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Donald Trump pleads Not Guilty to 34 Felony Charges; NATO Foreign Ministers hold Last Day of Talks after Finland's Accession Process ended; Israeli Police clash Palestinians at a Mosque; Taiwanese President back in U.S. ahead of a meeting with House Speaker, French leader now in China for a State Visit; Donald Trump Pleads Not Guilty, Attacks Judge and Manhattan District Attorney; Severe Weather for 60 Million Americans; Tiger Woods Playing at Augusta. Aired 3-3:45a ET

Aired April 05, 2023 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

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PAULA NEWTON, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and a very warm welcome to "CNN Newsroom." I'm Paula Newton.

Coming up. Donald Trump is back home after being slammed with dozens of felony counts, and he has a lot to say about how he intends to fight what he calls a political persecution.

(VIDEO PLAYING)

Israeli police clash with Palestinians inside Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque. We're live in Jerusalem with the latest.

And playing through the university, Tiger Woods is back at "The Masters" and even he admits it could be his last.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Paula Newton.

NEWTON: And we begin with an unprecedented moment in America's history as Donald Trump becomes the first current or former U.S. president to be criminally charged, arrested and arraigned.

Inside a Manhattan criminal court, Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony criminal charges of falsifying business records. The former president heard the charges against him for the very first time Tuesday. Prosecutors alleged Trump sought to undermine the integrity of the 2016 election through a hush money scheme with payments to women who claimed they had extramarital affairs with him. But the indictment says, for all 34 counts Trump had the, quote, "Intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime."

Attorneys for Trump say the indictment lacks facts but plan to fight it hard. Trump's team has until early August to file any motions, and the prosecution must respond by mid-September. The next in-person hearing, though, isn't set until December 4th.

Donald Trump is now back at Mar-a-Lago, that is his residence in Florida, where he spoke for the very first time following his arraignment in New York. Now, in a speech to a room full of supporters, Trump aired his grievances and made a number of false claims. The former president also slammed the district attorney saying he has no case.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: As it turns out, virtually everybody that has looked at this case, including rhinos and even hardcore Democrats say there is no crime, and that it should never have been brought, never have been brought, everybody.

(APPLAUSE)

Even people that aren't big fans have said it. They said this is not the right thing to do. It's an insult to our country as the world is already laughing at us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CNN's Kristen Holmes was at that speech, and she has more now from Mar-a-Lago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: President Donald Trump, giving uncharacteristically short speech after his arraignment at his Mar-a-Lago club. He did talk about the New York case briefly. He attacked the district attorney there as well as the judge, but he spent more time talking about other investigations into him. He talked specifically about the Department of Justice's investigation into classified document handling at his Mar-a-Lago club.

Now, he had a crowd here full of supporters. Everyone here was a -- where I would say is a mega fan. You saw members of Bikers for Trump, members of Club 45, as well as score of lawmakers, allies, advisors, family members as well.

Now, I am told that after he made those remarks, he went up to the party patio, where he often eats dinner at Mar-a-Lago, and during his time there, they actually started playing the J6 song that he had recorded with the J6 choir, who are men that have been incarcerated for their alleged actions on January 6th.

He did the Pledge of Allegiance, the entire patio stood. And then he sat back down -- sat back down and then continued eating dinner. Now, I am told that he, afterwards, DJ with the laptop, something he has wanted to do when he is at his Mar-a-Lago club.

So, clearly, a very long day. He is now surrounded by some of the people who adore him the most. We, obviously, are just starting this process with this arrangement, something that we will be watching very closely, particularly as it pertains to his 2024 campaign.

Kristen Holmes, CNN, West Palm Beach, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEWTON: Joining me now from Los Angeles is Ron Brownstein. He's CNN Senior Political Analyst, and Senior Editor at "The Atlantic."

[03:05:01]

Ron, I just want to get your take on all of this. Everything that transpired in the last 24 hours because, again, no script writer would dare ink this thing I mean, -- a DJ, he ended the day being a DJ at Mar-a-Lago. I mean, what did you think?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Hi, Paula. There are so many -- so many ways to react to this if we think about it, in the most practical political terms, I think this simultaneously is strengthening Trump, in his odds of winning the Republican nomination, and it is likely weakening him as a general election candidate, if he does.

