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Fighting Continues In Sudan Hours After Ceasefire Was To Begin; Settlement Reached In Dominion Defamation Lawsuit Against Fox News; Beijing Hospital Fire Death Toll Rises To 29, Director Detained; Putin, Zelenskyy Rally Troops For Next Phase In Ukraine War; Brazil Police Carry Out More Raids As Part Of January 8 Riots Probe; President Diaz-Canel Expected to Secure Second Term; U.N.: Restrictions on Women Will Hurt Afghan Economy; U.S. Senate Details Nazi-Linked Accounts at Credit Suisse; Japan to Release Treated Radioactive Wastewater into Ocean; Snooker Protest. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired April 19, 2023 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:00:27]
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead this hour on CNN Newsroom, the ceasefire that level was. Heavy gunfire and artillery strikes rock Sudan's capital as a 24-hour truce was meant to begin. U.N. now warning of a catastrophic humanitarian crisis across Sudan.
Split screen machismo, the Ukrainian and Russian prisons being separate journeys to meet their troops not far from the dangerous frontlines.
And hey, what could possibly go wrong? Japan said that more than a million cubic tons of radioactive wastewater from the defunct Fukushima nuclear power plant directly into the Pacific Ocean.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from CNN Center. This is CNN Newsroom with John Vause.
VAUSE: Thanks for being with us. It seems a 24 hour truce in Sudan ended before it even began, with reports of no lead had been fighting, despite two rival generals locked in a power struggle for control of the country agreeing to a ceasefire.
Witnesses reported gunfire and explosions around the Army General Command building as well as the presidential palace Tuesday. The World Health Organization says at least 270 people have been killed since the fighting began five days ago.
Students trapped at the University of Khartoum for several days escaped on Tuesday with the help of the armed forces. Many aid groups have suspended operations after their facilities were looted.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FARID AIYWAR, IFRC HEAD OF DELEGATION FOR SUDAN: The truth is that at the moment, it is almost impossible to provide any humanitarian services in and around Khartoum. They are called from various organization and people trapped asking for evacuation. For the past four days, people have been now to vote over food. Electricity has been rationed in some places totally disconnected.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Doctors in Sudan report at least six hospitals have been targeted by both sides during the conflict, food, water are running low as residents in the capital describe a chaotic see.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP))
HADEEL MOHAMED, ARCHITECT: I'm at a point right now where I'm worrying every night if people are going to come walk into the house trying to take whatever food we have and whatever money we have and that's been happening all around Khartoum.
And I can't really tell you which group is doing this, but it's also very, it's the longer this war loss, the longer we're going to have people starve and people go through situations where now they have to steal and they have to try to really live.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Abdalla Hussein joins us live from Nairobi, Kenya. He's the Doctors Without Borders operational manager for Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, and Liberia. So, Abdalla, thanks so much for being with us.
ABDALLA HUSSEIN, DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS OPERATIONAL MANAGER FOR SUDAN: Thank you for having me.
VAUSE: I want you to listen to the head of the World Health Organization. He spoke about the current dangers now facing aid and medical workers in Sudan, especially in the Capitol. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR TEDROS ADHANOM GHEBREYESUS, DIRECTOR-GENERAL, WHO: There are disturbing reports of some health facilities being looted, and others being used for military purposes. It's also reported that some hospitals are already closed, or on the brink of closure due to attacks and the lack of medical personnel and medical supplies.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: So clearly, right now, for medical workers, it's very dangerous to be in Sudan, very dangerous to do their jobs, but is being made even more dangerous because hospitals are being targeted. Does that still happening? Hospitals still coming under fire by these rival military factions?
HUSSEIN: Yes. Thank you very much for having me. Yes, the hospitalist has been targeted, and some of them accidentally. According to the information we have in Khartoum, 50 percent of the hospitals have been out of action in the first 72 hours. And this is because either the staff were not feeling safe to go there. Or the hospitals themselves have been subjected to a shelling or bumping.
VAUSE: So just to confirm half the hospitals in the capital, you say are no longer operational?
HUSSEIN: Yes.
VAUSE: The director the World Health Organization also mentioned hospitals were on the brink of closure because of a lack of medical supplies. So, are there supplies in country which can't be delivered safely, while supplies just running low in general?
HUSSEIN: Yes, at the moment, one of the major issue that we are facing is exactly that. The hospitals the supplies to hospitals, the personnel to reach hospitals is very difficult because the fighting was very intense in Khartoum in the first days.
[01:05:02]
Yesterday it was a little bit better but still the fighting was happening in some hours of the day. This means that patients are not able to go to hospitals, staff themselves are not able to those that were off duty to reach hospitals. And the staff that are working on hospitals are running out of -- are exhausted, their supplies are diminishing. And the water, electricity has been an issue in Khartoum.
