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CNN International: Biden's Trip a Mixture of Diplomacy, Politics and Homecoming; Serenity and Stress at the Al-Aqsa Compound; Kidnap Survivors Recount Harrowing Ordeal; Italy Declares State of Emergency to Deal with a Surge of Migrants. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired April 12, 2023 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

BIANCA NOBILO, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM, I'm Bianca Nobilo. If you're just joining us, let me bring you up to date with our top stories this hour.

The Manhattan district attorney who filed criminal charges against Donald Trump is suing Republican Congressman Jim Jordan for trying to interfere with the case. Bragg says Jordan's attempts to undermine the investigation are unconstitutional and should be blocked.

And newly released bodycam footage from Louisville, Kentucky, and the bank shooting there shows the quick response by police to take down the suspect. Officials also say the 25 year old gunman had purchased his weapon an AR-15 style rifle just six days before the shooting.

The U.S. president is on a historic visit to Northern Ireland 25 years after the Good Friday Agreement ended decades of sectarian bloodshed. He'll soon hold talks with the British Prime Minister who greeted him on the tarmac and will also meet with the five parties that make up Northern Ireland's power sharing agreement.

CNN's Nic Robertson is live from Belfast to discuss the significance of the visit. Nic, it's interesting, I've detected some frustration in Britain about this visit. Being referred to by some political commentators as a blink and you'll miss it trip from the president. And the fact that the political meetings have been less choreographed than the personal events that he's undertaking. What if anything, do you think can be achieved here?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Certainly, the president can add his voice to all those who would urge and, in this case, very subtly, the Democratic Unionist Party to look at the economic benefits of the Windsor framework that the Prime Minister and his negotiators worked out with the European Union back in February.

The president supports that and his mission here, and I think you're right, people had expected and hoped, particularly on the nationalist side here, the sort of Irish side, who had hoped for more from the president. But that's part of the problem for the -- for the president here. Part of the delicacy of his visit and the tough political time that it comes at. Because he is perceived as being very Irish. And up here in Northern Ireland, that means -- he his perceived as being sort of pro the nationalist cause. And is not being seen as a friend of unionism.

In fact, some of those Democratic Unionist politicians have said that they wouldn't take kindly to pressure from -- direct pressure from President Biden to support the Windsor framework and to go into the power sharing government.

But that's going to underscore the speech the president gives here today at the Ulster City University, where it's going to do a ribbon cutting ceremony at a new brand new campus there. That notion that the Prime Minister has talked about that it's the economy here that's going to underpin the peace going forward. And the economy is centered as well as it can be under the Windsor framework, and therefore the Democratic Unionist Party should get back into political office.

So, it will be subtle and undertone to that, and we know that the president will meet as you said with members of those five parties.

[04:05:00]

We understand it's the leaders of those five parties unlikely to be all together in the same room at the same time. But of course, the most sensitive but the one that you would like to be the fly on the wall at would be the one with Jeffrey Donaldson.

NOBILO: If only. Nic Robertson live in Belfast, thank you. And we'll have much more on Biden's visit on "EARLY START" in about 30 minutes time.

After a week of escalating tensions that have erupted into violence, Israel is moving to bring calm to one of the world's holiest sites. Benjamin Netanyahu's government is banning all non-Muslims from the sacred area that Jews call the Temple Mount and Muslim call, Haram al- Sharif until the end of Ramadan. The area includes the al-Aqsa Mosque, which Israeli police raided twice last week. CNN's Salma Abdelaziz takes us inside that compound.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A delicate balance that governs and binds this holy site is under strain. My producer and I, both Muslim-born, were granted access to film at the al-Aqsa Compound by the custodians of the site. Only Muslims are allowed to pray here under a long- running but unwritten status quo agreement that worshippers tell us is slowly being eroded. Non-Muslims can visit the complex only during certain hours.

I feel pain, true pain inside, this woman tells me. This is a place of worship, not a place for occupation or for provocation. This is what she means.

While we speak, a group of largely Jewish visitors passes by the mosque under police escort. The women demonstrate by reciting the Koran louder and louder. This mountaintop is revered by Jews too. They call it Temple Mount.

A growing movement of Jewish extremists is demanding to perform prayers here. That could upend the status quo. We witnessed at least two men praying as police stand by.

ABDELAZIZ: We've seen several small groups like this of non-Muslim worshippers passing through the complex as Muslims continue to pray inside the mosque. This is where the friction is. This is where the controversy lies.

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): Jordan is the custodian of the grounds, but that role is becoming increasingly symbolic experts say, because it is Israel that controls the security checks at entry points and therefore access. The director general of al-Aqsa sees the increasing visits of Jewish extremists under police escort as a provocation.

I see these visits as an attack on our holy site, he tells me, and I warned the government of Israel to stay away from al-Aqsa Mosque because any violation here drags down the entire region.

And there are taunts at the gates. Small groups of Jewish radicals saying the temple will be built, a reference to a far-right fringe call to build a third temple on the sacred grounds.

