Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

CNN International: More Than 1,000 Foreign Nationals Evacuated on Sunday from Sudan; Biden Expected to Announce Run for Second Term This week; Snowmelt in Midwest Could Result in Major Flooding; Ukraine Not Confirming Reports on Dnipro River Crossing; G7, Russia Haggling Over Future of Grain Deal. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired April 24, 2023 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

BIANCA NOBILO, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and a warm welcome to our viewers joining us in the United States and all around the world. I'm Bianca Nobilo.

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Max Foster joining you live from London. Just ahead on CNN NEWSROOM.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Evacuations from the Sudanese capital was launched from here in Djibouti, a multinational effort led by the United States.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We really fear that once a lot of the internationals have left, then the fighting will really ramp up.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Biden is expected to make his reelection bid official this week.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you take Biden and your face them up against Trump, Biden leads that match up by three points.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nobody knows what's happening. So, it's the first instinct is the plane's going to blow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Live from London. This is CNN NEWSROOM with Max Foster and Bianca Nobilo.

FOSTER: It is Monday, April 24th 9:00 a.m. here in London, 10:00 a.m. in Sudan, where a growing number of foreign nationals are being evacuated as fighting rages between rival military factions. Over the past day, more than 1,000 people have been pulled out by various countries. Spain airlifted about 100 of them in a military plane as you can see from these images.

NOBILO: These evacuations come as the conflict in Sudan enters its 10th day. More than 400 people have been killed, including at least one American. The U.S. is now trying to help its private citizens leave the country after it evacuated dozens of embassy workers and their families over the weekend. CNN's Oren Liebermann has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Evacuation operations are never conducted under optimal circumstances, and that was certainly the case once again when it comes to the evacuation of the U.S. Embassy in Sudan over the weekend. Three Chinook helicopters, some of the largest in the U.S. military for heavy lift flew from Djibouti, some 750 or more miles across Ethiopia into Sudan, landing at Khartoum at the U.S. Embassy, securing the Embassy with 100 special operations forces on board those helicopters.

Then getting everybody on board that includes diplomatic staff, family members and some nationals of other countries. And then getting them out safely, refueling in Ethiopia and continuing on the way to Djibouti. All of the members of the staff there, the family members as well, evacuated safely on those military aircraft.

Of course, the risk was that this ceasefire, which both of the warring parties had committed to, would fall apart. And we already know there were violations of it, and it seems tenuous at best. But that was a real risk. However, U.S. officials who brief report others after the operation itself, said that the helicopters did not come under fire on their way in or on their way out.

Of course, the more difficult question now, what happens to some 16,000 or more American citizens who remain in Sudan, many of them dual nationals, so Sudanese American. The State Department confirmed that it did reach out to at least some of them to inform them of convoys arranged by the UAE and Turkey to try to get out of Khartoum and either exit through Port Sudan or try to cross some of the land borders. Meanwhile DoD is considering setting up some sort of surveillance of the land routes out of the country. And is considering also trying to set up a deconfliction mechanism as it watches very closely the situation even as it deteriorates in Sudan.

Oren Liebermann, CNN at the Pentagon.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NOBILO: CNN's Stephanie Busari joins us now with the latest. Stephanie, what more can you tell us about what evacuations are being planned for private citizens, but also about the state of affairs for all of the Sudanese that are trapped in Khartoum essentially that might not have any of these options.

STEPHANIE BUSARI, CNN SENIOR EDITOR, AFRICA: Sure, good morning, Bianca. We're entering day 10 of this crisis and fighting has slowed down this morning and we -- coming out of the ceasefire that was very fragile, indeed and kind of hampered evacuation efforts. But those are now ongoing and the power lines are down in Sudan currently, and we're told that electricity and water is slowly coming back to some parts of the capital Khartoum. But many Sudanese there's a growing sense of anger, growing sense of

abandonment as these foreign nationals -- they're watching countries fly into take out their citizens and they feel abandoned. Who is coming to save us? Many are asking. The situation remains desperate.

[04:05:00]

Hospitals -- about 70 percent of the hospitals in the capital are not providing medical treatment and the ones that are just giving first aid. And people are still living under, you know, heavy fire -- fire fighting, so there's a sense that there's a kind of dichotomy in this in the way that these evacuations are planned out. And some Sudanese are taking the matter into their own hands and boarding very risky journeys to go to neighboring countries such as Egypt. And we're hearing reports of people being turned down -- turned back at borders or just facing difficulty trying to get out of the country.

And one unintended consequence that we've been hearing about of foreign embassies shutting down is that people have applied for visas who have their passports stuck in this place are now effectively stranded and can't get their travel documents to get out of the country --Bianca.

NOBILO: Stephanie Busari for us in Lagos. Thank you.