Doctors Without Borders operates in all over the country. We had programs before this violence has started. And some of our -- most of our programs somewhere suspended because we -- our staff are not feeling safe to go to the workplace.
In others, we are receiving a wounded led project in Nurdakur (ph) and Al Fashir where we run -- where we support the Ministry of Health Hospital. In the first 72 hours, we had 183 patients arriving wounded civilians arriving to that hospital. This is a hospital that was generic caring for maternal health, but all of a sudden repurposed to care for wounded.
VAUSE: Egypt's Foreign Minister spoke Tuesday on the role of Sudan regional neighbors can play in trying to end this crisis. Here he is. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SAMEH SHOUKRY, EGYPTIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: I think we have to concentrate at this stage and trying to encourage for a peaceful dialogue for an end to the conflict. And we must concentrate our efforts. And we do so in conjuncture and through our communications with various neighboring countries, and also those who have influenced the United States. Our European friends.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: OK, so encouraging peace talks between these two factions, these two generals, that's a good idea. But, you know, is there anything else which the United States and Egypt and other nations could be doing right now to try and improve, you know, what is fast becoming humanitarian crisis across the country?
HUSSEIN: I think what is required today is that the parties to the conflict and the people that can influence them, ensure that the population of Sudan today needs humanitarian aid, the health workers and humanitarian workers also need access, our staff are exhausted working for 72 hours or more working in hospitals trapped, and some of them, we cannot preach them. Because the for example, the capitol where we have in Khartoum cannot do -- the staff cannot sell supplies to the projects we have in the rural areas.
And this is -- this situation cannot wait longer. We need a situation where the health workers today which is the priority to care for wounded have access, and there is a letter (ph) to the conflict. And we also -- we're also calling for a respect of the health facilities for respect of health workers, for (INAUDIBLE) of civilians, because this fighting was happening in urban areas. There is a lot of accidental injuries to the population.
VAUSE: Abdalla, we wish you and all your stuff there in Sudan to be safe. Hopefully, this will be over sooner rather than later, but does not look like that right now. Thank you so much for being with us.
HUSSEIN: Thank you very much.
VAUSE: Well, the jury was sworn in lawyers ready for those opening statements. But then Fox News blinked, reaching a last minute settlement with Dominion voting systems in the process of avoided what would almost certainly be a week's long, total embarrassment.
Fox agreed to pay almost $800 million to Dominion that half the initial claim for damages. Senior Fox News executives and prominent on air personalities will not be required to testify under oath now about their 2020 election coverage, which was filled with lies, lies and a whole lot more lies about voter fraud, which they knew never existed. CNN's Danny Freeman has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): Just after the judge announced that there was going to be a settlement in this case, I got to say the Dominion attorneys were all smiles today as they left the courthouse and then less the prep -- And then left the press conference telling us that this was a good day for Dominion and a good day for democracy.
Now, this incredibly large settlement of $787 million was actually just less than half of what dominion was initially asking for that $1.6 billion figure but of course, still a sizable number. And I should say there was a lot of lead up actually to the settlement. The jury was sworn in Tuesday morning, opening statements were ready to go 1:30 in the afternoon. But then after a mysterious two and a half hour delay, finally the judge came back and said that there would be a resolution to this case.
The parties came together and they settled and the judge even said to the jury, if you weren't there, the parties probably would not have been able to reach a settlement. In this case, the judge made that announcement and then Dominion came out and take a listen to what some of their attorneys had to say.
JUSTIN NELSON, LAWYER FOR DOMINION VOTING SYSTEMS: The truth does not know red or blue. People across the political spectrum can and should disagree on issues, even of the most profound importance. But for our democracy to endure for another 250 years and hopefully much longer we must share a commitment to facts.
[01:10:09]
FREEMAN: Now in contrast, the attorneys for Fox News, they did not take any questions from the press. They just walked down the street here in Wilmington, but they did release a statement later on saying in part, we are pleased to have reached a settlement of our dispute with Dominion Voting Systems. We acknowledge the court's rulings finding certain claims about Dominion being false. This settlement reflects Fox's continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards.
So again, we're still waiting for certain details about the settlement. But as of now, we do know that Fox does not intend to make any statement on its air about these false claims about dominion. But again, we'll wait and see if that changes in the future. Danny Freeman, CNN, Wilmington, Delaware.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: At least 29 people have died in a hospital fire in Beijing Tuesday, while the deadliest in the city in years. CNN's Kristie Lu Stout live in Hong Kong following us -- following through for us. And, you know, this happened in the middle of the day, right. So there's a lot of black smoke, you know, over the city, everyone can see it. And yet the government senses have been removing online posts about the fire, about these dramatic rescues people playing bedsheets together. So what's the details there? What's going on?
KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, very dramatic scenes and we are learning new details about this disaster and sadly it is taking the lives of more people, at least 29 people died after this fire erupted in a hospital in Beijing. Among the dead 26 patients at Changfeng Hospital, a nurse, a care provider and a family member of a patient.
