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Bomb Kills Russian War Blogger In St. Petersburg Cafe; Blinken Calls Russian Counterpart To Demand Release Of Evan Gershkovich; Finland's Sanna Marin Concedes Election Defeat; Israel Approves Far- Right Minister's Plan For National Guard. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired April 03, 2023 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome to our viewers joining us all around the world. I'm Michael Holmes. Appreciate your company. Coming up on CNN Newsroom. What we're learning about the explosion that ripped through the St. Petersburg cafe, leaving a popular pro war Russian blogger dead.
New York City braces for potential protests ahead of Donald Trump's Tuesday arraignment, we'll break down how the next 48 hours are expected to unfold.
You hear that bad clicking? Is that what it's like when plants cry? While humans might not be able to hear them, a new study suggests plants do not suffer in silence.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from CNN Center, this is CNN Newsroom with Michael Holmes. Authorities in Russia have now launched a murder investigation after a prominent pro war military blogger was killed in a blast at a cafe in St. Petersburg. That moment caught on this dramatic video. You see the moment right there.
Vladlen Tatarsky died in that explosion, which happened during an event hosted by a pro war group. At least 32 others were injured, and video shows the extensive damage left behind. One woman who survived Sunday's blast described what happened.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Suddenly everything exploded and there was smoke. It was like a slow motion movie. We were seated in the back half of the hall. Everyone started to run, and we needed to run, so we ran. Those who were near had blood all over them of course.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: A spokesperson for Russia's Foreign Ministry is already pointing the finger of blame at Ukraine without citing any evidence, while a Ukrainian official suggests the killing was the result of infighting within Russia. CNN's Matthew Chance following the developments for us. He has more now from Moscow.
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MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Well, this explosion killed one of Russia's most prominent pro war military bloggers, posting by the name of Vladlen Tatarsky. He accumulated more than half a million followers on his pro war Telegram channel on which he was notoriously hardline.
You know, enthusiastically declaring on Ukraine, we will kill everyone. We will rob everyone. We will have our way. And, of course, like other prominent Russian military bloggers criticizing aspects of how the war in Ukraine is being fought.
Tatarsky was the guest speaker at that pro war gathering at a St. Petersburg cafe when the explosion ripped through the venue. Eyewitnesses say it took place shortly after he was presented with a figurine in a gift box.
State media quoting official sources as saying an explosive device may have been hidden inside. Already there's been a denial of responsibility from Ukraine, with a presidential adviser there characterizing this as an internal Russian dispute.
But Tartarsky is, of course, the second hardline pro war activist to be targeted and killed in Russia since its invasion of Ukraine last year. In August, Darya Dugina, the daughter of a prominent Russian nationalist, was killed in a car bomb outside of Moscow. Russian officials back then accusing Ukrainian saboteurs of the attack. The Ukrainians insist it had nothing to do with them. Matthew Chance, CNN, Moscow.
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HOLMES: Joining me now, Steve Hall is a CNN National Security Analyst and former CIA Chief of Russia Operations. Great to get you on to talk about this, Steve. Russia, you know, blaming Ukraine. Ukrainian officials already suggesting this could have come from within Russian opponents of the war or enemies of the Kremlin. And then there's the chance that perhaps Tartarsky himself may have made enemies in the Kremlin. It's a rich field of maybes, isn't it?
STEVE HALL, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: You know, it's a very byzantine situation whenever you're trying to figure out what's going on either inside the Kremlin or the Ukrainians are being very candy about what they are or are not doing inside of Ukraine. So yes, it's really hard to get down to the, you know, to what really happened.
HOLMES: This was a well-known blogger, very pro war, half a million followers on Telegram. What do you think is the significance of him being targeted, but most importantly targeted on Russian soil?
HALL: Well, you know, again it all depends on who did it and I guess to get to that question, you have to ask who would have benefited? And the problem is that there's really two entities, two camps that would have benefited. The first obviously, is the Ukrainians because Tatarsky was extremely critical of Ukraine, very supportive of the Russian war and so the Ukrainians obviously had no great love for him.
[01:00:05]
By the same token, he was also, excuse me, he was also critical on some occasions with how the Russian Ministry of Defense and Russian forces were conducting the war. So, it possible that he stepped over, you know, a Kremlin red line that is not obvious to us here in the west and irritated somebody so much in the Kremlin that he had to be taken off scene? It's hard to tell which of those options is behind all of this.
HOLMES: Yes, byzantine, as you said, there are a lot of bloggers covering this war, often at the very front lines. As you mentioned, it's important to note that a lot of them have been critical of tactics and failures, even the Kremlin. What do you think their role has been in messaging during this conflict?
HALL: Well, this is a fascinating moment in Russian history, because I'm not sure that the Kremlin knows exactly what to do about these bloggers. Some of them, of course, are very supportive, and so it's easy for the Kremlin to say, well, yes, that's great.
