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U.S.: Conditions Too Dangerous For Full Evacuation; Speculation Grows Over Possible Ukrainian Counteroffensive; U.S.: ISIS-K Leader Behind Attack Killed By Taliban. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired April 26, 2023 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[01:00:33]
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead here on CNN Newsroom, escaping Khartoum, thousand fear capital turn war zone amid a new biological threat, with one faction now in control of a national lab, where measles, polio and cholera pathogens are stored.
The Taliban take out the mastermind of the deadly suicide bombing in 2021 at Kabul airport, during the chaos of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
It turns out the alarmist tweets in all caps came first, followed by the run on the now failed Silicon Valley Bank.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from CNN Center, this is CNN Newsroom with John Vause.
VAUSE: Great to have you with us for another hour. And we once again, we begin with the crisis in Sudan, and what could be a new dangerous escalation. One of the two military factions vying for control the country has seized Sudan's national public health laboratory in central Khartoum, not far from some of the worst of the fighting, bringing urgent warnings from the World Health Organization of an extremely dangerous situation, and in their words, a high risk of biological hazard. The rapid support forces now control the facility, which houses pathogens of diseases like measles, polio and cholera.
With technical staff forced to leave and ongoing power cuts, officials warn, it's no longer possible to safely store the deadly diseases and warn other potential germ bomb. Day two of three day truce is now underway. But fighting has continued sporadically. And this fragile ceasefire brokered by the U.S. seems close to collapse. With both warring sides accusing the other of violations but a senior U.N. official says in some parts the truce remains in place. And the lull in fighting has seen a rush of evacuations of foreign nationals. But the millions left in Sudan are facing chaos and humanitarian crisis with severe shortages of water, food and medicine.
CNN's Oren Liebermann picks up the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the absence of people, the streets of Sudan are filled with the scars of war, the death toll climbing toward 500, with the fighting into its second week. Now, a new threat with the paramilitary RSF seizing the national public health laboratory threatening to turn a humanitarian disaster into a biological nightmare.
DR. NIMA SAEED ABID, WHO REPRESENTATIVE IN SUDAN: That is extremely, extremely dangerous because we have polio isolates in the lab. We have measles isolates from the lab. We have cholera isolates in the lab, so there is a huge biological risk associated with the occupation of the central public health lab in Khartoum by one of the fighting parties.
LIEBERMANN (voice-over): The United States announced the 72-hour ceasefire that started Tuesday, but eye witness reports heavy clashes between the warring factions near the Sudanese capital.
SEN. CHRIS COONS, (D-DE): It's my hope that the determined work of our diplomats and some regional leaders will produce an enduring ceasefire and then allow a negotiated renewal of the movement towards the civilian government.
LIEBERMANN (voice-over): The U.S. released these images of its weekend evacuation showing diplomats and their family members arriving in Djibouti after the operation. But the Biden administration said it's too dangerous right now for a full evacuation of American citizens. The latest U.S. security alert for Sudan said, it's not currently safe to undertake a U.S. government coordinated evacuation of private U.S. citizens.
Meanwhile, countries from all over the world conducting evacuations of their citizens from Sudan, and including several Americans. The U.S. facing questions about why it's not doing the same.
VEDANT PATEL, PRINCIPAL DEPUTY SPOKESPERSON, U.S. STATE DEPT.: I think what I will point to is what national security adviser Jake Sullivan said yesterday, which is that it is not standard practice for the U.S. to send U.S. military into war zones to extract U.S. citizens.
LIEBERMANN (voice-over): The U.S. has sent in troops to evacuate U.S. citizens multiple times in the past, including in 2006 when the U.S. evacuated 15,000 American citizens from Lebanon after war broke out. And evacuation operations are one of the critical missions for a Marine Expeditionary Unit. The U.S. says it has drones watching evacuation routes from above and a Navy ship in the waters of Sudan with two more on the way.
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We're moving naval assets within the region to assist with potential contingency off the coast of port of Sudan. I don't have anything else to share beyond what our national security adviser shared. But clearly this is important to us and important to the President.
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LIEBERMANN: There are some 16,000 or more U.S. citizens in Sudan, many of them dual nationals, so Sudanese American. Administration officials said they have indications that several dozen Americans want to leave the country but that number could rise quickly if the situation stays as is or gets even worse compelling perhaps the U.S. to consider other options.
[01:05:14]
Oren Liebermann, CNN in the Pentagon.
VAUSE: New video from southern Ukraine appears to show a successful Ukrainian drone strike on a Russian intelligence, Russian surveillance complex rather on the east side of Dnipro River near Kherson. The region Ukraine is blatantly preparing for a long awaited counter offensive. For now though the voice narrating the video says roads in the area are still muddy and hard to navigate. So until conditions improve, Russian forces will be targeted from the air.
