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Biden to Begin U.S. Troop Withdrawal from Afghanistan on May 1; U.S.-Iran Indirect Talks to Resume in Vienna; France to Administer Johnson & Johnson Vaccine as Planned; Kerry Seeking Common Ground in Climate Talks with China; Myanmar Losing the COVID-19 Battle; Defense Medical Expert: Floyd's Manner of Death "Undetermined"; White House to Move Forward with UAE Weapons Sales. Aired 2-2:45a ET
Aired April 15, 2021 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers all around the world, you are watching CNN NEWSROOM, I am Rosemary Church.
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JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I've concluded that it is time to end America's longest war.
CHURCH (voice-over): U.S. President Joe Biden says he will bring American troops home from Afghanistan by the 20th anniversary of the attack that led them there.
The Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine is paused in more countries after U.S. concerns over rare severe blood clots.
And 2 of the world's biggest polluters, China and the U.S., are working to find some common ground on fighting climate change.
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CHURCH: Good to have you with us.
U.S. President Joe Biden says it is time to end America's longest war. The U.S. President formally announced his plan to pull the U.S. troops from Afghanistan starting on May 1st. The withdrawal would be completed by September 11th, the 20th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. CNN senior White House correspondent Phil Mattingly has our report.
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BIDEN: It is time for American troops to come home.
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: America's longest war is finally coming to and end, President Biden standing in the same exact spot where President George W. Bush launched operations in Afghanistan nearly two decades ago.
GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: On my orders, the United States military has begun strikes against Al Qaeda terrorist training camps and military installations of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Biden tonight announcing to the world he will bring U.S. combat troops home by the 20th anniversary, the worst terror attack on U.S. soil.
BIDEN: We went to Afghanistan because of a horrific attack that happened 20 years ago. That cannot explain why we should remain there in 2021.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): A decision officials described as months in the making, the Biden's soliciting views from across his administration and global allies. And coming to this conclusion.
BIDEN: I'm now the fourth United States President to preside over American troop presence in Afghanistan to Republicans, to Democrats. I will not pass this responsibility onto a fifth.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): A momentous decision wrought with potential pitfalls. The U.S. intelligence community just this week explicitly stating the, quote, Afghan Government will struggle to hold the Taliban at bay if the coalition withdraws support. Biden making clear the U.S. will continue diplomatic and humanitarian support for breaking sharply from the driving force of past withdrawal timelines.
BIDEN: We cannot continue the cycle of extending or expanding our military presence in Afghanistan, hoping to create ideal conditions for the withdrawal and expecting a different result.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell sharply criticizing the move.
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), MINORITY LEADER: Apparently, we're to help our adversaries ring on the anniversary of the 911 attacks by gift wrapping the country and handing it right back to them.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): And issuing a warning from a similar decision in the not so distant past.
MCCONNELL: Our President should remember what happened when the Obama administration led political considerations rush a retreat from Iraq. Total chaos and bloodshed and ISIS.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Biden's decision went beyond just bringing troops home. Instead, officials say it's a reevaluation of U.S. Defense priorities, one with a central focus on China. The stakes underscored hearing today with top intelligence officials.
AVRIL HAINES, DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: China increasingly is a near-peer competitor challenging the United States in multiple areas, while pushing to revise global norms in ways that favor the authoritarian Chinese system. MATTINGLY (voice-over): With intelligence officials highlighting North Korea, Iran, terror groups in an increasingly aggressive Russia as major issues. It's a daunting picture for a team still inside its first 100 days in office.
But as Biden walked slowly through Arlington Cemetery Section 60, the resting place of many of those killed in America's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, he showed no hesitation or discomfort in his decision.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was it a hard decision to make, sir?
BIDEN: No, it wasn't.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): For a President, who has pressed to leave Afghanistan for more than a decade, it was one (ph) a long time coming.
BIDEN: To me it was absolutely clear.
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CHURCH: Phil Mattingly reporting from the White House.