FOSTER: Now will the 2024 U.S. presidential election be deja vu all over again. Well, it's certainly shaping up that way. President Joe Biden expected to announce he'll run for a second term soon, perhaps this Tuesday. Donald Trump has already announced on the Republican side, and he's casting a large shadow of the other GOP hopefuls.

NOBILO: CNN has learned President Biden is planning to name Julie Chavez Rodriguez, a senior White House adviser to oversee his reelection campaign. She is the granddaughter of the late labor organizer, Cesar Chavez.

But enthusiasm for a second Biden run seems to be lacking. A recent poll shows 52 percent of Democratic voters say they don't want to see Biden run again. CNN White House reporter Kevin Liptak has more on Mr. Biden's expected reelection announcement.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: We do know he's up at Camp David this weekend. He's talking to his team, making some of these final decisions on staffing operations. That sort of thing. If he does make this announcement, I think it does two things. One, kind of the nuts and bolts of it, it unlocks this new fundraising potential for the president, and that's no small thing. This could be potentially a $2 billion campaign, and we do also expect the president to meet with some of his biggest donors at the end of this week.

But the other thing that this would do, is sort of put to rest this ongoing speculation about whether or not he would run. And the president has been saying, you know, for almost two years that he does intend to run. He said, as recently as a week ago that he plans to run, but that hasn't necessarily put all of those doubts to rest.

And you know the main issue with his with President Biden is his age. That is the reason why a lot of people around this country a lot of even Democrats have wondered whether he would go for a second term. If President Biden does run for reelection, he will be asking Americans to get behind the idea of a president serving well into their eighties. That is contributing to what you see in this poll today and what you've seen in polls recently. Is this lack of enthusiasm really for a second Biden term.

This NBC poll today said that 70 percent of Americans think that Biden should not run for office that included 51 percent of Democrats, and that is in line with a lot of other polls. Now we should say that poll also included a majority of Americans who said that President Trump should also not run for president again. So, really, not a lot of it of a lot of enthusiasm for a rematch between these two men. But we will see how this plays out as this week unfolds.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Well, there is this still the big question of who will secure the Republican nomination for next year's election. CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten shows us who is topping the polls right now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Look, if you are looking at the national polling, it's one of two guys, right? It's either the former President Donald Trump, or it's the Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Nobody else is breaking into double digits at this point. Not someone like Nikki Haley. Not someone like Mike Pence. Not someone like Tim Scott.

But at this particular point, look, the former President Donald Trump has a clear advantage over Ron DeSantis. You can see we had two polls that came out this week -- two high quality polls -- one from the "Wall Street Journal," one from NBC News. We see, you know, Donald Trump hovering in the high forties, right, 48 percent in he "Wall Street Journal" poll, 46 percent in the NBC News poll. Ron DeSantis close, but not really all that close, right, down 24 points and one survey, down 15 points in the other. So, you average them together what that's about, 20 points down on average.

Someone like Donald Trump at this particular point of polling where he is, wins the nomination about 3/4 to 4/5 of the time. Someone like Ron DeSantis wins it about a quarter of the time. So, the fact of the matter is when you look at those numbers, Donald Trump is a clear favorite. But Ron DeSantis still has a real shot.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NOBILO: U.S. lawmakers are weighing in on the debate over access to a widely used abortion pill just days after the Supreme Court issued a ruling that keeps mifepristone available for now.

FOSTER: Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who has called for a nation -- a national ban on abortion after 15 weeks, told CNN it's now up to the court to decide whether the Food Drug Administration has gone too far in approving the abortion pill.

[04:10:03]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): Sending the abortion drug through the mail is a big change in how it is provided. In 2000, when it was first approved, you had to have four visits to the doctor in 2021. The Biden administration said you don't have to even consulting position anymore and send it through the mail. Is that safe? Is that -- has as the FDA going too far? Had they used the procedures in place to make such a dramatic change? That's what the court will decide.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar is also weighing in on the issue and is responding to those comments from her Republican colleague.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN, AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN): Senator Graham is bringing up bills from what, the Comstock Act, that was literally passed, Dana, in 1873. That is 10 years before the Yellowstone Prequel, OK. That is at a time when healthcare -- when you were treated for pneumonia through bloodletting. It is back in the age of the pony express. The American people do not want to go backwards. And what I heard today is that Republican leaders in Washington aren't backing down on their opposition to reproductive freedom. They are doubling down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBILO: The abortion rights community has welcomed the Supreme Court's decision to place a hold on the lower court ruling while the appeals process plays out. Those moves stopped restrictions on mifepristone from taking effect.

FOSTER: U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy faces a high stakes week on Capitol Hill. It's been just days since unveiling his sweeping 320- page debt ceiling plan to mixed reactions from his fellow Republicans.