With that counter-offensive expected at any moment, Ukraine intelligence believes Russia is scrambling to reposition troops and evacuate civilians out of the region. More details now from CNN's Nic Robertson reporting from Kyiv.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Ukrainian officials are saying that they're having impressive results in Kherson crossing the Dnipro River to the east bank where the Russian forces are. They say they've been hitting over the past few days Russian artillery, Russian tanks, other Russian military hardware, further north up the Dnipro River that divides a lot of the Russian and Ukrainian forces. The Ukrainians say that they're beginning to see Russians in the Zaporizhzhia region begin to evacuate civilians from some of the towns there.
And further south in Zaporizhzhia, Ukrainian officials say that in the town of Melitapol they're seeing Russian forces pull back some of their military further south to the coast. Now what this is indicative of is hard to say. This is certainly a region where the Russians are expecting a potential Ukrainian counter offensive. And earlier on last year we saw Russian forces evacuate civilians in the Kherson region when they thought the Ukrainians were going to advance there. Could this be an indication of that? Not at all clear.
But this is what Ukrainian officials are saying. Now in that same area that Russian controlled part of Zaporizhzhia in the town of Tokmak. Russian officials say that Ukrainian forces fired six high MARS rockets into that town close to the frontline, again, hard to know what to read into that. But this is the place that Russians are really looking to see if this is where Ukraine will launch their offensive.
Ukrainian officials say that the Russians for their part decreasing their attacks in most parts of the frontline, apart from in the east around Bakhmut where they say the Russians are actually increasing the level of fire.
Nic Robertson, CNN, Kyiv, Ukraine.
VAUSE: A new criminal trial is set to begin for jailed Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny who is expected to appear in court via video leak in the coming hours. He's accused of disrupting a state institution after allegedly dragging his cellmate with hygiene problems out of the cell. Navalny's daughter says a ruling could be made on how long lawyers were her father will have to prepare for the case. She says her father is being denied food right now by prison officials.
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DARIA NAVALNAYA, DAUGHTER OF ALEXEY NAVALNY: The situation has gotten so ridiculous that he buys the food which is, you know, oats. It's nothing luxurious. When he bites the oats, the oats are brought to him, shown to him and then are just destroyed. So he can't eat. And it's, you know, something so basic is stripped away from a human being. It's outrageous.
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VAUSE: Navalny is said to be suffering extreme weight loss. He faces up to five years in prison on these latest charges on top of more than 10 years he is currently serving.
A prisoner swap maybe in the offing with Russia's Foreign Minister mentioning several Russian nationals currently held in the U.S. when asked about a possible swap for two detain Americans. Here's Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday.
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SERGEY LAVROV, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): The accusations are dubious.
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VAUSE: Any potential prison -- for any potential prisoner swap should be negotiated privately he said through the proper channels. He reiterated Russia's claimed that American Paul Whelan and Evan Gershkovich are spies. U.S. says takes both men is wrongfully detained both maintain their innocence.
U.S. intelligence has confirmed the mastermind behind the deadly 2021 suicide bombing at Kabul Airport has been killed by the Taliban. The attack came in the final carat (ph) days of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, 13 U.S. service members, nearly 200 Afghans were killed in the attack.
Let's go now live to Hong Kong, CNN international senior national correspondent, Ivan Watson. The Taliban aren't saying a whole lot about this. So what do we know?
IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. We've reached out to the Taliban for comments and are waiting for an answer. So all of the information has come from the White House from the National Security Council and that those details are quite limited. We don't for example know the name of the ISIS-K leader who's purported to have been killed, and when where this happened and in what conditions except that the NSC is claiming that it is the Taliban itself that killed this individual.
[01:10:20]
It brings us back to those very chaotic, frankly, traumatizing days in August of 2021 when the White House, the U.S. was pulling out of Afghanistan after 20 years after the U.S. backed Afghan government was defeated by the Taliban and you had those awful scenes of crowds of Afghans desperate to escape from Kabul International Airport, when this suicide bombing took place, killing 13 U.S. service members and nearly 200 Afghan civilians who were trying to get out of there.
The suicide bomber was an individual who had been released from prison just days beforehand. The families of the service members who were killed say that they've been informed by the U.S. government about the killing of this purported mastermind, the father of Staff Sergeant Taylor Hoover says it was a Marine official who told them about this and said that other families are also being informed. He said that's good news. But he still wants more accountability from the Biden administration about the conduct of this very chaotic withdrawal.
And that is being echoed by the Chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee, Michael McCaul, who in a statement said quote anytime a terrorist is taken off the board is a good day. But this does not diminish the Biden administration's culpability for the failures that led to the attack at Abbey Gate at Kabul Airport and will in no way determine the committee's investigation.