Indirect talks on salvaging the Iran nuclear deal are set to resume in the coming hours in Vienna.
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CHURCH: That's even as Iran prepares to boost its uranium enrichment level to 60 percent, far outside of compliance with the agreement. Fred Pleitgen reports on Iran's angry response to an attack on its nuclear facility.
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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The incident that took place at the Natanz nuclear facility is calling a very defiant reaction in Iran but also already having a big effect on the negotiations to try and salvage the Iran nuclear agreement.
Iran's president Hassan Rouhani confirmed that Iran now wanting to upgrade its uranium enrichment. They want to now enrich uranium 60 percent purity, that is in direct correlation and direct result of what he called, the attack on the Natanz nuclear facility.
Of course Iran is pointing the finger of blame at Israel, the Israelis have so far not said whether or not they were indeed behind it. But the Iranians are saying that Natanz will continue to operate, that they are going to use some of the most advanced centrifuges to bring uranium up to a grade of 60 percent. The U.S. are very concerned about all this.
A spokesman for the White House, Jen Psaki, she came out and she said that Iran wanting to upgrade its uranium enrichment, really calls into question, as she put, it Iran's sincerity in negotiations trying to salvage the Iran nuclear agreement. Both the U.S. and Iran have said that they want to salvage the
agreement, the negotiations that are going on are very much indirect in nature, nevertheless it does seem as they are going to move forward. The next set of negotiations set to begin on Thursday -- Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Berlin.
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CHURCH: The pause on the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine is staying in place for now, a CDC advisory committee says that it needs more data on a possible link to severe and extremely rare blood clots before making a decision.
So far, there are at least six reported cases of blood clots in adult women out of about 7 million people who already have received the J&J vaccine.
Somewhere down the line, there could be changes in who is eligible for this particular shots but authorities insist that the pause does not mean that the vaccine is unsafe, rather it demonstrates due diligence in a highly transparent way.
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DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF COVID-19 MEDICAL ADVISER: The fears and concern about hesitancy out there, the fact that this was done would in my mind underscore and confirm how seriously we take safety.
Even though it is a very rare event, so if everyone has a doubt that they may not be taking safety very seriously, I think this is an affirmation that safety is a primary consideration when it comes to the FDA and the CDC.
That is why it was done and that is why it is a pause. It is not a cancellation, it is a pause.
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CHURCH: Meantime, France is moving forward with the J&J vaccine, CNN's Melissa Bell is in Paris and she joins us now live.
Melissa, talk to us more about what France plans on doing moving forward.
MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: While the deliveries have just begun, 200,000 doses that had already been delivered to France, and they will be administered as planned, as we've heard from the government spokesperson, who also explained that they would be delivered and administered in the same way that the AstraZeneca is. Only to people who are over 55.
This as we await the official decision from the European Medicines Agency, which should deliver a verdict next week. It is in touch with the FDA. It is looking at also these problems of blood clots on determining whether the administration should go through. Of course you have to remember that, here in Europe, it was really
being counted on. This was meant to be a game-changer for the fairly slow vaccination campaign that we have seen.
Just to give you an idea of where we are, here in France, 5.6 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated; over in Germany that figure is 6.3. It has been slow. Remember that the European Commission, the E.U. task force chief, have repeatedly blamed shortfalls in supplies for those slow vaccination rollouts.
Now we know from the commission that 107 million doses of vaccine were delivered to the E.U. in the first quarter. The E.U. had expected in the second quarter and that it was counting on, the very tall ambition of vaccinating, getting 70 percent of the population vaccinated by the summer, was 300 million doses.
How many of those were meant to be Johnson & Johnson?
200 million. That gives you an idea of how important this particular vaccine is to the European vaccination strategy and what a blow it will be if that pause were to continue for much longer -- Rosemary.
CHURCH: Totally understood.
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CHURCH: Melissa Bell bringing us the very latest from Paris. Many thanks.
