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Some Survivors Desperate for News after Earthquake; Ukrainian Officials: Renewed Russian Offensive Has Begun; Belarusian Leader Stands Defiant Amid Growing Tensions; Biden: Nothing Suggests Last 3 Objects Tied to China; U.S. Ramping Up Ammunition Production; Cash Shortages Lead to Protests and Disruption in Nigeria; Nonconsensual Deepfake Porn Puts AI in Spotlight. Aired 12-12:45a ET

Aired February 17, 2023 - 00:00   ET

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

JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm John Vause. Ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM.

[00:00:18]

Amid the hundreds of miles of destruction and devastation and death, rescue crews in Turkey and Syria continue to find a dwindling number of survivors after last week's powerful earthquake.

Pathetic. U.S. intelligence assesses Russia's offensive in Ukraine more aspirational than realistic and most likely heading for defeat.

And the sickos on the Internet go beyond creepy and vile, using artificial intelligence to create deepfake porn featuring random women who never consented.

ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with John Vause.

VAUSE: Amid hundreds of miles of devastation stretching across Turkey and Syria. But somewhere beneath the piles of rubble and debris which were one homes, schools and hospitals and businesses, there is death and heartbreak.

Almost 44,000 people confirmed dead, 11 days after the region was upended by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake. And yet, somehow, in moments few and far between, there are still signs of life.

In Hatay province, Turkey, two men rescued from a collapsed hospital Thursday. Cleanup groups using heavy earth-moving equipment to clear part of the hospital's roof and then spotted a man's leg amid the rubble. And once he was pulled to safety, he called a friend to say he's alive. Here's their exchange.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Havia (ph), how are you, my life?

HAVIA (ph) (through translator): Brother, where are you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I'm in the hospital. They will send me wherever necessary. There is no problem right now.

HAVIA (ph) (through translator): Are you Abdul Kadir's (ph) wife's brother?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Exactly, my beautiful brother. How is my mother, and everyone?

HAVIA (ph) (through translator): They are all waiting for you. Everyone is well. They are all waiting for you. I'm coming to you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Did everyone escape OK, nicely?

HAVIA (ph) (through translator): They are all well. Everything is well. We're waiting for you. They're all waiting for you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Let me hear their voices, if for a moment.

HAVIA (ph) (through translator): I'm driving. I'm coming to you, brother. I'm coming.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Thank you to each and every one of you. May God be happy with you 1,000 times.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: About an hour earlier, also in Hatay, a 12-year-old boy was saved. We're told Osmond (ph) was founded a hole in a sitting position. And he appears to be OK.

Rescuers in Kahramanmaras pulled a woman from the rubble of her apartment building 258 hours after the quake. A relative told CNN the family had already prepared her grave, and her husband and children are still buried.

Turkish media calling a 17-year-old Alina (ph) a miracle girl. She, too, was saved on Thursday. Alina's (ph) doctor says she could not drink or eat the entire time she was trapped but avoided hypothermia and is in surprisingly good health.

But for so many others, there is just the anguish of not knowing. The cruel uncertainty of wondering if a loved one is alive or dead. Here's CNN's, Jomana Karadsheh.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Antakya no more, they say. This once bustling historic city now in ruins. It is here where hope meets despair. On every corner, a scene so painful of loss so hard to comprehend.

She's waited days for news of her husband, but the wait never prepares you for this. Nothing could have prepared the people of Antakya for these grimmest of days. Misery here so palpable in the air. AYLIN AKYURT, SEARCHING FOR FAMILY MEMBER: You lose track of time, so

I don't know which day it is. But at this point, I don't think there's anybody left to live.

KARADSHEH (voice-over): Aylin and her family have been searching for her aunt. Other bodies have come out of the building but not hers.

AKYURT: You go through all stages of, you know, of grief. You're angry, you're desperate, you're sad. You accept. Then you get mad again. At this point, we've come to accept that she's passed away, but we just want to put put her at her final resting place. Because with how it's been going. Leaving her here is unimaginable.

KARADSHEH (voice-over): Around the corner, the rare good news these days. After more than 220 hours under the rubble, a woman and two children were rescued alive.

KARADSHEH: Several bodies have also been recovered from the building. There are others still trapped inside. They don't know if they're alive or dead.