You see enormous pressure in the Republican Party to rally around him. You've seen even the other candidates running against him, basically echoing his charges and that does put him in a -- in a stronger position for the nomination. But it's very hard to imagine that there are many voters out there who are resistant to Donald Trump before who decide that they are now for him because he has been indicted for paying hush money to a porn star.

And of course, this is only the beginning of the legal troubles that he faced. I -- in fact, I think it -- in six months it is highly likely that we will not be talking a great deal about this case. And if the other indictments go forward in Georgia or from the federal prosecutor -- the special counsel, those are much more likely, I think, to be decisive in terms of his legal and political future.

NEWTON: And it will be interesting to see if those move the needle politically because you already pointed out right now it just seems to be emboldening him. I wonder, though, if you are a Republican,= -- if you want to become a Republican nominee at this point, some have already entered the race. What do you do, because they have come out themselves and said quite clearly, yeah, this case might be taking things a bit too far?

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah, I've talked to a lot of people about this. And you know this is what Trump has done successfully throughout his presidency. He has, basically, you know, equated himself with the coalition, making the argument that the deep state or liberal elites or prosecute, you know, biased prosecutors are coming after me because they want to silence you.

And the other Republicans running against him have felt enormous pressure to fall in line behind that. The problem, of course, is that if they -- if that is all they are going to be staying over the next year, it is very hard to see how they get past him in the nomination by a particular since it starts with the biggest base of support in the party, and notably not usually a majority of the party.

Ultimately, you know, most strategists that I've talked to today say that Republicans have to find a way to make a case against him. And the case is obvious that while this may energize Republican voters. You know in 2020, he lost by seven million votes. He did not have enough votes. And this indictment, much less multiple indictments, is not a natural path toward expanding your support.

So ultimately someone has to make the case that this makes Trump more damaged goods as a general election nominee. If they don't, it's going to be very hard to see how they avoid becoming what one person said to me today bit players in his drama.

NEWTON: Yeah. As you said, supporting actors, if you will, not a position they want to be in. I want to get to the point of what this means for the Democrats, but I'm going to bring up what Mitt Romney actually said in a statement today.

I believe, Mitt Romney says -- and remember, this is a person who was pretty much a never Trumper -- I believe President Trump's character and conduct make him unfit for office. Even so, I believe the New York prosecutor has stretched to reach felony criminal charges in order to fit a political agenda. No one is above the law, not even former presidents, but everyone is entitled to equal treatment under the law. The prosecutor's overreach sets a dangerous precedent for criminalizing political opponents.

You know, that is incredibly categorical. If you are the Democrats at this point in time, right now, you can't really take this on as a political cause, right? Is there not a way that you need to really ring fence, what, you know, what Democratic prosecutors are doing right now with Trump, because it seems to not do you any favors? Certainly, the Biden administration must be thinking about this right now.

BROWNSTEIN: Well, look, Trump wants to betray all of this as a political rather than illegal move against him. And so, in that sense, it is highly in the interest of Democrats not to give him any oxygen in that effort and to really weigh in and this at all.

I think it is a very logical and likely consistent position for them in the coming months to basically say, no one is above the law. Everyone deserves equal treatment. Let the legal process work its will.

I think the bigger question over time is what do Republicans do if there are multiple indictments? I mean, we have seen party-wide, rallying around Trump outrage. The House really taking -- House Republicans taking unprecedented steps to try to interfere with an ongoing investigation by threatening to subpoena testimony and documents.

[03:10:08]

Do they -- do this three more times if there are indictments in Georgia, and in the two cases that the federal special counsel is investigating. Do they feel that each time they have to defend Trump and claim that all of these investigations are a witch hunt, or ultimately, having established, you know, kind of their bona fides by opposing this are they then free to say these other cases are more serious?

That is a hugely consequential choice for Republicans in the months ahead because right now, the dynamic, I think, very clearly has strengthened him as a candidate for the nomination, whereas I think simultaneously it is really has the potential to reinforce the doubts among Independent voters that weaken him as a general election candidate, which is kind of the worst of all worlds for the Republicans in the party who want to move out from under the thumb of Donald Trump.

