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CNN International: Video Shows Student Tackle, Beat School Employee; Abby Choi's Ex-Husband and Two Former In-Laws Charged with Murder; Would-Be Voters Angry Over Not Being Able to Cast Ballots in Nigeria; At Least Three People Killed in West Bank Violence; Death Toll Increased to 44,000+ in Turkey. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired February 27, 2023 - 04:30   ET

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

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MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster, if you're just joining us, let me bring you up to date with the top stories in this hour.

In the Central U.S., a large storm system is moving east bringing tornadoes, heavy winds and hail. At least one tornado caused damage to homes and buildings, leaving tens of thousands without power in Oklahoma. There have been reports of more than 115 storms across the Southern Plains.

And the U.S. Department of Energy has determined that the spread of COVID-19 is most likely a result of a leak from a Chinese laboratory in Wuhan. That's according to an updated classified intelligence report. But two sources tell CNN the department only has low confidence in the finding.

The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear all arguments on Tuesday, in two cases, challenging U.S. President Joe Biden's Student Loan Forgiveness program. The program promises to deliver up to $20,000 of debt relief for millions of borrowers but is on hold as a legal challenge play out. A decision from the Supreme Court is expected by late June or early July.

In Texas, a judge will soon rule on one of the most consequential abortion cases since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. An issue is a lawsuit that seeks to revoke the government's approval of the abortion drug Mifepristone. And it alleges regulators improperly approved the drug more than 20 years ago. The judge in the case was nominated by Donald Trump and is known for his deep anti-abortion beliefs. If he rules in favor of the plaintiffs, critics say 64 million women would lose access to medical abortion care.

A school in northern Florida has released a video of the moment a student brutally attacked a school employee last week allegedly over a handheld video game. So far, the school and the employee's husband have not commented on her condition. CNN's Isabel Rosales has more on how it all unfolded.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The video is very difficult to watch. In it we see a student that's 6'6" approximate 270 pounds, just brutally attacking his teachers aide, a paraprofessional. According to the arrest records, that student, the 17-year-old told the school resource deputy, the reason he went after her was because he was upset that she allegedly took away his Nintendo Switch game. I'm going to show you this video but first a warning, it is disturbing. This happened on Tuesday, in Flagler County, that is just south of St. Augustine, north of Daytona Beach at Matanzas High School.

In it we see the 17-year-old student running towards that school employee in the black and then knocking her to the ground. According to the arrest records, that's five to six feet he knocked her away. And then she appears to be motionless, unconscious. As he starts to punch and kick at her repeatedly. Eventually onlookers assess the situation and see this is a big problem and start to pull him away. Those are students and employees of the school pulling him away. Even as they do that, he is still trying to punch and kick at this school employee who is later taken to hospital. Listen to what the sheriff of Flagler County Rick Staley had to say to our affiliate.

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SHERIFF RICK STALY, FLAGLER COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: This could have been homicide, when you push people down like that, they hit their head, you never know the outcome. Fortunately, other students and other faculty members, administrators came and intervened.

ROSALES: And this incident really just highlights a growing problem for educators. And that is the rise of threats and violence directed their way, oftentimes by students inside of school grounds. We have a study by the American Psychological Association conducted during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. It surveyed over 15,000 educators, and it found that one-third of teachers reported being victimized. So, these are verbal threats of violence from students.

And it turns out support staff, things like school resource officers, aides, like you've seen in this instance and bus drivers, they're most likely to report physical aggression with, in that case, 99 percent of aggressors actually being students. The survey also found that up to 34 percent of educators reported interest in either quitting or transferring schools because of the school climate or school safety issues.

Now in this case, this teen was arrested. He faces a serious felony. Aggravated battery with bodily harm. He has since been turned over to the department of juvenile justice.

Isabel Rosales, CNN, Atlanta.

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FOSTER: The ex-husband and former in-laws of Hong Kong model who was killed last week appeared in court on Monday -- according to public broadcaster RTHK. Abby Choi's ex-husband is being charged with murder along with his father and brother. His mother faces a lesser charge. RTHK says all were denied bail.

Beijing bureau chief Steven Jiang joins us live with some details. And Steven, this really has gripped the nation, this story.

STEVEN JIANG, CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF: That's right, because it's so shocking and gruesome because Abby Choi was not just murdered but dismembered. On Sunday, investigators found a skull, some ribs and hair believed to be her remains in large stainless steel soup pot. That is after they found some other body parts on Friday in a rental unit in a northern Hong Kong suburb, where they also found a meat slicer, electric saw and some clothing.

And as of now, some parts of her body including the torso remain missing. That's why the police at one point deployed more than 100 personnel including divers in search of her remains.