Prime Minister Netanyahu insists he is committed to keeping the status quo. But under his government, the most far right in Israel's history, extremist voices are growing louder and stronger. All this makes an already extremely contentious place ever more of a tinderbox. One event here can and has sparked deadly cycles of violence across the region.

Al-Aqsa is seen as a political symbol as well as a religious one by the Arab world. The complex lies in the heart of east Jerusalem, which most of the international community considers to be under Israeli occupation, but which Israel sees as part of its united capital.

Al-Aqsa is our life. It is the breath we breathe, he says. It is an ideology that we carry in our minds.

We enter the Dome of The Rock, an area designated for women to witness the afternoon prayer. Some go to great links to get here, passing multiple checkpoints. But they tell us they find some peace when they arrive.

Of course, I don't feel safe, she tells me, and everything can change in an instant, so I'm always scared, but I'm here because I have faith in God.

This prayer passed peacefully as most do, but here, even quiet worship is not a guarantee.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABDELAZIZ (on camera): I think what's interesting about being inside those prayer halls, as I was yesterday, is that those women were leaving the politics at the door. This for them is a spiritual place. But this is a region where religion and politics are always intertwined.

And as I emphasized in that report, Prime Minister Netanyahu has repeatedly said that he has committed to the status quo. But in such tense times and with escalating tensions and the most far right government in Israel's history, any perceived shift in that status quo agreement could lead to yet another cycle of violence.

[04:10:04]

NOBILO: Salma Abdelaziz, thank you so much for your sensitive reporting and for that wonderful piece.

Next on the CNN NEWSROOM, four Americans who were kidnapped in Mexico, only two of them made it home. CNN speaks exclusively with the survivors of a horrific crime in a Mexican border town.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LATAVIA WASHINGTON MCGEE, AMERICAN KIDNAPPED IN MEXICO: They had police scanners and all types of stuff in their trucks, so --

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: So, they were listening to police, so they knew --

WASHINGTON MCGEE: Yes, they what was going on. They always was a step ahead.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NOBILO: Two Americans who survived a deadly kidnapping in Matamoros, Mexico, are describing their frightening ordeal and the deaths of two of their companions in the exclusive interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper. You'll remember that cartel members took Latavia Washington McGee, Eric Williams, Shaeed Woodard and Zindell Brown at gunpoint shortly after the four arrived in the border town where McGee was supposed to have plastic surgery.

McGee says Woodward and Brown were fatally shot as they tried to run and said that she was held in a room with Brown as he died. It was later when she and Williams were finally freed a few days after a man came in and told them they had all been taken by mistake. They say if the kidnappers hadn't let them go, the police never would have found them.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WASHINGTON MCGEE: They had police scanners and all types of stuff in their trucks. So --

COOPER: So they were listening to police.

WASHINGTON MCGEE: Yes.

COOPER: So, they knew --

WASHINGTON MCGEE: They knew what was going on. They always was a step ahead. ERIC WILLIAMS, AMERICAN KIDNAPPED IN MEXICO: Right.

WASHINGTON MCGEE: So, I was like, they're never going to find us like this.

COOPER: So, you're in that location now together, reunited. You're there until Monday, you said?

WASHINGTON MCGEE: Yes.

COOPER: And then what happened?

WASHINGTON MCGEE: A guy came in Saturday night. Saturday night, sometime after, we end up falling asleep. But I just know I felt like it was dark in the room we was at. So, when I rolled over, I could have see somebody standing at the door with a phone light.

[04:15:00]

And he was like, can you all get up? Can I talk to you all?

He was like there's nothing that we can do to bring your two brothers back. He was like, but we're sorry. Somebody made the wrong call. They was high and drunk. And I'm from America, too. And he said, I'm fighting with my boss for him to give you all up.

He's like, I don't know how I'm going to do this, but we're going to try to get you all back home to you all family. And he's like, I'm sorry. There's no worries. There's nothing we can do to repay you. You know, he just -- basically, he kept saying he's sorry.

He's like, when I give you all up, I'm going to leave too, because they going to kill me from letting you all go. And he said, well, I'm going to come back Sunday and get you all. But he didn't come back until Monday.

COOPER: He comes back on --

WASHINGTON MCGEE: Monday.

COOPER: -- Monday and says what?

WASHINGTON MCGEE: They just blindfolded us and -- blindfolded us. They blindfolded him. They took me out first. They put me in the back of the truck. And --

WILLIAMS: Yes.

WASHINGTON MCGEE: -- they put the seat down and pushed me through to the front. Then they brought Eric and put him in the back and put Shaeed and Zindell in the back with him too.

WILLIAMS: Their bodies all the top of me to hide me.

WASHINGTON MCGEE: They kept driving us all night. And they -- you could have hear them cocking the gun, stopping at different little intersections and stuff like that. I was thinking -- he's telling us he was getting away from his boss. But as I hear the scanners, I think it was the police, like maybe getting closer to us or something like that. And they just kept dodging us.

So, they rode us around to like 3:00 in the morning before they dropped us off at that check that we was found in.

COOPER: So, you tried to get out from that shack?

WASHINGTON MCGEE: I did.

WILLIAMS: We did.