India has just surpassed 14 million COVID-19 infections. The country's health ministry has just reported more than 200,000 new cases in the past 24 hours. That is the greatest number since the pandemic began, rising steadily, even as millions of faithful gathered for a month long religious festival.
CNN's Vedika Sud is in New Delhi, she joins us now live.
Good to see you. Surpassing 14 million COVID cases and, as we just said, more than 200,000 daily cases.
So what is the government doing about this, as these religious festivals, which are superspreader events continue?
VEDIKA SUD, CNN PRODUCER: That is not only you asking the question, Rosemary, journalists here, health experts here, even the common man is asking the government the same question.
Why are these gatherings continuing being social, especially the festival you just referred.
It was an auspicious day for these devotees in the northern city of Haridwar, India, a little more than 1.2 million people who took a dip in the holy river, shoulder to shoulder, flouting every norm on COVID- 19 that they have to follow.
Most people didn't have masks on and they were shoulder to shoulder. Again, we will have more people visiting this place over the next few days until the end of the month.
The same thing happened Monday. Over 2 million people were there and the cases in the last three days emerging just from that district are over 1,500 infections being reported by the district officials.
This is angering people back in India.
They are asking the government, why are you letting this happen?
You have doctors who are tweeting about it, saying, you know what, we're spending nights and days in hospital, trying to save as many lives as possible, why can't you stop this religious gathering from taking place?
Even earlier in March we had festivals and other festivals take place, all of this has led to the cases that we've seen today. The government says that they should trace, track, trust. This is something that they have been reiterating.
But the health ministry says that this should've been a 3-month religious festival and we brought it to one month.
But how is this helping the situation?
Even Mumbai, the financial capital of India, and the city of Delhi, the territory of Delhi, these places have so many cases going, on people are not finding beds in hospitals. Hotels have been turned in makeshift hospitals for people to go and be given the treatments in.
So the situation is really bad here and it is not getting better from the numbers that you are seeing -- Rosemary.
CHURCH: It is astonishing to watch those images play out. Vedika Sud, joining us live from New Delhi, many thanks.
Brazilian health experts warn the country is facing an unimaginable loss of lives without immediate measures to contain the coronavirus. They say political chaos and government inaction have led to Brazil becoming the current epicenter of the pandemic.
The death toll is over 361,000, behind only the United States. And Brazil has the 3rd most infections worldwide, quickly approaching 14 million.
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CHURCH: Coming up, experts say the only way to tackle climate change is with China on board. Now America's climate envoy is in Shanghai for talks on combating the growing crisis.
Plus, Derek Chauvin's lawyers put a medical expert on the stand who says that car exhaust may have been a factor in George Floyd's death. But the prosecution fires back. Coming up, we will hear the latest from the courtroom.
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CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone.
The U.S. is planning on announcing sanctions on Russia Thursday and expel up to a dozen Russian diplomats. The sanctions will target those accused in the Solar Wind cyber intrusion and the intrusion in U.S. elections.
Joe Biden is set to initiate the sanctions through executive action. A sources says the U.S. is coordinating the actions with European allies.
U.S. climate envoy John Kerry is in Shanghai this hour, trying to find some common ground with China to combat the world's climate crisis. But the visit comes amid heightened diplomatic tensions between the two nations. Let's bring in CNN's Steven Jiang in Beijing, he joins us live.
Good to see you, Steven.
How likely is it that John Kerry will have any success in convincing China to reduce its carbon emissions?
STEVEN JIANG, CNN SENIOR PRODUCER, BEIJING BUREAU: Rosemary, it is going to be a tall order for him and the fact that he is in Shanghai and not in Beijing, the seat of this centralized government, shows the delicate nature of the visit.
The Chinese probably want to put him in a more politically neutral setting and also not having to worry about whether or not President Xi Jinping, who has been trying to present himself as the global leader on this issue, will have to meet him.
