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Syria experienced airstrikes from a drone attack; Lawmakers grills TikTok CEO on alleged ties with China; Trump's former Attorney to Testify today on Hush Money probe; U.S. President Biden visits Canadian PM, speaking before the Parliament; 80 People Arrested as Protests in France are now more Violent; Israel PM pushes for Judicial Reform despite protests, now on its 12th week; Ukraine Eyes Counteroffensive In Bakhmut; Crypto Mogul Wanted For Fraud Arrested In Montenegro; U.S. Lawmakers Grill TikTok CEO Over Privacy Concern. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired March 24, 2023 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[02:00:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from around the world. I'm John Vause, ahead here on "CNN Newsroom".
The U.S. carries out airstrikes in Syria in retaliation for a deadly drone attack. Also this --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. CATHY MCMORRIS RODGERS (R-WA): We do not trust TikTok will ever embrace American values.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: U.S. lawmakers grilled the CEO of TikTok, about the wildly popular platforms' ties to the Chinese government.
And digging in -- Israel's Prime Minister vows to push on with a judicial overhaul, despite widespread protests and international criticism.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is "CNN Newsroom" with John Vause.
VAUSE: We begin with tit-for-tat airstrikes in Syria that are having deadly consequences for U.S. forces deployed to fight ISIS. The Pentagon says the U.S. has launched a retaliatory airstrike targeting a group affiliated with Iran's out-revolutionary guard in the east.
This happened after a drone attack on a facility housing U.S. personnel, in the northeastern part of the country. In a response, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the U.S. will take all necessary measures to protect its people and that no group will strike U.S. troops with impunity. CNN's Oren Liebermann spoke with me a short time ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A one way drone, essentially a suicide drone carried out attacks in Hasaka, Syria, that's far northeast Syria targeting U.S. personnel there, according to the Pentagon, one U.S. contractor, an American citizen was killed in the attack by the U.S. service members and another contractor were wounded in that drone attack.
According to the pentagon, two of the wounded service members were treated at the site, while three others as well as the contractor who was injured, had to be rushed to medical facilities in Iraq.
The Pentagon says the drone is likely of Iranian origin, which suggests it would be a Iranian proxy in the region that carried out this attack, and that's why we see the follow-on action from the United States carrying out what it called a precision strike, a proportionate attack against forces affiliated with Iran's Islamic revolutionary guard corps.
According to a pentagon statement, the U.S., quote, "Took proportionate and deliberate action intended to limit the risk of escalation and minimize casualties."
General Eric Perilla, the commander of U.S. Central command says that, if there were further Iranian attacks on US forces, there might be further U.S. responses. In a short statement this evening, he said, we are postured for scalable options in the face of any additional Iranian attacks.
In terms of how frequently this happened, in fact, Perrilla, again the commander of U.S. Central command, testified just earlier today, that there have been 78 rocket attacks or UNV attacks against U.S. forces in Syria just to the beginning of 2021 by his count, Kohn. Average averages out to nearly one attack every 10 days, but not all of them have this sort of tragic result.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: TikTok's future in the U.S. appears to be more uncertain than ever, despite or perhaps because of the company's CEO appearance before lawmakers to try and calm concerns. The Chinese-owned app is a threat to U.S. national security.
Shou Zi Chew was constantly interrupted by lawmakers from both sides. His answers, they said, were evasive. The app harmful to children, one congressman called it a cancer amid warnings that it was potentially collecting data in spying on Americans for China.
Many in congress and the violent administration are pushing to bend the app in the U.S. TikTok's CEO, denied any link to the Chinese government and said he's seen no evidence that Beijing has access to user data, but his words and his promises did little to calm concerns.
We get more details now from CNN's Natasha Bertrand
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Lawmakers grilling the CEO of TikTok today, accusing the social media company of spying on Americans for China
RODGERS: TikTok surveilles us all. And the Chinese Communist Party is able to use this as a tool to manipulate America as a whole. Your platform should be banned. I expect today you'll say anything to avoid this outcome.
BERTRAND (voice-over): The CEO Shou Chew, rejecting claims that Beijing has any control over TikTok, the rich Chinese parent company ByteDance, and insisting that Americans' data is now largely stored on U.S. soil
REP. BOB LATTA (R-OH): If any ByteDance employees and China --
SHOU ZI CHEW, TIKTOK CEO: (inaudible)
LATTA: -- including engineers currently have access to u. s data.