Now as you mentioned, what we do know is the ex-husband Alex Kwong and three of his family members have now been charged. But despite all the horrific details, one thing we have not found out is why. The motive, despite some speculation in local media, the authorities have not confirmed anything. Obviously, a lot of intense interest in Abby Choi who was a model with quite a bit of international exposure often seen photographed at fashion shows and with luxury brands from London to Paris to Shanghai. And also, was an influencer with more than 100,000 followers on Instagram.

But all of that, of course, came to a screeching halt last Wednesday when she was reported missing in a city of more than 7 million residents. But for the most part considered to be very safe for people of all ages including young women. So you know, one thing that came out all this is this tragedy that she left behind two children she had with the ex-husband who is now, of course, awaiting trial for her very gruesome murder -- Max.

FOSTER: OK, Steven Jiang live in Beijing, thank you.

Crowds gathered across Mexico on Sunday to protest changes made to the country's election process. They say the president's administration has put free and fair elections at risk. He says they are simply trying to discredit his government. Organizers estimated half a million people demonstrated in Mexico City but the local government put the number at 90,000.

Some results are trickling in as votes are still being counted from Saturday's election in Nigeria. But anger is growing after officials didn't arrive at some polling stations. That mean some would be voters who waited for hours, may have lost their chance to pick the country's next president. Some voters went to a polling station to protest even as others were able to vote on Sunday, the day after the election.

For more on this we're going to go Stephanie Busari. She's in Lagos for us. We're not going to get the full result, I understand it, for some time.

STEPHANIE BUSARI, CNN SENIOR EDITOR, AFRICA: Good morning, Max, no results are slowly trickling in. We've only had one state reported so far. Later on, this morning the electoral commission -- known here as INEC -- will have a briefing where more results will be announced state by state. It's a lengthy process, but we're hoping to have full results by tomorrow at the latest.

But, Max, as you say, there's a lot of anger here, the mood is tense. People are just not happy with how these elections were handled. One observer that I spoke to described the process as disappointing.

[04:40:00]

And said that INEC needs to really get ahold of its perennial logistical issues.

What are the issues? In some polling units election officials just did not turn out. I spoke to one candidate this morning in Lagos, who said in his constituency there were 30 polling units that election officials just did not turn up. And thousands of voters lost their chance to vote.

And this is a picture that's emerging across the nation, Max. People are complaining bitterly about voter intimidation, voter suppression and an attempt to snatch the ballot. In in some places ballots were snatched and people were attacked.

I myself went to one polling station here in Lagos on Saturday on election day. The military was forced to intervene, because what people called thugs turned up and started beating voters, throwing chairs at them. And also attempted to cut up the votes that had already been cast. So, these are the issues that really INEC must answer. But above all, young people are very angry. They say that there's widespread rigging going on -- we have not confirmed that -- and they believe their election may be stolen -- Max.

FOSTER: OK, Stephanie back with you with any updates. Thank you for joining us from Lagos.

Violence reported in the West Bank on the same day Israeli and Palestinian officials pledged to reduce tensions. Ahead, how Israel's military is responding to the chaos.

Plus, the death toll in Turkey from this month's devastating earthquake continues to rise. We'll go live to Istanbul for an update.

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FOSTER: Officials from Israel and the Palestinian Authority have agreed to work on de-escalating violence in the region. But those agreements were undermined on Sunday by another deadly flare-up on the West Bank. It started when two Israeli settlers were fatally shot whilst driving and what officials say was a terrorist attack.

Later, a Palestinian man was killed on what Palestinian officials called revenge attacks by Israeli settlers. The Israeli military now plans to send battalions to the West Bank to improve security.

CNN's Hadas Gold joins us from Jerusalem. It's an impossible situation, isn't it, when they're trying to solve things on one level and then things keep flaring up and making those situations even harder?

HADAS GOLD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it goes to show you, Max, just the level of crisis that this region is in. Because scenes like what we saw yesterday are really unprecedented in a region that's already been beset by so much violence and death. It started as you noted, those two brothers, actually 19 and 21 years old were driving in their car along a busy thoroughfare that's used by both Palestinians and Israelis.

And while they were sitting in traffic, Israeli officials say an attacker came up to them and shot them at point blank range before managing to get away. Then later in the day there was that summit in Aqaba with the Israelis, the Palestinian Authority, Americans, Egyptians, Jordanians, all aimed at trying to calm the situation on the ground, especially ahead of the overlapping holidays, Ramadan and Passover, which in the past, have seen tensions flare up even more, especially here in Jerusalem.

And the communique coming out of that summit was seen positive. You know, the two sides, Israelis and Palestinians, agreeing to sit together in a joint security committee to try and reestablish security cooperation. Israelis talking about freezing discussions on settlements for a few months. Palestinians saying, they wouldn't go after the Israelis in the U.N. and the commitment to meet again in March before Ramadan in Egypt.

But then, Max, as night fell, we got these scenes of essentially parts of the West Bank burning, Israeli settlers going on what's been called a rampage, burning homes, burning cars. We're getting lots of reports of casualties including one Palestinian man killed in what Palestinian officials are calling a revenge attack. They are saying that he was shot and killed by Israeli settlers.