I think both sides are trying to manage expectations already, because these climate talks are taking place at a time when the political climate between the two governments simply cannot get any worse, as you've mentioned, on a whole range of issues.
Here in China, state media in their commentary are emphasizing that these talks have to be conducted based on both parties being equals, not on U.S. terms. And China is not going to make any unilateral concessions to help advance the Biden administration's goals of restoring U.S. global leadership on this issue.
And also they have pointed out, probably rightly so, that it is very difficult to carve out one or two niche areas to talk about cooperation when the rest of this relationship is basically in a freefall.
From Washington's perspective, though, as John Kerry himself has said repeatedly, in recent days, this issue simply cannot be resolved without China being at the table. That is why he's in Shanghai, meeting and talking to his Chinese counterpart about potential cooperation and reminding Chinese officials that there is a gap between President Xi's pledges, peaking emissions by 2030 and being carbon neutral by 2060.
And the reality on the ground, which is that China has been expanding its use of coal in the last few years, despite it being the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. Between 2015 and 2019, this country actually added 360 new coal-fired power plants and this trend is continuing, despite the talks of a green post COVID-19 economic recovery.
And that recovery may explain why China was the only major economy of the world to show a rise in CO2 emissions last year. All these issues are on the table but few people are expecting any major breakthroughs at this stage -- Rosemary.
CHURCH: Steven Jiang, joining us live from Beijing, many thanks.
And for more on the U.S.-China climate talks, let's bring in former Australian prime minister, Kevin Rudd, he is joining us live from Brisbane.
Great to talk to you.
KEVIN RUDD, FORMER AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: Great to be with you, Rosemary.
CHURCH: As a former Australian prime minister, you have had your fair share of battles with China and, of course, we see U.S. climate envoy, John Kerry, on a very delicate mission to find common ground with Beijing on climate change as he tries to convince the country to cut carbon emissions and roll back coal-based power plants.
How much success, do you think he will have?
And what might China want in exchange here?
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RUDD: RUDD: Well, Rosemary, since leaving office in Australia, I've been president of the Asia Society Policy Institute of New York. And what we have done in the last 12 months is that we have convened a second track dialogue between the Americans in the Chinese on what to do on climate together if the Democrats were to win the election.
And that has involved John Kerry's counterpart, it has involved many other people and we knew the position back then. We are familiar with the 2 negotiating positions of the American and Chinese sides on this question over the last period of time.
Looking therefore to the future, as your correspondent from China said before, the critical thing from America's perspective is lifting China's ambition between now and 2030 on what reductions it brings about in the carbon emissions. In the immediate term, in order to make its carbon neutrality target
of 2060 credible -- and that is where the Americans are looking for, not just fresh commitments but new evidence that the construction of coal fired power stations will cease in China.
That is the big demand on the American side. To the Chinese, it will be to ensure that they do not, as it were, given Biden's priority, lose their own global leadership on the climate change question during the four years when president Trump took America out of the field altogether.
CHURCH: And John Kerry comes in the midst of increased diplomatic tensions between the two countries, U.S. support for Taiwan, at the top of that list, as China flexes its military muscles.
And then there is the pandemic that originated in China and many other issues.
How much more complicated does all of this make Kerry's efforts to find a positive path forward with this issue of climate change?
RUDD: I think the first thing for us to understand, Rosemary, is that -- my judgment is, both in Beijing and Washington, each government has concluded, that it is in its own national interest to work on climate change. They've done the math, they've done the science and they have worked out that as the world's two largest polluters, unless they act, environmental and economic consequences for each of them are bad.
That is why there will be a lot of diplomatic and political posturing. But underneath it all, there is a fundamental national interest, based on both governments to act.
And then the second thing is, when you look at the complexity of the relationship, which you have rightly pointed to, everything that is heading south in the relationship and going wrong, the challenge for both John Kerry and his Chinese counterpart here is to create this special climate change collaboration lane, in the midst of a highway, which frankly, all the rest of the traffic is blocked or engaged in collisions.