NEWTON: It really is. And so many have said that if you just look at the polling among Independents at this point in time, it tells you the problem. The Republicans have straight ahead. Ron, I gotta leave --

BROWNSTEIN: Look at what happened tonight in Wisconsin, Paula? It's a critical state of the absolute tipping point of American politics. Democrats want to state Supreme Court race by an astounding 10-point margin. It is a marker of how much the Trump-era party is suffering in the suburbs of the purple states that are likely to decide the winner of the white house in 2024.

NEWTON: And yet, he remains front and center right now for that candidacy.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

NEWTON: Ron Brownstein for us, thanks so much, really appreciate it.

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me.

NEWTON: Okay. A flurry of diplomatic activity is underway at NATO after the military alliance welcome Finland as its newest member.

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An honor guard raised Finland's flag outside headquarters in Brussels, Tuesday, and now a little while ago, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg made opening remarks as foreign ministers began their final day of consultations.

Meantime, Russian president Vladimir Putin is set to hold talks in Moscow in the coming hours with his close ally, Belarussian president Alexander Lukashenko, and Ukraine's president is set to meet later today with Poland's president.

For more on all of this, we are joined by Nadir Bashir, as she is in London. Okay. A lot to get to in terms of these consequential meetings. I do want to start with Finland, though. This really is a game-changer on many different fronts. It's a little more than a year, Nadir. It's astounding to think that not this would not have been possible when you even to bring this up as an issue little more than a year ago. What is the significance that now they are a NATO member? NADIR BASHIR, CNN REPORTER: Absolutely. Paula, this is hugely

significant. We're talking about a country ending decades of non- alignment to join the NATO alliance, a country which has a border alongside Russia of about 830 miles and, of course, from the outset of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The Kremlin has attempted to justify its invasion by its threats or perceived threats from Moscow of the potential for NATO expansion, in particular, with regard to Ukraine. Now, of course, we are seeing welcoming its 31st member state with the potential for Sweden to join at a later point.

This is a hugely significant step. In fact, the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said just yesterday, this is a historic moment, not only fulfilling, but for the Nordic region as a whole and indeed for the NATO alliance. And of course, as anticipated, this has not gone down so well in Moscow. The Kremlin, they're saying just yesterday, this is another threat posed by NATO, with regards to expansion.

We heard from the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov describing this as a continued threat. And of course, the foreign ministry has said, Russia will have to respond to this, although hasn't gone into details asked and what that response will be.

NEWTON: And given what's also going on between Putin and the Belarussian leader today in Moscow, you then have that split screen of Zelenskyy, apparently right now in Poland and getting ready for meetings there.

I mean, what does each leader trying to do there in terms of trying to shore up their allies on what are still to be brutal months of war to come?

NASHIR: Well, these are two key partnerships on Russia's side, of course. Belarus is one of its few allies when it comes to the war in Ukraine. It was a key helper in terms of launching the invasion back in February of last year.

And we've heard from President Alexander Lukashenko speaking about the intense talks that have been taking place between President Putin and himself when it comes to the deployment of tactical and strategic nuclear weapons from Russia to Belarus, and this has been a key focus for President Lukashenko for some time now.

[03:14:57]

Of course, on the other side, we will be seeing president Zelenskyy, traveling to Warsaw to meet with another key ally, President Duda of Poland. They'll be focusing on tightening those bilateral relations there and ongoing military support.

NEWTON: Nadir Bashir for us, who continues to follow those meetings, appreciate it.

Now, a violent clash between Israeli police and Palestinians inside one of Islam's holiest sites is drawing international condemnation. (VIDEO PLAYING)

It happened when police entered the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem to break up a large group they say was barricading the entrance. Now, police say they were met with a barrage of fireworks, stones and sticks and say one officer was injured.

Now, the Palestinian Red Crescent says at least 12 people were hurt in the mosque clashes, and social media video appears to show Israeli officers attacking some of the group. Police, meantime, say they arrested more than 350 people.

