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CNN International: Zelenskyy Speaks To Chinese President Xi Jinping; Violence Mars Fragile U.S.-Brokered Ceasefire; Navalny Says He Faces New Terrorism Case; Paul Whelan's Sister: Paul Must Not Be Left Behind Again; Man Hanged For Trafficking Cannabis Despite Appeals; White House: Taliban Kills Mastermind Of 2021 Kabul Airport Attack; Former President Jair Bolsonaro Testifying About January 8; Biden To Meet With South Korean President At White House; Cult Leader Arrested As Police Recover 89 Bodies. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired April 26, 2023 - 08:00   ET

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

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[08:00:33]

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. You're watching CNN Newsroom. I'm Max Foster in London.

Just ahead, as thousands of foreign nationals are escaping the heavy fighting of violence in Sudan, Sudanese civilians are trapped with a lack of vital supplies or access to medical care. Then jailed Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny says Russia is now investigating him on terrorism charges. We'll have the latest about his hearing in Moscow.

And former President -- Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is set to testify before the Federal Police for his alleged role in the January 8 riot.

We begin with news just in to CNN though. For the first time since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has spoken with China's leader. The Ukrainian President said, quote, "I had a long and meaningful phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping. I believe that this call, as well as the appointment of Ukraine's ambassador to China, will give a powerful impetus to the development of our bilateral relations."

Let's get more on the significance of this from our International Diplomatic Editor, Nic Robertson. This is obviously, off the back of Xi's meetings with Putin. Is he acting as some sort of mediator? What do you read into this?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Well, he's offered to do that. That was back in March, the 21st of March, when Xi met with President Putin in Moscow. And about a couple of weeks before that, President Putin had met with President Xi's top foreign policy adviser, Wang Yi in Moscow again.

So really, on the face of it, strengthening the relationship between Moscow and Beijing, and then just 10 days ago, President Putin met with China's defense minister as well. That relationship looks strong.

But what we heard from President Zelenskyy after President Xi's visit to Putin back in March was, you know, his response to President Xi saying he had a peace proposal to end the conflict in Ukraine. And President Zelenskyy at that time was quite public, and other officials were quite public saying, well, you know, let's see President Xi reach out to Ukraine.

Let's potentially see President Xi visit Ukraine. If he really wants to understand the conflict and help, then that would be the right way forward. So the fact that these two leaders have now had a call is significant. Both sides are sort of putting this in a very positive light.

But if you go back to their sort of both countries two positions over what peace should look like, they're very different. And Ukraine's allies criticized President Xi for his sort of peace proposal that never acknowledged in any place that Russia had illegally invaded Ukraine without, you know, without reason, that Ukraine's position on peace is completely different to that. It's that Russia should withdraw itself from its invasion of Ukraine back to pre-1991 line.

So you can see there the two sides, Ukraine and Russia have -- Ukraine and China have very different views on what peace should look like. But what we're hearing from President Xi now is he's saying, well, I'm not going to sort of idly standby and watch this fire from the other side. I'm not going to throw fuel on it, and I'm not going to try to profit from it.

So the diplomatic language around this is that the two of them are talking, that President Xi is saying that is not going to make the situation worse and is sort of amplifying what is said before that he would like to be some kind of broker in this. Long and meaningful in the conversation, did it really get into the detail of what these two leaders see as a different, very different part of the peace?

This is the beginning, but the Chinese are indicating that they will send an envoy not only to Ukraine, but to other countries in the region, perhaps Ukraine's allies and partners they say, to better understand the political situation, Max.

FOSTER: OK, Nic, thank you.

Sudan's warring factions, they're accusing each other of violating yet another ceasefire. A shaky 72-hour truce is now in a second day, but witnesses report continuing airstrikes. The World Health Organization says nearly 460 people have been killed since fighting broke out between the Army and the RSF paramilitary group nearly two weeks ago.

[08:05:01]

Foreign governments, meanwhile, are scrambling to get their citizens out of harm's way. Here's how one Turkish man is describing the experience.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HUSEYIN ESER, TURKISH EVACUEE FROM SUDAN (through translator): It has been an incredibly challenging journey. It was very difficult. Without the help of the government, nobody can travel out of Sudan at the moment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: CNN's Stephanie Busari joins me now live in Lagos, Nigeria. The ceasefire holding in Khartoum, at least at the moment.

STEPHANIE BUSARI, CNN SENIOR EDITOR, AFRICA: Yes. Hello, Max. Yes, the ceasefire, fragile, though, it is is holding and evacuations are ongoing. Germany was, in the last few hours, has managed to get out some of its citizens, about 700 of its citizens.

But as the last interviewee was saying, it's just very, very difficult for even the Sudanese in the country to get out. And they are facing a very devastating situation right now. And the U.N. is saying that they are staring down an abyss because of the humanitarian crisis that is facing the country. Lack of power, food, water supplies, electricity. It's just a very tough situation right now.