Now I think both of these individuals, deeply experienced and respected, they are capable of doing that, reinforced by the national interests, which is driving both countries' decisions.
CHURCH: The problem is, of course, is China is the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases. Back in September President Xi Jinping did pledge to make China carbon neutral by 2060. But there aren't many signs that China is moving in that direction.
RUDD: To be fair to the Chinese, there are a number but there need to be more. If you look at the content of the 45 year plan which was released in March, informally, you are right to say that there is nothing particularly new in it. There is one new measure which we should focus on in terms of renewable energy.
But the critical thing is this, when will the Chinese submit their new, what is called in their language, of climate change negotiation to the Paris treaty process run by the United Nations, between now and the next meeting of the parties which will occur in November this year in Glasgow.
That is where China has the opportunity to, as it were, seize the stage, seize the moment and frankly demonstrate that they are serious in their commitments vis-a-vis 2060 carbon neutrality and a much earlier carbon peaking target before 2030.
CHURCH: The world will be watching very carefully, Kevin Rudd, many thanks for talking with us. We appreciate it.
CHURCH: And still to come.
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CHURCH: With Myanmar thrown into chaos, health experts fear another battle is being lost there, the one against COVID.
Plus testimony from the medical expert who is pointing at everything else but Derek Chauvin as the cause of George Floyd's death.
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CHURCH: While the military crackdown in Myanmar continues to put countless lives at risk, the coup has also led to a near total collapse in the country's ability to control the coronavirus. For more on that let's turn to Ivan Watson he, joins us live from Hong Kong.
Good to see you, Ivan.
So how bad is the situation in Myanmar right now, is there any way of knowing the real number of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and death?
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, I'm looking at the World Health Organization site for Myanmar right now and it says that there are 64 confirmed cases of COVID in Myanmar for the last 7 days.
Any expert though that we have talked to that deals with public health in Myanmar knows that those numbers are not accurate. The country was facing thousands of cases a day in November and in December.
And they all attribute the current statistics to the fact that there is virtually no testing taking place, hardly any treatment taking place and virtually no vaccination, either.
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WATSON (voice-over): The crackdown after Myanmar 's military coup claimed hundreds of lives in just 2 months but there're also unseen casualties of this rapidly escalating crisis. WATSON: What is happening with the battle against COVID-19 in
Myanmar, since the February 1st coup?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Failing. Totally failing at controlling the disease.
WATSON (voice-over): Experts like this epidemiologist from Myanmar are sounding the alarm.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would say that the COVID-19 control mechanism is totally collapsed in Myanmar.
WATSON (voice-over): Already one of the poorest countries in Asia, Myanmar was ill equipped to handle the pandemic. But Myanmar ramped up testing and treatment and even began giving health care workers their first vaccination shots on January in this year.
That progress came to a halt on February 1st, when the military overthrew the elected civilian government. Confirmed COVID cases, already on the decline, suddenly plunged to less than 20 a day. But that, experts say, is due to a collapse in testing.
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LUIS STEIR-YOUNIS, IFRC MYANMAR: No more than 1,000 tests per day are being conducted and that is in the context of before the 1st of February, the average was around 16,000 tests per day.
WATSON: Doctors (AUDIO GAP). Many health care workers joined an anti- coup civil disobedience movement and went on strike, including this doctor, who we can't identify for his safety.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Medical personnel don't want to work under the coup.
WATSON (voice-over): Until the coup, the doctor ran a hospital COVID treatment center. He says that no one is working there anymore.
WATSON: Are you worried about another wave of COVID-19 infections in Myanmar?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely. If there is another wave, the situation is worse than ever.
WATSON (voice-over): For more than 2 months, the strike has all but paralyzed the public health care system, prompting the military junta to issue public statements, asking health care workers to return to work immediately.