According to state media this fire broke out on Tuesday around 1:00 pm local time, it was put out about half an hour later, 71 patients were evacuated and at a press event which just wrapped up earlier today a Beijing district officials said that the fire was caused by sparks generated during construction work which ignited combustible paint on site.
Now I want to show you this, this dramatic video of people escaping this deadly fire, one person -- we could bring up the video for you so you can see this -- is seen exiting the hospital through a window using a bedsheet or the person climbs down the window lands on that blue roof like structure walks across it to the rooftop relative safety there in the next building.
Now later on in this clip, this clip has been circulating widely on social media across China and all around the world, we could see others who are in the hospital during this fire on Tuesday attempting to escape. You could see them just balancing themselves perching perilously on these external air conditioning units that are outside. They're there waiting to be rescued. And we were not able to confirm what happened to them. CNN does not know whether these people were rescued or not.
This hospital fire is one of the most deadly in Beijing in recent years as surpasses the death toll from that fire in the Daxing district of Beijing and 2017 that killed 19 people. The fire took place in this cramped building for migrant workers. And it prompted authorities to crack down and demolish illegal buildings.
And according to state media, the Communist Party secretary for Beijing visited the site of the hospital fire and he said this, let's bring up the statement for you, quote, the fire is heartbreaking. The lesson is extremely profound. It sounded the alarm for us, reminding us that the string of safe production cannot be loosened even for a moment and the elimination of fire hazards cannot be stopped for a moment, unquote.
But official Chinese media didn't report on the fire until many hours after was extinguished. And that has prompted widespread criticism and even anger on social media. I'm going to share this with you it's from one user on Weibo saying this quote, the incident happened after 12:00 p.m., not a single media outlet reported on the breaking news at the time. Nearly 10 hours later after 9:00 p.m. they started to release standardized press releases. The media has now basically become copy machines for standardized press releases, unquote. A hospital fires, I want to add are rare in China. Back to you, John.
VAUSE: Kristie, thank you. Kristie Lu Stout there live for us in Hong Kong. Appreciate it. Search and rescue operation continue this era partially collapsed parking garage in lower Manhattan. At least one person was killed for others heard.
Well, an official investigation continues. Early indications are the weight from cars parked on the roof as well as the age of the building contributed to the collapse. With the structure unstable search team set in a robotic dog and drone to look for anyone who may still be trapped in the debris.
When we come back, who's the toughest and bravest president of all? The leaders of Russia and Ukraine both meeting with troops in the frontlines. So did Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, what did they want to achieve?
Also had detained American journalists Evan Gershkovich heads to court in Moscow the first time he's been seen publicly since his arrest. Details on his appeal to leave prison while he awaits trial.
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[01:16:57]
VAUSE: With a political stalemate on the battlefield, it seems the presidents of Ukraine and Russia are trying for a win and the which leader has more machismo than the other. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy traveled to a besieged city in the East surrounded on three sides by Russian forces, or Russian President Vladimir Putin visited occupied areas of Kherson and Luhansk directly asking senior commanders their thoughts on where the Russian offensive stance. More details on these very different trips from CNN's Nick Paton Walsh.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR (voiceover): Two presidents, two different kinds of frontline visit. Rival leaders in Russia's war on Ukraine seeking to bolster troops and in battle territory facing very different problems.
President Putin making a rare trip outside of Russia to the partially occupied region of Kherson in video released by the Kremlin, he's pictured meeting senior commanders Monday.
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): It is important for me to listen to you to hear your views to compare notes.
WALSH: Who he talks to is also important, apparently meeting a commander of elite paratroopers in what Western analysts say could be a bit to shore up their morale.
Any day now, Ukraine is expected to launch a counter offensive pretty much in the direction of where he's standing. Putin also stopping in Luhansk also under pressure, and just last week shifted on to Moscow timezone as Russia continues to assimilate places its war is ravaging.
Kyiv officials quick to seize on the visit to portray a person indicted for war crimes returning to the scene describing the trip as a special tour of the occupied and destroyed territories by a mastermind of mass murderers to save a one last time the crimes committed by his people.
Zelenskyy perhaps enduring greater risk in his less rare journey to some of the worst hit parts of the Eastern Front. Visiting the almost completely destroyed town of Avdiivka handing out awards to troops. It won't yet be clear if he boosted morale enough to hold back the Russian forces now on three sides of the town.
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Things happen thanks to you. Take care. Our future depends on you.
WALSH: Ukraine's losses are mounting. Some of the injured visited by Zelenskyy in Donetsk region too. Recent leaked documents apparently from the Pentagon suggested over 15,000 Ukrainian troops were dead and that they might run out of key air defense systems in the coming weeks.