It's been calling attention to the fact that there are still tens of thousands of Afghans who are waiting for visas and for resettlement who fled Taliban rule. And then behind that is the larger question of tens of millions of Afghans who are living in dire economic conditions. The U.N. says that there are tens of millions of Afghans who are food insecure, some 6 million of them were living on the brink of famine. Part of a larger collapse taking place in that country since the collapse of the Western backed Afghan government. John?
VAUSE: Ivan Watson live for us there in Hong Kong.
Meantime, in other news, it's official Joe Biden will run for a second term. Even as all the latest poll suggests the odds are stacked against him. We'll have details after the break.
Also crab cakes, ribs, banana splits and three types of wine on the menu for a steak dinner for the President of South Korea. When we come back once on the diplomatic menu at the White House later.
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[01:15:07]
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: When I ran for President four years ago, I said we're going to battle for the soul of America. And we still are. The question we're facing is whether in the years ahead, we have more freedom or less freedom, more rights or fewer. I know what I want the answer to be and I think you do too. This is not a time to be complacent. That's why I'm running for reelection.
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VAUSE: Just part of the campaign video announcing Joe Biden is running for a second term in 2024. But talking about his achievements, the three-minute long video also frames the race as a fight against Republican extremism for the soul of America. But President Biden has low approval ratings and a lack of enthusiasm even among Democrats, according to recent polls. Biden is already the oldest serving U.S. president at 80 years old. If reelected, he'll be 86 by the time he leaves office.
Republicans responded to the campaign launch with artificial intelligence, creating a bleak, dystopian, apocalyptic future under a second Biden term, none of it real. CNN's Kristen Holmes reports.
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KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The plan for Republicans to attack Joe Biden now that he has announced is still coming into focus. Of course, we know that in order to actually put a comprehensive plan together, they have to know who exactly will be running for president against Joe Biden in that nomination process is still very much underway.
However, after Biden announced, we started to hear what exactly that attack might look like. And they went after him for a number of different reasons. Firstly, RNC put out a video that they said was AI generated that hit him on a number of issues. But after him on the border and talk about inflation, crime rates, essentially said that if Joe Biden won presidency in 2024, that the financial institutions will completely fall apart.
We also saw Republicans hitting Biden on a number of other issues that included crime waves, again, inflation, a several different buckets that weren't not similar to what we saw in 2022, that playbook strategy there. But again, in order for a firm plan to come together, they're going to actually have to have a nominee. And that process is looking more and more messy by the day.
Right now, those Republicans are focused on hitting each other. And we even heard from former President Trump today who suggested that he might not participate in the primary debate. So clearly a lot to work through there before Republicans can actually come up with a cohesive plan to go after President Biden in 2024.
VAUSE: Thanks to CNN's Kristen Holmes for that report.
And last hour, I spoke with CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein, and I asked him about that AI video from the Republicans, as well as the state of the Republican Party heading into next year's election. He's part of that conversation.
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RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Republicans actually have materials to work with in terms of public opinion, right? I mean, if you look at some of the basic attitudes that Americans are expressing these days, typically, they have spell trouble for an incumbent President. I mean Biden's approval rating is consistently below 45 percent. It's been closer to 40 percent in four high quality national polls released last week, three quarters of Americans are more say they think the economy is in bad shape.
And as you know, we've been noting on CNN in the last few days, 70 percent of voters say they don't want him to seek a second term. And historically, as I said, those have been, you know, ominous numbers for an incumbent president, the problem Republicans have is that all of those numbers were there in 2022, as well, and Democrats did unexpectedly well, particularly in the swing states that will likely decide the next election. And the reason they did unexpectedly well, is because an unusually large number of voters who are dissatisfied with the economy or dissatisfied with Biden's performance voted for Democrats anyway, because they view the Republican alternative as unacceptable and too extreme.
And that is still the fundamental risk that Republicans face in '24. That even if voters are not necessarily that enthusiastic about four more years, for our first 80-year-old president, there is a powerful coalition that is passionate about ensuring that Republicans do not take the White House and attempt to impose nationwide in particular the cultural and social agenda that they are passing in the red states. And so in many ways, you know, Biden's best asset is that saying he often attributes to his father, don't compare me to the Almighty compare me to the alternative.
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VAUSE: Joe Biden will welcome South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol to the White House in the coming hours for a state visit. They're scheduled to hold bilateral talks followed by a joint news conference, then comes the state dinner Wednesday night. On Tuesday, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris hosted President Yoon at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, where they talked about their alliance. President Yoon said, space holds great promise where international partnerships can deliver the greatest achievements. CNN's Kristie Lu Stout live in Hong Kong with more on this. We know they'll be serving beef ribs, crab cakes and a trio of wine at the site dinner. But what will be on the diplomatic agenda like the recent links to the Pentagon documents?