CHEW: Congressman, I would appreciate this. This is a complex topic. Today, all data stored by that complex --
LATTA: Yes or no, it's not a complex. Yes or No? do they have access to use your data?
[02:05:03]
CHEW: We have after Project Texas, is the ant done. The answer is NO.
BERTRAND: Project Texas is TikTok's name for its ongoing effort to move all U.S. data onto servers hosted by the American company Oracle, which is based in Texas. That defense, however, falling on deaf ears
CHEW: Have seen no evidence that the Chinese government has access to that data. They have never asked us, we have not provided
REP. ANNA ESHOO (D-CA): I find that actually preposterous.
REP. JAY OBERNOLTE (R-CA): I don't believe that it is technically possible to accomplish what TikTok says it will accomplish through Project Texas
BERTRAND (voice-over): Lawmakers provided no evidence that the Chinese government has used the app to surveil Americans. But they repeatedly pointed to an episode from last year when four TikTok employees, including two based in China, were fired after improperly accessing journalist data.
CHEW: We do not condone the effort by certain former employees to access U.S. TikTok user data in an attempt to identify the source of leaked confidential information. BERTRAND (voice-over): Even so, governments around the world are
moving to ban the app, including the Biden administration, which now prohibits TikTok on federal devices. Secretary of State Antony Blinken calling for the app to, quote, "be ended" in a separate hearing on Thursday.
UNKNOWN: Is it a threat to the United States? security
ANTHONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I believe that it is yes. And shouldn't a threat to United States security be banned. It should be ended one way or another in their different ways of doing that.
BERTRAND (voice-over): The Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, also hinting the U.S. knows more about TikTok's risks than has been publicly revealed.
SEN. MARK WARNER (D-VA): One of the things that my legislation would do is require the intelligence community to declassify as much information as possible, so it's not, don't just trust the government.
BERTRAND (on-camera): Now the big question coming out of this hearing is, whether the U.S. is going to try to ban TikTok outright, currently only banned on U.S. government devices, and of course, we will be watching to see whether ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok actually moves to sell its stake in TikTok, thereby alleviating the U.S. concerns about TikTok's ties to China.
But we should note that after this hearing, TikTok also released a statement saying that while Shou, the TikTok CEO, tried to answer lawmaker's questions today and alleviate their concerns about any potential national -- national security risk posed by TikTok. The hearing was dominated by, quote, "Political Grandstanding."
Natasha Bertrand, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: The Chinese government says it will oppose any sale of TikTok. So let's get more on that now, live to Hong Kong, CNN's Anna Coren. So what else are they saying?
ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well a strong reaction, John, from the Chinese government even before the TikTok CEO faced that five-hour grilling from lawmakers.
Hours before the hearing, China's Commerce Ministry spokesperson told the media that it would firmly oppose any for sale of TikTok, which is what the Biden administration has demanded.
If the social media app is to continue operating in the U.S. the Chinese government considers TikTok's algorithms and technology to be sensitive and critical to its national interest. Let's have a listen now to the China's Commerce Ministry spokesperson.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SHU JUETING, CHINESE MINISTRY OF COMMERCE SPOKESPERSON (through translator): Ignoring the products and services themselves and only proceeding from the identity of foreign investors, forcing the sale of TikTok, will seriously damage the confidence of investors from all over the world, including China to invest in the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COREN: Now, as we saw from that earlier package, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, repeatedly tried to allay national security concerns about the app as we know 150 million users in the United States used it every month. He said TikTok was an independent company. It wasn't influenced by china, and in his testimony, John, he tried to distance himself from TikTok, being associated with China, stressing that he is in fact Singaporean who lives in Singapore with his wife, his two children, and that, of course, is the base for TikTok headquarters. Let's have a listen now to Chew.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHEW: And I would also like to talk about national security concerns that you have raised that we take very, very seriously. Let me start by addressing a few misconceptions about ByteDance, of which we are a subsidiary. ByteDance is not owned or controlled by the Chinese government. It's a private company.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COREN: TikTok is likely to challenge any attempt to ban the app when the trump administration tried back in 2020 TikTok was successful in quashing the attempts to ban it, John.