KARADSHEH (voice-over): They pray they find them alive. Mohammed Biram (ph) just buried his daughter and her husband. His 12- and 14-year-old grandchildren are still inside.

"God, I beg you," he says. "Just like they got that woman and two children out alive, we're hoping for the same."

It's been the most agonizing of waits for his and other families here.

[00:05:04]

"May the Lord not put anyone through this," this woman says.

Mohammed (ph) hasn't eaten in 11 days. He says all he can do is hope, pray and wait.

"We weren't able to get these big machines for a few days," he says. "They had to go through other buildings here first. Maybe if they had, they would have come out alive."

Another call for quiet during our interview, one of many in the past few days. Rescuers hear something; cheers break out. They believe they've located two people alive.

A tense wait. Now into the evening, the crushing sound of silence. It's hardest for those who wonder if they mourn or wait. It is here where hope fades as fast as it grows.

Jomana Karadsheh, CNN, Antakya, Turkey.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: The Munich security conference convenes in the coming hours, and there will be a lot to discuss after a year of war in Ukraine. Moscow's brutal aggression is the worst Europe has seen since World

War II. NATO allies have rallied to bolster Ukraine's military with advanced weaponry.

The U.S. will be represented in Munich by a large delegation, including the vice president, the secretary of state, and more than a dozen lawmakers.

No Russian officials were invited.

Russian attacks have stepped up in recent days, and Ukrainian officials believe the new offensive is now well and truly underway. The most intense fighting is said to be in and around the city of Bakhmut, in Eastern Ukraine. At least five civilians were reported killed there on Thursday by Russian shelling.

In an interview with the BBC, Ukraine's president says Kyiv's goal is nothing less than reclaiming all of the territory from Moscow. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "Any territorial compromises," he told me, "are only going to weaken our country. So it's not about compromise. We make millions of compromises every day. But the question is, would Putin? No. Because we don't trust Putin."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: For more now, we're joined by CNN military analyst and retired U.S. Air Force colonel, Cedric Leighton. Good to see you, sir.

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Good to see you, too, John.

VAUSE: So this Russian offensive, it's underway, what, I think for a week or so, maybe a little bit more. Here is an assessment from two senior U.S. officials. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LLOYD AUSTIN, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: Russia continued to introduce large numbers of troops into -- into the theater. Those troops are ill-equipped and ill-trained. And because of that, they're incurring a lot of casualties. And we expect that that will continue.

AMBASSADOR VICTORIA NULAND, UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR POLITICAL AFFAIRS (via phone): Russia has declared that it is launching a new offensive. Well, if this is it, it is very pathetic, I would say.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Reminded why the word "formidable" was ever used to describe the Russian military. It seems they just can't get this stuff right, no matter how much time they have for planning and preparation. LEIGHTON: Yes, it's very interesting, John. So you know, for those of

us who have been watching the Russians for some time, a lot of the things we learned or thought we knew about them involved large numbers, a new doctrine, new weapons systems. Things that really could change the course of warfare itself. Not just the tactical action, but the whole strategy of warfare.

And you know, barring any unforeseen developments, it looks as if the Russians are not able to mount the kind of offensive that their doctrine promised we would see, that their weapons systems promised we would see, and that the rhetoric promised that we would see. So none of that is coming to -- to pass. And it seems as if we are dealing with a paper tiger, in essence.

VAUSE: There's also this reporting we have from "The New York Times." "As Moscow has stepped up its offensive in Eastern Ukraine, weeks of failed attacks on the Ukrainian stronghold have left two Russian brigades in tatters; raised questions about Russia's military tactics; and renewed doubts about its ability to maintain sustained large-scale ground assaults," as you were saying.

Now, the town of Vuhledar (ph), it's not far from Bakhmut, which is a city of no real strategic value. It was of symbolic importance but no strategic value. Two brigades, though, in tatters. In terms of losses, how big is that? And it would seem to be, like, high cost for little reward here.

LEIGHTON: Yes. So that is a really significant thing. These two brigades in question, the 155th and the 40th Marine Infantry Brigade, naval infantry brigades of the Russian naval forces of the Pacific fleet.

Those are, you know, fairly large elements that we're talking somewhere around 2,000 to 3,500 or so personnel, that are just gone.

[00:10:00]

And what you're dealing with here is a systematic neglect of the entire system. And it seems that this neglect has been going on for quite some time. But it has been papered over by every level of command in the Russian military. Until, of course, these brigades are put into action. And they can't perform the military missions that they've been assigned.