On the other hand, they're not unanimously supportive, and some of them are indeed critical, especially the ones that seem to favor Yevgeny Prigozhin group, the Wagner group, over the Russian military.
In the past, the Russians have always had an iron fist in terms of control over their own media, but these folks are, to a certain extent, a little further outside of that grip. And so, I think it's difficult for the Kremlin to know exactly what to do with these folks.
HOLMES: Yes, the other thing too, I guess, whoever's behind the attack, I mean, how worrying are the optics for the Kremlin if more of these attacks happen on Russian soil in major cities like Moscow or St. Petersburg, because it effectively brings the war to the home front.
HALL: Sure. We've already seen the car bomb that killed Ms. Dugina. You know, her father was a prominent Kremlin supporter. The thinking was that bomb was intended for him and not her. But nevertheless, you know, it's a strike, you know right in downtown Moscow. You've had other military attacks that have occurred inside of Russia, and then you've got these shadowy situations where people are assassinated.
And none of that is good for the Kremlin because it says either that they're not capable or that they don't know when the next attack is going to come, if it indeed is authored by the Ukrainians.
HOLMES: Yes, I wanted to ask you about something else too, because on Sunday, the U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken spoke with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, urging the release of the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who Russia accuses of spying.
Of course, Lavrov said Washington shouldn't politicize the case, but history would suggest this is very political. What do you make of that call and what impact it might have, if any, with the Gershkovich case?
HALL: Well, first, to address Lavrov's comments, I mean, it's completely laughable, of course, as are many of his comments that it's not political, it's all political. It's really nothing but political because, you know, this poor journalist is obviously not a spy. He was kidnapped. He's now being held hostage by the Russian government. And it's probably, in my sense, it's probably because there is a Russian intelligence officer, an illegal, who was arrested by the Brazilians about a week ago, who was charged last Friday by the United States.
So it's entirely possible that what's really happening here is that proactively, the Russians are taking an American hostage so that they are in a better bargaining position to perhaps release their own intelligence officer currently in jail in Brazil.
It so sort of parallel to the situation that we had with WNBA NBA star Brittany Griner and Viktor Boot, who were exchanged under similar circumstances, so that might be what's going on there.
HOLMES: Real quick. We're out of time. But if you were a journalist in Russia, would you be inclined to stay?
HALL: Absolutely not. It's incredibly dangerous. It's incredibly unsafe. And I think a lot of news organizations are probably having right now going through this process of, you know, is it really worth the type of information that we're able to get out of Russia if we're looking at one of our journalists spending the next 20 years in a Russian prison? I wouldn't have a journalist there if it were me.
HOLMES: Valuable insight as always. Steve hall, our thanks.
HALL: My pleasure.
HOLMES: The head of the Russian mercenary group Wagner says a Russian flag has been raised in memory of that blogger of Vladlen Tatarsky on the battlefield in Bakhmut. Those comments from the Yevgeny Prigozhin coming in this brief video he claims was recorded in the eastern Ukrainian city.
CNN can't immediately confirm the location where Prigozhin recorded that message, holding a flag that was into distinct in the darkness.
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In the video, he also claims Bakhmut has been taken in, quote, legal terms, but there is no independent evidence to suggest Wagner actually holds the city. The Ukrainian military says its fighters are still in charge and are repelling Russian attacks.
Now not far from Bakhmut, Ukraine says at least six people were killed in Russian strikes on the town of Kostiantynivka. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry says Russian forces targeted residential areas, launching two strikes with S300 long range missiles and four strikes with a multiple launch rocket system.
More than a dozen apartment buildings were damaged, along with a kindergarten and several houses. One survivor spoke about the devastating effects of war.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Even if you do not know these people, every day you understand that someone dies and it triggers emotions. Yes, I did not know the dead people, but I saw with my own eyes how they were carried out dead.
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HOLMES: Thousands have been wounded in this war, and now there is new help for some of those who were disfigured. CNN's David McKenzie met surgeons from the U.S. and Canada who are helping them to heal. Do want to warn you, some viewers may find these images hard to watch.
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DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): With left and right, the impact of war is hard to look at.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at my finger. The difficulty that I'm having is that I don't know what anything looks like behind the skin here. I can make an opening that looks like there's an eye, but they're never going to look like normal eyelids.
MCKENZIE: And the surgical realities are nothing like civilian life.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
MCKENZIE: How do you compare it to here in Ukraine?
DR. ANTHONY BRISSETT, MISSION DIRECTOR, FACE THE FUTURE: Well, the level of complexity for these cases is significantly more elaborate and significantly more complex.
Do you think we can get the mouth working better?
MCKENZIE: Face the Future Mission director Anthony Brissett says the blast injuries are often devastating.