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KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And there will also be a Gochujang vinaigrette to pair with the Maryland crab cakes. So it'd be quite the state dinner to attend. Now, yes, you mentioned the Pentagon leaks that happened recently and that we don't know if that's going to be up for discussion because the White House declined to say whether recent leaks would be a topic of discussion between the presidents of the United States and South Korea.
Now one of the leaked documents describes in remarkable detail in fact, a conversation that took place between two senior South Korean security officials about concerns over a U.S. request for ammunition for Ukraine. The White House has not said any comment on whether that's going to be discussed but instead confirmed its iron clad alliance with South Korea. And head of this first state visit to the United States by a South Korean leader since 2011.
Now, today, we know that there's going to be a welcoming ceremony at the White House. That will be followed by a summit and then of course, the state banquet. Now earlier on Tuesday, you see the pictures of the ceremony that took place underway that took place. In addition to that, the South Korean president made comments at a business forum. He said that the alliance between these two countries should leap into a new phase. Take a listen to this.
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YOON SUK YEOL, SOUTH KOREAN PRESIDENT (through translator): I believe that the U.S. Alliance must leap into a new phase of alliances to overcome such complex crisis together. What started as a military and security alliance should evolve into a supply chain and future oriented innovative technology alliance, one in which our two countries grow and act together.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STOUT: Now, the South Korean president also added that cooperation should extend beyond semiconductors to other emerging strategic technologies like AI and quantum computing. But when this summit kicks off, security is going to be front and center because North Korea. Tensions have been rising on the Korean peninsula. In fact, last year, North Korea fired a record number of missiles. This year North Korea continues to fire missiles to conduct a string of tests including that new solid fuel ICBM.
And on top of that, we've heard fiery rhetoric from Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, about the north so called nuclear combat readiness. So the South Korean president is expected to raise concerns about the U.S. nuclear umbrella. In fact, you know, what was once a fringe issue over a decade ago, opinion polls now inside South Korea show a majority of South Korean supporting their country having their own nuclear weapons. So that likely to be up for discussion, the summit set to begin at 10:45 a.m. Eastern time. John?
VAUSE: Also when it comes to Ukraine, how these two presidents going to like discuss the conflict because the South Koreans have been reluctant to get involved. They have a long standing policy of not wanting to export weapons, they'll be used in a war zone. The U.S. has actually been buying weapons from the South Koreans. There's been a lot of sort of conflict if you like around that or controversy at least. So how's that going to play out?
STOUT: Yes, you know, South Korea says, look, we have assisted through humanitarian aid as well as financial aid, but they have fallen short of providing lethal military assistance. South Korea is one of the biggest manufacturers of the world of ammunition of artillery. And there has been a lot of pressure mounting on South Korea to provide such lethal aid. South Korea indicating as we heard to those leaked online Pentagon documents expressing a lot of concern internally about providing such lethal aid, but the pressure is on and this will be discussed when the summit begins 10:45 a.m. Eastern time later. Back to you.
VAUSE: Kristie, thank you. We match too probably. Got it.
STOUT: I know it's nice.
VAUSE: It is. Thanks. Bye.
STOUT: Take care. Bye.
We'll take a short break. When we come back the banking crisis is a bubbling again, why a $30 billion cash infusion may not be enough to say First Republic Bank.
Plus what came first the all cap tweets or around Silicon Valley Bank. We'll tell you after the break.
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VAUSE: Welcome back, I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN Newsroom. A disappointing earnings report from First Republic Bank as investors fearing the banking crisis from earlier this year may not be over. The Dow fell more than 340 points on Tuesday with even bigger losses on the NASDAQ and S&P 500. CNN's Rahel Solomon has more on First Republic's latest problems.
RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Banking turmoil back and focus. First Republic shares tumbling to a new all-time low Tuesday, after the bank reported earnings, the stock plummeting to a record low of 8/10 a share. Now for context in April of 2022, the stock was trading as high as $160 a share, the San Francisco based bank reporting that deposits fell 40 percent or by $72 billion in the quarter. That's after the fall of Silicon Valley Bank in March, which then spooked bank depositors elsewhere.
And remember, SVB's demise was caused in part by a high number of uninsured depositors rushing to move their money out of the bank, a bank run. Now one concern investors have with First Republic is it too had a significant amount of uninsured deposits on its books. At the start of the banking crisis, about two-thirds of first republic deposits were uninsured with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
The company saying that in this report as of March 31st, that number is closer to 27 percent of total deposits. The bank also announcing that in recent weeks, bank deposits have stabilized. It also said it would be laying off 20 to 25 percent of its staff, reducing executive compensation, condensing office space and cutting back on non- essential activities. All of this to try to strengthen its financial footing and cut back on expenses.