So this is a significant issue, because every time these brigades move into combat, they move with less and less people, less and less armament. And they're far less capable than they originally were supposed to be.

VAUSE: I want you to listen to Ukraine's president, laying out in very broad brushstrokes Ukraine's plans over the next few weeks. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Holding the situation at the front, and preparing for any escalatory steps of the enemy is a priority for the near future. Moving forward with the further liberation of our land is a priority we are carefully preparing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: In other words, hunker down, hold defensive lines, and after that, begin this counteroffensive. It seems like a smart plan. But is there a danger of overreach here?

Zelenskyy says he wants to liberate Russian-occupied Crimea, all of Eastern Ukraine. The last assessment I saw from U.S. intelligence was they do not have the manpower and the military ability to do that.

LEIGHTON: Yes, and I would agree with that assessment, John. I mean, what the Ukrainians can do is, No. 1, they can absolutely hold the lines. So that is something they can do.

But what they do need is the weaponry from the West. They need to be able to resupply all their weapons systems, everything from their HIMARS to the IRSG (ph), to all the new weapons systems that they're been getting from the West.

Of course, they haven't received the tanks, the Leopard 2s, the Challengers, and the Abrams tanks that they've been promised now from -- you know, from the West. So these are the things that they're expecting, that they're hoping for. And then, they believe that they can move forward.

They will be able to move forward in some areas. They can, perhaps, decimate the land bridge that the Russians established between the Donbas and Crimea.

But I think going into Crimea itself, that might be a bit difficult for them to do. But it would be something that would certainly give the Russians pause, if they had any type of success in that direction.

VAUSE: Colonel, as always, thank you so much, sir. We appreciate you being with us.

LEIGHTON: You bet, John.

VAUSE: Well, just a few hours from now, the leader of Ukraine's neighbor, Belarus, is set to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. That happens as tensions grow along Ukraine's border with Belarus. So, too, concerns that Belarusian troops may join Russia's invasion.

CNN's Fred Pleitgen had a rare opportunity to press the Belarusian leader about his relationship with Moscow.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Vicious fighting in Eastern Ukraine. Kyiv's military, so far, repelling most Russian attacks here. As Vladimir Putin's forces struggled, losing both soldiers and armor,

Putin's main ally, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko spoke to international media for one of the first times since Russia invaded Ukraine, an invasion that was started, in large parts, from his country.

When I asked him why he still supports Putin's war, Lukashenko combative.

ALEXANDER LUKASHENKO, BELARUSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): This is another rhetorical question. Why do you support Ukraine? Pumping it with weapons instead of sitting down to negotiate, as I suggest.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): Lukashenko insists Belarus won't send troops to fight alongside Russia unless directly attacked by Ukraine. But says he still firmly stands by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Lukashenko gets angry when I ask him if he's surprised by how weak Russia's army is.

LUKASHENKO (through translator): You must see that this is the No. 1 army in the world fighting against you. Americans and Europeans, practically against NATO, using Ukrainians, and the Ukrainians are not done.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): Many Belarusians opposed to Lukashenko have gone to Ukraine to fight against the Russian army.

"We are here to prove that we Belarusians are not our government. We don't want to be associated with that junta that seized the power in Belarus. I mean, the Lukashenko regime," this volunteer says.

Near Bakhmut, they often face off against mercenaries from the Wagner private military company. Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin recruited tens of tens of thousands of convicts from Russian jails and brought them to the front lines.

I ask Lukashenko how he feels about Russia using convicts as expendable fighters.

LUKASHENKO (through translator): Russia did, indeed, use convicts. But now, this is forbidden. It is forbidden in Russia, and Geny Prigozhin, Wagner, are not doing this. It is forbidden.

[00:15:04]

PLEITGEN (voice-over): "And what about the Russian defense ministry? They are using convicts now," I ask.

LUKASHENKO (through translator): The minister of defense -- that's not true. The ministry of defense has enough mobilized resources, and enough serviceman to create this special unit, if that's what they're doing. I will find out the answer to this question tomorrow.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): Lukashenko is meeting Vladimir Putin on Friday. But what Lukashenko really wants, he says, is to host peace talks with Putin, U.S. President Joe Biden, and Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine and asked me to relay the message.