BRISSETT: One of the things that we can do is improve the appearance of the scar.
MCKENZIE: Multilevel bone and soft tissue injuries.
BRISSETT: It really does not get any more complex than this, even in a combat scenario.
MCKENZIE: They brought together highly specialized plastic surgeons, anesthesiologists and nurses from the U.S. and Canada to reconstruct and repair.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All that bone is missing.
MCKENIZE: But many cannot.
BRISSETT: And if we can do that, then that certainly is a fulfilling opportunity.
MCKENIZE (on camera): It's not just a physical change. It's a psychological help, you hope.
BRISSETT: Absolutely. Absolutely. And it's a psychological help not just for the patient, but also for their family.
MCKENZIE (voiceover): Roman Belinsky is one of their patients.
ROMAN BELINSKY, INJURED BY RUSSIAN SHELLING: Thank you.
MCKENZIE: He's invited us to his home. What do I think of him? I'm proud of my son, says his mother, Lasia (ph). I'm proud of him. I'm proud of the fact that he didn't run away, he didn't hide.
Early in the war, his mechanized infantry brigade faced the brunt of Russia's invasion and their oncoming tanks.
MCKENZIE (on camera): Are you surprised that he survived?
I do not understand how I survived, he says. I don't even understand how I got through the shelling because it was dark. My eye was hanging out. I was concussed. My whole face was covered in blood.
Shrapnel went right through me. He says many in his brigade were lost. We were all like one family, he says. You know, somewhere you feel your guilt that I didn't also die like they did. Roman lived, and this will be his third surgery with Dr. John Frodel.
DR. JOHN FRODEL, FACIAL PLASTIC SURGEON: What bothers you the most now? Our hope is that at some point they leave happier. And then I don't see them again. On my end I have to appreciate we're making steps because we don't fix them, we make them better.
BRISSETT: This is where we shine, which is in the operating room. All of the steps and activities that we are doing before getting here is really to get us to this point.
MCKENZIE: Roman surgery is one of the first of the day. He says Dr. Frodel and the team have already put him back together and saved his life.
MCKENZIE (on camera): Dr. Frodel is working to move a cheek implant just a tiny bit higher on Raman. The margins in this kind of surgery are very small, but the differences for the patients can be huge.
DR. PETER ADAMSON, FOUNDER, FACE THE FUTURE: A person's appearance is a reflection of their inner spirit, of their inner self to the world, and we must never forget that. But everyone wants to have a facial appearance that others want to look at and would want to get to know you. It's part of the human condition.
MCKENIZE: David McKenzie, CNN, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine.
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HOLMES: Now as I mentioned earlier, the top U.S. and Russian diplomats spoke by telephone on Sunday about the arrest of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich. Gershkovich is the first American journalist to be detained by Moscow on espionage charges since the cold war. He faces up to 20 years in prison. For more on this story, here's CNN White House correspondent Arlette Saenz.
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ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Secretary of State Anthony Blinken spoke with his Russian counterpart, foreign minister Sergey Lavrov on Sunday to urge Russia to immediately release wall street journal reporter Evan Gershkovich. This marked a very rare phone call between the two men. They've only spoken three times since Russia invaded Ukraine, and each of those calls has focused on trying to release detained Americans.
Now the State Department released a readout of this most recent call where they say, quote, Secretary Blinken conveyed the United States's grave concern over Russia's unacceptable detention of a U.S. citizen journalist. The Secretary called for his immediate release. Secretary Blinken further urged the Kremlin to immediately release wrongfully detained U.S. citizen Paul Whelan.
Paul Whelan is in the process of serving a 16-year sentence after facing espionage charges in Russia. Gershkovich is also facing espionage charges, something that the White House and his employer, the Wall Street Journal, say simply just is not accurate.
Now, on the Russian side, they said that this phone call between Blinken and Lavrov was requested on behalf of the United States. They said that Lavrov told Blinken that ultimately that Wall Street Journal reporter's fate would be determined in Russian court.
Now this all comes at a point of very high tension between the U.S. and Russia, especially with that war in Ukraine continuing on. And one thing that officials will be working towards in the coming days is trying to get consular access to Gershkovich so they can see what exactly his state is, so officials can assess that and they can also relay that to their family. The White House at this moment is trying to stress that this remains a top priority for the President. Arlette Saenz, CNN, the White House.
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HOLMES: And word now that an unidentified American citizen has been detained for allegedly committing indecent acts against a 15-year old Russian girl. That's according to state media, the incident taking place in St. Petersburg. Russian investigative authorities have opened a criminal case. CNN has reached out to the U.S. State Department for comment.
Now, just days before Finland is set to become NATO's newest member, the government in Helsinki is heading for a change. Results in Finland's parliamentary elections indicate prime Minister Sanna Marin's center left party will lose and she will be out office.