If Kyiv hopes its better equipment cause and planning may see success in this vital counter offensive. Two presidents, two wildly different souls on one war still without end. Nick Payton WALSH, CNN, Eastern Ukraine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: A follow down on a confession for a former Russian convict turned mercenary for the Wagner group after admitting he murdered children in Ukraine he now says he never did it.
[01:20:07]
He (INAUDIBLE) human rights activists in our video interview that he murdered children and other civilians on orders from the head of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin. That commander has since spoken to a Russian news agency linked to Prigozhin and says he was drunk when he gave the interview being blackmailed into admitting the killings, tells the agency quote, Prigozhin is a great guy.
Russia's lower house of parliament has voted in favor of a bill that would allow life sentences for those convicted of high treason. That's coming from Russian state media. Right now the maximum sentence of treason in Russia is 20 years. Under Russian law only citizens or those with double citizenship can be charged with high treason.
And according to a new bill, those convicted of sharing state secrets with foreign countries espionage or taking action against the security the Russian Federation will face the possibility of life in prison but it still needs approval by the upper house of the Duma before it can be signed into law that looks like almost certainly.
The bill was proposed earlier this month before Kremlin critic and Russian pretty citizen Vladimir Kara-Murza was sentenced to 25 years in prison for treason. And Moscow court found he discredited the army by publicly condemning Russia's war on Ukraine. Kara-Murza's wife says the husband's delve is getting worse that he has put a neuropathy a condition that can lead to paralysis, and she fears he will have no access to medical care in a Russian prison or coolabah (ph).
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EVGRENIA KARA-MURZA, WIFE OF IMPRISONED KREMLIN CRITIC: He's also a green card holder in the United States and I have been trying to get him determined as unlawfully detained because under the Levingston Act, he -- while he meets all the criteria. And I believe that it is very important for the free world to stand with freedom fighters and like all those people who are standing out against the regime and risking not only the freedom, but very often their lives.
And I believe that if that advocacy could be conducted in the Soviet times, when a relationship -- when the relationship with the Soviet Union was obviously far from being very good. It can definitely be done now. Because when it becomes a question of life and death, everything should be done to save a person's life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich will remain behind bars in a Moscow prison after losing an appeal to change the terms of his detention while he awaits trials on spying charges. More now from CNN's Matthew Chance.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): It's the first glimpse of Evan Gershkovich for weeks. The U.S. reporter accused in Russia of espionage standing arms folded behind the glass courtroom cage even manages a smile for the cameras.
A few journalists call out their support holds strong, one chance. Everyone sends you a big hello the voice says before being hustled away. The court rejected an appeal for bail or for Gershkovich to be kept under house arrest instead of in prison.
Outside his lawyers spoke of how he was holding up behind bars. Reading classic Russian novels one said and watching cooking shows on TV. The U.S. ambassador was far more critical, expressing her concerns at his confinement.
LYNNE TRACY, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO RUSSIA: I can only say how troubling it was to see Evan, an innocent journalist held in these circumstances. The charges against Evan are baseless, and we call on the Russian Federation to immediately release him.
CHANCE: Amid its brutal invasion of Ukraine, Russia has been stepping up its crackdown on free speech and dissent, using the war as cover to silence independent journalism. Or to jail long standing critics like Vladimir Kara-Murza, sentenced to 25 years for treason just this week, after speaking out on the conflict.
VLADIMIR KARA-MURZA, RUSSIAN CRITIC: The war crimes, these are war crimes.
CHANCE: And the pressure is maintained behind bars. Last month, supporters of Alexei Navalny, the jailed Russian anti-corruption campaigner, accused the authorities of poisoning the Kremlin critic again, this time at the penal colony.
Now his lawyers say he's been beaten up in his cell and faces new criminal charges.
That is against this backdrop. Evan Gershkovich remains detained in a Moscow prison, determined says lawyers to defend himself but utterly at the mercy of an increasingly authoritarian Russian state. Matthew Chance, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[01:25:09]
VAUSE: And you heard Matthew Chance mentioned how Alex Varney was beaten in his prison cell, while his lawyer says Navalny refused to enter his cell after a prisoner with quote, hygiene problems was moved there. Navalny apparently dragged that prisoner out of the cell. Prison guards stepped in struck Navalny. He's now facing criminal proceedings over this incident charge Navalny's team disputes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANNA VEDUTA, VICE PRESIDENT, ANTI-CORRUPTION FOUNDATION: The actual line of the physical violence has been crossed with him. So they grabbed him, They kicked him, they beaten him, and then accused him of, you know, doing pretty much the same to the other cellmate which he never did, of course, because he refused to succumb to this barbaric rules and to beat another person. But this is where we are right now. So where the point where they use physical violence against him and once this Pandora's box is open, we cannot rule out that they might smother him or caught him or beat him further and just kill him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Those criminal charges could add another five years to Navalny's sentence, if and when he's found guilty.