VAUSE: Anna, thank you. Anna Coren, live for us this hour in Hong Kong.
Now to the unprecedented level of legal pressure surrounding the former U.S. President Donald Trump in the classified documents probe, a federal grand jury just hours away from hearing potentially significant testimony from Trump's Attorney Evan Cocoran.
He's been ordered to provide more testimony and turn over documents about Trump as part of the criminal investigation into possible mishandling of classified documents. And the New York grand jury, expected to reconvene on Monday, after a week of intense speculation over whether Trump would be indicted and arrested for his alleged role in a scheme to pay hush money to the porn star Stormy Daniels, before the 2016 presidential election.
[02:10:10]
CNN's Paula Reid has more on what the New York grand jury has been hearing and what to expect in the coming days.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) PAULA REID, CNN SENIOR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: We've learned that the district attorney's office is in a holding pattern right now as they contemplate what their next move should be in this ongoing hush money payments investigation.
Now the grand jury did not meet to discuss Trump-related matters on Thursday, while they did convene it is not unusual for a grand jury to hear information about several different cases, and we know at this point on Monday, the grand jury will return and hear additional evidence in the Trump probe.
Then, they may even hear from an additional witness. They have to decide, we're told, whether they want to bring in a new witness to rebut testimony, for Monday, by attorney Robert Costello.
Costello's appearance was done at the request of Trump lawyers, and his role was to attack the credibility of his former client, Michael Cohen. Cohen is, of course, a key witness in this investigation. Now, I spoke with Costello, and asked him what happened in that grand jury room, that would force prosecutors to have to possibly bring back another witness to rebut his testimony.
He described his experience in the grand jury room as being at times contentious, he said before his appearance he had given prosecutors hundreds and hundreds of documents. But when he was testifying, he was only asked about six of them, he says.
And during his examination, he asked the prosecutor, why aren't you asking me about more of these documents? They went back and forth, and at one point, Costello even turned to the grand jury and said, look, guys. You need to get your hands on all of these documents, and he says five or six grand jurors nodded in agreement.
Costello says he has not heard from the district attorney's office since his appearance on Monday. And when I asked whether there was any witness that could go in and rebut or refute things, he said -- he replied to me and said that is impossible, so we'll see what happens on Monday.
Paula Reid, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: A few hours from now be all pomp and circumstance for U.S. President Joe Biden, as he gets to treat with the red carpet treatment in Ottawa before addressing Canada's Parliament. He's visiting for talks with the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, they are expected to discuss a range of security issues.
More details now from CNN's Paula Newton.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is not an exaggeration to say that Canada and the United States, two of the closest allies that you will find in the world, having said that President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau do have policy disagreements they are going to try and iron out some of those over the next few hours.
Key here, though, is the United States wanting Canada to step up when it comes to defense spending. As the United States has made clear this is not the same geopolitical reality that it was before Russia invaded Ukraine, and they are looking to Canada to do its part.
Also top of mind, though, is China and what both countries call a more aggressive posture from that country. Chinese interference has been top of mine in Canada, and I want you to listen now to my interview with Justin Trudeau just hours before he met, with Joe Biden. Take a listen.
On China, we've seen balloons in the air over Canada. We've seen buoys in the arctic. um, what do you think? are the Chinese motives in those issues specifically and what do you hope to learn from the Chinese balloon now in U.S. hands?
JUSTIN TRUDEAU, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: Well, I think one of the things we have to remember is that China is the second largest economy in the world and continues to grow.
We're going to have to in some circumstances engage constructively with China, like we did around the conference on biodiversity that we caught with them in Montreal. There's issues around climate change that we should be working as a world together.
There's other places where we're going to have to be stiff competition to china in terms of market access in terms of investments in the global south, we need to be able to show that the western democracies are there to make those investments and there is competitive to China.
But there are also areas in which we're going to have to directly challenge China whether it's on human rights, whether it's on security behaviors, whether it's on cyber attacks or concerns like that we're going to have to continue to be wide eyed and clear about the threat that china poses and wants to pose to the stability of our democracies.