She conceded defeat to the opposition right wing national Coalition Party. Its leader, Petteri Orpo ran on a pro business platform and has vowed to cut spending. But his party will have to join with others to form a coalition government.
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PETTERI ORPO, NATIONAL COALITION PARTY LEADER: This was great victory for Cocomos. I think that Finnish people want change. They want change. And now I will start negotiations, open negotiations with all parties. I want to build trust and cooperation between parties and build up the strong minority government.
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HOLMES: Now whoever becomes Prime Minister will shepherd Finland into NATO. All 30 NATO countries have approved Finland's entry.
Still to come here on the program, Pope Francis had a special message for his well wishes as he led Palm Sunday Mass at the Vatican after leaving hospital. And despite a pause on Israel's controversial reform plan, tens of thousands of protesters, still keeping on the pressure, we'll meet the leader of a veterans group that is staying on the streets.
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HOLMES: Pope Francis is thanking all those who prayed for him while he was in the hospital. The pontiff's remarks coming during Palm Sunday mass at St. Peter's Square to kick off the holy week celebrations. The religious leader was admitted to hospital last week. CNN's Delia Gallagher with more.
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DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Pope Francis seemed to be in good spirits for the Palm Sunday mass in St. Peter's Square, just a day after being released from the hospital for bronchitis. He was sitting down. That had been already scheduled because of his knee problem.
However, he did give a homily in which you could hear his voice was more hoarse than usual, showing some signs of tiredness, but perhaps that is to be expected. The pope spoke about some of those themes that are closest to his heart about people who are abandoned by society the elderly, the sick, people in jail, migrants.
In fact, Pope Francis will be going to a juvenile jail on Thursday in Rome for the traditional washing of the feet ceremony. Francis also thanked the people in the square and the people around the world for their prayers. While he was in the hospital, he was able to go in his pope mobile. Amongst the crowd, some 60,000 gathered in St. Peter's Square,
according to the Vatican, waving and giving a thumbs up. It begins a very busy week for this pope. On Friday, he's expected to be in front of Rome's coliseum at night for the way of the cross ceremony. Then on Saturday, the Easter Vigil. And on Sunday, Easter Sunday Mass in St. Peter's Square. Delia Gallagher, CNN, Rome.
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HOLMES: Bowing to the demand of Israel's far right security minister. Benjamin Netanyahu's government has agreed to create a National Guard. The controversial move comes days after Security Minister Itamar Ben- Gvir demanded action on the proposal in exchange for agreeing to a pause in the government's judicial reform plans.
Mr. Netanyahu's cabinet did not say who would run the new police force. That will be determined by a committee in the next 90 days. The guard would be charged with dealing with, quote, emergency situations.
But the proposal has already set off protests in several cities. Critics fear it would target Israeli Arabs, and if Ben-Gvir controls, it could become an extremist private militia. Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak calls it a, quote, lunatic step, given Ben-Gvir's history of inciting racism and supporting terrorism.
Israel's judicial reform was put on hold amid raging protests by critics who feared it would undermine the country's democracy. But the pause hasn't called the worry of many protesters. Israeli television channel Twelve estimated this demonstration on Saturday swelled to 150,000 people. Among the protesters, Israeli veterans, a revered group in Israeli society.
CNN's Hadas Gold spoke with one of their leaders about why he and his fellow former soldiers have taken to the streets.
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HADAS GOLD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): Yiftach Golov, may look like one of the hundreds of thousands of Israeli protesters, but a Special Forces veteran from the Second Intifada injured on the front lines, he now helps lead a group of Israeli veterans. Brothers and Sisters in Arms, who've become a backbone of the protest movement against the Israeli government's planned judicial overhaul.
YIFTACH GOLOV, BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN ARM: We are again in the front line defending Israel, but not from external forces from within, from here, from Tel Aviv, to defend our own democracy. We're fighting for justice and liberty, just like the American story, that's the values that are being represented symbolized back when we look on our flag.
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GOLD: Golov says he had never been particularly political, but he translated his experience from the battlefield to a new arena.
GOLD (on camera): Do you feel that your experience in organizing and running missions has helped you organize and run this protests (ph)?
GOLOV: 100 percent yes.
GOLD: How is that?
GOLOV: First of all, the motivation, the very deep feel that you are part of something bigger than yourself, that you are allowed to sacrifice anything that is needed.
GOLD (voiceover): Israel's protest movement is made up of many disparate groups. But the pressure from Israel's much vaunted veterans has been seen as a key to moving the needle, thousands of whom have threatened not to keep the call to serve if the reform passes.
GOLD (on camera): Even though last week, the Israeli government and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that they were going to cause legislation. These protesters, essentially they don't believe that the cause is a real cause.
GOLD: What will satisfy you? When will you stop marching?