Following all of this for us is CNN's Hadas Gold. She is live for us in Jerusalem. And this really seemed to take people by surprise, especially the violence from actually inside the mosque.

HADAS GOLD, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, I mean clashes have been expected, especially at the holy sites behind me. You can see the Golden Dome of the Rock. And then over my right shoulder is actually the Black Roof you can see of the Al Aqsa mosque, and that was really the epicenter of the violence that we saw overnight.

Now, while tensions have been high and there has been expectation of clashes, especially as tonight is the evening of Passover, a Jewish holiday. And the place behind me, it's known as the Al Aqsa mosque compound, or Haram Al-Sharif, it's the third holiest site for Muslim and it's also known as the temple mount for Jews as the holiest site in Judaism.

So tensions are always high here, especially when the holidays overlap. But especially this year, tensions have been high, but I think that the violence and the aggression that we saw overnight, that was a little bit unexpected.

Now, there have been groups of worshippers who have been staying overnight in the mosque. And over the past few days, police have managed to get them out without the violence. But last night was something different, police entered the mosque itself. We see in those videos, fireworks being launched towards them. They respond with stun grenades and bullets. We're also seeing videos of violent confrontations between Israeli police and these worshippers as you noted the Palestinian Red Crescent saying at least 12 were injured, three of them we know, were actually transferred to hospital.

Israeli police say one of their officers were injured, and notably that they arrested some 350 people. That is a very high number of arrestees. But of course, what happens at Al Aqsa has voted reverberations across the world. We're hearing condemnation from Egyptians, Saudi Arabian, from the Jordanians, of course, from the Palestinian authority, as what they see as an assault on worshippers, an assault on the freedom of religion.

And then, of course, we saw response from Gaza, from Hamas, which controls the military group that controls the Gaza strip. They launched something like nine rockets towards Israel. Israeli, responding with military strikes of the airstrikes on Hamas targets. They say there are no injuries reported on either side, although a factory in Israel was hit.

Now, Paula, I'll say right now it's calm. It's quiet. We can actually see the compound from where we're standing. It is a tense quiet. There have already been Jewish visitors on the site. They are allowed up during certain hours. And as I noted, it is Passover tonight, but it's very much still tense as there are worries that potentially Jewish extremists will come up.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, the Minister of National Security, he praised the police response last night. And so, I would want to keep an eye on what's happening here over the next couple of hours. We, of course, will keep on top of it, Paula?

NEWTON: Yeah, noted that and as you reminded us so many times, unfortunately, last year and a half, it's been a particularly violent, several months there in the region. So, Hadas, thanks so much for putting that all on context for us.

Straight ahead for us. A historic meeting, the U.S. House Speaker and Taiwan's president are set to meet in California in the coming hours, angering China and further straining already tense relations.

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[03:20:00]

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NEWTON: Taiwan's president is poised to meet with the U.S. House Speaker in the coming hours of historic meeting, which is already drawing warnings and condemnation from China. Now, President Tsai Ing- Wen arrived in Los Angeles just a few hours ago for that historic meeting, and those talks with Kevin McCarthy. Beijing says it resolutely opposes the meeting with McCarthy.

CNN's Marc Stewart is following the developments for us from Tokyo. And Marc, that meeting is going on, China clearly keeping an eye on that. But also quite busy welcoming the French preside -- President as well for an important visit.

MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, Paula, two big storylines involving China. Let's first tackle the meeting between Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-Wen and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Obviously, as you mentioned, China is less than thrilled about all of this. They feel it's a violation of China's One China policy. The U.S. does recognize China's claim over Taiwan, but obviously, this is a meeting that is going to have some diplomatic rift.

Obviously, this is also a big symbolic blow to Beijing, you could argue in the sense that this is happening at the Reagan Presidential Library. I's been the site of presidential debates, and it will involve top leadership in U.S. It will involve Democrats, Republicans, as well as leaders of the of the select committee and China. So, China is not too happy about all of that.