But for investors, it wasn't enough as the stock tumbled. But will it be enough to ultimately save the bank? Only time will tell. Rahel Salomon, CNN, New York.
VAUSE: Tony Cookson is an associate professor of finance at the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Good to see you. Thank you for coming in.
TONY COOKSON, ASSOC. PROF. OF FINANCE, LEEDS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS: Thanks for having me.
VAUSE: OK, so in SVB collapsed, Twitter was blamed in large part for amplifying the crisis, having a role in the crisis. But there was always this question what came first, the tweets or the bank run? Your study has found that negative tweets during the March run on SVB proceeded declined in the bank share prices on the stock market. OK, so that's pretty definitive. But why look at stock price, as opposed to deposit outflows?
COOKSON: Well, the main reason is that deposit outflow data at that pace aren't really available to researchers widely. And as a second best for us, looking at stock price movements, when the whole idea of what was going on in the banking industry during this period was that deposits were flowing out of banks and that this was a risky time to be a bank. That kind of informational sort of insight is why we relied on stock prices to provide this first evidence.
VAUSE: And your research also found that banks for the large pre- existing exposure to social media perform much worse during the recent SVB bank run particularly if they had a large percentage of uninsured deposit. So explain that, is that simply because those who are facing the risk of losing everything are more likely to send negative tweets and if the bank is more on social media that are likely to go negative tweets, how all these factors interconnected?
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COOKSON: So we think of this as kind of a way for us to sort of look beyond SVB. The ideas that we don't necessarily think that communication about deposits in this -- in this event is just limited to -- is a risk that SVB faced alone.
So we were really curious to see well did this leave an imprint on other firms, like other firms that are other banks that were -- they were covered a lot in the months prior. That should be -- look at the conversations that they were talking about in the months prior that they were not using anything related to bank run risk. And then when SVB happened, this -- the reason that this ended up kicking off -- kicking off a run in kind of end-run (ph) fear in some versus others was that there were some of these banks that had kind of more preexisting attention and intensity of conversation before.
VAUSE: The Federal Deposit Insurance corporation boasts that since the start of the FDIC, insurance on January 1st, 1934 no depositor has lost a penny of insured funds as a result of a failure.
But the institution itself was born in a time when bank runs -- well they looked a lot more like this. Take a look at this. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's something funny going on over there at the bank, George.
I've never really seen one. But that's got all the earmarks of being a run.
Just remember that this thing isn't as black as it appeared.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: It's a wonderful life. Things were all (INAUDIBLE) back in those days. So overall how big of a threat is an all caps tweet to the banking sector and the finance industry and what's been the response from regulators to this.
COOKSON: You know, I think there are a lot of other things going on at the same time, technology wise and banking, that interact with this social media and all caps tweets as you put it.
You know, all caps tweets are kind of a way to direct attention to say, like, look, maybe there's some problems depositors should pay attention to. But if they had to go and -- by foot go to the bank and the -- and sort of negotiate to get their money out and sort of see the look on the bankers' face those -- those are frictions that you don't face now because you can very easily -- much more easily use an app or sort of a web log in to undertake the transaction.
So these -- this sensitivity of deposits and there are -- there are collection of papers that are emerging and then understanding emerging about this idea that -- that you know deposits outflows and the ease of that could actually raise the risk of bank runs and banking distress like we've seen over the past month plus now.
VAUSE: And this is an ongoing issue, right?
This is a threat which the financial industry and other banks face moving forward. This isn't going away.
COOKSON: One sort of bright side in our study is that we don't find that social media matters everywhere. There's a set of banks that were basically comparing the -- sort of the most -- comparing our effects too, and that set of banks is the set of banks that doesn't have nearly the same issues with uninsured depositors and losses on their books.
And so banks that sort of better managed in this environment isn't going to face a risk that social media is not going to create a risk unto itself. But it will inflame and amplify attention to the risk that that are there.
VAUSE: Ok. Tony, thank you so much. Your research is fascinating. It's a very detailed study done by a lot of other people as well in collaboration with yourself. So it was good to have you with us. Thank you. COOKSON: Great. Thank you.
VAUSE: One of the world's largest tobacco companies has agreed to a $600 million fine for selling cigarettes to North Korea in violation of U.S. sanctions. U.S. officials say between 2007 and 2017, the British American Tobacco Company and a subsidiary in Singapore used a front company to do hundreds of millions of dollars in business with North Korea. The company owns Lucky Strike, Dunhill and other brands.
[01:34:46]
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MATTHEW OLSEN, ASST. ATTORNEY GENERAL. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE: The agreement and the plea resolve charges for bank fraud and for violations of U.S. sanctions against North Korea. Under this agreement, British American Tobacco will pay more than $629 million in penalties.