GOLOV: Only we as the Brother and Sisters in Arms, we will start doing the activation only when we will know it's 100 percent that we can assure that Israel state will stay a functional democratic country. End of story. Whatever needs to be done for that.
GOLD: Would you be willing to take up arms, real arms, for this fight?
GOLOV: So I don't want to imagine a situation that I need to hold or to carry any arms, nothing. I don't believe that we go to this situation.
GOLD: We should expect these protesters to continue coming out on a regular basis. They plan the pressure up for as long as possible. Hadas Gold, CNN, Tel Aviv.
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HOLMES: In Iran, many women are condemning a yogurt attack on two women for allegedly not wearing the hijab. This viral CCTV video shows the moment when a man enters a shop, confronts them, and then proceeds to dump a tub of yogurt on their heads. The two women were arrested for failing to wear the hijab in public, according to the Mizan news Agency. Now several Iranian women are speaking out, blaming the government for sowing discontent among citizens.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I think those women and the way they were dressed had nothing to do with that man. This behavior causes tension. The family of the victimized woman will be upset after seeing this video and take other action. I think this behavior should be condemned in every country.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): If the government did not cause such discontent amongst the people, they would not rise up against them. People would have no reason to fight, and foreign countries would not support them in their protests.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Still to come, Donald Trump expected to appear in court on Tuesday. What his lawyers say they will do with the indictment, that's coming up. And also, CNN investigates allegations a popular Chinese shopping app is designed to monitor users even reading private messages. We'll have that story a little later.
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HOLMES: New York is ramping up security ahead of former U.S. President Donald Trump's expected arraignment. Sources tell CNN he's expected to appear in court Tuesday afternoon.
Barricades were being set up near the courthouse over the weekend. Meanwhile the former president's attorney says he will voluntarily surrender but plans to file quote "substantial legal challenges".
Trump also plans to deliver remarks on Tuesday night when he gets back to Mar-a-Lago in Florida. The former president has been indicted for his alleged role in a hush money payment scheme involving adult film star Stormy Daniels.
CNN's Katelyn Polantz with more.
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KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Donald Trump is still awaiting to see exactly what he's charged with in Manhattan for the first criminal charges ever levied against a former president or president of the United States. But his legal defense team is already out there laying the groundwork on how they're going to fight the case.
So one of his attorneys, Joe Tacopina, spent many minutes on television over the weekend, talking about all of the options that they might have once the team is able to actually see this indictment brought by the Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg against Donald Trump. And he says that one of the options will be to challenge the law to ask a judge to throw out the case, potentially.
Also another option is to challenge on the timing of what is being charged here. We know that there are some of this case is based around the campaign of 2016 for Donald Trump hush money payments that were made to Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet before the 2016 election and also some financial entries related to the Trump Organization related to that hush money payment.
There's a possibility that because that's 2016 Donald Trump's lawyers could step up and say that's way too long ago. Can't bring that in court. Now it's 2023. It's past the statute of limitations.
But here's what Joe Tacopina said specifically to Dana Bash on "STATE OF THE UNION" on Sunday.
JOE TACOPINA, TRUMP ATTORNEY: We will take the indictment. We will dissect it. The team will look at every potential issue that we will be able to challenge and we will challenge and of course, I very much anticipate a motion to dismiss coming because there's no law that fits this.
DANA BASH, CNN HOST: Are you going to ask for a different judge?
TACOPINA: We are going to take the indictment, evaluate all our legal options and pursue everyone most vigorously. This is a case of political persecution.
I have no reason to believe this judge is biased. I have not been before him on this matter. So we have to let this process play out.
POLANTZ: Dana asked Donald Trump's lawyer about the judge in this case, that judge is one that Donald Trump has already been out there on Truth Social attacking, saying that he hates him.
This is the judge that Trump is going to have to appear before on Tuesday, and much is in the hands of the judge going forward in this case, including whether the case could be tossed could be moved. Many of the other things that Trump's lawyers could be requesting help on in this case as it leads up to a jury trial.
But right now, the first decision the judge may need to make is whether or not the indictment should be unsealed early, a press coalition, including CNN has asked for the charges to be made public before Donald Trump gets to court on Tuesday.
Katelyn Polantz, CNN -- Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Meanwhile, officials claim to have new evidence suggesting potential obstruction by Donald Trump in their probe of his handling of classified documents. That's according to the "Washington Post" newspaper.
Investigators says the information indicates Trump personally reviewed some of the documents in his Mar-a-Lago home after receiving a subpoena late last May from the Justice Department.
While the former president's team returned some classified materials, the FBI search last August turned up more that hadn't been returned. Additional evidence obtained by investigators suggest that Trump told others to mislead officials trying to recover White House documents before the subpoena.
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HOLMES: Taiwan's president is in the middle of a 10 day trip across North and Central America. After spending three days in Guatemala, she's now in Belize, trying to deepen connections with allies. It comes as a growing number of countries are abandoning Taipei for Beijing.
