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CNN International: EPA: Norfolk Southern Responsible For Toral Cleanup; Massive Cleanup Effort Underway After Derailment; 3 Killed, Including A Journalist, In Florida Shooting Spree; Millions Under Winter Weather Alerts As Storm Sweeps U.S.; Ukraine Steps Up Security Ahead Of Invasion Anniversary; Biden Returns To Washington After Visiting Poland, Ukraine; Putin Meets In Moscow With Top Chinese Diplomat; Pentagon Releases Pilot's Showing Chinese Balloon; At Least 11 Palestinians Killed In Rare Daytime Raid By Israel. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired February 23, 2023 - 04:00   ET

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

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[04:00:33]

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and warm welcome to our viewers joining us in the United States and all around the world. I'm Max Foster in London. Bianca off for the rest of the week, but just ahead on CNN Newsroom.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM STEWART, EAST PALESTINE, OHIO RESIDENT: I don't feel safe in this town now. You took it away from me.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't know what the future holds for my town. This has the potential to really decimate a small town like us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Common sense. Use your head on the road. Don't text, especially in this weather.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This ain't the first time, so we're just dealing with it. What can you do?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And my government will not upset a nuclear North Korea.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you think Kim Jong-un would ever give up his nuclear weapons?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He may not voluntarily.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from London, this is CNN Newsroom with Max Foster and Bianca Nobilo.

FOSTER: It is Thursday, February the 23rd, 09:00 a.m. here in London, 04:00 a.m. in East Palestine, Ohio, where more questions remain despite safety assurances from experts and officials following that toxic train derailment nearly three weeks ago now.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is scheduled to travel there today to see the cleanup efforts for himself. It's an expensive process that could take years to complete. Buttigieg's visit will coincide with the release of a preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board.

That report isn't expected to identify the exact cause of the accident, but rather lay out the established facts so far. But many residents are growing frustrated by the lack of clear answers. Excuse me. At a CNN town hall on Wednesday night, one resident took the CEO of Norfolk Southern to task over the disaster.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEWART: We, the people of East Palestine, are just being treated like dummies. We're not dummies. We're smart people. I don't feel safe in this town now. You took it away from me. You took us away from this. You seem like a sincere man.

I'm not calling you names. I'm not, you know -- your company stinks because they're not watching what's going on? I'm 65 years old, a diabetic, afib heart, heart disease, everything. Now, did you shorten my life now? I want to retire and enjoy it.

How are we going to enjoy it? You burned me. We were going to sell our house. Our value went poof.

ALAN SHAW, NORFOLK SOUTHERN CEO: Jim, thank you for those comments. I hear you. I'm terribly sorry that this has happened to this community. What I can do and what I will do is make it right. We're going to get the cleanup right. We're going to reimburse the citizens. We're going to invest in the long-term health of this community.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Freight train services through East Palestine restored within days. But now Norfolk Southern says it'll rip out the tracks and remove the contaminated dirt beneath them as part of this cleanup. Federal and state officials have been testing local water supplies and air quality and say they've detected no dangerous amounts of contaminants in the area homes. But that testing will continue nevertheless.

In the meantime, the Environmental Protection Agency vows to hold the railroad responsible for a thorough cleanup or face punishing fines. Have a listen.

MICHAEL REGAN, EPA ADMINISTRATOR: If Norfolk Southern decides that they don't want to follow the order, EPA will step in so that there's no break in service. Perform these duties while fining the company up to $70,000 a day. And then we'll recoup our cost on the backend, and the law gives us the authority to charge Norfolk Southern up to three times the amount that the cleanup would cost us. So there are a lot of incentives built in here -- in this order to compel the company to clean up their mess.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Well for more on the cleanup efforts and what may have caused the derailment, here's CNN's Miguel Marquez in East Palestine.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A massive effort underway to clean up creeks and water flowing in and around east Palestine, Ohio.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is decimating our businesses.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): It's dirty, difficult, and slow-going work. For those living here, building trust that the water and air is safe, the slow-going is the cleanup itself.