LUKASHENKO (through translator): If Biden has a desire, pass on to him through your channels that we are ready to welcome him in Minsk and have a serious talk with him if he wishes for peace in Ukraine. Even Putin will fly to Minsk, and we can meet there, the three of us. Two aggressors, and a peace-loving president. Why not?

PLEITGEN: But of course, the Ukrainians very much believe that Alexander Lukashenko is complicit in Vladimir Putin's war against Ukraine.

And Lukashenko did make clear at that press conference that he would continue to allow the Russians to use Belarusian territory to strike Ukraine.

All eyes now on that meeting between Putin and Lukashenko, to see how that could shape Belarus's involvement going forward.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Minsk.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Still to come on CNN, the Ukrainian military using ammunition so fast it's depleting NATO stockpiles. So now U.S. defense contractors are firing up the furnaces to meet demand. That's ahead.

Also, President Joe Biden on the threat from unidentified flying objects and why he ordered a military shootdown.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: U.S. President Joe Biden has spoken publicly about the unidentified objects which he ordered shot out of the sky by the military.

He says nothing suggests these objects are related to China's spy balloon program, or that they were surveillance objects from any other country.

But we should note, the U.S. has not been able to recover any of the debris from these three objects because of remote locations and severe weather.

CNN's Phil Mattingly reports from the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: For nearly a week, President Biden has said nothing about what was an unprecedented three days. Three U.S. fighters shooting down three separate unidentified objects. It raised a lot of concerns, certainly raised a lot of alarm.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle had called on President Biden to explain what exactly was happening, what his administration was doing about these objects that seem to have no explanation, no clear origin, no real sense of what they were supposed to be. That changed on Thursday. President Biden speaking for the first time

on the issue, detailing how those three unidentified objects were very different from the Chinese spy balloon that had been shot down prior; are likely not some new phenomenon, but something that had been happening over time and just was picked up by U.S. radars that had been expanded in their aperture since that Chinese balloon.

And also, that there were a significant victim number of steps that U.S. officials are now taking to try and address these objects going forward, including this, as the president said.

[00:20:11]

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Make no mistake: if any object presents a threat to the safety and security of the American people, I will take it down. I'll be sharing with Congress these classified policy parameters when they are completed. And they'll remain classified so we don't give our roadmap to our enemies to try to avoid our defenses.

MATTINGLY: There are the classified parameters in terms of when U.S. fighters will be called to shoot down objects. There are also a series of steps the national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, is leading a team on to better understand how to grapple with these issues going forward.

Public, private, state-owned, this is clearly something that officials are in the midst of trying to get their heads around at this moment.

They are also trying to have a better understanding of what the relationship is with China going forward. This is the most important geopolitical relationship. No question about that, the critical bilateral issue for President Biden.

He says he is going to speak with President Xi Jinping soon. When exactly that is, advisers say they don't have a date yet. Communications have certainly been stunted. There's certainly been a lot of back and forth.

But Biden has attempted to walk a pretty careful line on this: making clear that the U.S. will act if it feels like its sovereignty is repeated. But trying not to send a tense relationship already into an even worse spot.

And making clear that the most important thing for U.S. officials, at this point, was maintaining lines of communication.

Phil Mattingly, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Iain Boyd is the director of the Center for National Security Initiatives at the University of Colorado. He joins us this hour from Boulder.

Thank you, sir, for being with us. IAIN BOYD, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR NATIONAL SECURITY INITIATIVES,

UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO: Thank you for having me.

VAUSE: I want to listen to a little more from the U.S. president on what these unidentified objects may actually have been. Here's Joe Biden.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: The intelligence community's current assessment is that these three objects were most likely balloons tied to private companies, recreation, or research institutions, studying weather, or conducting other scientific research.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: "Aviation Week" is reporting one of the three objects shot down may have belonged to the Northern Illinois Bottle Cap Balloon Brigade. "The club's silver-coated, party-style 'pico balloon' reported last position February 10th at 38,910 feet off the West coast of Alaska."

Its flight path meant it would be over the central part of Yukon territory on February 11, the same day an F-22 shot down an unidentified object of a similar description and altitude in the same general area."

It seems likely, but is it a concern that it may have taken this long to find out this unidentified object belonged to a -- you know, a recreational club?

BOYD: Well, you know, there are some regulations about having to register, if you're going to launch a balloon. And there are many organizations across the U.S., and from universities and private companies. And even high schools, you know, launch balloons.