CNN's Rafael Romo reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-Wen traveled to Belize Sunday after wrapping up a three-day visit to neighboring Guatemala.
Earlier Sunday, President Tsai and host Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei toured a hospital in Chimaltenango, a city about an hour west of the Guatemalan capital.
The medical center was built, thanks to a $22 million donation from Taiwan. Once again President Tsai praised the Guatemalan government for its support to her country saying that Taiwan will continue to cooperate and provide assistance to its democratic partners around the world.
President Giammattei reiterated his country's support for Taiwan. "I reaffirm before you the unconditional commitment that Guatemala as an essential part of its foreign policy will continue to support the recognition of Taiwan's sovereignty," he said.
President Giammattei went even further at a public event Saturday when he reiterated that Taiwan is, in his words, an independent nation and the only and true China with which Guatemala shares democratic values, mutual respect and fraternal ties.
Tsai's visit to Central America happened only a week after Honduras, another Central American country, broke diplomatic relations with Taiwan after 80 years just before forging a new alliance with China.
Now Taiwan has only 13 diplomatic partners, mainly small countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. On Friday a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman said that the one China policy should be accepted worldwide, adding that she hopes Guatemala makes the right decision to stop supporting Taiwan in the near future.
On Monday, Taiwanese President Tsai is expected to sign several agreements with the government of Belize before meeting with Prime Minister Johnny Briceno.
She's traveling to California later in the week before returning home and already visited New York last week as part of her 10-day trip to the region.
Rafael Romo, CNN -- Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Still to come, a new study that challenges what scientists thought they knew about plants. They make sounds believe it or not.
You hear that clicking? Well that's the plant. I'll speak with the co- author of the study. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Now your houseplants might be crying out for help, if only you could hear them. Researchers at Tel Aviv University found that plants make popping sounds undetectable to the human ear. And they get noisier if they need water or if their stems have been cut.
[01:39:53]
HOLMES: The audio of the sounds made by a dry tomato plant have been sped up and edited so it can be heard. Have a listen to this.
Fascinating stuff. For more on this, I'm joined by Yossi Yovel. He's a senior lecturer at the Department of Zoology at Tel Aviv University and the co-author of the study.
Professor this blew us away in the NEWSROOM. We found it all fascinating. What made you even think to listen to plants -- to try to listen?
YOSSI YOVEL, TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY: Ok good morning again, Michael. So actually the idea was of my colleague. Originally of my colleague, Nilahad Ani (ph) who's a plant scientist working on evolution, and we know that plants can communicate with each other using chemicals, volatiles. We know they communicate with animals using vision using visual images, but there was almost nothing about sound.
And that's why we thought, ok if we cannot hear them with our own ears perhaps there is sound frequencies that we cannot hear ultrasonic sounds, and that's what we did. We placed a ultrasonic sensitive microphones and found that indeed, as you said, plants emit sounds.
HOLMES: There were so many fascinating aspects to this research. But I think near the top of the list is it's not just finding these sounds, but there are different sounds meaning different things.
I want to have a listen to a recording now of a plant that is stressed, almost sort of crying out because it's about to be cut or perhaps eaten or something like that.
Let's have a listen.
Ok so that's a slightly different sound than the other one. What is causing that specific sound? And how did you discern what it meant?
YOVEL: Right, so in order to discern what it meant, we introduced the different types of stress, the cutting or the drying and then we use the simple AI algorithms in order to analyze the different sounds and to see whether we can classify them based on based on stress.
The sound that's physical they're probably produced by air bubbles created in the plants and water tunnels, and probably, you know, if you cut the plant, you change the water regime in one way.
If you dry it, you change it slightly differently. If one plant has a light, larger pipes there, you will have one type of sound. If they have narrower pipes, you will have higher frequencies.
So this is probably what's causing these differences. The main question which we are now researching, we have not yet found is whether somebody in nature is using these sounds, perhaps animals, perhaps maybe even other plants, though they're all wild hypothesis that we are now pursuing.
HOLMES: Yes and again, we go back for the different sounds. The dehydrated plant, the one that needs some water. Let's have a listen to that one again.
Again slightly different, you know, I'm just curious. What was -- what was you and your team's reaction when you realize that you know different situations resulted in different and very specific sounds. Were you -- were you be a bit surprised?
YOVEL: Yes, we were definitely surprised. I think you know, I study animal communication usually, and we found a whole new potential channel of communication. And I like to say, imagine that you spent your entire life in a black and white world and suddenly I show you a colorful peacock.
So you're still not sure what is this good for, but you know that there's a lot of potential for this new stimulus for this new type of stimulus.
HOLMES: I want to get in a couple more questions before we run out of time. We know humans can't hear these sounds. I mean you use special equipment. But do we know if other animals or insects, other plants can hear them?