[04:05:09]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It took, I think, Norfolk Southern three days, four days for us to get a partial list. Vinyl chloride, butyl acrylate and benzene residue, and combustible liquids. What the hell are combustible liquids? You know, it could be anything.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): The makings of this disaster appears to have started somewhere between Alliance, Ohio and the derailment in East Palestine. Surveillance video of the train in Alliance shows no signs of sparks coming from its wheels. There is a detector in Sebring, Ohio, that would indicate overheat, a so-called hot box detector.

It's unclear if it detected any overheat, but in Salem, Ohio, just 13 miles further along, surveillance video clearly shows sparks and bright lights coming from under a rail car at about the halfway point of the train. There is another hot box detector just down the track from where the surveillance video was taken, but it's not clear if it detected an overheat either.

If it did, both the conductor and dispatcher would have been alerted to a heating issue, the NTSB said. Shortly before the derailment, another detector alerted the crew of a mechanical issue. The derailment occurred around 08:55 p.m. shortly after the train passed market street in downtown East Palestine.

The EPA now ordering Norfolk Southern to pay for and clean up the entire disaster zone.

REGAN: They have to put together a work plan that's going to be very prescriptive in terms of all of the cleanup, how they will do it, and the radius of that cleanup. They also have to explain to us, you know, how they'll pay for it.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): All of these, as former President Trump visits East Palestine, an area of Ohio where he still enjoys enormous support. DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The community has shown the tough and resilient heart of America, and that's what it is. This is really America right here.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUEZ: So I want to give you a sense of just how difficult it is to clean up this mess after this derailment. This is just one of the creeks right in the middle of East Palestine. There are at least two creeks that run through town that are contaminated.

You can see those white sort of material across the creek there, those are filters that they mix the water, they pull it out of the creek, they pump it back in, aerating it, pushing all of the toxins into those filters to collect it. They have been doing that now for days and days.

This is one location of many that they are going to have to deal with here. They are testing the water and the air. So far, none of those tests have showed concerns with contamination. But the state of Ohio, the state of Pennsylvania, the federal government, and Norfolk Southern, the railroad now says they will be here for years until this mess is cleaned up. Back to you.

FOSTER: A 19-year-old man has been charged with murder in Florida after allegedly going on a shooting spree on Wednesday, resulting in the deaths of at least three people. Police say the first victim was a woman killed inside a vehicle who may have known the suspect. Two journalists were later shot at the same spot while reporting on that incident, and one of them died.

The suspect, Keith Melvin Moses, then entered a nearby home and shot a mother and her young daughter. The child later died in hospital. Orange County's sheriff shared his condolences on Wednesday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF JOHN MINA, ORANGE COUNTY, FLORIDA: No one in our community, not a mother, not a nine-year-old, and certainly not news professionals, should become the victim of gun violence in our community.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Reporters who worked with the journalists who died shared fond memories of their colleague as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Difficult evening here because it does hit so close to home. I mean, these are people that this afternoon we were having regular conversations here in the newsroom. It was a regular day and truly not just colleagues, but family members.

(END VIDEO CLIP) FOSTER: Millions of Americans are feeling the chill from a massive winter storm system affecting multiple states from coast to coast. In sharp contrast, states in the Southeast are feeling the heat as warmer temperatures sweep through that area. Some schools in states in the north and midwest are closed due to bad weather.

Heavy snow, winds and ice have knocked out power to more than 850,000 customers. Flight tracking website FlightAware reports more than 700 flights have been canceled on Thursday so far because of the weather. More than 1,700 were canceled on Wednesday.

Even parts of California are reporting snow, with Los Angeles County issuing a blizzard warning for the first time since the 1980s.

[04:10:02]

Winds were so strong in Las Vegas. They blew a reporter over live on air.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just early in the afternoon. Wow. Well, there's a great example. Holy cow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Meteorologist Britley Ritz joins me from Atlanta, safely in the studio.

BRITLEY RITZ, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. We are watching these warnings and advisory is slowly starting to expire, which is great, but we're still dealing with many under blizzard warnings and whiteout conditions still expected.

