruled against the call for a mistrial.
Then Trump's team took their turn to question Daniels. Trump's attorney Susan Necheles asked Daniels, am I correct that you hate President Trump? Yes, Daniels responded.
SCANNELL: During Daniel's testimony, Donald Trump was taking notes. He was actively engaging in conversations with attorneys even nudging them at times. The jurors also seem to be paying attention to Daniel's testimony, writing down in their notepads and watching and observing the back and forth between Daniels and the prosecutor and Trump's attorney, particularly during the cross examination.
There's no court on Wednesday, but cross examination will continue on Thursday. And prosecutors said they also will have additional questions for Daniels. Kara Scannell, CNN, New York.
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VAUSE: Well, just such damning testimony, will Donald Trump take the stand in his own defense? Short time ago put that question to CNN legal analyst and former White House Ethics czar Norm Eisen.
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NORM EISEN, CNN LEGAN ANALYST: Absolutely not. The -- and that's not just because he'll be confronted with his denial of this affair brief encounter that we heard about today. It's because of the way the case has come in. His lawyers are going to tell him we can challenge, remember those two parts of the case. They have to show that Donald Trump intentionally participated in that campaign finance conspiracy, and intentionally caused those false records to be created.
Right now the critical witness to do that is Michael Cohen. He was also witness for me and that impeachment investigation. And the jury -- the defense lawyers are going to tell their client Mr. Trump, look, we're going to attack Cohen. If the jury buys it, the intent won't be proven. Don't mess things up by testifying and turning an arguable case into a losing case. No way he's testifying, John.
VAUSE: OK, so with that, let's move on to another legal development and another Trump case this one the mishandling classified documents. Judge overseeing the trial Eileen Cannon, the Trump appointee, has now delayed the trial start indefinitely arguing there are too many pre- trial issues.
You know, Judge Cannon's grasp of the law is questionable on a good day, your opinion of that decision and can't be challenged by prosecutors.
EISEN: It's an atrocious decision. The issues that she's dealing with are routine in cases involving classified documents.
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She has no experience with that, or with much else in sitting as a federal judge overseeing an important criminal trial. And it's the latest in a series of blunders dating back to her interfering with the investigation of these classified documents alleged mishandling, before the indictment was even brought.
And she was severely criticized by extremely conservative judges on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals twice for her behavior there. But unfortunately, there's very little that can be done about it at this stage. It is a miscarriage of justice, nevertheless.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Come up here on CNN, they were meant to protect the life of the Ukrainian president. But instead, these two high ranking military officers allegedly part of a foiled assassination attempt by Russia.
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VAUSE: Ukrainian officials say they've stopped an actively developing Russian plot to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The Prosecutor General's Offices two officials in Ukraine's government protection unit were arrested and charged with treason. As part of the plot, Russia's State Security Service allegedly sent drones and ammunition to one of the suspects.
Since Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine, President Zelenskyy has repeatedly faced a number of attempts on his life. And joining us now is Steve Hall, CNN national security analyst and
former Chief of Russia operations for the CIA. Steve, it's good to see you. Welcome back.
STEVE HALL, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes, great to be here.
VAUSE: OK. So the two colonels recruited by Russia were with Ukraine's state Protection Department. Their job was to protect the Ukrainian president, much like the U.S. Secret Service. And here's what the Russians wanted from them. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARTEM DEKHTYARENKO, SPOKESPERSON, SECURITY SERVICE OF UKRAINE (through translator): One of the most important tasks of the FSB agent network was to find executors among the military close to the president who could take the head of state hostage and later killed him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: And according to a statement from Ukraine state Protection Department, they voluntarily help representatives of the FSB, which is the new version of the KGB in Russia, of carrying out subversive activities against Ukraine in exchange for financial compensation. And one intercepted phone call allegedly, $50,000 was mentioned as payment.
So is that enough for these guys to commit treason? Because if they did it for money, that's one thing. If they're motivated by ideology and loyalty to Russia, that would seem to be a much bigger problem.
HALL: Yes, you know, John, the business of recruiting human spies is a complex one. And it's got a lot of layers to it, a lot of facets to it. So simply because we've seen that the Russians not at all surprisingly, I think like any good intelligence service, wants to try to pay the people that it's recruited as spies to do their job.