YOVEL: Definitely many mammals, small mammals, rodents, bats -- I studied bats, most of the time can hear these plants. Many insects can hear just sonic signals in these frequencies, and we analyze and we show that they can do so from several meters and that's exactly what we're studying now.
So for example, you can imagine the moth eavesdropping on the plant when it is making a decision such as where to eat or what plant to eat or something like that.
That's exactly the direction that we're interested in right now.
HOLMES: So if we as humans can't hear the sound sounds. What do we do with this knowledge now?
YOVEL: Well, that's always a big question. We're talking about the basic science. Sometimes when we do basic research, we're not sure. What is this good for, right? We understand the world better. Maybe one day this will allow us to do something with this knowledge.
[01:44:47]
YOVEL: One immediate possibility, of course. Agriculture right? We could perhaps eavesdrop on the plants from a distance and say whether they're drying out, whether they're dehydrated maybe we can manipulate insects if some of them are listening to the plants.
But these are all still just ideas that have to be followed up on.
HOLMES: Well, if I put microphones and some big speakers in my house, you'd be hearing a lot of screaming plants, saying water me.
Yossi Yovel, I tell you I was. It was fascinating research. People can read about it on CNN.com and elsewhere. Great work, really interesting. Thanks Yossi.
YOVEL: Thank you and don't forget to water your plants.
HOLMES: I will now they're going to yell at me.
YOVEL: Exactly.
HOLMES: All right. What a study. Check it out online.
All right. One of China's most popular shopping apps is under fire, as cybersecurity experts have identified the presence of malware that exploited vulnerabilities on users phones.
CNN's Kristie Lu Stout with that story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In China Pinduoduo is an e- commerce heavyweight. It broke the dominance of Alibaba and JD thanks to its bargain bin prices, a social shopping model that encourages people to buy with friends and a focus on lower income rural users.
The app has more than 750 million monthly users in China and the app is now under fire over malware.
Malware is short for malicious software, and CNN has spoken to an array of cybersecurity experts who say that they have identified malware inversions of Pinduoduo.
MIKKO HYPPONEN, CHIEF RESEARCH OFFICER, WITHSECURE: This is highly unusual and it is pretty damning for Pinduoduo.
SHARAT SINHA, PRESIDENT, APAC CHECKPOINT: They found that it uses techniques to get extended functionality.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've never seen anything like that before.
STOUT: Cyber experts say the malware allows Pinduoduo to bypass users' cellphone security monitor activities on other apps. Check notifications, read private messages and change settings and once installed, it is difficult to delete.
The app can also obtain user data like this photo of a beloved pet taken from a user's album.
HYPPONEN: Well, we have to underline the fact that this isn't a problem for users in the West. People are using these third party apps stores inside Mainland China, and that's where the problem was. And that's where users should be worried about this.
In March, Google suspended Pinduoduo from its Playstore after finding malware versions of the app. In its statement, Google said, we have suspended the play version of the app for security concerns while we continue our investigation.
Pinduoduo said it rejects the speculation and accusations that Pinduoduo app is malicious just from a generic and non conclusive response from Google.
HYPPONEN: Our team has reverse engineered the code and we can confirm that it tries to escalate rights. It tries to gain access to things normal apps wouldn't be able to do on Android phones.
CNN also spoke to a Pinduoduo employee who says the company in 2020 set up a team of about 100 engineers and product managers to dig for vulnerabilities in Android phones and develop ways to exploit them and make a profit.
Speaking anonymously for fear of reprisals, the source says the team was disbanded on March the 7th with many told they would be transferred to its sister app Temu but a core group of 20 people remained. Pinduoduo's parent company, PDD holdings did not respond to CNN request for comment.
The allegations come as PDD pushes beyond China with Temu which sells cutlery Chinese products to mainly us customers.
Launched in September it quickly became the most downloaded app in the U.S.
SHAWN CHANG, FOUNDER/COO: Until the Pinduoduo can release something like the you know, like the full disclosure of the how did this incident happened? Yes probably before that. We shouldn't trust any applications from Pinduoduo.
STOUT: Temu is still available to download on Google Play, but the suspension of its sister app Pinduoduo and the evidence of malware are all casting a cloud on the Nasdaq listed company at a time of heightened tension and security concerns over tech that's made in China.
Kristie Lu Stout, CNN -- Hong Kong.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Still to come restoring Mosul one piece at a time. The ongoing efforts to repair the damage done by the Islamic State militants who once controlled the Iraqi city.
We'll be right back.
[01:49:21]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HOLMES: At least 32 people have died from the severe weather and tornadoes that ripped across the U.S. Midwest and South this weekend. The majority of the deaths were in Tennessee, but the damage is evident across multiple states.
Entire homes were destroyed. Thousands left at left standing. Didn't have a power -- didn't have power on Saturday.