NOBILO: McCarthy will bring the ambitious and divisive plan up for a vote this week amid an ongoing standoff with U.S. President Joe Biden. Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers say the most important thing is avoiding a default on the nation's debt.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA) U.S. HOUSE Speaker: We will hold a vote this week and we will pass and we will send it to the Senate and for more than 80 days where the president has ignored us, called people names for things that he even voted for himself, makes no sense or logic to it. I think as president and the leader of the free world, this is one of the problems. We have challenges around this country and around the world. He needs to show leadership and come to the negotiating table instead of putting us in default.

SEN. DICK DURBIN (D-IL): We don't need to default in this country. If we default on our national debt, it's going to cost our economy dearly. We're going to find businesses unable to proceed and people losing their jobs right left. That is a terrible outcome. So, let's do the responsible thing and not default. Move forward on the debt ceiling. Now we can have a fulsome debate on the budget and we will. And I understand it on the spending levels. But not at the expense of jeopardizing jobs and economic growth in America. Don't default.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: McCarthy is offering to raise the debt limit to prevent a default. But it comes with strings attached. He wants Democrats to commit to spending cuts.

Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence says his legal team has worked out a date to give testimony before the grand jury investigating the aftermath of the 2020 election. Pence revealed the details in an interview released on Sunday but said he couldn't provide a specific date or elaborate any further.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PENCE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think I'm limited about what I can say about the proceedings of the grand jury or the decision of the judge. But people can be confident that we'll obey the law. We'll comply with the law.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: But Pence didn't say whether he's made a decision about running for president next year. But he said if he does, he won't engage in personal attacks on his opponents.

NOBILO: Parts of the U.S. are bracing for some major flooding in the coming days.

FOSTER: Flood warnings and advisories are in effect across the Midwest this week as spring temperatures continue to rise and snow melts across the region. Multiple rivers across the North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota are in major flood stage.

NOBILO: But by the middle to end of this week, dozens of river gauges along the Mississippi River are forecast to be in the major flood stage and expected to cause gradual flooding in the coming weeks.

FOSTER: CNN Meteorologists Allison Chinchar has the latest weather update for us.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It's that time of year again. Temperatures are rising and the snow is melting. The concern is when you get that snow melt rapidly, all of that water ends up flowing into the rivers, creeks and streams. And right now, across the Midwest, we have several river gauges that are already at moderate and even major flood stage across the upper Midwest. But we're going to start to see a lot of that spread further south states like Iowa, Illinois, and even into Missouri, where those river gauges could potentially get up to moderate and even major flood stage by the end of the week.

One specific gauge we're looking at is the Mississippi River at St. Paul. Right now, sitting at about 17.5 ft. that does put this at major flood stage.

[04:15:00]

It is expected to crest Friday, maybe perhaps Saturday of this week at just shy of 19 feet. And while that will cause some local concerns, it's not expected to get to the record crest, which was just over 26 feet. The reason behind all of this melt is all of the snow that is still on the ground across areas of the Midwest, especially after in some cases, a pretty epic snowfall for just specifically the month of April.

All of this is going to end up warming up, melting and flowing back into those rivers, creeks and streams. But in addition to that we also have the potential for some rain by the end of this upcoming week. And while it may not seem like much, one, maybe at most two inches, it's just going to exacerbate a lot of the already ongoing issues for some of these areas where they're already dealing with swollen rivers, creeks and streams.

And temperatures right now are on the cool side, averaging 10 to 15 degrees below average. That's a good thing. That's allowing for this to be a gradual rise of that water across the rivers. But if these temperatures begin to warm back up at the end of the week or into the weekend, we could potentially start to see those rivers rise a little bit more rapidly.

NOBILO: Still to come and trouble in the skies. A jogger looks up and sees flames shooting from the engine of a commercial jetliner. We'll tell you what happened.

FOSTER: What would you do?

And three state lawmakers dubbed the Tennessee three after standing with gun reform protesters are headed to the White House. Details on that coming up.

FOSTER: Plus, the G-7 and Russia are arguing over Ukrainian grain that's critical to the survival of millions of people. Why Moscow is being accused of weaponizing food.

[04:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NOBILO: There's talk of a potentially significant move by Ukrainian forces near the southern city of Kherson. Social media reports suggest that they may have crossed the Dnipro River into Russian held territory.

FOSTER: Ukraine isn't confirming that, but its southern military spokesperson says rather cryptically, everyone is waiting for good news, and they will definitely get it.