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So, you know, sometimes that's the motivation, it's purely financial there's certainly been a number of American spies who worked for the Russians who did it for financial reasons. But oftentimes, it's more layered than that. We have to remember that dating back to Soviet times. And even before, there's been a lot of connectivity between the societies, Ukrainian society and Russian society, so they have families on either side of the border, they've got perhaps mixed thoughts about how the war is going, and what might be happening to their family members, you know, on either side of the border.
So simply because it's money that's involved, doesn't necessarily mean that that's the full reason that they decided to work with the Russians on this.
VAUSE: Well, there is good news and the fact that this plot, like many other plots was foiled. The bad news in this it set these two high level military officers, two colonels were involved. The first time such high level ranking officials of the State Security Department have actually become the enemies moles. That's according to the Ukrainian Security Services.
They're willing to play this key role of this multistage plot to kill not just the president of Ukraine, but also the head of Ukraine's main security service, the SBU, and the head of military intelligence at GUR.
So is there a direct link here between Ukraine's losses on the battlefields poor morale, Russia getting the upper hand in all of this, because you have redstone (ph) usually desert, a ship, which is not sinking, you know, a country which is close to victory and a war?
HALL: Yes, the counterintelligence business is another part -- is another complex part of the human spying, the human, you know, collection efforts that go on in situations like this. So I'm not sure that it necessarily that there's connectivity, or sort of certainly not a causal, necessarily a connectivity there.
What you have here is you have a counterintelligence operation, which are some of the most complicated operations to run, which is when you're trying to find out what the bad guy in this case, Ukrainians trying to find out what the Russian guys are trying to do to you inside of your own government, which means you got to have spies inside your own service, telling you who's working for the bad guys.
It's really -- well, it's -- there's a reason it's called the wilderness of mirrors here. And it doesn't necessarily mean that the poor morale or that there's an impact on the battlefield, or that everything is, you know, going to pop in in Ukraine.
What it simply means is that the Ukrainians have worked very hard to try to identify people inside their own government, which is the right thing to do, who might pose a threat not just to President Zelenskyy, but to other key figures. And that's not the only thing that they're looking for.
They're looking for any type of Russian penetration of the Ukrainian government. Sure they've done a good job. That's a good counterintelligence operation to be able to stop something like this.
VAUSE: So is this a case of where there's two there's possibly 20? You know, how many other high ranking Ukrainian government officials are on Moscow's payroll. And beyond that the SBU the Intelligence Service said it's uncovered more than 2,000 people who've committed treason. This is Ukrainian. Since the war began, from providing Moscow with coordinates for military targets to attempting to track the movements of senior officials, including the president.
So overall, how widespread is this problem of traitors within Ukraine, helping Russia?
HALL: So hard to say, because again, counterintelligence operations are some of the most closely held secrets for obvious reasons here if this -- if the Ukrainians hadn't detected this, or if it leaked, that the Ukrainians were somehow onto these guys, you know, then that would have been catastrophic for the Russians.
So these things are very closely held. We don't know exactly how widespread this is. I can tell you, you know, from trying to recruit, you know, people, you know, when I was in the CIA, it's hard to get, you know, 20 people, it's hard to get, you know, more than one or two people at the highest levels of any government to actually commit that treason, and to work for you.
But again, I got to get back to this issue of how close societally Russia and Ukraine used to be. There are a lot of Ukrainians who have family members inside of Russia. And let me tell you, if your sister in law, grandma, somebody lives in Russia, and you are Ukrainian, the Russians are going to show up on your doorstep and say, hey, remember who we've got on our side of the border. You don't want anything bad to happen to grandma or your brother in law, your sister in law, or whatever it is, and so you better work for us.
It's very complicated stuff. And those two societies it doesn't surprise me that the Russians have had some success in getting some penetrations inside the Ukrainian government.
VAUSE: Another challenge for the Ukrainians and President Zelenskyy. Steve, thanks so much for being with us and going in depth explaining all of that appreciate it.
HALL: Sure.
VAUSE: U.N. calls it a war on children. When we come back, we look at the Gaza children who've paid the highest price many now being relocated to Qatar for treatment. But what will the future be? Thousands of other children just barely survived.
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VAUSE: Welcome back everyone. I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
A U.S. official tells CNN the Biden administration has paused a shipment of bombs to Israel, concerned about their potential use in the invasion of Rafah. The weapons held back last week include 2,000- pound and 500-pound bombs.