And, you know, while there's regulations that you're supposed to follow, there's really no policing of those, you know, organizations following the rules.

And you know, that story you just related there about the Illinois club, I mean, that's a perfect example. Because most balloons are not controlled. You know, they go where the winds take them. You know, these -- these small organizations can easily lose track of the balloons.

And I think that these three larger objects that got shot down probably all fall into that category.

VAUSE: It would also mean, if true, that the U.S. used a $300,000 Sidewinder missile to shoot down, what, a $50 balloon. Which would, you know, makes sense of why it's important to know what these things are when you're dealing with them at the time.

BOYD: Yes, I think that what's going to happen is, you know, some of the wreckage for those three later balloons would be retrieved. And I think it's already helping to inform the government's position and the development of new policies going forward.

Obviously, you know, if we hadn't had the first large Chinese surveillance balloon, those three later objects probably would not have been shot down. You know, we wouldn't be sitting here talking about it.

And so you've got to kind of, you know, play out the whole story. And understand, you know, how certain decisions were made at certain times.

VAUSE: As to the issue of the Chinese spy balloon, diplomatically, though, that has still yet to be resolved with Beijing. I want you to listen a little bit more, then, for the U.S. president. Here he is again.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: I expect to be speaking with President Xi. And I hope we have -- we are going to get to the bottom of this. But I make no apologies for taking down that balloon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: CNN reporting, though, U.S. intelligence assessing possibility the Chinese spy balloon's path over the U.S. was accidental.

If that turns out to be true, does it sort of undermine, at least in part, the righteous indignation we've heard from the U.S. over the last week or so?

[00:25:00]

BOYD: Well, I mean, I think so, in a way. At the very least that's irresponsible behavior from China, to allow what is a very large payload, right, what we've been told is the payload underneath the balloon was the size of three buses.

And so if they really have lost control of it, at the very least, they should have informed the U.S. and Canada that an object of that size was going to be entering their airspace.

You know, I think the fact that China has said it's a weather balloon. According to the U.S. reports it's not.

When you put all these things together, it builds up a sense of certainly finding it difficult to understand what China is doing. A certain level of distrust, when they may be not telling the truth.

And I think that that's the largest part of all of this story that's been going on for the last two weeks, is -- is the destabilizing aspect in international relations of this kind of behavior from China.

VAUSE: Iain Boyd, thank you so much for being with us. We really appreciate your insights and your time. Thank you.

BOYD: Thank you. VAUSE: We'll take a short break. When we come back, a plan to introduce redesigned money has led to a shortage of cash and violent protests in Nigeria and could now disrupt the general election. Details after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: The U.S. is now shifting to a long-term approach for providing Ukraine with weapons and military supplies. Officials say it's time look beyond the country's needs, such as Abrams tanks, which the U.S. has promised to deliver. That's in the short term.

And now to look at what Ukraine will need to deter any possible future aggressive moves by Moscow.

Meantime, the war is exhausting NATO's ammunition stockpiles. And as Oren Liebermann reports, U.S. defense factories are ramping up production.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the steel furnaces of Scranton, Pennsylvania, weapons of war are in high demand. One-ton metal rods, heated and forged. Into about 11,000 high- explosive artillery shells a month.

CNN got a rare look inside the Scranton army ammunition plant. One of only a few in the country that make this crucial round. Here specially made steel is heated 2,000 degrees and slowly shaped, step by scorching step, into its final product.

LIEBERMANN: At this point, it's only taken a few hours to heat the steel and then to turn it into what looks like an artillery shell. To press it into that familiar shape. But it's still days of testing and inspection to make sure that this can be turned into a 155-millimeter artillery shell that can be fired on the battlefield.

[00:30:08]

LIEBERMANN (voice-over): The process doesn't end here. The empty shells are shipped to another plant for explosives and fuses, 5,000 miles from the front lines and Mother Russia. The enemy here is Father Time.

Ukraine can burn through the plant's monthly production in half a week, locked in a grinding war of attrition with Putin's army and Russian mercenaries.

JENS STOLTENBERG, NATO SECRETARY GENERAL: The current rates of Ukraine's ammunition expenditure is many times higher than our current rate of production.