COOPER: You did. That's real trauma, what you have been through. How do you deal with that afterward?

WILLIAMS: To hear your brother, somebody who's your friend, who you call a brother, tell you they love you and you're never going to see them again.

WASHINGTON MCGEE: And watching them fight for their life, and there's nothing you can do.

WILLIAMS: Do about it. Yeah.

COOPER: You tried to escape twice. I mean, what was behind that?

WASHINGTON MCGEE: For my brothers to have the proper burial and for us to go back home to our family and kids.

COOPER: That's what you want -- that was important. Not only to get home for your kids, but to --

WASHINGTON MCGEE: To give them proper burial. Yes, because they didn't deserve that.

WILLIAMS: None of us.

WASHINGTON MCGEE: None of us deserved it. But we realized we have a lot of recovery to do.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NOBILO: At least five suspects have been arrested in connection with the kidnapping.

Italy has declared a state of emergency to try and deal with surge of migrants making a dangerous journey across the Mediterranean Sea. So far this year, more than 31,000 migrants have arrived and more rescues are still underway.

Barbie Nadeau joins me now from Rome with more. Barbie, from a western perspective when we see these treacherous journeys and also governments making conditions less and less welcoming for these migrants to arrive, you wonder what could be driving them to make these decisions. Talk us through that.

BARBIE NADEAU, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, you know, I mean, that is the big question. We've got sort of two paths going on here. There are a lot of people coming from Tunisia -- or through Tunisia, I should say. And, you know, we're looking at the geopolitical situation there that you know, really pushing people out to sea to risk their lives.

Then you have the more traditional route from Libya. These are people who have traveled across Africa trying to get into Europe through Libya. And on the back of this, of course, you've got the multi billion dollar business of human trafficking and smuggling. So, you've got people that are desperate, who are so desperate to find a better life. You've got smugglers promising them, you know, any matter of success story, and that is sort of a deadly combination.

And as you said, you know, they are not welcome. A lot of people will not apply -- will not really be able to get political asylum. And you know the state of emergency is going to make it even easier for Italy to repatriate people who don't qualify for political asylum. It's going to make it easier to put up, you know, some sort of temporary housing.

The conditions in which people are staying right now are atrocious. We've seen the center in Lampedusa -- that's that tiny little island close to the North African shore. Closest to Tunisia and the hotspot center is made, you know, a capacity of 400 people, and they've got almost 2,000 people there. People sleeping in the rough. You know, you can't even begin to imagine the difficult situations, the reports we're hearing out of there.

But this is only, you know, early April. These numbers are four times higher than they were last year and the year before at this time. And Georgia Meloni we've got to remember won the election in September on an anti-immigration platform. She promised to stop the boats from arriving. She promised to push back. Now she's calling a state of emergency. So, there's a lot of pressure on the Italian government here, too. She's asking Europe for help.

[04:20:00]

But she feels, as much of the Italian government does, that that request is falling on deaf ears -- Bianca.

NOBILO: Barbie Nadeau in Rome for us. Thank you.

A water crisis is brewing the major cities in the Western U.S. What the Biden administration is considering to keep the water flowing -- just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NOBILO: As early as today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is expected to release strict new federal emissions standards which would move the U.S. car market decisively towards electric vehicles over the next decade. The likely new rules would ensure that by 2030 to as many as two thirds of the new car sales in the United States would be electric vehicles. Meanwhile the state of California is proposing that 70 percent of its new vehicle sales be zero emissions by 2030 and other states are planning to follow suit.

New analysis from the Biden administration shows Western cities, including Los Angeles and Las Vegas, could soon face huge cuts in their water supply. Water levels in the Colorado River and several major lakes have been falling in recent years due to drought and overuse.

[04:25:00]

The crisis could mean a cut in hydroelectric power and less water for drinking and agriculture for millions of people. A final decision on the cuts is expected this summer.

Now, for some stories trending this hour. Democrats have announced that they will hold their 2024 National Convention in Chicago. The Democratic National Committee called the greater Midwest a critical stronghold for Democrats that helped Joe Biden win the 2020 presidential election. Chicago beat out Atlanta and New York for hosting this. The convention will be held in August next year.

Republicans previously announced they'll gather in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a month earlier for their national convention.

People in Taiwan are rushing to grab a patch that shows a black bear, as you can see punching Winnie the Pooh. The black bear represents Taiwan, while the fictional character Winnie the Pooh has been a mocking reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping for some time now. These patches have been available since last year, but they've exploded in popularity after China carried out military drills around Taiwan. Air Force pilots were seen wearing these patches on television and now its creator says he's had to order more to keep up with the demand.

And is "Stranger Things" star Millie Bobby Brown, now engaged to her partner and actor Jake Bongiovi. The couple posted this picture on social media on Tuesday. Where Brown can be seen wearing a large ring on her engagement finger. The two have been together since 2021. And earlier this year, Brown referred to Bongiovi as her partner for life. Bongiovi Is the son of rock legend Bon Jovi.

And that does it here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Bianca Nobilo in London. "EARLY START" with Christine Romans is next.

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