NEWTON: Both the President and Prime Minister, though, do intend to make news during this visit, and one of them has to do with the regular migration hot topic in the hemisphere. It seems that there is a deal for Canada to take in migrants legally from the United States to try and shoulder some of the burden of the great migration going on now in the southern hemisphere.
Canada has been having trouble with irregular migrants, those across it illegal border points coming into Canada and as those numbers spike, they wanted the United States to be able to close its side of the border, but in exchange Canada has now agreed to take in migrants directly from the United States.
Paula Newton, CNN, Ottawa
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[02:15:01] VAUSE: Still ahead here on CNN. Protecting BB, Israel's ultra far right coalition government, passes a new law making removing a Prime Minister from office. Pretty much next to impossible?
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VAUSE: French President Emmanuel Macron is now embroiled in perhaps the most volatile political crisis of his career. It's unlikely to end anytime soon. France has been gripped by rolling strikes in nationwide protests since the beginning of the year, Macron announced plans to raise the retirement age.
Thursday saw the ninth day of coordinated industrial action and protests. According to government numbers, more than a million people joined marches and protests nationwide. Most were peaceful, but there were violent clashes with at least 80 people arrested.
Israel's right-wing government has passed a new law on Thursday, which now means removing a prime minister from office is next to impossible.
(VIDEO PLAYING)
Critics and protesters have slammed this bill. The new law is good news, though, for a prime minister under indictment for corruption like Benjamin Netanyahu.
CNN's Hadas Gold has the very latest now, reporting in from Jerusalem.
[02:19:52]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HADAS GOLD, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netahyahu says he is pushing forward with his planned judicial overhaul, that would give the Israeli parliament power over the Supreme Court, despite weeks of massive protests and concerns from his own defense minister over what the reforms would do to national security.
On Thursday afternoon, reports began to emerge that the Israeli Defense Minister who is a member of Netanyahu's own political party, was going to give a speech calling on the legislation to be halted because of what it would do to Israeli security. already hundreds of elite military reservists had announced that they would not answer the call to serve if the overhaul passed.
Now such a speech by the defense minister would have been a major- major blow to Netanyahu, politically, who has long touted that he is strong and national security. But instead, Netanyahu gave a speech announcing that while he understands the fears of the opponents to the reform, and that he pledges to reach a solution, somehow that the legislative process of these reforms will continue.
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): What challenge fix to advance with this possibility that democratic reform that will bring back balance between the branches, and i remind you we dealt with one issue only out of money that we have not yet discussed.
Netanyahu also vowed that the parliament would not be able to overturn every single court decision and vowed that the rights of all citizens, including minorities would be protected. He also called on the opposition to negotiate, although the opposition has refused to do so, unless they say the legislative process is stopped.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid, slammed Netanyahu's speech telling Netanyahu to stop playing the victim and take responsibility, calling on him to quote, "Listen to the hundreds of thousands of patriots who have taken to the streets. Listen to the Minister of Defense, to the Economist and the security officials."
Protest leaders, meanwhile, called it a bizarre show of a dictator in the making, and vowed that the protests now in their 12th week will intensify.
Hadas Gold, CNN, Jerusalem
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Yaakov Katz is still the Editor-in-Chief of the Jerusalem Post, at least for the time yet. He's also author of "Shallow Strike, Inside Israel's secret mission to eliminate Syrian nuclear power." He joins us this hour from Jerusalem. It's good to see you.
YAAKOV KATZ, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, THE JERUSALEM POST: Thanks, John.
VAUSE: Okay so once the knesset passed this law, making it pretty much impossible to remove a sitting prime minister. There was this expectation Thursday that maybe Netanyahu was ready to hit pause on the rest of the judicial reform package, maybe not. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NETANYAHU (through translator): The former reforms in the judicial reform for the democracy has to provide a solution to both of our basic needs. To prevent a fracture between our people, both sides need to take into consideration the claims and concerns of the other sides.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: You're the tone and softened quite considerably, but he kind of doubled down on the need to pass this the democracy's sake. But what you just said then, surely consulting with the other side. Doesn't that normally happen long before you get to the let's vote on it part?