U.S. President Joe Biden issued a major disaster declaration for Arkansas ahead of FEMA's arrival. It will free up more federal resources to help in immediate relief efforts.
The city of Wynne, Arkansas is home to about 8,000 people, and the city's mayor says some families have absolutely nothing left.
Here's how one resident described her experience with the tornado.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JANE SMITH, TORNADO SURVIVOR: We were in the basement. Three children next door, their parents, the dog, our dog. My three grandchildren, my husband and son. So and. But you didn't realize I had no idea it was doing this much damage out here. It was so fast.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam, with more now from Arkansas.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Governor Sanders arrived on the scene of the badly damaged Wynne, Arkansas where we find ourselves today, she was flanked by federal representatives from FEMA, but also from the National Weather Service.
One of the representatives from the NWS actually telling her, I listened in on this conversation, saying at a bare minimum they believe that this is an EF 3 tornado. So they're having meteorologists come out and assess the damage here.
And an EF 3 tornado is winds of 136 to 165 mph. That is the bare minimum of what this place experienced.
But when we talk about the role that meteorologists have in forecasting this, I was able to ask Governor Sanders about if she felt like the warning lead times was adequate for warning the residents of Arkansas.
Have a listen to what she said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VAN DAM: So it sounds just from your press briefing that you did -- you believe that the meteorologists gave adequate warning time for this particular tornado. Do you feel like that saved lives? And can you elaborate on that? GOV. SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS (R-AR): Absolutely. There's no doubt that the warnings that came from meteorologists certainly saved lives. You know, one of the things that I found pretty unbelievable as the folks on the ground in Little Rock certainly, as the storms were moving through there, they were literally watching their own neighborhoods as they were reporting and warning people knowing, that their families were right in harm's way.
They stayed on TV, they continued to warn people, they continue to give people notice. And did that as best they could throughout the day on Friday, and we're thankful for their willingness to keep -- stay on the air, even though when it was really difficult for them personally, as well.
VAN DAM: You can hear in the distance, the sound of chainsaws, the all too familiar sound within natural disasters like this. We had the opportunity to tour some of the worst devastation within Wynne, Arkansas.
You can see just a drop in the bucket of really what's at play here and coming from a meteorologist who covers natural disasters regularly. This is some of the worst devastation that I have bear witness to.
Still a very active and fluid scene. You can hear the sounds of sirens and chainsaws behind me as the recovery process is ongoing. It is going to take weeks if not months to completely rebuild this area.
It's hard to believe that there is a threat of severe weather looming in the distance later this week on Tuesday to be particular.
CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam in Wynne, Arkansas.
[01:54:44]
HOLMES: Now it might seem like distant history when ISIS was driven out of Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, but the effort to rebuild the city and reconstruct the treasures that ISIS destroyed, well, that's a long, painstaking process.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: A rampage by Islamic state militants who filmed themselves in 2015 smashing ancient artifacts in the Mosul museum in Iraq. Statues thousands of years old, toppled and pulverized, all part of a campaign by the terror group to demolish any cultural history that conflicted with their barbaric and extreme ideology.
Like the piles of rubble they left behind, ISIS' rule in Mosul, a stronghold for the terror group for three years would crumble. Iraqi forces with the help of the U.S-led coalition reclaimed the city in 2017. The rest of its self proclaimed caliphate would fall over the next two years.
The fragmented artifacts in the Mosul museum have been under repair by a team of Iraqi and French restoration experts for the past four years. They say it is a painstaking process to try to repair the shattered antiquities, a jigsaw puzzle of pieces that might never quite fit together again.
One restorer says this is the most gratifying part, assembling and gluing the pieces, although some are too crushed to use, others are missing altogether.
The museum is just one of many ongoing rebuilding projects in Mosul.
In March, church bells rang out again in another part of the city, part of the UNESCO effort to rebuild churches and mosques destroyed by decades of fighting in Iraq.
Since 2018, UNESCO has raised more than $105 million for reconstruction efforts in Mosul.
AUDREY AZOULAY, DIRECTOR GENERAL UNESCO: Mosul is the place where UNESCO has the largest commitment today in the world. Because the city deserve it, because the people of Mosul deserve it, because we know what they've been through and the tragedies the intimate tragedies have been through over the last decades.
HOLMES: Another project is taking a more modern approach to maintaining the city's heritage. The eye on Mosul Foundation is recording videos of witness testimonies of what life was like under ISIS rule, which will then be archived in the public library.
A common theme of the project is to rebuild as well as remember.
But the director of the Mosul Museum says it is impossible to recreate what happened here without any scratches or imperfections. But those too are now part of Mosul's history.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Thanks for spending part of your day with me. I'm Michael Holmes.
Do stick around. My colleague Laila Harrak picks up our coverage in just a moment. She's right there.
[01:57:50]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