And I mean, I can't tell you the last time there were scenes like this, where you just had, you know, groups of Israeli settlers going through Palestinian towns burning homes. We've had stories of Palestinian families having to be evacuated actually by Israeli soldiers.

Now, we are getting some reports of some settlers being arrested but there is a lot of worry about what will come next.

Now what's interesting is when you look at the internal politics of this, after that summit took place, we seemed to get some commentary from Israeli officials seeming to almost dismiss the summit. The Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir saying what happens in Jordan will stay in Jordan. Bezalel Smotrich, another right-wing settler leader administering this government claiming there will not be any sort of settlement freezes.

So it's not exactly clear what the Israelis necessarily agree to versus what the commentary we're hearing from Israeli government officials. But meanwhile, the Israeli military saying that they're sending extra battalions into the West Bank, to not only try to catch the attacker who shot and killed those two brothers but also to try to calm the situation and keep security for those Palestinians and Israelis -- Max.

FOSTER: OK, Hadas in Jerusalem, thank you.

The death toll in Turkey from the deadly earthquake earlier this month has increased to more than 44,000 people. But the country's emergency management agency reports nearly 300 tent cities and more than 10,000 containers have been set up for survivors to sleep in. Meanwhile, Turkey's justice ministry says nearly 200 people have been arrested, pending trial, for alleged poor building construction. For more on this, we're joined by CNN's Nada Bashir from Istanbul, and the blame game really is in full motion now -- Nada.

NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER: It really is, Max. And there is growing pressure on the Turkish government when it comes to finding some sort of accountability for this devastating earthquake. So far 188 people arrested but more than 600 people have now been identified as potential suspects in relation to those allegations of construction negligence.

And there has been some backlash against the government reports of construction amnesties being offer in the past, to those constructers, contractors who are building these apartment blocks, these tall buildings in an unsafe manner not following the building codes. And the government says they are fully investigating these allegations and they have admitting there are lessons to be learned from this earthquake. Thousands of and thousands of people have lost their homes, they've lost their loved ones, lost absolutely everything. That will provide very little solace.

And of course, tens of thousand of people are now, not only not able to live in their homes, not only have lost everything, but are being housed in temporary tents and containers, across southeast Turkey. And we visited some of these tent cities that have been set up. And while the authorities and the governments say that they are planning to rebuild the affected areas within a year, the aide workers on the ground across these camps have told us that they are here for the long haul.

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They are setting this up that this could be the reality for tens of thousands of people for the next two or three years at least.

And of course, there is a sense of growing frustration, a growing sense of anger here in Turkey, particularly as elections loom. And we have heard continued calls for the government now to take action, some even calling for the government to step down --Max.

FOSTER: OK, Nada, thank you.

Still ahead, SpaceX pulls the plug in the last minute on its planned launch. We'll tell you why that happens in just a moment.

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FOSTER: SpaceX and NASA scrubbed a planned launch to send a crew of astronauts to the International Space Station just minutes before takeoff. Engineers say the decision was made out of an abundance of caution due to an ignition issue. They hope to try again on Thursday morning. The mission includes two NASA astronauts, a Russian cosmonaut and national from the UAE. They plan to spend six months in space doing scientific research and maintaining the station.

Some airline carriers are giving passengers the choice to forego their in-flight meal. The skip meal option is now available for any class of service on any Japan Airlines international flights. The company says the move helps to reduce food waste.

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Passengers flying with business class with Delta also have that option. A Delta representative said the program started last year, but less than half of the eligible passengers are actually opting out.

Now, if you have a pair of Apple AirPods Max headphones, be careful in the Big Apple. The New York Police Department says since January there have been 21 cases of moped-riding thieves, snatching the headphones off peoples' heads. The AirPods Max go for just under $550 on Apple's website. So far no injuries have been reported during the robberies. New York University is warning students to keep their headphones in their pockets when they are outside.

History was made on Sunday at the Screen Actors Guild awards. The film "Everything Everywhere all at Once" was the big winner of the night with actors making major strides for Asian representation in media. And Michelle Yeoh became the first Asian woman to win outstanding performance by a female actor in a leading role. It's the latest trophy she's taken for her part in the science fiction film. And Ke Huy Quan took home the trophy for outstanding performance by a male actor in a supporting role for the same film. The first Asian man to win that award.

The cast of "Everything Everywhere All at Once" took the night's top award, an outstanding performance by a cast in a motion picture.

Another standout moment was Jamie Lee Curtis winning outstanding performance by a female actor in a supporting role.

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JAMIE LEE CURTIS, ACTRESS, "EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE": I'm 64 years old. I've been an actress since I was 19. If I'm not having a good time, if we're not together if you and you and me aren't having a good time, what are we doing?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Brilliantly said. Thanks for joining me here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster in London.

"EARLY START" with Christine Romans is up next.

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