KATZ: A hundred percent, John, you're right. I mean, if you want this legislation to pass, and you want it to be done in a way, also, you got to think for have a lasting effect right? Because the way it's being passed now, it's being done by this government. Next government comes in, they could overturn it. So if you really care about the future of Israel's democracy and judicial reform, wouldn't you want to do it while reaching across the aisle, which just raises so many questions about the true intention of what's happening here. I think that Netanyahu did take a conciliatory tone last night when he
spoke and addressed the nation. It was the first time that he really kind of stuck his hands into the real guts of this, of this reform. Until now, he's been very careful not to violate the attorney general's instructions, but because of his trial would be a conflict of interest if he were to talk about it or deal with it.
But since they passed that law that you mentioned, what can be referred to as the incapacitation law, right, so no longer can he be removed because of the conflict of interest. He feels a little freer to be able to talk about it, he said I'm in control, I'm taking charge. What will that change, exactly? I don't know, because the countdown is here.
They have about a week left to pass this important law of changing the way we --
VAUSE: We have some audio issues and some connection issues there with Yaakov Katz in Jerusalem. I will try and get back to him because he's a smart guy with all good things to say. Hopefully, we'll get him back in a moment.
I think we have him right now because we've got your back. Finish your thought.
KATZ: Yeah. So Netanyahu did take the struck a conciliatory tone, but he also was determined to pass the law. He said that he's going ahead with it, and he's going to do it no matter what. next week.
VAUSE: Okay, listen to one protester and pay particular notice to his choice of words. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NITZAN BASSAN, PROTESTER (through translator): This is our independence war. During wars in Israel, Israeli soldiers died for our right to live here. We are ready to spare our souls to save our lives and to defend our values. Today we will be doing the same. We're talking about a real war. We have no other choice. We won't live in a country that doesn't have a democratic government.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: This is not the first time I've heard talk of civil war in Israel or rising up against the government. Is Israel heading down that road?
[02:25:02]
KATZ: Look, God forbid. Right, John. We don't want to see it throw ripped apart into war, right? but we can't ignore the fact that this country is being ripped apart and is more divided than ever over this judicial reform or judicial overhaul right?
The government wants to pass laws that would change the balance of power and the separation and the checks and balances between different branches of government. And there are people who feel that this is not the country that they have given their lives to, right?
Israel is unique in the sense that there is a compulsory military service. Most men and women do serve in this country at least until a few years ago. And those people feel, is this the country I should continue to put my life on the line for?
And that's why I think you're seeing that a lot of the people who are leading these protests are people who come from the ranks of the military. These are people who have served, as Hadas mentioned earlier, in some of the most elite units of the idea of the Israel Defense Forces, so they feel that this is a continuation of their service to the country. What they're doing now fighting on the streets to stop this, this judicial overhaul is part of their commitment to keep Israel safe and secure.
VAUSE: Very quickly, here's the far right finance minister on his frustration with all those protesters and criticism. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BEZALEL SMOTRICH, ISRAELI FINANCE MINISTER (through translator): I'm telling you with full responsibility, that the judicial reform will not, God forbid, undermine democracy rights or freedom. All this is hangman's tale, brainwashing campaign is ridiculous, ridiculous, ridiculous! For me, it's clear this reform will strengthen democracy in all its aspects, the parliament, the government and the judiciary.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: With all due respect to the Foreign Minister, this is a man who does not understand what democracy is, about a lot more than majority rule in the knesset.
KATZ: Yeah no, I mean democracy is not just about what the majority says or how the vote has passed or what the people determine in the election. It has to do also with the balance of powers, checks and balances, and that we have an independent judiciary that can be able to oversee and create a preservation and protect human and civil rights in this country.
And that is something that they want to change with the way that they're trying to strike down some of the powers of the judiciary. This is what's at stake, John. And this is what Israelis, you see a quarter of a million of Israelis who are taking to the streets weekly.
You gotta figure just per capita. That's two and a half percent of our population. Can you imagine? 12 weeks straight 8 to 9 million Americans taking to the streets, that would be unimaginable, but that is what's happening right now, over the last three months in Israel.
VAUSE: Yeah, I mean, I've covered as well for a long time. I've never seen anything like it. Yaakov, thanks so much for being with us. We appreciate the background, the explanations as well. Thank you.