This is the single largest North Korean sanctions penalty in the history of the Department of Justice and the latest warning to companies everywhere about the costs and the consequences of violating U.S. sanctions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: The Justice Department says trafficking in tobacco products generate significant revenue, which finances in part, North Korea's illicit weapons and missile programs.
The Mexican navy has seized tons of liquid methamphetamine hidden in thousands of bottles of tequila intended for export. Authorities located nearly 10 tons of the drug at a port on Mexico's West Coast.
Already this year, the navy has seized and destroyed approximately 114 tons of meth.
Prince Harry has revealed the Murdoch News Group paid a very large sum to Prince William in a secret agreement to settle allegations of phone hacking of the royals. The claims were made in court documents as part of Harry's ongoing lawsuit against the media group for alleged illegal information gathering.
CNN's Anna Stewart has details, reporting in from London.
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ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is the latest salvo against the British tabloid press. This time Prince Harry wants to take Rupert Murdoch's News Group Newspapers to trial over historical claims of phone hacking and other illegal methods of gaining private information.
Now the claims date back years from the 1990s until 2016 critically beyond a legal limitation period and that's why News Group Newspapers argue the case should be thrown out. However Prince Harry's legal team argue he was unaware of the full
instances of phone hacking. Plus they say he was unable to make a claim earlier due to a secret agreement struck between the publisher and the institution of the royal family.
Prince Harry says this agreement would allow members of the royal family to bring a claim at a later date to avoid the situation where a member of the royal family would have to sit in the witness box and recount the specific details of the private and highly sensitive voicemails that had been intercepted. News Group Newspaper says there was no such agreement.
In his witness statement, Prince Harry says in 2017 he received permission from his grandmother, the late queen to pursue News Group Newspaper for a public apology from Rupert Murdoch.
However he says he later found his move seemingly blocked by his father's staff at Clarence House claiming they wanted to keep the media on site to smooth the way for his stepmother and father to be accepted as queen consort and king when the time came saying upsetting the apple cart was to be avoided at all costs.
The other bombshell dropped in Prince Harry's witness statement and certainly adding to his argument for why this case should go to trial was his claim that his brother, Prince William, reached a settlement with the newspaper publisher for a, and I quote, "huge sum of money in 2020". That is beyond the period of limitation.
Now to this claim, the statement from News Group Newspaper said, "No comment".
Meanwhile officials at Kensington Palace and Buckingham Palace have told CNN they do not comment on legal proceedings.
Prince Harry has accused the royal family of colluding with the tabloid press before, both in the Netflix docuseries, "Harry and Meghan" and in his autobiography, "Spare" and it could make for an increasingly awkward family get together at the coronation of King Charles, which is less than two weeks away.
Anna Stewart, CNN -- London.
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VAUSE: The big heat is coming and will be dangerous. In a moment, predictions from climatologists in England for certain regions of the world, which is severely unprepared to deal with record breaking temperatures. We'll explain who's most at risk and why.
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VAUSE: One of the biggest challenge doing business in sub Saharan Africa is the lack of data across many of its sectors. From financial to healthcare, many businesses don't have the required data to make informed decisions about the markets they're operating in.
This month, "Africa Insider" meets the CEO of Nigerian data analytics company Periculum, which is aiming to become the one stop shop for data analytics on the continent.
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MAYOWA KUYORO, PARTNER MCKINSEY NIGERIA: We looked across Africa, the number of people that have digital ID is less than 30 percent compared to Asia where it's 70 percent. The good thing is that we are seeing increasing efforts to get more and more people into the formal system so that you know, at least for the very basic New York customer we have the database to make decisions.
MICHAEL COLLINS, CEO, PERICULUM: So at Periculum, we are a data analytics company. So what that means is that we take information, we gather information and we use information to help companies and businesses and organizations all across Africa to make better decisions.
We have, you know, big commercial banks. We have government agencies that use us. We have -- all the way down to, you know, your digital lenders, micro lenders, et cetera.
When I founded the company back in 2019 our focus was in the African market. And we wanted to solve big issues. So the first big issue we were targeting is to try and close the $350 billion lending gap we have in Africa. And the reason why we have this gap in Africa is not because there isn't enough capital. We have a lot of capital in Africa. We have a lot of financials institutions. We have a lot of banks.
The problem is that these institutions use old methods or don't have a full understanding -- a f full picture of the individuals that they are providing their financial solutions to.
Hi, everyone.
Our first or pilot solution was to help these institutions to fully understand their end user and that way they can now provide better solutions to them and thereby reducing their default rate and their turnover rate.
We've so far raised over a million dollars and we want to become the one stop shop for data analytics on the continent.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Wow.