LIEBERMANN (voice-over): One year in, the war has turned into a vicious math problem: How to make enough ammo for Ukraine, the United States, and allies. The Pentagon is already planning on new ammo plants in Texas and

Canada, part of a race to increase the capacity of the defense industrial base. Doug Bush is the Army's head of acquisitions.

DOUG BUSH, U.S. ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF THE ARMY FOR ACQUISITION: Right now we are meeting to demand. Of course, I would want it to be faster. Everyone does. But there's a time factor. A year to 18 months is often what you're looking at.

LIEBERMANN (voice-over): Bush says this is the greatest ramp-up in military production, possibly going back to the Korean War.

BUSH: Early on, we realized we had to really put our foot all the way to the floor.

LIEBERMANN (voice-over): The goal within two years is to produce five times more artillery rounds each month, up to 70,000. Twice as many Javelin anti-tank missiles, up to 4,000 a month. Thirty percent more rounds for the HIMARS rocket launchers, about 850 a month; precision weapon Ukraine has used to target Russian command posts, ammo depots. And 60 Stinger antiaircraft missiles each month.

The U.S. isn't at war with Russia, but that matters little to weapons manufacturers whose products are part of the fight.

SETH JONES, INTERNATIONAL SECURITY PROGRAM DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: Our defense industrial base is still largely geared towards a peacetime environment and not towards a wartime, or at least a quasi-wartime environment, that we're now in.

LIEBERMANN: To get a sense of just much the Army is investing in this, within the last couple of weeks, the Army has announced $1.5 billion in procurement of new 155-millimeter artillery rounds. They're trying to produce this crucial ammunition faster, and they're trying to produce more of it.

Oren Liebermann, CNN, at the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Across France on Thursday more than 400,000 people marched in a fifth round of strikes and protests against the French government's plans to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.

Notably, though, this was the lowest number of protesters and the least disruptive to public transportation since demonstrations started a month ago.

French unions, though, have vowed to bring France to a complete standstill, with a wider strike March 7th.

One week out from Nigeria's general elections, concerns are growing that a cash crisis caused by shortages of newly-redesigned money could disrupt the vote.

On Thursday the president directed the central bank to recirculate one of the old notes in hopes of quelling growing anger and protest.

CNN's Steffie Busari -- Stephanie Busari, rather, has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEPHANIE BUSARI, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tempers fraying in the streets of Abuja. Nigerians have flocked to banks and ATMs in recent weeks, desperate to withdraw cash amidst a cash shortage.

Nigeria's central bank decided last year to circulate newly-designed banknotes. And a deadline was set after which old notes would no longer be accepted as legal tender.

The new notes have been in short supply, however, leading to long queues and chaotic scenes across the country.

BUSARI: Nigeria wants to change its currency ahead of a crucial general election. But it has descended into chaos as long lines form outside cash machines and fights break out inside the banks as customers demand access to their own money.

BUSARI (voice-over): Protests turned violent in Benin City. And in Ibadan (ph). ATMS vandalized.

President Muhammadu Buhari, whose party is seeking reelection next week, on Thursday, announced lower-denomination 200-naira notes would be put back in use for another 60 days.

MUHAMMADU BUHARI, PRESIDENT OF NIGERIA: The further (Ph) is the supply pressures, particularly to our citizens. Even approval to the CBN (ph). There's the old 200-naira banknotes being released back into circulation. And that it should also be allowed to circulate as legal tender.

BUSARI (voice-over): Shortages have led to untold hardships, particularly for those who work in the largely cash-based economy and for citizens who live in rural areas.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've been here since 7 a.m., and it's 4:18. And I just got to my number just now. Yes. And it's been a very stressful process to get the new naira notes, as you can see. And that's the daily experience of every Nigerian in the streets. If you walk around, most banks don't even dispense.

[00:35:13]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's not been easy, I must say. It's not been easy. Because it's not something we are used to. Before now, you go to the ATM, and you just get your money and go. But right now, you have to queue for hours upon hours and under the sun. It's not been easy at all.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just crazy. And you know, I've been out here, say, like an hour now. And the line, as you can see how crazy it is. BUSARI (voice-over): The cash shortage in Africa's largest economy

threatens to overshadow the upcoming elections, angering voters as the country's political future hangs in the balance.

Stephanie Busari, CNN, Lagos.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: The family of Bruce Willis says he's suffering from frontal temporal dementia, or FTD. His family announced the news in a statement Thursday.