KATZ: Thank you. VAUSE: Still to come, farming becomes a risky business. In many parts
of Ukraine, farmers take a leap of faith doing their jobs as well, as the land starts to resemble a minefield.
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[02:30:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause.
Russia's all-out efforts to take the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut appear to have peaked, and may soon come to an end, opening the way for a Ukrainian counter-offensive.
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(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: A senior Ukrainian general says Russian forces in Bakhmut have taken heavy casualties over the past few months. But Ukraine warns Russia still mounting hundreds of attacks every day across the eastern front line and that includes Bakhmut. Meantime, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Ukraine could win this war if there's enough support from Europe. He made the comment in an online address to the European Council after visiting the Kherson region on Thursday.
One of the most dangerous jobs right now in Ukraine is farmer where every Russian soldier has been they've planted a countless number of landmines, and that includes farmland, an ever-present threat long after the Russians have gone. Ivan Watson spent time with farmers. Some tell him they don't have a choice, but to put their lives in danger every day.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): Vast stretches of Ukraine's famously fertile farmland, pockmarked with craters and the tail fins of unexploded rockets. Long after Russian and Ukrainian soldiers move on, they leave behind another deadly threat just below the surface.
(on camera) So, Oleksandr has brought me here to see something that's actually frankly, a little uncomfortable because right over here on the side of the road, or I don't know maybe ten, would appear to be tank mines.
(voiceover) My guide is a local farmer named Oleksandr Havryliuk. OK. We've got more anti-tank mines here. You can see there's 1,2,3,4,5 anti-tank mines right here on the side of the road.
OLEKSANDR HAVRYLIUK, LOCAL FARMER: (Speaking in a foreign language)
WATSON: He says I brought them out of the field and placed them right here. This 69-year-old farmer says he's desperate to plant seeds before spring, but can't because his fields are littered with landmines, some of which he found with this metal detector and dug out with his own hands.
HAVRYLIUK: (Speaking in a foreign language)
WATSON: He said I was afraid but I need to plant these fields. Both the Russian and Ukrainian militaries used landmines. Some designed to take out 40-tonne tanks.
MAIRI CUNNINGHAM, HALO TRUST: Lifting anti-tank mines is extremely dangerous. There's often anti-lift devices designed specifically to kill and injure people who try to do that.
WATSON: Mairi Cunningham of the demining charity Halo Trust says Ukraine is now littered with a terrifying variety of explosive devices.
CUNNINGHAM: We're seeing anti-vehicle mines are seeing anti-personnel mines and personnel binding and fragmentation lines on trip wires and grenades on trip wires and we're also seeing costing munitions.
The Ukrainian military estimates nearly a third of the country is now contaminated with explosive devices. But clearing them is slow and dangerous work.
[02:35:01]
And the war is still being actively fought, littering the countryside with new explosives every day. Ukraine is one of the world's great bread baskets. Every week, it seems there are reports of farmers like this man, badly wounded in a blast while trying to plant his fields.
Oleksandr Havryliuk says he lost all of last year's harvest due to the Russian invasion. The fighting also destroyed his office, silos, and millions of dollars worth of farm equipment.
HAVRYLIUK: (Speaking in a foreign language)
WATSON: the most important thing now is to clear my fields, he says, so that I can plant the next harvest. If farmers like Oleksandr can't do their jobs, the world could see another year of soaring global food prices.
Ivan Watson, CNN, Velyka Kumyshuvakha, Ukraine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: When we come back here on CNN, he's the $40 billion man and was one of the world's most wanted fugitives. But now, this cryptocurrency developer has been caught.
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[02:40:13] VAUSE: North Korea claimed to have tested an underwater nuclear attack drone, which is designed to unleash a radioactive tsunami. According to state media, the drone was launched off the east coast and leader Kim Jong-un personally guided the test. If this claim proved true, it will be a first for North Korea, according to officials in Seoul, but they had no underwater nuclear explosions have been detected in the region.
One of the world's most wanted fugitives has been arrested. Officials say South Korean national Do Kwon was detained at the airport of Montenegro carrying fake documents. Kwon was a crypto developer. He's accused of defrauding investors and causing more than $40 billion in losses. He founded blockchain platform Terraform Labs, and develop two cryptocurrencies, which crashed last year causing shockwaves on world markets. Kwon is wanted by multiple countries, including the United States.