But the crackdown that has killed more than 700 people hasn't spared medical workers. This week, the military published this wanted list, including doctors accused of supporting the civil disobedience movement, now at risk of arrest.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think we are sure to be arrested.
So who dares to go back to the hospital?
WATSON (voice-over): Experts warn that if COVID-19 explodes in Myanmar again, neighboring countries won't be spared. The Chinese government launched a vaccine and testing blitz in the border city of Ruili after an outbreak of COVID-19 began late March.
Beijing says that nearly half of confirmed positive cases in the province are Myanmar nationals. Meanwhile, refugees from Myanmar are starting to flow toward Thailand and India.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If refugee crisis is expected, you have to expect a COVID-19 crisis, along with refugee crisis.
WATSON (voice-over): As one doctor in Myanmar put it, if your neighbor's house is on fire, your own home will soon be in danger.
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WATSON: Rosemary, this is just one aspect of life, one of the challenges in Myanmar, COVID-19, this once in a century pandemic but the country has also struggled with other diseases. HIV, tuberculosis, for example.
The freezing and almost collapse of the public health system, with the strike and the targeting of health care workers, all of this combined, that impacts other sides of life's basic necessities.
If you are pregnant and you need to rush to give birth, for example, right now, there are curfew so you can't run anywhere to give birth. And the public hospitals that the public has relied on, they are barely functioning right. Now if you have money, you could go to private hospital or clinic.
And some of these doctors who are on strike are still providing services, secretly. But this is very ominous, that that arrest warrant issued by the government, by the military junta this week, vowed to prosecute any hospital or clinic that allows those wanted doctors to work in them, which is sending a very disturbing message at this time, while this country spirals further into crisis, Rosemary.
CHURCH: It's certainly a horrible situation playing out there. Ivan Watson, live from Hong Kong, many thank you.
Back in the United States, protesters took to the streets in Minnesota for a fourth night as tensions rise over the fatal police shooting of 20 year old Daunte Wright. As a nighttime curfew set in, demonstrators threw bottles while police used flashbangs and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd outside the Brooklyn Center police department.
Police say about 24 were arrested. The latest protest started hours after ex-officer Kim Potter was arrested and charged with second degree manslaughter.
Just 10 miles away, the murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is taking place in court Wednesday. A medical expert testifying for the defense, pushed a series of alternative theories for why George Floyd died. Details now from CNN's Sara Sidner.
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DR. DAVID FOWLER, FORMER CHIEF MEDICAL EXAMINER, M.D. DEPT. OF HEALTH: So there are multiple, multiple entities all acting together and adding to each other and taking away from a different part of the amount -- ability to get oxygen into his heart.
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SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Derek Chauvin's defense put on former Maryland chief medical examiner Dr. David Fowler, who testified as to what killed George Floyd in his opinion.
FOWLER: In my opinion, Mr. Floyd had a sudden cardiac arrhythmia or cardiac arrhythmia due to his atherosclerotic and hypertensive heart disease or you can write that down multiple different ways, during his restraint and subdual by the police or restrained by the police.
SIDNER: He blamed everything but Derek Chauvin's knee on Floyd's neck for Floyd's death.
Floyd's slightly enlarged heart, his heart disease, the methamphetamine and fentanyl found in his system and potentially the exhaust from the squad cars tailpipe Floyd's face was near as police press down on him.
FOWLER: In the area close to an exhaust, you're going to have a much higher level of carbon monoxide than you would if you three, four feet away. SIDNER: In cross examination, the prosecutor challenged the witness to see if he could give him any evidence that that was a contributor influence death.
JERRY BLACKWELL, PROSECUTOR: You haven't seen any data or test results that showed Mr. Floyd had a single injury from carbon monoxide. Is that true?
FOWLER: That is correct because it was never sent.
BLACKWELL: I asked you whether it was true, sir. Yes or no?
FOWLER: It's true.
SIDNER: Fowler is currently being sued in his medical examiner role in Maryland for allegedly helping cover up the police's role in the 2018 death of a black 19-year-old named Anton Black.