CNN's Ben Wedeman is in Kyiv for us with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Ukrainian forces may have crossed the eastern bank of the Dnipro River near the city of Kherson, according to several social media channels. The Institute for the Study Of War has geo located footage that shows Ukrainian troops have reached the eastern bank. Now Ukrainian officials have neither confirmed nor denied these reports. But the Russian appointed head of the occupied Kherson Region has flatly denied claims that Ukrainian troops have established a bridgehead on the east bank.

Now it's not clear if this is the opening shot of Ukraine's spring offensive or just a diversionary of fate ahead of a larger push elsewhere. Now overnight, Russia launched multiple air artillery and drone strikes across eastern Ukraine. Fighting continues to be intense in Bakhmut where Ukrainian troops control a small and shrinking part in the cities west.

There are also recent reports that heavy rains have made Ukrainian access to those parts of the city increasingly difficult.

I'm Ben Wedeman CNN reporting from Kyiv.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NOBILO: The G7 is calling for the extension and full implementation of the Black Sea grain initiative. But Russia is saying maybe not. A top Russian official says Moscow will terminate the agreement to allow Ukrainian grain to transit the Black Sea if the G7 bands its exports to Russia. But the coalition of seven major countries and the EU says that Russia is trying to weaponize food meant for nations most in need.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is due to discuss this grain deal with the U.N. secretary general on his visit to New York this week. Let's bring in CNN's Clare Sebastian, who's covering this. Clare, there's obviously, lots of difficult facets to this story. But I'm reminded of the recent Pentagon leak. Obviously, we're still unsure as to which part of that have been verified in which parts may have been doctored.

But there was suggestion in that the U.N. -- that the U.S. were concerned that Antonio Guterres was too accommodating or sympathetic to Russia's interests in this grain deal.

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and I think that's going to form part of the backdrop to these talks and why this issue is now sort of even more sensitive than it already was. I think for the background, it's important to understand that there were actually two deals that were made last July. One was the Black Sea Grain Initiative between the U.N., Russia, and Ukraine and, of course, Turkey to get Ukrainian grain flowing onto the global markets from those occupied Black Sea ports. And the second was a memorandum of understanding between Russia and

the United Nations because Russia has complained that its own food and fertilizer experts, which have been officially ring fenced in sanctions are not getting out to the global markets because of things like over compliance and sanctions fear and things like that. It now has a list of demands.

Things like reinstating the swift access of its state agricultural bank, reinstating ports access for its ships, insurance, access things like that. It says those parts of the deal have not been met. And in the words of Dmitry Peskov a month ago, the deal cannot stand on one leg. So that is likely to form the focus of the discussions. But it's clear that even before Dmitry Medvedev's threat this deal was on shaky ground.

FOSTER: An interesting image of seeing Lavrov chairing the U.N. Security Council this week. How do you think he's going to use that time?

SEBASTIAN: Oh, I think he's going to make the most of the spotlight. He's expected to chair a session today called effective multilateralism through the defense of the principles of the charter of the United Nations. Several of which Russia is clearly violating in Ukraine. It's interesting he did not start on a very conciliatory note. Relations with the U.S. are clearly at a particularly low point. Complaining in an interview with Russian journalists about the fact that Russian journalists have been denied visas as part of the Russian delegation. Take a listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SERGEY LAVROV, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): A country which calls itself the strongest, the cleverest, the freest, Ferris got scared.

[04:25:00]

Did something which I believe was stupid and showed what its oaths to protect freedom of speech and access to information really mean.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN: So, you know, not veiled at all at the U.S. going into this. He's not expected to meet with Secretary Blinken. And obviously, we know that the U.S.'s ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield has described Russia's rotating presidency of the Security Council as an April fool's joke.

FOSTER: OK, Clare, thank you.

Another American Airlines flight gets into trouble and this one before it even leaves the ground. We'll explain what happened.

NOBILO: Plus, more confusion on Twitter after its blue check marks went away, and then some of them came back. We'll explain the social media platforms latest verification chaos. FOSTER: Blue is back?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Bianca Nobilo.

FOSTER: I'm Max Foster. If you're just joining us, let me bring you up to date with our top stories this hour.

Evacuations in Sudan are underway as countries pull out diplomats and nationals, including the United States. Meanwhile, violence continues, with hundreds killed and hospitals closed.

U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to announce he'll run for a second term soon, perhaps this Tuesday. But enthusiasm for a second Biden term seems to be lacking. A recent poll shows 52 percent of Democratic voters say they don't want to see him run again.

NOBILO: U.S. aviation authorities are investigating two separate airplane fires, both of which happened on American Airlines flights. CNN's Polo Sandoval has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ben Nines, a resident of Columbus, Ohio, speaking to CNN, said on Sunday morning he left his home headed out for a jog. He looked up and he saw and heard this. That there is American Airlines flight 1958 as it made us safe return to the airport in Columbus, Ohio.

[04:30:00]