As that is unfolding, we are also learning that, of course, Beijing is preparing for the visited -- visit of French President Emmanuel Macron. Now, as to what this visit will look like, this is an Official State Visit. And from what we have been hearing from French Presidential sources, this is not going to be an opportunity, at least publicly for Macron to scold or point fingers at China, but to use some diplomatic finesse, if you will, to let China know that it needs to do more to encourage Russia, to basically end this war in Ukraine.

It's a very lofty task. It something that French president Macron has received support from President Biden on we will have to see how that unfolds. Another big measure, another big point of discussion in this meeting between France and China, obviously, is economics, which as we, both well know, Paula, can impact diplomatic relations as well.

NEWTON: Yeah, absolutely. And Macron definitely wants to get down to business with that, as you were speaking, Marc. We see that the French president has now touched down in Beijing, and you, along with CNN, will continue to follow those developments over the coming days. Appreciate it.

Now, New Zealand's former Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, marked her final day in parliament today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACINDA ARDERN, FORMER NEW ZEALAND PRIME MINISTER: Now, I cannot determine what will define my time in this place. But I do hope I've demonstrated something else entirely, that you can be anxious, sensitive, kind, and wear your heart on your sleeve.

You can be a mother or not. You can be an ex-Mormon or not, you can be a nerd, a crier, a hugger. You can be all of these things and not only can you be here, you can lead just like me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: Jacinda Ardern will take on a new, unpaid role, helping combat violent online extremism. She'll also join the board of Prince William's Earth Shot Prize awarded for contributions to environmentalism.

And we will be right back with more news, in a moment.

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[03:25:00]

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NEWTON: And welcome back. More now on our top story this hour. Former U.S. President Donald Trump is condemning the criminal charges against him following an historic arrangement in a Manhattan courtroom.

Speaking to his supporters in Florida hours ago, a defiant Trump claimed, this is just an attempt to derail his candidacy for 2024. He also said the only crime he's, quote, "Committed is to fearlessly defend the nation." Now, earlier in the day, Trump appeared in a New York court where he pleaded not guilty to all 34 felony counts. The charges stem from an investigation into a 2016 hush money payments scheme to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

And here's Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg outlining the felony charges against the former president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALVIN BRAGG, MANHATTAN DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Under New York state law it is a felony to falsify business records with intent to defraud and intent to conceal another crime. That is exactly what this case is about, 34 false statements made to cover up other crimes.

The defendant repeatedly made false statements on New York business records. He also caused others to make false statements. The defendant claimed that he was paying Michael Cohen for legal services performed in 2017. This simply was not true. Why did Donald Trump repeatedly make these false statements? The evidence will show that he did so to cover up crimes relating to the 2016 election.

Donald Trump, executives at the publishing company, American Media Incorporated, Mr. Cohen, and others agreed in 2015 to a catch and kill scheme, that is a scheme to buy and suppress negative information to help Mr. Trump's chance of winning the election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: That was Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg.

Areva Martin is a civil rights attorney and legal affairs commentator, and she joins me now from Los Angeles.

I feel like I need to say, woof, was quite an intense 18 hours that we've all just gone through together. Areva, I am interested in your take legally, but first, given what we just heard, uh, Alvin Bragg say all day long in terms of spelling out what is in this indictment and what the president is charged with.

I want you to hear now from Carrie Cordero. You'll be familiar with her. She's a former justice department official and on our air. This was her reaction when she saw the case. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARRIE CORDERO,FORMER COUNSEL TO THE ASSISTANT ATTORNEY-GENERAL: It's a little underwhelming. There's not more to it. There's not more violations, tax violations.

[03:30:00]

There's not an incredible new set of facts that we didn't know about publicly. It's really the facts of this case as they have existed for basically almost seven years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAULA NEWTON, CNN HOST: Areva, I know you've been following this case closely. What are your impressions here?

AREVA MARTIN, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: I'm so shocked when I hear experts and analysts make those kinds of statements. Alvin Bragg was very clear. He was elected as the district attorney for Manhattan and as the district attorney has a job to follow the facts and the law and if they lead him to an indictment or to present evidence to a grand jury that leads to an indictment, that is his job.

And all of this bickering over, you know, whether he should have been the first to indict or whether the Department of Justice should have been the first to indict, this is not a numbers game. This is not a contest. Alvin Bragg had a job to do and he did that job. Now, what we did learn from Cy Vance who had the job prior to Alvin Bragg, is that the Justice Department told him to cease and desist with respect to its investigation.

