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CNN International: CEO's Congressional Testimony; No Evidence China is Spying Via TikTok; At Least 10 Killed in Wave of Russian Attacks in Ukraine; Could TikTok be Completely Banned in Western Countries; Twister Hits Los Angeles Area, Strongest Since 1983. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired March 23, 2023 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNNI HOST: Hello, welcome to CNN "Newsroom", I'm Julia Chatterley in New York in for Max Foster. And coming up on the show where the CEO of TikTok will testify before the U.S. Congress today, as the future of the mega popular app hangs in the balance.

Also ahead, the Bank of England announcing its latest interest rate move in the next few moments we will bring you that decision and an extremely rare weather event in Southern California as a tornado, hits the state.

Hello, and welcome once again, U.S. lawmakers want to know if TikTok the Chinese owned social media app that tens of millions of people have in their pockets is a National Security threat. The company's Chief Executive is set to testify before a congressional committee in the coming hours. He's expected to try and calm concerns that the app is giving American data to the Chinese government. Vanessa Yurkevich has all the details.

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VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): TikTok the wildly popular social media sensation has taken America by storm with nearly half of all Americans creating, uploading and watching videos. But now the company finds itself in the crosshairs of a political debate.

SHOU CHEW, CEO OF TIKTOK: Hi everyone, its show here. I'm the CEO of TikTok.

YURKEVICH (voice over): CEO Shou Chew announcing his arrival in DC on TikTok, as he gears up to face lawmakers Thursday and a high stakes hearing amid threats from the White House to ban the app in the U.S. Unless TikTok's Chinese parent company ByteDance sells their stake.

JUSTIN SHERMAN, CEO OF GLOBAL CYBER STRATEGIES: This is quite literally an existential issue for TikTok. This is life or death.

YURKEVICH (voice over): Chew will be grilled on TikTok's perceived threat to U.S. National Security. Legislators have raised concerns over the Chinese government's ability to use TikTok to spy on Americans and collect their personal data. The app is already banned on federal devices, and nearly half of all States have banned it on state owned devices.

REP. MICHAEL BURGESS (R-TX): In so many instances, it just appears that China is not our friend now that you've got this enormously popular and powerful application that has basically captivated the minds of the next generation of Americans. What are they doing with that information?

YURKEVICH (voice over): But Chew have been insistent, China has no influence over the app, and its 150 million U.S. users.

CHEW: The Chinese government has actually never asked us for U.S. user data. And we've said this on the record, that even if we will ask for that we will not provide that.

YURKEVICH (voice over): But top U.S. Intelligence Officials believe otherwise.

CHRISTOPHER WRAY, FBI DIRECTOR: This is a tool that is ultimately within the control of the Chinese government. And it to me, it screams out with National Security concerns.

YURKEVICH (voice over): But there is no public evidence this is happening.

SHERMAN: The government has not provided a smoking gun. But maybe the government doesn't need to provide a smoking gun. It's about that possibility.

REP. JAMAAL BOWMAN (D-NY): Why the hysteria and the panic.

YURKEVICH (voice over): Representative Jamaal Bowman hosting TikTok creators at the Capitol just hours before the hearing.

[08:05:00]

BOWMAN: It poses about the same threat that companies like Facebook and Instagram and YouTube and Twitter pose. So let's not marginalize and target TikTok.

YURKEVICH (voice over): The Trump Administration tried and failed to ban TikTok in 2020. Several courts ruled had violated the international Emergency Economic Powers Act, a law the Biden Administration is also up against.

SHERMAN: Does it have any new legal authorities or powers to actually do it? No. And so this is why we come back to we're likely to get a restriction on TikTok based on what the executive branch can do right now. A complete ban, practically speaking is unlikely at this point.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHATTERLEY: And that was Vanessa Yurkevich reporting now and we've got much more on this story ahead, including what TikTok future may indeed looks like. For now, a top Ukrainian Military Commanders says Ukrainian troops could soon go on the offensive in Bakhmut. He says Russia is losing a significant number of forces in what has become a prolonged struggle to take the city.

Meanwhile, the cleanup is underway in parts of Ukraine after Russia unleashed a wave of deadly attacks on Wednesday. This is the moment of impact when a missile hit a building in Zaporizhzhia in what Ukraine calls a deliberate strike on civilians. Our Ivan Watson talked to one of the residents.