Kim Jong-un says North Korea's first spy satellite is ready for launch. The North Korean leader made the announcement during a visit to the National Aerospace headquarters Tuesday with daughter in tow. Pyongyang claimed back in December it finished testing and spy satellite. Kim calls the program indispensable to national security and self-defense.
Cuba's National Assembly will choose the next president in the coming hours and when we come back, why the outcome will not be a cliff aging nail-biter. Also ahead, imprisonment, torture and public floggings just part of these daily life how to tell a bad rule in Afghanistan, and it's set to get worse. We'll explain why when we come back.
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VAUSE: Welcome back, you're watching CNN Newsroom with me, John Vause. Now, federal police in Brazil have carried out new rage tied to the investigation into the January 8 riots. (INAUDIBLE) diehard supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro stoned government buildings to protest the election results. Nearly 1,400 people have been arrested so far. Their alleged crimes ranged from attempting a coup, to cyber- crimes and destruction of government property.
Also Tuesday, Brazil's Supreme Court began voting on whether to hear cases or the first 100 people arrested in connection with the riots.
Cuba's National Assembly why they expected to vote to give President Miguel Diaz-Canel a second term in the coming hours.
[01:29:49]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARLOS ALZUGARAY, FORMER CUBAN DIPLOMAT: There shouldn't be any doubt President Diaz-Canel will be reelected. This term will be a second one and allegedly the last one if it fulfilled what the constitution says. So President Diaz-Canel will have an extra task which is preparing the conditions for who is going to take over for him in 2028.
(END VIDEO CLIP) VAUSE: But even though his reelection seems guaranteed his first term was anything but smooth.
Our man in Havana is Patrick Oppmann.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: For decades, it was a question that obsessed policymakers from Washington to Moscow, who would succeed the Castros once they left power in Cuba.
Only in 2013 did Raul Castro ended speculation by announcing Miguel Diaz-Canel as first vice president and his heir apparent.
Comrade Diaz-Canel isn't an upstart or an improvisation, he says. His trajectory has lasted nearly 30 years. An engineer by training and a longtime communist party bureaucrat, Diaz-Canel in 2018 became president of Cuba, the first head of state on the island since the revolution not named Castro.
But his tenure has been marked by nearly every calamity imaginable. A month after Diaz-Canel took office, Cuba suffered one of the island's worst aviation disasters when a plane operated by the state airline crashed, killing 112 people aboard.
U.S. economic sanctions, many of which were lifted under the Obama administration were renewed with a vengeance by then President Donald Trump. January (ph) shipments of oil from socialist ally Venezuela have waned as that country grapples with its own economic meltdown.
The pandemic shuttered Cuba's tourism industry further worsening already widespread shortages of food and medicines.
Then on July 11th 2021, thousands of Cubans took to the streets in the largest anti government demonstrations since the revolution. Within hours, Diaz-Canel went on state TV to order those still faithful to the government to attack the protesters.
The order to combat has been given, he said. The streets belong to the revolutionaries.
The crackdown on protesters led to more economic sanctions from the Biden administration, which may have only further unified the communist run government.
On Wednesday, Cuba's national assembly will meet and is widely expected to approve a second five year term as president for Diaz- Canel.
ALZUGARAY: This is a city of the siege. This is a country on the siege. And there are many ways in which Americans would look at this, rally around the flag, circle the wagons so. The Cuban government is very good at doing that.
OPPMANN: Diaz-Canel has repeatedly promised that better times are close at hand. But as Cubans leave the island in record numbers, inflation makes food increasingly unaffordable and a worsening energy crisis forces people to wait for days to fill up their cars.
The question many people have here is when
Patrick Oppmann, CNN -- Havana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: The Taliban's weird misogynistic obsession with removing women from public view is said to cost Afghanistan dearly with a new U.N. report predicting international aid will fall dramatically this year which will worsen an already catastrophic economic crisis.
The U.N.'s development agency says if international aid falls by 30 percent then Afghanistan's GDP would contract by 0.4 percent. So far, the unitarian aid plan is only 5 percent funded for this year. Per capita annual incomes could fall to just over $300 next year which should mark a 40 percent drop since a year before the Taliban takeover.
The U.N. warns there will be no escape from poverty without women in the workplace.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ABDALLAH AL DARDARI, U.N. DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME: The engagement continues. We speak to them every day, and we present the numbers that we are presenting to them, showing how detrimental the absence of women in public life, education and work is to the future of the Afghan economy. But at the moment, we don't see any positive response.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Women's rights are among the many policies the Taliban has dismantled since taking power. It's been their obsession. Ordinary Afghanistans (ph) though are also describing on growing brutalities committed by these hardline Islamic rulers.
CNN's Salma Abdelaziz explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He was tortured by the Taliban, he says, just for reporting the truth.
"I was thinking of death every moment. I thought this is the last day of my life," he says.