When we come back, for a long time Newark Airport was so bad it was a punchline. Not now. It's amazing what just a few billion dollars can do.
[01:43:44]
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VAUSE: Dangerous intense heat waves will become more frequent, more intense and will hit regions just not prepared for that. The conclusion of climatologists at the University of Bristol looking at historic temperature data and climate models and determined which regions will be the hardest hit.
They are Afghanistan, Papua New Guinea and parts of Central America are most at risk of dangerous heat waves. They say these regions are vulnerable because of their fast growing populations, limited access to health care and energy supplies.
CNN's chief climate correspondent Bill Weir explains what's at stake.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: They started by looking at what are sort of statistically implausible heat waves like the one in 2021 up in western Canada. Litton, British Columbia had temperatures in what is typically a very temperate spot at around 50 degrees Celsius -- 121 degrees Fahrenheit for several days.
The whole village actually burned down and they looked at the world. They looked at 60 years of data sets at climate projections into the future and said, where is it most likely that this kind of catastrophe could happen again?
And it's the bright red splotches on there that you see that includes Beijing, China. That's 250 million people right there to worry about. Also Afghanistan and Central America, places where infrastructure is already struggling due to conflict or other issues there as well. And those can touch off tensions.
You know, in places like Afghanistan, Pakistan certainly made climate migration, in Central America as well. And so these pockets of intense heat may have rippling effects beyond just the folks who live there.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Other areas such as Europe also could face extreme heat waves, although they're better prepared to cope with the climate crisis.
In Kenya, police have now recovered 89 bodies from mass graves believed linked to a starvation cult.
A warning: the images you're about to see are disturbing. There are fears the number of dead could rise as the Kenyan Red Cross says more than 200 people have been reported missing.
Meantime the cult's leader Paul Mackenzie has been denied bail on Tuesday over fears he might interfere with the investigation. He's accused of encouraging members of the Good News International Church to starve themselves so they could go to heaven.
The Kenyan government is promising strong action against Mackenzie.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KITHURE KINDIKI, KENYAN INTERIOR MINISTER: The government of Kenya will do whatever it takes to make sure that we convict Mr. Mackenzie and all those who helped him perpetrate this heinous crimes. That they pay with the severest and most painful punishment available.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: More details now from CNN's Eleni Giokos.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Dozens of bodies recovered from shallow graves this forest in eastern Kenya, the site of a suspected religious cult, believed to be encouraging followers to starve themselves in order to reach heaven.
Police say at least 34 people have been rescued. But families fear many more will not be found alive.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: None of us have seen our relatives, but we are just finding, rescuing more people and seeing more graves.
GIOKOS: Police identified a man named Paul Nthenge Mackenzie as the cult's leader, seen here, shouting "Praise Jesus," as he's escorted by police who arrested him after they were tipped off that his vast land in Kenya's Shakahola Forest contained mass graves.
Police say they got reports last month that Mackenzie was linked to the deaths of two children, allegedly instructed to fast until they died.
WILLIAM RUTO, KENYAN PRESIDENT: Terrorists use religion to advance their heinous acts. People like Mr. Mackenzie are using religion to do exactly the same thing.
GIOKOS: Kenya's government has called for tighter regulations on those using religion to promote radical ideologies.
HUSSEIN KHALID, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, HAKI AFRICA: We came across one individual who was rescued from the interior, but the moment we -- she was brought here she absolutely refused to, you know, be administered with first aid, and she closed her mouth firmly, you know, basically refusing to be assisted, wanting to continue with her fast until she dies.
We need psychosocial counseling so that they can be, you know, de- radicalized and understand what is happening.
[01:49:52]
GIOKOS: Police have said that all those culpable for the crimes of the suspected cult dubbed the Good News International Church will face justice.
Eleni Giokos, CNN -- Abu Dhabi. (END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Barnes and Noble plans to open 30 new book stores this year, the largest expansion for the chain in over a decade. Barnes and Noble says each location will be unique. The idea is to mimic the experience of going to an independent bookstore.
CEO James Daunt told CNN why he's taking that approach.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES DAUNT, CEO, BARNES AND NOBLE: Unfortunately I think, my predecessors who, to be honest were retailers, rather than booksellers, where we're addicted to that revenue that came from selling space within the bookstores to publishers. And if you do that, then, by definition, every bookstore has to be the same. Because you sell the space to you know John Grisham here or Stephen King there. But that creates identical bookstores.
And whilst identical might be great if you're a pharmacy, chain or clothing retailer. It doesn't work with bookstores. So we stopped all of that and just simply leave it up to each individual store to present themselves entirely as they wish.
Of course, you do forgo the money from publishers, but you sell a lot more. And you don't have returns in all of those inefficiencies that exist with the old model.