The Mayo Clinic says FTD is an umbrella term for brain disorders in the areas associated with personality, behavior, and language. Currently, there is no cure, no treatments that slow the progression of the disease.

Last spring, Willis's family said he would take a break from acting because of aphasia that affected his cognitive abilities. The family hopes media attention from this announcement leads to more awareness and research into FTD.

Coming up on CNN, how artificial intelligence is now being used to create deep-fake porn, and the victims here are usually women whose faces appear on another body, and they know nothing about it. The story after the break.

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VAUSE: Tesla is recalling more than 360,000 vehicles because of issues with the self-driving feature.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the United States says the full self-driving system may not respond properly to traffic at intersections and certain traffic signals.

It also believes the current software does not allow drivers to control the vehicle fast enough in the case of an emergency.

Tesla's CEO, Elon Musk, tweeted that the word "recall" was wrong, and the problem could be fixed with a software update, which is what they plan to do.

Well, seeing is believing, or is it? That's the problem we now face as deepfakes become more popular. These fake videos are made to look real with the help of artificial intelligence.

CNN's Donie O'Sullivan spoke to one woman who was horrified to find out her face replicated in porn videos without her knowledge, without her consent.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

"SWEET ANITA", TWITCH STREAMER: It's very, very surreal to watch yourself do something you've never done. DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Streamer Sweet Anita

has almost 2 million followers on Twitch, where she plays video games and openly talks about having Tourette's Syndrome.

SWEET ANITA: I tend to say something inappropriate, but I don't mean to, and I'm not thinking.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): She was horrified when she found out her face was being used in so-called deepfake porn.

SWEET ANITA: Well, I watched some of one of them, like, a few seconds, and I was like nope, I can't do this. I can't watch through all of these. Like, this is too much. It's often hard-core pornography, but it's also usually degrading or aggressive sex acts.

[00:40:09]

SAMANTHA COLE, REPORTER, VICE MOTHERBOARD: It's -- it's extremely traumatic when this kind of thing happens.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Samantha Cole was one of the first people to report on deepfakes.

COLE: Deepfakes actually comes from the username of someone on Reddit who was taking people's faces and putting them on porn formers bodies using AI algorithms.

SWEET ANITA: It's so hyper-realistic it's genuinely scary.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Deepfakes are made using artificial intelligence technology.

HARRY FARID, PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY: These days there are apps on your phone you can go to and upload either a single image and AI technology will re-render that image with the person without their clothes.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): When deepfakes first came on the scene around 2017, there was concern they would be used to make it look like politicians said or did something they didn't do, like this deepfake demonstration of former President Obama.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're entering an era in which our enemies can make it look like anyone is saying anything at any point in time.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): But so far, this technology has primarily been used against women.

COLE: From the very beginning, the person who created deepfakes was using it to make pornography of women without their consent.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): First the focus was on female celebrities.

COLE: And that's kind of how it spread, how it became huge. Because everyone wanted to see, basically, a fake sex tape of their favorite celebrity. O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): But now it's moved beyond movie stars.

SWEET ANITA: There are people who just want to see someone be humiliated that they personally know. And that's the market for it. So this could just float around to be found by your students, if you teach. Or, like, some patients if you are a nurse or a doctor. Like, this can affect your standing.

COLE: They're using women's images as if they're, you know, stock images of fruits. That's how detached they are from the reality of there are people behind these pictures.

SWEET ANITA: For the people who create this, I feel like a lot of them dehumanize us and don't actually realize we're real people who live in the consequences.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Some lawmakers have sought to crack down on non-consensual deepfake porn, but AI is developing at breakneck speed.

FARID: We haven't even solved the problems of the technology sector from 10, 20 years ago, and this field is moving much, much faster than the original technology revolution.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): This is an issue that goes beyond the halls of Congress and Silicon Valley.

COLE: I don't know what the actual solution is, other than getting to that fundamental problem of disrespect and non-consent.

SWEET ANITA: I want to push for a world where there are more consequences for the perpetrator than for the victim. No one knows him. He created this, and he created all these consequences for all of these women. And now he's just poof, gone. No one knows.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Donie O'Sullivan, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: I'm John Vause. I'll be back at the top of the hour with more CNN NEWSROOM. In the meantime, WORLD SPORT starts after the break. We'll see you back here in 17 minutes.

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