Before the jury even arrived, the judge heard a motion to acquit.
ERIC NELSON, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: And for that reason, we would ask the state to -- or excuse me ask the court to grant the motion for judgment of acquittal.
SIDNER: The state vehemently disagreed.
STEVE SCHLEICHER, PROSECUTOR: The defendant is guilty of all charges. SIDNER: And the judge ruled in the prosecution's favor. The case continues.
PETER CAHILL, JUDGE: I'm going to deny the defense motion for judgment of acquittal. Even when they're in consistencies major or minor, between witnesses, the jury is free to believe some and not the others.
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CHURCH: Our thanks to Sara Sidner for that report.
Haiti's governor has stepped down and a new prime minister is in place. The resignation comes after months of violence and political turmoil. CNN's Patrick Oppmann has the latest on a nation deeply divided.
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PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Haiti's president says he's accepted the resignation of his governor and appointed a new prime minister. It comes as Haiti deals with increasing political violence and uncertainty.
Agents say a worsened economic situation and corruption led to widespread lawlessness. The president says the change in government was a way to deal with feelings and kidnappings that sparked public outrage.
Critics say says president Jovenel Moise is the problem, that the Haitian president shouldn't even be in office. According to the opposition, the 5 year presidential term already ended and he was supposed to block power this year.
Moise claims delays since taking office, his term is not finished. So far the U.S. has not cause for Moise to step down and has urged him to work with the opposition. Moise has vowed to reform the constitution and hold elections.
The opposition says they no longer believe the Haitian president and that he is the one who needs to go -- Patrick Oppmann, CNN, Havana.
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cu The White House is pushing for a controversial arms sale to the UAE even though Capitol Hill isn't entirely on board. We will go live to Abu Dhabi for a closer look.
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(MUSIC PLAYING) CHURCH: The U.S. State Department tells CNN the Biden administration
plans to move forward with a massive weapons sale to the United Arab Emirates. CNN's John Defterios joins us now live from Abu Dhabi.
Good to see you, John. President Biden was quick to ask for a review of these sales to the UAE after being sworn into office but that didn't last very long.
Why the eagerness to proceed here?
JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: I tell you, it looks like it's going to be an arduous process, right, Rosemary. But it was a pause, less than 100 days. I think it expresses how fast things have been going in this region where I'm sitting, since the signing of the Abraham accords back in September with Donald Trump.
This is, of course, a project that's been on for a decade. UAE led the way, with Israel, then Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan, sign on thereafter. I think it's interesting to note that we are not seeing objections from Israel itself for the UAE to have the F-35 jet fighter. That makes up the better part of this $23 trillion deal.
Israel always likes to maintain military superiority. So it gives you a sense of the business ties being developed between the UAE and Israel. Delegations going back and forth, the first commercial flight was on April 6th, as well.
The key player in this is the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Mohammed bin Zayed, who also runs military and foreign affairs, for the entire UAE. He's seen as a key ally here for the United States. Another example, John Kerry, when he decided to hold climate talks, he came to the UAE two weeks ago.
Even though it's a major energy producer, they're making the transition. They want to set an example for. Others but it's not all clear sailing. It's also something we should underscore.
Gregory Meeks, who chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House said this will take a deeper review on Capitol Hill itself, particularly because UAE was involved in Yemen but it's promised to pull out of that over time when they see the transition is. There we are talking serious funding, though. Rosemary, as you suggest, $23 billion, something that Donald Trump pushed on the very last day in office. Something we didn't think Joe Biden would push aggressively.
But you could see now other priorities in the Middle East. They did not sign off on the arms deals to Saudi Arabia yet.
CHURCH: Yes, interesting. John Defterios bringing us the very latest, live there from Abu Dhabi.
I am Rosemary Church. I will be back at the top of the hour with more CNN NEWSROOM. "WORLD SPORT" is next.