So, it's an -- it's really misleading to suggest that all these other entities looked at the same set of facts and decided not to move forward. What we know from Cy Vance is that Bill Barr's Justice Department told him to shut it down, to not continue in his investigation. That's a very different statement than the facts don't lead to a potential indictment.

So, I applaud Mr. Bragg or District Attorney Bragg for having the courage to step up and to charge Donald Trump or to at least take this case and present it to a grand jury and to do what the Justice Department quite frankly, has not done even though it has been investigating Donald Trump for the January 6th insurrection now going on two years.

So, again, I think the right decision was made by Mr. Bragg to present the case to the grand jury, and the grand jury returned with an indictment. And we have to respect that process.

NEWTON: In terms of how the former president reacted to all of this, I mean, alarmingly, he definitely said things about the D.A., the judge, families. What could the legal fallout from that be?

MARTIN: Well, clearly, this is right out of Donald Trump's playbook, attack everyone, deflect blame and never accept personal responsibility. What he could be doing is tainting the jury pool. He knows that he has millions of people that follow him on his social media platform, Truth Social. He knows that his comments are picked up by other news outlets, and he knows that this information is being filtered to millions and millions of people.

So, my impression is that he is trying to taint the jury pool. He's gaslighting the American people when he says that everyone looked at this case and decided there was nothing there. That is a complete falsehood. It's a fabrication. And it's the kind of gaslighting that we've seen from Donald Trump. He's attacked the district attorney. He's brought in his wife. That's what he does. He shoots below the belt and he makes personal attacks rather than sticking to the facts. And the facts are that this is the only president in the history of

this country that is faced felony indictment. This is the only president in history of this country that's been now twice impeached and facing felony indictment while being investigated by at least three other agencies.

NEWTON: But yet, Areva, he is still the leading candidate right now to be the Republican nominee in 2024. I mean, I have to ask you, so many people will think that this will, you know, basically propel him to an even stronger campaign to become the nominee.

And how do you think at this point voters will take it because we have to be clear, right? Even if he's convicted of any of these crimes, he can still run for president. He can still be president again.

MARTIN: Yeah. Unfortunately, the founding fathers just never anticipated someone like Donald Trump running and winning the presidency of the United States. So, you're absolutely correct. The Constitution does not forbid him for running for president and even being president while indicted and even being convicted of felonies.

The reality is Trump has become a cult like figure to millions in the Republican Party. And you're right, no matter what he does or what happens, or no matter, you know, what conviction may come as a result of this indictment or others, there are some in the party that are going to stand by him.

But that doesn't make him right and it doesn't make him above the law, and it doesn't give him the privilege to be able to engage in conduct that if anyone else engaged him (ph) they would be held accountable.

NEWTON: Yeah. And through all of this, we have to remind people that what we talked about today was Donald Trump's future, not the future of Americans and the issues that they have on the table right now regardless of which campaign is ongoing. Areva Martin, good to see you again. Thanks so much.

MARTIN: Thank you, Paula.

[03:34:57]

NEWTON: So here in the United States more than 60 million people are under some level of severe weather threats throughout the evening. States in the Midwest and South are at risk of dangerous tornadoes. On Tuesday, there were more than a hundred reports of hail and five reports of preliminary tornadoes.

This is the damage after a tornado with up to 185 kilometer an hour winds hit the city of Colona in Illinois. Emergency officials are urging residents to stay aware of vital weather alerts. CNN meteorologist Britley Ritz has more now in the severe weather threat. And it just won't give up, but just seems every day, you know, these weather threats continue.

BRITLEY RITZ, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Once the system moves, sure Paula. Thankfully, we'll catch a break for a little bit of time. But unfortunately, through the early morning hours and again through the afternoon Wednesday, we're holding onto that severe weather threat. Yellow boxes of severe thunderstorm watch, that goes until about 4:00 or 5:00 Central time, now issued a new tornado watch goes for southern Illinois back down into Little Rock, central Arkansas until 9:00 Central time.