And you know what? One of the things to remember is just when snow is falling and it blows, sure, you get the whiteout conditions, but blizzard warnings can happen when snow is not falling either. That snow is so dry and it blows all around the roadways, so we wind up with drifting and whiteout conditions regardless of snow falling.

So blizzard warnings still in effect across the Upper Midwest, back into the Northern Plains. They are now extending. Winter storm warnings into New England, where we are expecting snow this morning and throughout the upcoming days as the whole system tracks further eastward.

Still holding on to snowfall this morning in Minneapolis Green Bay, back through the U.P. of Michigan, all across the Great Lakes for that matter. Not just snow, but ice. Even though they have allowed the ice storm warnings to expire, we are still dealing with accumulation.

Battle Lake, Wyoming, 48 inches of snowfall. That's preliminary. More snow to come. Of course, we'll add on to that. Ann Arbor, Michigan, impressive and dangerous crippling accumulations for ice, 0.65 inches. And there's that forecast. Still holding on to snowfall through the rest of the morning, through the Upper Midwest and the Great Lakes. The whole system again tracking eastward Friday morning across New England, switching over to more of the ice threat. So again, travel becomes not advised in those locations.

More snow expected across the Midwest, parts of Iowa, back into Illinois and Indiana as we come into the upcoming weekend. So another system trying to head our direction here. Nowhere near what we're dealing with now. 6 to 8 more inches expected across the Great Lakes and Upper Midwest on top of what we've already experienced through Friday, and then more so across New England here in the upcoming days.

Ice accumulation a little less, but still holding on to that threat. Notice the light pink color. That's a quarter of an inch of ice expected. And that again transferring over into New York here through the rest of today and into Friday. Max?

FOSTER: OK, Britley, thank you so much for that, for joining us from the CNN World Weather Center.

Cities and towns across Ukraine are stepping up security measures in advance of the first anniversary of Russia's invasion. The mayor of Kharkiv says no one knows if Russia will intensify its attacks, but he says people who are afraid may work remotely.

The distribution of humanitarian aid will be limited in the Kherson region. And Ukraine's foreign minister says the country's troops are simply defending their homeland.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DMYTRO KULEBA, UKRAINIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: There's no other country in the world that wants peace as much as Ukraine does. We never wanted war. We never planned to attack anyone. Our troops do not stand on anyone else's land.

We exercise our legitimate right to self-defense and do it pretty effectively. We know what we are fighting for. We are defending our land, our families, and our homes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Just a short while ago, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez arrived in Kyiv to mark the first anniversary of the war. He's set to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and make a speech to the Ukrainian Parliament.

Meanwhile, in Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting with China's top diplomat and said relations between the two countries are reaching new milestones. The visit comes amid concerns that Beijing is considering providing lethal military aid to Russia, a move the Pentagon says would lead to consequences for China.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SABRINA SINGH, DEPUTY PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: Now, we haven't seen them give lethal aid to Russia at this time for the war, but they haven't also taken that off the table. And so, we have been consistent from here. And I believe Secretary Blinken also met with his counterpart in Germany just last week. We reinforced there that, again, there will be consequences for China should this partnership with Russia further deepen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: U.S. President Joe Biden is back in Washington after visiting Warsaw and Kyiv on a trip intended to build support for Ukraine. But in Moscow, Vladimir Putin was drumming up public support for the war and now appears to be putting an increased emphasis on his country's nuclear forces.

In a speech, he committed to strengthening Russia's nuclear triad. That's a military force structure capable of launching three types of nuclear weapons. This after he announced Russia would be suspending its participation in a nuclear arms control treaty with Washington.

Here's how the U.S. President reacted to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[04:15:05]

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's a big mistake to do that. Not very responsible, and -- but I don't read into that he's thinking of using nuclear weapons or anything like that. I think it's a -- I'm not sure what else he was able to say in his speech at the moment. But I think it's a mistake and I'm confident we'll be able to work it out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: CNN correspondents tracking all of these developments for you. CNN's Kristie Lu Stout is in Hong Kong. Clare Sebastian here in London. First, we're going to go to Melissa Bell in Kyiv. Melissa, what's the atmosphere like the day before this anniversary?