Israeli leaders are continuing -- vowing to continue their incursion into southern Gaza City until Hamas is eliminated, all the hostages are free.
Hospital officials in Gaza report at least 27 people have been killed so far. That includes six women and nine children.
The IDF claims approximately 20 terrorists have been located and killed, so too three operational tunnel shafts.
Israel's war with Hamas is taking a staggering toll on the children of Gaza. More than 13,000 dead, thousands more have been injured, many losing limbs, the highest number in a conflict zone in decades. About 20,000 now left orphans but it's their future which so many have lost. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh meets one orphan child coping with the pain of losing her parents.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Darin giggles and shrieks at the same time. The pain from bending her knees is just too much.
"You promised you won't make me cry today," she tells the nurse.
Months of these physical therapy sessions after multiple surgeries has gotten her back up on her feet. Starting to walk again as she turned 11.
Last time we saw Darin, she was lying injured, unconscious in a hospital bed in Gaza last October. She and her brother Kinan had just survived an Israeli airstrike. Kinan was quiet and confused, barely able to open his eyes.
Their great aunt was by their bedside trying to shield them from the most crushing of news.
DARIN ELBAYYA, PARENTS KILLED IN GAZA: For the first time now, I feel that I am an orphan. In the morning when I go to school, mom and dad are not there to give them a kiss before I leave.
KARADSHEH: Darin and Kinan now know they were the only ones who survived that airstrike. Their mom, dad, and eight-year-old brother, Walid, are gone. Their grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins, 70 loved ones, all perished that October day.
The children made it out to Qatar (ph) for medical treatment. They have new friends, they go to school, they play and laugh. But beneath this veneer of normalcy is the pain they share with nearly 20,000 Palestinian children that the U.N. estimates have lost their parents in this war.
Five-year-old Kinan seems oblivious to it all, but sometimes his aunt says he pretends he's on the phone to his parents.
"They laugh, they smile, but they also cry," Yusra (ph) tells us. "Sometimes I can't be strong anymore. I hug Darin and we cry. Then I pull myself together and tell her we have to be strong and get through this."
[01:34:50]
KARADSHEH: Yusra (ph), separated from her own family in Gaza, has not left their side since October. She's become their everything. They now call her tata or grandma.
Not a day goes by for Darin without thinking of her parents and all those she's lost. She interrupts her interview several times to look through their photos. It's what she does when she misses them.
ELBAYYA: I miss mom's cooking, I miss mom, my dad and my brother. Dad made me my own princess themed room. Mom used to spoil me.
When I was little and war would come, it would last a few days. But this war was unlike any other war, God chose to take the people we love, the good people.
KARADSHEH: On a call to her injured uncle in Gaza, Darin breaks down, begging anyone to get him and his family out. She has to protect them, she says. It's that all-consuming fear of losing those she has left.
ELBAYYA: I wish I could go back to Gaza, but what will be left in Gaza? Destruction, people are all in tents. Gaza is no longer Gaza. It is now a city of ghosts.
KARADSHEH (voice-over): For now, she's finding her own way of dealing with grief.
ELBAYYA: I am not sad that was family was killed, because they are happy in heaven. They are not dead, they are alive. We don't see them but they see us.
KARADSHEH: Jomana Karadsheh, CNN -- Doha.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Russian President Vladimir Putin has officially begun his fifth term in office less than two months after an election, which was never in doubt with a margin of victory the U.S. calls farcical. For nearly a quarter of a century, Putin has enjoyed unchecked power.
More details now on this very carefully orchestrated inauguration ceremony from CNN's Fred Pleitgen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Vladimir Putin making his own inauguration look so common place, he takes time to finish a phone call.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.
PLEITGEN: Before casually making his way to the grand ceremony inside the Kremlin.
Those attending, cheering him on as he ascends to a record fifth term as Russia's leader.
"As president of the Russian Federation, I swear to respect and protect the rights and freedoms of people and citizens to respect and protect the Constitution of the Russian Federation, to protect the sovereignty, independence, safety and integrity of the state to loyally serve people," he swore while once again blaming the West for deteriorating ties with Moscow.
"The choice is theirs," he said, "whether they intend to continue to try to restrain Russia's development, to continue a policy of aggression, continuous pressure on our country for years, or to seek a path to cooperation and peace."