Well for our international viewers, "WORLD SPORT" is up next. And for everyone else, news continues after a short break.
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[02:45:32]
VAUSE: A growing number of U.S. lawmakers believe TikTok is not only a threat to national security, but it's also harming the mental health of children. And many want the popular social media app banned altogether. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew appear before the House Committee on Thursday, but lawmakers had little patience for his testimony, claiming the Chinese government is using the app to harvest the data of Americans. Chew denied any connection to the Chinese government and said Beijing has never asked for Americans' data.
Julia Angwin is an investigative journalist and contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. She's also the founder of The Markup, an outlet that investigates the impacts of technology on society. Thanks for being with us, Julia. It's good to see you.
JULIA ANGWIN, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST: It's great to be here.
VAUSE: OK. So, this was one of those congressional hearings when you know, the farmer and the rancher can be friends, Republicans or Democrats can put their head on mostly for one another, it's on hold and beat up on third party like the CEO of TikTok. And clearly, Chinese-owned TikTok is just on American. Here's Republican congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. CATHY MCMORRIS RODGERS, (R-WA): We do not trust TikTok will ever embrace American values, values for freedom, human rights, and innovation. TikTok is repeatedly chosen the path for more control, more surveillance, and more manipulation. Your platform should be banned.
(END VIDEO CLIP) VAUSE: Embracing American values is this a new litmus test, I guess, for foreign companies to be allowed access to the U.S. market. But didn't seem to you that lawmakers were having kind of trouble nailing down their security concerns beyond China being China?
ANGWIN: I mean, that's such a great point because, as -- actually, the TikTok CEO said, he said you're reading a lot of potential harms here but you haven't actually shown any evidence. And what he didn't say but I will say is that the reality is we've already seen evidence of harms from the U.S.-based social media giants, right?
We have seen genocide enabled by Facebook. We have seen teen girls' body image hurt by Instagram policies as revealed by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen. We've seen at Twitter, internal employees who were actually working for the Saudi government spying on distance using their access to data. So, we've actually seen harm and all of these platforms that is very similar to what TikTok is being accused of. And there's no question that TikTok could obviously do all of these things, too but we haven't actually seen it happening.
VAUSE: I guess the sort of the overriding concern here is that what will happen to use a data, especially since Chinese own tech companies are legally obligated to hand over all user data if requested by the Chinese government. Here's TikTok CEO. Listen to this.
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SHOU ZI CHEW, TIKTOK CEO: Our approach has never been to dismiss or trivialize any of these concerns. We have addressed them with real action. The bottom line is this. American data is stored on American soil by an American company, overseen by American personnel. We call this initiative Project Texas.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Call it what you want, but it's not 100 percent locked in the bank throw away the key kind of guarantee, though, that user data won't be handed over to Beijing. Someone -- somewhere within the company can still do it.
ANGWIN: Yes. I mean, the thing that TikTok has been proposing this Project Texas and they've been working on it for quite some time and today was the first time that we really saw it get tested, right? They -- he was asked a lot of hard questions about Project Texas and not all of the answers were satisfactory. So, to be clear, it's a pretty good idea to firewall the U.S. data and not let China have access to it.
But the devil is in the details. And one thing that he mentioned that hadn't been clear before was that Project Texas was only about data they collected from now going forward. But, actually, the data they've collected in the past is still there and is not sequestered. And there's like a different plan for that that hasn't been fully fleshed out. So, there's a lot of reasons why the lawmakers have the right to be questioning Project Texas. VAUSE: Well, on that plan, Senator Marco Rubio told the New York Post even as TikTok was divested from ByteDance, Chinese law doesn't allow the algorithm to be exported. TikTok will try to confuse people but we have multiple reports that people are saying all the data goes to China. Even if they move all the data to Oracle, engineers in China would still need access to the algorithm and the data.
It seems regardless of all the safeguards that TikTok is putting in place or trying to implement, there is still this element of trust us like it is pretty much for every other tech giant.