And overall, we've done dramatically better in consequence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Take that Amazon. Barnes and Noble plans to revamp 90 existing stores.
Well, the appalling and decaying condition of American airports is often used as an example of the decline of the United States but now two major airports, both serving New York City -- that's LaGuardia and Newark in New Jersey -- have had some major renovations.
And CNN's Richard Quest has our report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Traveling to New York City used to be a miserable experience something to be endured, not enjoyed.
It was a journey through places like LaGuardia, THAT Joe Biden once compared to arriving in a third world country. And the other airports in the Tri-State area weren't much better. JFK, Newark and even the Port Authority Bus Terminal. They were too small, out of date and difficult to get to.
Survey after survey showed travelers thought they were amongst the worst in the country. The Port Authority has spent billions of dollars and many years rebuilding the travel experience.
LaGuardia Terminal B -- rebuilt, reopened and just named the world's best new terminal by Skytrax. And now Terminal A at Newark recently opened after a $2.7 billion renovation.
I like this.
And that's where I met the man behind it all, the head of the Port Authority, Rick Cotton.
RICK COTTON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PORT AUTHORITY OF NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY: Soup to nuts. We are tearing down the old facilities and building new 21st century facilities at every single one of our major airports.
QUEST: Michael O'Leary of Ryanair is a firm believer that all you need is a shed. That you'd go in -- you've heard this -- you go in the front, you go out the back. You don't necessarily subscribe to that view.
You think there needs to be something that says something?
COTTON: Yes, well, airports are gateways. First of all, and they're also symbols of the regions that they serve. And so that's what they need to be.
QUEST: One of the airports isn't actually in New York. It's in Newark. Now they're proudly pointing out that Newark is close to New York but it's actually next door.
COTTON: You will see references to New Jersey across this new Terminal A. You will see constant references to New York across the new LaGuardia.
You will see future tense. We're spending $19 billion at JFK. You will see in those terminals New York.
QUEST: Mr. Cotton told me that the old Terminal A was built 50 years ago. It was another era in travel. Over the years it was too small and in the worst condition of all the terminals at Newark.
He told me the lessons they learned as they were building the new Terminal A.
COTTON: What we've learned is you need open spaces, you can't have pinch points. You can't have places where queues form. You have to have the technology support rapid throughput. The ease with which people board so that all of these gates are equipped with e-gates in ways that right now people can board just with their cell phone. But in the future, it will be biometric.
QUEST: We're getting ready for summer. That last year was horrible. Will this year be better. Are you ready?
I know to an extent, it's not you. It's all the various -- but you get the blame. [01:54:57]
COTTON: Well, the fact is, the system is still struggling a bit in terms of coming back, finding staff that goes across with our government partners. It's with the airlines. It's with the Port Authority.
We have the highest vacancy in terms of jobs we're trying to fill and this summer is going to be over 2019 levels. There's just no question. Travel has come back so we're preparing for it in terms of actually hiring extra staff. We're preparing for it in terms of being sure that every system has checks and double checks.
But it's going to be a challenge.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Thanks to CNN's Richard Quest, reporting there from New York Liberty International Airport.
Pop star Ed Sheeran took the stand in New York on Tuesday, in a high profile copyright infringement case. He's accused of copying Marvin Gaye's 1973 soul hit it, "Let's Get It On" for his song "Thinking Out Loud".
Have a listen.
(MUSIC)
VAUSE: Sounds familiar. The suit was brought by the heirs of Ed Townsend, co-author of the song with Gaye. In his opening statement, the attorney representing the family said Sheeran played his (INAUDIBLE) songs back to back at a concert calling the moment a smoking gun.
Sheeran denied the allegations, saying if he copied the song, he wouldn't have played it quote, "on stage in front of 20,000 people". Fair point.
It's been called a huge step forward for inclusion in the form of a doll. Toy maker, Mattel introducing its first ever Barbie which represents a person with Down Syndrome. Mattel said it worked with the U.S. National Down Syndrome Society on the doll's shape, features, clothing, accessories and packaging to ensure the depiction is accurate.
Barbie fans are already thrilled. Mattel says it wants to enable all children to see themselves in Barbie while encouraging kids to play with dolls that look different than they do.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELLIE GOLDSTEIN, BRITISH MODEL: I've never had any Barbie (INAUDIBLE). It's like me, and it's beautiful and I love it to pieces.
(END VIDEO CLIP) VAUSE: This Barbie comes from Mattel's Barbie Fashionista line, which features other Barbies with disabilities and conditions that represent a full range of human diversity. There's a Barbie with a hearing aid, there's a Barbie in a wheelchair. Good stuff.
Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause.
Please stay with us. CNN news continues after the break with my friend and colleague Rosemary Church.
See you right back here tomorrow.
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