[01:34:50]
ABDELAZIZ: Last December, 30 Taliban fighters stormed journalist Zabihullah Noori's home in the Afghan city of Taloqan. The men beat him over and over with the butt of their rifles, then arrested him allegedly for publishing anti Taliban propaganda.
"I told them I'm a journalist. I report the truth, whether that's against the Taliban or anyone else, but they wouldn't stop," he says. They said call your mother so she can hear you scream.
As the Taliban seized control in the summer of 2021 thousands of terrified families flocked to the Kabul Airport, desperate to escape what they knew of the group's barbaric rules.
But the Taliban vowed reform, pledging to be more progressive than their last time in power. Instead the group quickly fell back on its old playbook, rule by fear, repress without mercy.
The group ordered judges to fully impose its extremist interpretation of Islamic law. That includes public executions, floggings and amputations.
And in December, it carried out the first known public execution. An alleged murderer was shot three times in a public square. And over the course of just two months, the Taliban carried out floggings against more than 180 men, women and children, according to the U.N.
Like this one. The secretly recorded video shows a Taliban militant flogging a man in a football stadium. Other accused criminals await their punishment with onlookers in the stands.
Any perceived dissent against their rule is met with brutality.
Xhaferi (ph) agreed to speak to CNN on condition of anonymity. He was imprisoned by the group for allegedly joining an anti Taliban military alliance, a charge he denies.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He shoved a water pipe down my throat. They tied a bag around my head, he says. They sat on my belly and ordered me to confess that I am a member of the resistance forces.
After four months of torture in detention Xhaferi was released, he now lives in hiding. His repeated attempts to flee Afghanistan have failed.
Countless Afghans have attempted the same, risking their lives to find safety away from their brutalized homeland, a perilous journey that has claimed many lives. Like that of Afghan female journalist Torpekai Amarkhel. She was among more than 60 migrants who drowned at sea when their ship sank off the coast of Italy.
Fortunately Noori has made it out alive with his family after his release. Now a refugee in Pakistan, he still lives in fear.
"I'm not safe in Pakistan," he said. "Anything can happen here. Anything." But those left behind remain hopeful that the international community will hear their pleas even if raising their voice means risking their lives.
Salma Abdelaziz, CNN -- London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: CNN has reached out to the Taliban for a response on the claims of detention and torture. Haven't received a response yet.
Still ahead from bad to really, really, really bad for Credit Suisse. Not only did the bank reportedly keep accounts linked to Nazis but also tried to hide those accounts from investigators.
[01:48:27]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Corporate default on debt has surged globally in the first three months of this year, compared to any quarter since late 2020 during the pandemic. Defaulting firms include Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in the U.S.
The figures were released in a report by credit rating agency Moody's. Many firms have been hit hard by a mix of rising interest rates, high energy prices and a gloomy economic outlook.
The top shareholder at HSBC is calling on the global banking giant to break up. Michael Huang (ph) says the bank should create a separately listed Asian business headquarters in Hong Kong to better compete with its rivals.
The demand comes just weeks before a shareholders meeting where (INAUDIBLE) could force the bank to come up with a plan to spin off or restructure its Asian businesses. But HSBC says a breakup would result in significant losses.
One of Switzerland's oldest banks is accused of failing to disclose its relationships with high ranking Nazi officials. Two reports from the U.S. Senate Budget Committee detailing how Credit Suisse maintained accounts of Nazis well beyond the Second World War.
CNN's Tom Foreman has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This report out of the Senate committee is really a lightning bolt aimed at Credit Suisse which is already struggling with a lot of things right now. Essentially what it is saying is that they believe that Credit Suisse did have dealings with a lot of people with ties to the Nazi regime in South America, specifically Argentina.
Among things identified according to the key findings from the senate committee were 21 accounts from a list of notorious high level Nazis with Credit Suisse including one that belonged to a Nazi commander who was sentenced at Nuremberg, another belonging to an SS commander who was convicted, maintained accounts belonging to a German executive who was tried and acquitted at Nuremberg and a Nazi scientist who was imprisoned, a senior SS officer and on and on it goes.
Basically what the senate is saying is look, we read a report of where this investigation was going, and this is what we see in that report. It gets complicated at this point because the report was being done by Credit Suisse based on leads given to them by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and they were moving forward with this.
And then they changed their direction on this. There were some limits involved. The ombudsman who was in charge of all of this, he gets pushed out. He wrote this report and the senate subpoenaed that report.
Credit Suisse says look, there's a problem here. What you have gives an incomplete picture of where we stand in all of this. It says we are aware of the account of the former ombudsman's limited engagement containing numerous factual errors, misleading and gratuitous statements and unsupported allegations that are based on an incomplete understanding of the facts. The bank strongly rejects these misrepresentations.
Well the ombudsman himself has come out and said that he has a statement where he essentially says, look, this decision for them to basically stop the review midstream and Credit Suisse leaves a lot of misunderstandings in place. It does not answer questions about the thoroughness of the review.