Putin urging the West to halt military support for Ukraine as he himself continues to send hundreds of thousands of his own citizens to fight there.
The Russian military unleashing a massive aerial bombing campaign on Chasiv Yar, making small gains here on the eastern front.
"It is due to the active use of aviation," the Ukrainian commander says, "attack aircraft carrying guided bombs. After the upgrade, guided bombs began to hit more accurately than before thus it is much harder to influence them with electronic warfare.
More than ever, Vladimir Putin's presidency is defined by war, greeting his troops as part of the inauguration events.
His position strengthened, his power nearly unchecked after a landslide victory in recent presidential elections. Putin has made clear he does not intend to change course or two back down as he continues to steer his country on a confrontation course with the U.S. and its allies.
His friend, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, proclaiming Putin de facto Russia's leader for life.
"God grant that the end of the century marks the end of your stay in power," he says.
Russia's constitution says Putin could remain in power for another 12 years, but that is just on paper. In today's Russia, Putin makes the rules and steers this country in the direction he wants.
Fred Pleitgen, CNN -- Berlin.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[01:39:53]
VAUSE: For months now, the U.S. State Department has warned Americans to avoid traveling to Russia. Two American men recently went there anyway recently and were arrested. One on suspicion of theft, the other alleged petty hooliganism. Their cases entirely separate.
CNN's Oren Liebermann has details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: There are now two more Americans being held in Russia in two separate cases. The first of those is Staff Sergeant Gordon Black, a U.S. Army soldier who had been stationed in South Korea.
And this is certainly an interesting story. He enlisted in the army according to his records back in 2008. He had deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan. And most recently he was stationed in South Korea. Then he got orders to move the Fourth Cavasos in Texas, and according to the army, he signed for his leave on April 10. But instead of coming back to the United States, he went from South Korea to China, to Vladivostok in Russia. And that's where he was since about April 10.
He was then arrested on May 2nd, so last week and is being held on suspicion of theft. He'll be held in Russian prison for at least the next two months until his next court date.
His mother told ABC News that she had worried for him when she found out he was going to Russia.
MELODY JONES, MOTHER OF GORDON BLACK: I knew something was going to happen. I'm hoping he's not being tortured or hurt. It's just hard being a mom and being in that situation and not knowing, not be able to touch him, you know, hug him, telling me he's going to be ok
LIEBERMANN: Black traveled to Russia of his own free will. He was on leave according to the army. He did not request permission to travel to Russia and was not authorized to do so.
Meanwhile, in a separate case, there is another American who is currently detained in Russia, and that is William Russell Nycum. He is being held on petty hooliganism and will spend a short period of time here in detention as the U.S. waits to see what happens with this case.
Of course, these two Americans join a much more high-profile names "Wall Street Journal" journalist Evan Gershkovich has been in jail and Russia for more than a year; and Paul Whelan has been in Russian prison for more than five years.
To this point, the concern here, of course, is that Moscow is holding them and that the Kremlin is holding them to try to extract concessions and try to get Russians freed from American prisons.
Oren Lieberman, CNN -- in the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Still to come here on CNN another month, another heat record broken and scientists now warning 2024 would likely be the planet's hottest year ever. More on that in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Two of Europe's biggest oil companies are considering abandoning their stock exchanges for Wall Street, potentially dealing a massive blow to both London and Saris.
Shell is the second largest company on London's FTSE 100 index. Total Energies is the fourth largest on the CAC 40 in France. Both companies say they're undervalued in Europe compared to major oil companies in the U.S.
[01:44:52]
VAUSE: Analysts say the move would mean access to more capital and no more E.U. environmental restrictions. But they do warn it could spark a crisis in their home markets.
The death toll from devastating floods in Brazil is now up to 90 with more than 130 people unaccounted for. Heavy rain flooded an airport in the southern city of Porto Alegre on Tuesday. The flooding has also caused landslides and destroyed roads and bridges results
Brazil's President called on congress to declare a public emergency.
And the peak of tornado season now in full force across the United States with watches again in effect for a number of states in the Midwest and the south for the next few hours. The storm threat for Wednesday stretches from Texas to Maine, making more than 140 million people.
Michigan was hit with several tornadoes last Tuesday, injuring at least 12 people and destroying a number of homes. A day earlier tonight, a tornado struck parts of Missouri, Tennessee, and Oklahoma, at least one person was killed.