[02:50:19]
ANGWIN: Well, the reason that it's a trust us environment is because the U.S. has passed no laws to protect data privacy, unlike almost every other nation in the world. So, we don't have a federal comprehensive privacy law that sets a bare minimum standard for how data should be treated. And we also have not followed the lead of Europe, which has actually put in place laws that are going in effect this year that would require tech companies to mitigate harms enabled by their algorithms. So, we don't have algorithmic oversight. We don't have data oversight. And so, it's a wild west.
And the fact is that Tik Tok has actually proposed that its algorithm would be inspected by the U.S. Committee on Foreign investment in the United States, CFIUS. And so, they've said that under their plan, they would allow for this algorithm to be inspected.
Now, once again, the devil's in the details. Whether that inspection would actually show and be able to mitigate harm, it's not clear. But it is an offer to put itself under state control.
VAUSE: Yes. And as it often never made, I believe, like Google or Facebook or any other big tech giants out there. Julia, thank you so much for being with us. It's pretty much appreciated.
ANGWIN: Thank you.
VAUSE: A Colorado dentist accused of posting his wife with arsenic, has now been formally charged with her murder. investigators say they found searches on his computer using phrases like how many grams of pure arsenic will kill a human. CNN's Kyung Lah has the story.
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KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): Colorado dentists James Craig appeared for the first time in court, charged with the first- degree murder of his wife, shackled, having traded in his dental scrubs for a jail uniform. Prosecutors say the Denver suburban area dentist murdered 43-year-old Angela Craig, his wife of more than 20 years by making and feeding her poisoned protein shakes.
JAMES CRAIG, DENTIST CHARGED WITH FIRST-DEGREE MURDER: My name is Dr. Jim Craig and I practice at summer Brook Dental Group.
LAH: For nearly 20 years, Craig had been a licensed dentist. A joint Facebook page shows the couple sharing images of a happy family on vacation, the busy parents of six children. Investigators say beneath this veneer, Craig's dental practice had been in financial trouble and the marriage was long troubled, and affidavit saying Craig had engaged in a new extramarital affair.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This makes me sick.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It didn't seem real.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It didn't seem like something that he could ever do to her.
LAH: But police believe the murder was planned. Craig's search history on his computer shows phrases like how many grams of pure arsenic will kill a human and top five undetectable poisons that show no signs of foul play. Police say on March 4, a package with arsenic was delivered to the Craig's home. Two days later, Angela Craig was in the hospital with dizziness and difficulty focusing her eyes, symptoms consistent with arsenic poisoning say investigators.
Angela Craig texted her husband. I had my protein shake. I feel drugged. Her husband texted back, for the record, I didn't drug you.
Three times this month, Angela Craig checked into the hospital where doctors struggled to understand why she was so ill. On her final stay at the hospital, Police say James Craig had ordered another poison from the computer at his dental practice, potassium cyanide. It was delivered to Summerbrook dental where a staff member opened the box and reported what she had found.
(on camera) This was Craig's first appearance. He has not yet entered a plea. He has been assigned a public defender. He is next scheduled to be in court next month.
Kyung Lah, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: This time next week, an official ban by World athletics goes into effect on many transgender women athletes, which will prevent them from competing in female track and field. New rules will ban athletes who've gone through what the governing body calls male puberty. World Athletics' tighter testosterone rules will also impact athletes with differences in sex development like Olympic runners Christine Mboma, Caster Semenya, and Francine Niyonsaba. The gay rights advocate group, Stonewall, says world athletics has no specific evidence to justify this ban.
About 20 million Americans right now under flood watches expected to last through Friday night. The threat covers an area from the mid- Mississippi River valley right through to the Ohio Valley stretching over thousand miles including major cities like Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and St. Louis. Thunderstorms expected to start Friday afternoon to Saturday morning. Hail and damaging winds also possible in some areas. Sorry about the forecast.
Bungee jumping apparently -- well, it's all about the thrill. Sometimes though, there's a little bit too much thrill.
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VAUSE: Oh yes, he -- (INAUDIBLE) This happened in Thailand back in January but the footage only went viral this week, after the 39-year- old who is actually from Hong Kong went public with his story. Fortunately, as you can see there, he was pretty close to the water when the bungee cord snapped broke his fall. And he was later taken to the hospital suffering from some pretty bad bruises but that's about it, which is kind of incredible.
Thank you. You've been watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause. The news continues next with Kim Brunhuber. Have a great weekend.
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