The result of all this, which may be the only part that really matters right now is that Credit Suisse has agreed to continue looking at these accounts, continue looking at maybe if there were accounts to Nazis or Nazi sympathizers somehow that were tied up in their dealings there and whether anything can or should be done about that.
That with the senate's urging, nonetheless, the senate's urging did keep what looked like it might have simply been a dead issue. It kept it very much alive and moving into the future.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Our thanks to Tom Foreman for that report from Washington.
YouTube is changing its policy on content which deals with eating disorders. The platform already removed any content glorifying or promoting eating disorders. Now it will also prohibit anything showing purging after eating as well as extreme calorie counting.
YouTube says it will allow videos about recovering from eating disorders to stay on the site. But that will be limited to users who are logged on and are over 18 years old.
The changes come as social media platforms have faced increased scrutiny for their effects on the mental health of users, especially young people, especially young women.
[01:44:53]
VAUSE: When the Tokyo Electric Power Company says trust us, well many have good reason to ask really -- why. But now the company who owns Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant says there's nothing to worry about a million cubic tons of radioactive waste water being pumped into the Pacific. Well, that'll do it.
Plus activists disrupt the world global snooker championship. The latest in a series of protests impacting live competition.
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VAUSE: Welcome back.
11 Indonesian fishermen are now safe after being stranded on an Australian island for nearly a week without food or water. Their boats were destroyed last week by tropical cyclone Ilsa. That's according to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority.
They wound up stuck on the small island of Bedroll off Australia's northwestern coast. The fishermen were luckily spotted by an Australian border force aircraft during a planned surveillance flight. Authorities say at least eight other people from another fishing boat still unaccounted for.
Temperature records are being shattered as a sweltering heat wave hits parts of Asia, where the historians say cities in Thailand and Laos reported their hottest days ever on record. But in Myanmar and China, broke April temperature records as well.
The scorching weather is normal for South Asian countries ahead of monsoon season, and for most areas, there's still little relief in sight.
At some point in the next few months, Japan will begin releasing more than one million tons of treated radioactive waste water into the Pacific Ocean from the felled Fukushima nuclear plant. The tanks would store the water close to capacity. Three nuclear reactors there melted down after a 9.8 magnitude earthquake 12 years ago.
CNN's Marc Stewart spoke with one fisherman and others who could be directly impacted by all of this.
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MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's just after 9:00 in the morning. The crew of this ship is back in port at the Ona Hama fishing village in Fukushima, Japan.
Kenzaburo Shiga (ph) is a third generation fisherman, starting in elementary school, going on trips with his father. He told me he's happy on the boat, but he faces challenges.
His catch is tested for radiation. That's because the port is around 40 miles from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. In 2011 there was a meltdown here after a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami.
For six years he couldn't fish, told to stay off the water. When he heard he couldn't fish he was sad, disappointed the ocean was off limits.
12 years later, fishermen faced yet another challenge. Treated wastewater that accumulated inside the plant will soon be released into the ocean, a threat to their reputation and way of life.
He says the decision made his blood boil. He wonders why the government made the decision without the consent of the fishermen.
At the time the prime minister said it had to be done to decommission the plant. We wanted to see the plant for ourselves and we were allowed to after agreeing to a strict safety protocol.
This is as close as we can get to reactors one through four. The cleanup work here will take at least 20 more years. We also saw a lab where fish are tested and lots of construction on the water treatment facility.
[01:49:54]
STEWART: Let me show you the tanks behind me row after row enough to fill about 500 Olympic swimming pools. The treated water will be let go gradually through a tunnel that will take it off shore and then eventually into the ocean.
According to the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company, the water has been treated by taking out most of the radioactive particles. It's then diluted with seawater, taking it to a level much lower than the World Health Organization's clean drinking water standard.
An official from the utility told us he recognizes there's distrust because of the past. But they're listening to concerns. He knows not everyone will accept their plan but points out the support they're getting from third parties such as the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Still neighboring countries have expressed concern. Is there a public health risk by releasing this water?
IAN FAIRLIE, RADIOACTIVE CONSULTANT: Yes there is a public health risk. It's relatively low, but the risk exists.
I think that they should store the water so that it decays naturally.
STEWART: While other options were considered, this was seen as the best plan as tanks near capacity.
Japan's Pacific Coast has been a point of pride and promise for fishermen like Kenzaburo. He says he doesn't know what will happen, but hopes leaders won't work against the fishermen.
The water release is expected to begin by the summer, bringing with it more years of anxiety and uncertainty.
Marc Stewart, CNN -- Fukushima, Japan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Earlier I spoke with Jeffrey Lewis, the director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Military Institute of International Studies.
He says while Japan's plan is not unprecedented. The most difficult part will be winning the trust of residents after past fumbles and mistakes involving the power plant operators.