According to the Storm Prediction Center, there's now been at least one tornado report every day in the United States for 13 straight days. Roughly 300 were reported just last month. The second most on record.
And last month broke yet another global heat record. The warmest April ever, according to the Copernicus, the E.U.'s climate monitoring service, making 11 straight months of record heat. And 2024 is likely to be the hottest year on record; hotter than 2023, which was also the hottest year on record.
CNN meteorologist Chad Myers has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Here's what the globe looked like from the Copernicus Climate Change Service for April of 2024, it was the warmest April ever on record.
And now we have been month-to-month-to-month records for 11 straight months in a row. Next month will likely be one full year.
But this is disturbing still 1.58 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Trying to keep that number below 1.50 and that just hasn't happened and it hasn't happened since July of last year.
This is the 11th month in a row where the global temperatures have exceeded any other year on record. So way up there. And same story for the warmest sea surface temperatures on record globally.
Not everywhere is warm. There are some cooler spots, but with the El Nino in the Pacific and also the very hot areas here in the Atlantic Ocean. Yes, the warmest sea surface temperatures globally that we've ever had.
This red zone right here and mainly right up in here, the development region for Atlantic hurricanes, the warmest it has ever been for this date. Not the warmest it's going to be in July or August, but were already starting out very, very warm in fact, warm enough to probably equal June or July already into hurricane season although we haven't had any tropical cyclones here in the Atlantic Ocean yet. But that is likely to come.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Chad Myers, thank you.
We'll take a short break. When we come back. TikTok, ready to fight a potential ban in the U.S. -- what's shaping out to be an historic legal battle.
Also ahead, Joe Biden heading to Wisconsin again, trip number four to push his economic achievements. Coming up, what voters in that state are saying about the president and his political rival Donald Trump, who was there just last week.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: U.S. President Joe Biden set to make his fourth campaign stop to Wisconsin Wednesday hoping to focus on a strong economy, falling inflation, incredible job growth, that kind of thing.
[01:49:51]
VAUSE: It's a must-win state for Biden as well as his Republican opponent Donald Trump.
CNN's Jeff Zeleny spoke to Wisconsin voters about the economy and the upcoming election.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVE FLANNERY, WISCONSIN VOTER: It's a mess, man.
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Dave Flannery is talking about the state of American politics.
FLANNERY: It's a mess.
ZELENY: How does it get fixed?
FLANNERY: I wish I knew.
ZELENY: Flannery has a ringside seat to the noisy presidential race from his quiet orchard in battleground Wisconsin.
President Biden will be just miles away Wednesday when he returns to the state for his fourth visit this year.
FLANNERY: A lot of construction going on, several thousand jobs are going to be created over there during the construction process.
ZELENY: The president is touting his economic agenda. It's an open question whether any projects will ease anxieties of small business owners like Flannery.
So this is the top of it.
Who debated if he should add a new building on his Apple Hauler farms.
FLANNERY: Things are really uncertain, not knowing what's going to happen with interest rates and what's going to happen with the whole economy.
ZELENY: Wisconsin is an essential piece of Biden's reelection roadmap.
MAUREEN GLYNN, WISCONSIN VOTER: I hope that people will look to reason, integrity, character of our national leader, and vote appropriately.
ZELENY: In your view which way is that?
GLYNN: Biden. He's old. So what?
ZELENY: Maureen Glynn and her husband, Dennis, worry and wonder why the Biden-Trump rematch seems so bitterly tight.
GLYNN: I just think that people had forgotten how chaotic it was when Trump was president. I feel a lot better now that we've had almost four years of Biden. It's not great, but it's better.
ZELENY: Biden is visiting Racine, home to one of 46 democratic offices across the state, a key piece of his coalition is black voters, some of whom don't see how they benefit from his economic plan.
GIOVANNA LU, COMMUNITY ORGANIZER: As they see the prices rise with Biden, they think Trump made the economy better and Biden is making it worse.
ZELENY: Giovanna Lu and Kyle Johnson or community organizers. They say the president must address his challenge with young voters who question his foreign policy and more.
KYLE JOHNSON, COMMUNITY ORGANIZER: What I want is something to vote for and not vote against. You know, we hear a lot of what is, what is the other guy going to do. What is Trump going to do? What happens if he wins?