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, here in Ukraine, Max, people very much preparing for the worst, but hoping that the Russians simply don't have the ability to mount the kind of new offensive or renewed offensive that some are fearing.

Now, Ukraine authorities have been warning that they fear that there may be some kind of symbolic action to match that one year anniversary, which falls, of course, tomorrow, Max, with special preparations being made in areas around Kherson and Kharkiv.

Some of those areas where the counter offensive the last six months have proved so effective and that have remained under pressure. Things like people being encouraged or allowed to stay at home if they feel nervous from today and through to the 25th. But also, even as authorities are warning that some humanitarian aid may be slowed, things like payments through post offices may not be possible.

They're keeping those invincibility points going where people can go, charge up their phones, get warm if they need to, even throughout this period, that looks set to be quieter than usual in Ukraine as people try and hunker down in case that symbolic move might come.

Meanwhile, that show of support of strength of NATO allies continues. You mentioned a moment ago the visit, surprise visit here in Kyiv, Max, by the Spanish prime minister (technical issue) around Bakhmut. We're seeing the continued shelling around that city as Russians continue their efforts in Donetsk.

How much more they have to put on the table? How much more coordinated offensive action they can take? That is the big question go ahead over the next few days, Max.

FOSTER: OK. Melissa, thank you. Clare is here. You're getting some reports of a military plane crashing in Russia?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this is in the Belgorod region. We got the news really in the last hour from the governor of that region that a (technical issues).

FOSTER: President Biden doesn't seem too concerned. I think U.S. intelligence says nothing's really changed here, but why the language around these nuclear weapons?

SEBASTIAN: You know, I think coming off the back of the visit by Biden to Ukraine, that huge show of support in Warsaw for NATO and for the western transatlantic alliance, in general, Russia is stepping this up ahead of the anniversary to try to show that it still has this leverage.

I think you could say that, thus far, the nuclear rhetoric that we've seen that has really been a hallmark of this conflict, has not deterred the west from increasing the military supplies to Ukraine and from sort of reaffirming its support.

So we have this week, you know, not only the suspension of its participation in the New Start Treaty, we have what U.S. officials tell us was a failed test of an ICBM, an intercontinental ballistic missile, early in the week.

And now these comments on what in Russia as defender of the Fatherland Day, it's a holiday for sort of veterans essentially saying that they are going to step up the sort of preparedness of their nuclear triad, land, sea and air missiles. I think, you know, they've been doing this for years. It's more of the same. But it just shows the posturing that's happening as they tried to maintain this leverage.

FOSTER: Absolutely. And Kristie, in terms of posturing, the Americans clearly rattled by these images of China's top diplomat with Putin yesterday.

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And also the language that we were hearing coming out of these meetings with Wang Yi, China's top diplomat, telling Vladimir Putin that the relationship is rock solid, wrapping up that visit to Moscow.

While there, he met with the Russian president. He met with the foreign minister. He met with the head of the Security Council, paving the way for this possible summit. A meeting between the Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin that The Wall Street Journal has been reporting could take place in April or in May.

[04:20:12]

Now, on Wednesday, Putin said that the China-Russia relationship was reaching new milestones and Wang Yi doubled down on that sentiment. I want you to listen to this, but also take note to the very much not so veiled reference to the United States. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WANG YI, SENIOR CHINESE DIPLOMAT (through translation): We want to emphasize here that the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Russia never targets a third country. Hence, it won't be affected by any interferences or instigation from a third country. We certainly won't bow to any threats or pressure from a third country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: Now, this relationship has been under intense scrutiny. On Wednesday, the Pentagon said that it's warning China of consequences should it proceed and offer material support, lethal support to Russia. But -- and China has continued to counter that allegation.

But the fact is this, ever since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russia and China have been edging ever closer together. You look at, economically the purchase of Russian energy, the fact that the Russians are conducting more Chinese Renminbi transactions, militarily large scale -- military drills between the two nations taking place in this week.