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KYRYLO CHORNIY, ZAPORIZHZHIA RESIDENT: Missile hit is here and my apartment is this kitchen, my parent's room and my room when it happened, I heard a loud explosion. I saw a fire and I covered my head. Powerful and - taking me up to their apartment. They're right next to I mean, they're part of the same building that was hit today.--

IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): There's a crater right next door in the side of the building. Kyrylo says this does not scare him. Please give us more weapons.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHATTERLEY: And Ivan Watson joins us now from Zaporizhzhia. Ivan, an incredible conversation people still lives in that building despite it having been struck by missile just what a day and a half ago.

WATSON: Yesterday, basically ensure that family there on the fourth floor there and they stayed in their apartment without electricity, without heat, but determined to stay in their homes, you can see that now. You know, 24 hours after the strike some of the hard work of cleaning up, the damage is now underway.

And I just like to kind of point out to you, I mean, look what's right in front of this building that was hit by Russian missiles. The Ukrainian Authorities say there's a playground here, their children playing here. This is a residential neighborhood. As we pivot over to here, Julia, you can see the humanitarian assistance and the different charity organizations that are coming in to help people after this building was hit.

There's distribution of aid, and so on, you can see that mid-central frontier is on the scene now. But I think let's bring it back to what actually took place. These are 9 storey apartment buildings. There are ordinary people living here families, children were among the 34 wounded at least 1 person killed here.

And this isn't just one freak, perhaps accident that maybe a deadly long range projectile went off course, Zaporizhzhia's apartment buildings have been hit multiple times in this city, which is about 30, 40 minutes, drive away from active frontlines in the past. And it's not the only city that has been hit.

This is a recurring pattern, where Russia fires deadly long range projectiles that slam into apartment buildings in cities that are far from the front lines. If you look at the angle of these buildings they're facing in the direction of the Southwest, OK, and you can see the crater, the impact came from that direction.

And the Russian Military is occupying territory to the Southwest. So he's very clear that, that is the direction that this deadly long range projectile came from. And then again, slammed into residential buildings, part of a pattern we have seen for months across this country and without a concrete military objective.

You know, they're not tanks here or weapons producing things or barracks for soldiers. One must come to the conclusion that a goal is to target civilians to hurt ordinary innocent people who are not combatants.

[08:10:00]

That is the only conclusion that I can come to when I see this kind of damage with children playing in a playground right in front of it, Julia.

CHATTERLEY: Yes, Stark images and to your point more evidence of war crimes, it seems. Ivan Watson, good to have you with us. Thank you in Zaporizhzhia there. Now Prince William is out and about on the second day of his surprise visit to Poland. Earlier he laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, a monument dedicated to Polish soldiers who have died in conflict.

He also met with the President of Poland, Andrzej Duda. And a short time ago too, the Prince spoke with young Ukrainians at a food hall who shared how they resettled in Poland after fleeing the war in their own country.

CNN Royal Correspondent Max Foster is joining us live now from Warsaw, Poland. Max, great to have you with us, the Royal Family have been, I think, unusually forthright about their views on this war and in support of Ukraine, his presence there, just reinforcing that.

MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, very much a visit about Ukraine, he wanted to come here and really highlight to the world how much Poland continues to do to support Ukraine in its war against Russia. So he's in the food hall, behind me meeting refugees who have settled here, 1.5 million of them in this country.

And it really does feel as though they are fully integrated here. He met some Poles outside and had a chat with them. And they were talking about how they were very grateful that he was here showing how much Poland continues to do and as you say, just before that he met the president as well.

Again, a conversation based on Ukraine and Prince William, interestingly, seeing his position as a global statesman, if you like coming here to thank the President and the Polish people for everything that they've done to protect in his words, the freedoms, all our freedoms.

So it's quite you know, it's not a political issue in the sense that the U.K. is fully behind Ukraine in this war effort, of course, but globally, it's very political issues. So it's interesting to see how he's stepping up to his elevated title of Prince of Wales in this way. So he's going to go forward and not be unafraid and I think Julia going into some quite sensitive issues in future.

CHATTERLEY: And to your point, the bigger point here, I think, too just seeing and acknowledging people supporting their neighbors, and others. Max, thank you so much for that. In the meantime, France is bracing for another nationwide strike against the government's controversial changes to the pension system that will push through Parliament without a vote.