I understand that. You know, I think a lot of us understand the stakes.
ZELENY: at the Cozy Nook Farm, Tom Oberhouse (ph) fondly recalls Trumps policies but is far from his biggest admirer.
TOM OBERHOUSE, WISCONSIN VOTER: It's more Trumps mouth that were not happy with.
ZELENY: Or Biden's biggest critic.
OBERHOUSE: Once he was elected president, I was, yes, he's our president, you know, supporting.
ZELENY: He believes the country deserves better.
OVERHOUSE: I think we need a new constitutional amendment that says if you're 70 year or over, you can't run for national office. And you were like, oh, I can't be on the local co-op board but I could be president of the United States.
ZELENY: Back at the orchard Flannery worries, neither side will cool the rising tensions.
FLANNERY: I consider myself an independent.
ZELENY: is your vote up for grabs in November.
FLANNERY: At this point in time I would say no. But November is a long ways away.
ZELENY: For President Biden, there is no path to reelection that does not include winning Wisconsin. His advisors are well aware of that. It is why he's coming back here again on Wednesday as part of his "Investing in America" tour, trying to make voters see his economic achievements and feel them through the inflation.
Now former president Donald Trump also campaigning in Wisconsin here just last week, expected to come back again. Of course, Wisconsin is part of that blue wall, including Michigan and Pennsylvania that Trump carried in 2016, Biden flipped in 2020 and won the White House.
Jeff Zeleny, CNN -- Racine, Wisconsin.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Well, TikTok has now started legal action to block a U.S. law which could force a nationwide ban of the social media platform over security concerns and its links to the Chinese government.
The company argues the law infringes on free speech writing in a petition, "Congress has enacted a law that subjects a single named speech platform to a permanent nationwide ban. Bars every American from participating in a unique online community with more than 1 billion people worldwide".
Details now from CNN's Clare Duffy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLARE DUFFY, CNN BUSINESS WRITER: The stakes here for TikTok are huge. This bill could lead to a ban of TikTok in the U.S., which is one of its biggest market. It's 170 million American users.
And TikTok is claiming here that this bill infringes on the First Amendment speech rights of the platform and of those American users. Just as a reminder, this bill would force TikTok to find a new American owner, spin off from its Chinese parent company Bytedance, or face a ban in the United States.
But the company is claiming that this bill really is just a ban and that if it's left to stand, left to stay in place, that it will lead to TikTok being blocked in the United States starting in January of next year.
[01:54:48]
DUFFY: The company claims in this lawsuit that the divestiture required by this law, and I'm quoting here now, "is simply not possible, not commercially, not technically, not legally, and certainly not on the 270-day timeline required by this act."
TikTok is citing here, for example, the fact that the Chinese government has said that it wouldn't allow TikTok to be sold with its recommendation algorithm, which is really the thing that makes this platform so valuable.
So TikTok saying it's not possible for us to be divested from Bytedance therefore this is a ban and a ban is unconstitutional.
And what's interesting about this is it's really going to set up the court to have to weigh the U.S. lawmakers' national security concerns when it comes to TikTok over or sort of against the First Amendment rights of this platform and of its U.S. users.
So I expect that we'll see this legislature -- this litigation, I should say, drag on for quite some time.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Well, seven years after Nintendo released its mega popular gaming console, the Switch, a brand-new console may be in development. Nintendo's president says there will be an announcement about the Switch's successor by early next year.
Nintendo (INAUDIBLE) says Switch sales are flagging, projecting 13.5 million units sold this year compared to nearly 16 million last year. Overall, company profits are expected to fall 39 percent over the next fiscal year.
Still the original Switch and its hand-held versions are huge profit drivers for the Japanese company.
And finally this hour, who doesn't like doing chores. Well, if you don't, maybe one day you have a humanoid to do them for you.
A German A.I. company has designated -- designed a robot rather to take out the trash and carry out other mundane tasks. Neura Robotics unveiled the prototype dubbed 4NE1 in Chicago Tuesday at Automate (ph), North America's largest robotics trade show.
The company's CEO says it will do things which people don't like to do. He predicts simulated robots will be in homes and on the streets in the next five, maybe ten years.
Thank you for watching. I'm John Vause.
Please stay with us.
My friend and colleague Rosemary Church is up after a very short break.
See you right back here tomorrow.
[01:56:51]
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