And yes, we do have tornado warnings that are in place. So, I want to show you this. I want to time it out for you, bring in the radar a little bit more closely for you. Just north of North Poplar we have Carter County, Missouri with a tornado warning that goes in place until 2:45 Central time. South of there, just after the west of Pocahontas, we have another tornado warning that's in place.

This continues to track off to the north and east very quickly, 50 mile per hour. So, you need to make sure you're getting into your safe spot. This is a Sharp County, Arkansas and the one south there, another tornado warning that's in place for Van Buren County, Arkansas until 3:00 Central time.

So, again, we need to keep cautious here as we move over the upcoming hours because all of this is going to track east into the Ohio Valley and the Great Lakes. Hail, another issue, four inches in diameter by the way, for Davenport right there on the Mississippi. There we go, Detroit down into Memphis, bringing in all of the same threats as we move into the afternoon and evening Wednesday, Paula?

NEWTON: Yeah. Thanks for keeping an eye on that for us. Britley Ritz for us in the Weather Center. Appreciate it. Still ahead, Tiger woods is returning to compete in this year's Masters tournament, a little older and maybe a little wiser. We'll have a report from Augusta.

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NEWTON: And you are looking they're at live pictures coming into us from Beijing where French President Emmanuel Macron is set to begin a summit, in fact, with President Xi Jinping. They will, of course, discuss Ukraine. They are there also for economic talks. Apparently, Emmanuel Macron wanting to see what kind of latitude there is with China vis-a-vis, Ukraine.

And perhaps in the words of his staff, make sure that China does not lean in further to Russia's ambitions in Ukraine. And we will continue to cover that visit for you in the coming hours.

[03:40:00]

Now this week, golf superstar Tiger Woods will be competing at the Masters for the 25th time in his career. Now, he attended the Champion's Dinner on Tuesday. The Masters tweeted out this photo. You see him there with the other past winners of those green jackets there. He would spoke with reporters earlier in the day and CNN World Sports Don Riddell was there.

DON RIFFELL, CNN WORLD SPORT: He's 47 years old now. He's playing in his 25th Masters, and he's all so banged up in so many different ways. But despite all of that, nobody moves the needle in men's professional golf quite like Tiger Woods. He spoke to the media on Tuesday. It was as we've come to expect, another packed press conference, standing room only, and these are the headlines.

Tiger Woods said that his game is better than it was a year ago when he was making his first appearance after that dreadful car accident two years ago. He says he's endurance is better. But he said that he aches more. Perhaps that's because he's pushing his body more. He knows that he's not going to have that many more opportunities to play in this tournament.

So, the conversation with the media was less about how he defines success, how he finds joy. This was the question I put to him. How does he still enjoy this game when it's a lot harder for him than it used to be?

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TIGER WOODS, PROFESSIONAL GOLFER: The joy is different now. I'm able to spend more time with my son and we will create our own little memories out there and to share some of the things that my dad has, well, what I experienced with my dad. The late-night putting, our practices sessions that we did at the Navy golf course, I'm doing with my son. And it's incredible, the bonding, the moments that come because of the sport.

RIDDELL: When you are playing this course, does it ever cross your mind this could be the last time?

WOODS: Yes, it has. I didn't know, I mean, last year was kind of -- I didn't know if I was, I was going to play again at that time. For some reason, everything kind of came together, I kind of pushed a little bit. I was able to make the cut, which was nice. And, yeah, I don't know how many more I have in me. So, just to be able to appreciate the time that I have here and cherish the memories.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIDDELL: This time last year, Tiger was very explicit with the media, they wouldn't have rocked up and entered the competition if he didn't think he could win it. So, he was asked the same question this year. Does he feel the same way? He dodged the question. He didn't answer it.

So, we don't really know what his expectations are. We're not going to know until he hits his first tee shot and plays a few holes on Thursday, but we do know this. He hasn't missed the cut at Augusta since the mid-90s. So, at the very least, we're expecting he'll be around for the weekend. Back to you.

NEWTON: Thanks to Don Riddell. I'm Paula Newton. Thank you for your company. Marketplace Middle East is up next.

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