And of course, politically. Look, China refuses to condemn the Russian invasion as we neared the one year anniversary. Max?

FOSTER: Kristie, thank you. Also, Clare and Melissa.

Now the Pentagon has released this unusual picture of an American spy plane literally shadowing the suspected Chinese spy plane balloon. The selfie taken by the pilot of the U-2 shows the shadow of this -- of his aircraft on the balloon as well as the balloon's payload there.

The U.S. spotted the balloon on January 28th and shot it down several days later after it crossed the country. U.S. officials say they took steps to prevent the balloon from collecting data. Debris from the balloon is being studied at an FBI lab as we speak.

Now, The New York Times reports that Special Counsel Jack Smith is demanding Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner appear before a grand jury, looking into efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Both served in the Trump White House and provided testimony to the congressional committee that investigated January 6. Here's CNN's Sara Murray.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Think about also what Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner's rules were in the White House. That was unusual. That's part of the reason they had this sort of front row seat to, you know, this infamous moment. And so it makes sense that Special Counsel Jack Smith is going to want to talk to them.

Remember, the January 6 House investigators also spoke to both Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, and they frankly, came away with a pretty scathing assessment of Ivanka Trump's testimony, saying that she wasn't very forthcoming and saying that one of her aides happened to remember more about the events that were unfolding around January 6 than Ivanka Trump did.

So, again, if you are Jack Smith, if you are the special counsel and you're trying to do this fulsome investigation, of course, you're going to check this, Max. This is a place other investigators have gone before. It's not the same escalation as we saw with him going after former Vice President Mike Pence, but it's still, as you said, very unusual.

FOSTER: Ivanka Trump was in the Oval Office when President Trump called Vice President Mike Pence to pressure him not to certify the election. She also attended her father's rally near the White House that very same day.

Now Israelis and Palestinians appear to be locked in a new round of retaliatory strikes and attacks. We'll have a live report for you from Jerusalem coming up. Plus, an unruly passenger forces an American Airlines flight to be diverted. Coming up, what we're learning about the security scare.

And he hasn't even declared his candidacy yet, but Florida's controversial governor is building up quite a war chess as he prepares for a possible run for the White House.

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[04:27:50]

FOSTER: California man convicted of killing rapper Nipsey Hussle was sentenced to 60 years to life in prison on Wednesday. A jury determined that Eric Ronald Holder Jr. fatally shot Hussle outside the hip-hop artist's clothing store in March 2019. Holder was found guilty in July of first-degree murder and other charges relating to injuring two other men in the shooting.

Holder's father submitted a letter to the court apologizing on behalf of his son. Hussle was a father of two, a successful entrepreneur, the founder of a record label, and worked with dozens of artists, including Kendrick Lamar and Drake. He was 33.

The U.N.'s middle east envoy says he's appalled by the loss of civilian lives in a west -- in the west bank after a lethal Israeli military raid. Israel says the targets were Palestinian militants who were told made up of at least six of the people -- of the 11 people killed. Palestinian authorities -- the Palestinian Authority calls the operation in Nablus a massacre and says nearly 500 others were also wounded.

And that rare daytime raid has been followed by a series of retaliatory rocket attacks and airstrikes between Israel and Gaza. So far, there are no reports of any new casualties today.

Journalist Elliott Gotkine, though, is monitoring all of this life for us from Jerusalem. A really tense situation, Elliott.

ELLIOTT GOTKINE, JOURNALIST: Very much so, Max. And as you say, this was a rare daytime raid. Not unprecedented, but rare because of the risk to both civilians and of course, Israeli forces themselves. But according to the Israeli Defense Forces International spokesman, the reason why they carried out this daytime raid, which lasted about four hours in the end, was because of, in his words, very specific intelligence indicating an imminent attack.

Now, the IDF says that it went into Nablus to try to detain these militants, which it says were responsible for killing an Israeli soldier. They asked them to surrender. They refused. A gun fight ensued and those three militants who were inside that house were killed.

Now, on top of that, and further eight Palestinians were killed.

[04:30:00]