Thousands of Police officers across the country have been mobilized in preparation for those planned protests. Just a few hours ago, dozens of people blocked the entrance of one of the terminals of Paris's main airport. And CNN's Melissa Bell joins us now from Paris.

There is a futility to these protests, particularly like to what the President said this week, and that he's simply not backing down. But it doesn't mean that these big unions can't make life very difficult for people in the interim.

MELISSA BELL, CNN PARIS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right. In fact, I think the words of the President yesterday on French national television, if anything; Julia will have further encouraged the people that you're going to see out here on the streets of Paris, but other French cities throughout the day.

The record that we saw after these many weeks of protests came on the 7th of March, when there were more than 1.2 million people out in the streets of France. That's according to the Ministry of Interior figures. There's always a discrepancy between what the union say and what the official figures are?

Today, we're expecting to see more than that bigger crowds still, because it comes at the end of a week, Julia, when we've seen day after day is spontaneous protests, unplanned eruption on the streets of Paris, and again, other French cities as well, in the wake of that decision to force through parliament this particularly unpopular reform.

It will now become law before the end of the year. We heard the French President say so yesterday, its last step is passing in front of the Constitutional Council, which will rule on its constitutionality and barring any massive reversal of fortune there it will now become law.

The retirement age in France will go from 62 to 64. And that is exactly what these people are going to be out on the streets protesting throughout the day. Also nationwide strike studios that are crippling are lots of different aspects of life in France today. Schools 20 percent of teachers are on strike. Transport network seriously impacted as you said a moment ago, that terminal a child aboard even now being blockaded.

CHATTERLEY: CNN's Melissa bell in Paris will speak to you in the next hour, thank you for now. And this news just in the Bank of England has just raised interest rates for the 11th time in a row. The key rate went up by a quarter of a percentage point to 4.25 percent. It comes just a day after the U.S. Federal Reserve made the same increase to its mean rate. Anna Stewart joins us now from London to give us all the details.

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Anna, I look at the inflation reading that we got this week and they simply had no choice.

ANNA STEWART, CNN REPORTER: Yes, it was interesting even actually, before all the turmoil we've seen in the banking sector. There was some expectation that perhaps this rate rise could be delayed or actually just canceled altogether.

And then we had banking turmoil plus the inflation reading yesterday, which came in at 10.4 percent for February, which means that the U.K. versus the U.S. and Europe is actually seeing inflation tick ever so slightly higher. There was an expectation that it would fall below 10 percent for February.

So that pretty much baked in then the expectation that this would happen. So no huge surprise, we're seeing the pound and U.K. government bond yields ticked slightly higher on the back of this news. This is the 11th hike in a row. So the question is have we hit the terminal rate yet?

They're saying as ever, that future moves will depend on inflation data, so not really much of a hit there. I'm just reading through some of the economic outlook in the report that's come with it. It's interesting, you know, the budget was announced last week by the Chancellor with quite a lot of fiscal support.

They're saying that could actually raise GDP by 0.3 percent over the coming years. They now think GDP will come in slightly higher for the second quarter versus a decline of 0.4 percent. So that's a slight improvement there. We'll have to pick through the whole report prefers move next hour.

But overall, I would say no huge surprises here. I think there is quite a lot though, in terms of the monetary outlook on SVB, Silicon Valley Bank. So that's also something we'll get into more next hour.

CHATTERLEY: Oh, a lovely tease. I'll see you very shortly on "First Move". Thank you, Anna, lots to discuss. All right, still to come here on the show. As we wait to hear from TikTok's Chief Executive defending the social media app to U.S. lawmakers will be asking what does the future hold for the popular video sharing platform. That's next, stay with us.

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CHATTERLEY: Welcome back! Could TikTok be completely banned in Western countries? As we wait for TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew's testimony before U.S. Congress later today. Many countries are concerned about the app security and its ties to China. Only last week, New Zealand became the latest country to order the removal of TikTok from government phones citing security concerns.

It followed steps by the United States, the U.K., Canada, Belgium and the EU. The U.S. has threatened to completely ban TikTok if its Chinese owners refuse to sell to American investors. CNN's Correspondent Marc Stewart joins us now from Tokyo. I think the question for me first and foremost; Marc is can the CEO say anything today after what two years of talks and negotiations to tilt this decision in his favor?

MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think Julia there is also a learning curve among lawmakers about exactly how TikTok works and the power of the analytics that it can garner from its users.

[08:20:00]

I mean, let's just take the U.S. government out of it for a while, even if TikTok's CEO want to say, OK, maybe we'll reach some agreement. The Chinese government may be over his shoulder and say, no way, this is not going to happen, because of the value of the analytics that TikTok can gather, and it may not want to part ways with it.

I've been hearing today from China Analysts and from observers, how would it look if the U.S. government was to tell one of China's biggest companies? How it can and cannot do business? How it can operate? That does not look good for China at a time of so much tension between the U.S.

So certainly the CEO of TikTok is going to make his point 150 million Americans use it. It's not such a novelty anymore. It's a necessity for small businesses. But despite what he may say, the government, the Chinese government, may just put an end to it altogether perhaps, Julia.

CHATTERLEY: You're suggesting that in the Chinese government's case, they would perhaps rather see the United States banned this app; disappoint loads of users to your point. There's millions of them that will be furious, particularly young people, but that actually for China is easier than having to agree to a sale of the American operations and the piece of this because then they lose the ultimate control.

STEWART: Yes, I mean, I think that's the feeling I'm getting from Beijing. And if you look at all of these different Chinese companies, yes, TikTok is certainly a high profile. It certainly has a following, but if we look at all the companies across China, it's not necessarily the most valuable, and that is why some analysts feel that maybe China would be OK, if TikTok were to part ways with this relationship in the United States.

CHATTERLEY: It's fascinating, isn't it? I mean, China often says sort your own house out, quite frankly. And one could substitute Facebook, Instagram, YouTube; TikTok is not the only problem we have in the United States and beyond. We'll see. Marc Stewart, great to have you with us, thank you. Now it looks like something out of a movie, but this tornado near Los Angeles is real. We'll look at its path of destruction right after this stay with us.

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CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to CNN "Newsroom". It was a rare sight in Los Angeles Wednesday, a tornado touchdown just outside of the city. One person was injured when the tornado ripped through an industrial park. It's the strongest twister to hit the area in 4 decades. Stephanie Elam takes a look at the damage.

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STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Debris flying through the sky in Montebello, California.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I saw what looked like a waterspout kind of tornado twister. That was about 30 feet wide that just came through and was just bouncing like a cop in between picking up debris the whole sky looks like a dump.

ELAM (voice over): The National Weather Service confirming the area in Los Angeles County saw a rare tornado touchdown Wednesday.

[08:25:00]

The powerful winds tearing through this warehouse, damaging more than a dozen buildings in the area, blowing out windows and tearing roofs off buildings torrential rain came down after this roof was torn from a seafood supply warehouse. The employees hid in the corner, unable to pull this metal door down against the wind.

The warehouse was hit by the tail end of the storm that left the building batter with debris strewn throughout the National Weather Service as the storm forms so quickly. No official warning was given to residents.

ARIEL COHEN, U.S. NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE: This particular tornado spun up very quickly. And there's actually a subset of tornadoes that form too quickly to be detected and worn for and this happened to be one of those.

ELAM (voice over): On Tuesday, a small tornado hit a city in Santa Barbara County, creating a very narrow and consolidated path of destruction. Residents witness debris flying in the air and trees uprooted.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Within a few seconds, my carport disappeared. I turned to go in the house, piece of it hit me in the face luckily with a flat piece didn't cut me. Some of these awnings were flown up in the air several 100 feet and landed and tops of trees.

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CHATTERLEY: Stephanie Elam reporting there. Now before we go I have some stunning video to show you a tourist in Thailand who was bungee jumping on a dare is lucky to be alive. Mike took swan dive off a 10 floor high podium when this happened.

Yes, the cord snapped, just before he hit the body of water. Mike actually managed to resurface and swim even though his feet were still tied together by the bungee rope. Like we said, Mike is a lucky man. Mike, if you're watching, go and buy a lottery ticket, please.

I'm Julia Chatterley in New York. I'll be back with "First Move" in around 30-minutes time, but first "World Sport" with Amanda Davies is up next.

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