Here's part of our conversation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEFFREY LEWIS, DIRECTOR, EAST ASIA NONPROLIFERATION PROGRAM: There is no really good way to dispose of this waste water. And so it's -- it's not unusual to release it into the ocean once it's been treated and try to dilute it. But you have to do it right and one of the challenges I think we face is that there are these long standing questions about whether TEPCO does things right.
So you know, this is really one of those situations where I think you want to measure twice and cut once and really proceed very, very carefully.
VAUSE: Greenpeace has similar concerns as well, especially when it comes to that treatment process while adding this. "Viable alternatives to discharge specifically long term storage and processing have been ignored by the Japanese government.
Why ignore any option here? Why does it always seem to be the same plan dump the toxic whatever it is into the ocean, walk away and pretend it never happened.
LEWIS: Well I think that the kind of the fundamental outlook for this kind of thing is reflected in the thing that nuclear engineers say which is the solution is dilution. So this is a -- this is a long established practice. And I think it's very hard to get people to consider alternatives when we typically go about something in the same way.
I think TEPCO ultimately doesn't want to be responsible for keeping this water. They want to be rid of it. And I think you can if you do it, right, dispose of the water in this way, but then it gets back to this fundamental issue, which is, I think that there has been a real loss of trust in TEPCO because you know, frankly, the decisions that they made put us in the position that we have this accident in the first place.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Our thanks to Jeffrey Lewis there for that conversation.
Now the World Snooker Championship in England on Monday was disrupted by environmental activists, the latest event to be targeted.
"CNN WORLD SPORT'" Don Riddell has details on the stunt. And why these protests are becoming a pattern.
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DON RIDDELL, CNN WORLD SPORT ANCHOR: We will have to watch live sport because it is so unpredictable. But these days, the drama isn't necessarily confined just to the players in the arena. On Monday, the World Snooker Championship in Sheffield was interrupted by a protester who jumped up onto the table and released a packet of orange powder paint.
At the same time, another protester was trying to glue herself to a different snooker table. Both were arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and play on one of the tables was delayed until the next day.
The disruption was claimed by the climate change protest movement Just Stop Oil, which has targeted other sports events before during a premier league match between Everton and Newcastle last year, a protester solemnly zip tied himself to the goalpost.
[01:54:52]
RIDDELL: The group is trying to draw attention to the climate change crisis and is campaigning to prevent new oil and gas exploration. One of the snooker protesters, Eddie Whittingham was quoted by the Just Stop Oil campaign as saying quote "I don't want to be disrupting something that people enjoy. But we're facing an extremely grave situation. Europe is experiencing its worst drought in 500 years. We're seeing mass crop failure right now. We're facing mass starvation, billions of refugees and civilizational collapse if this continues.
Sports events are an obvious target for protesters because they are televised live to millions of people. But this group and other protest movements have also found that attacking, for example, famous works of art can draw just as much attention.
Their tactics have often been criticized though. Six protesters were found guilty of risking serious harm to Formula One drivers and race marshals during a track invasion at the British Grand Prix last year.
They claimed they followed a careful safety plan and were ultimately spared jail.
Seven time world champion Lewis Hamilton's later supported them, he said quote, "I love that people are fighting for the planet and we need more people like them.
However he also said that protests should be done safely. The track protest shows that they're going to extra -- increasingly extreme lengths to make their voices heard, and it stirs memories of the suffragette Emily Davison, who fought for a woman's right to vote early in the 20th century.
She died after entering the track at Epsom racecourse, having been hit by the king's horse. Historians have debated whether or not her actions at Tottenham Corner that day were a form of protest, but the suffragette movement was vitally important and history remembers it favorably.
We can only wonder how will view the sports disruptors one day in the future.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: "CNN WORLDSPORT's" Don Riddell there.
Well, they say the camera never lies. But one artist is proving we shouldn't always believe what we see. Unreal though. This photo won at prestigious Sunny World Photography Award, just one problem. It is not real. German Artist Boris Eagleson (ph) turned down the prize revealing the image was created using artificial intelligence. He hopes his stunt will spark a discussion about the future of photography.
He added this. I applied as a cheeky monkey. Whatever that means. To find out if the competitions are prepared for AI images to enter and they are not.
What happens when galaxies collide? I've often wondered. Here's a glimpse. The starburst was triggered by two galaxies crushing into one another, 250 million light years away. The latest images from NASA's Webb telescope.
The collision generated an infrared glow that contains the light of more than one trillion suns. By comparison, the Milky Way galaxy as we like to call it home as a luminosity that's the equivalent of about 10 billion suns.
Let me know if you know the difference between the two.
Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM.
I'm John Vause. Please stay with us. My friend and colleague Rosemary Church picks up our coverage after a very short break.
Hope to see you right back here tomorrow.
[01:57:50]
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