And prices are skyrocketing, and people are reporting being asked to pay sums of $20,000 just to get on a bus to head to a neighboring country like Egypt. So the situation is very tough and U.N. reporting that warehouses are being looted and there's just a sense of lawlessness and crime in the country right now.

We heard earlier about a U.S. citizen who was stabbed outside his home as he waited for a hospital appointment. So just a real sense of total chaos and looming humanitarian crisis in a country, Max.

FOSTER: OK, Stephanie, thank you.

Jailed Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny says Russia is investigating him in a new terrorism case. The Kremlin critic says he's being accused of committing terrorist attacks whilst in prison. This comes on the same day Navalny appeared in court via video for a hearing linked to a separate extremism case. His team says the judge has ruled he has 10 days to, quote, familiarize himself with the documents in that case.

The sister of Paul Whelan, an American detained in Russia for more than four years, is speaking to CNN about her fight to free her brother. CNN asked her whether she's getting the support she needs from the White House. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELIZABETH WHELAN, PAUL WHELAN'S SISTER: I got a little frustrated a couple of weeks ago when Evan was arrested, we relived Paul's arrest. Our whole family just -- it was like a flashback. And I was very concerned, and I remain concerned that Paul will be left behind a third time. And so, I felt I needed to speak out a little bit about that. Since then, we have had some conversations with the White House that assure me that they continue to be committed to bringing Paul home. But I also am committed to pushing to make sure that he is not left behind again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Singapore has executed a man for trying to traffic more than 1 kilogram of cannabis into the country. Tangaraju Suppiah was hung on Wednesday or hanged on Wednesday. Family member and activist appeals the sentence, claiming he did not receive a fair trial. Singapore's Narcotics Bureau said Tangaraju was accorded full due process under the law of the country.

The White House says the leader of an ISIS affiliate responsible for the suicide bombing at Kabul International Airport nearly two years ago has been killed by the Taliban. The horrific 2021 attack was carried out in the final days of the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. It left 13 American service members and more than 170 Afghans dead.

While the White House did not specifically name the leader of the so- called ISIS-K group, it described him as the mastermind of the attack.

Natasha Bertrand has the latest reaction from the Pentagon. We're getting all of this from the Pentagon, aren't we, because so far, the Taliban haven't given any detail even though they are responsible for this killing?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: It doesn't seem like they have commented publicly at this point about the intelligence that the U.S. says that it has, that this alleged mastermind of that Abbey Gate bombing back in 2021 in Kabul and Afghanistan was killed in a Taliban operation in April.

Now, we did get a statement from the Pentagon late last night saying that the U.S. had no role in this operation. That it was purely a Taliban operation, and that they do believe that according to their intelligence, this mastermind was killed in early April.

But we still don't know, as you said, the actual name of this ISIS leader. And the U.S. government is being very tight lipped about what they do know about this person because they say they want to be able to preserve their intelligence access.

[08:10:06]

But look, it still says a lot here about the U.S. presence in Afghanistan or lack, thereof, right, that the U.S. is announcing that a senior ISIS figure was taken off the battlefield, was killed by the Taliban rather than through a U.S. government operation.

And, in fact, the Commander of Central Command, Erik Kurilla, he testified to lawmakers here a few weeks ago and said that, in fact, the U.S.'s ability to kind of see the broad contours of terrorist threats emanating from the region and from within Afghanistan has been severely diminished since the U.S. did withdraw in 2021.

So, obviously, this is coming as some comfort to the families who lost their family members in that Abbey Gate bombing back in 2021. CNN did speak to a family member, the father of one of those service members who was killed. And he said he is happy that a terrorist, of course, has been taken off the battlefield.

But he still wants to see some members of the Biden administration be held accountable for that very chaotic withdrawal that they say led to the circumstances under which this attack, the suicide bombing, was able to take place. Max?

FOSTER: OK, Natasha Bertrand, thank you.

This hour, former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro scheduled to testify before Federal Police about his role in the January 8th riots. He has denied any responsibility, arguing he was in self-imposed exile in Florida.

On January the 8th, his supporters invaded and vandalized Brazil's Congress, the presidential palace, and the Supreme Court. It happened a week after leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took office.

Journalist Julia Vargas joins us from Sao Paulo with the very latest on that. He didn't discourage the protest. Is that one of the issues here?

JULIA VARGAS JONES, JOURNALIST: That's right, Max. And also the question they're trying to answer authorities in this case here, the Federal Police, is, did he incite them, right? He walked a very thin line between condemning some kinds of violence but not quite saying, step down, come out from outside of the military headquarters, that his supporters have been camped out for months, you know, with t- shirts and flags with his name and his face on it.

It's quite clear that these were supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro. So the questions that they're focusing on here, first of them, is a social media post that the president shared on January 10. So a couple of days after the riots, where he very clearly questioned the integrity of voting machines and called into question the results of the election,

I say this was a couple of days later, because they're looking at his role holistically. Starting really months before these riots, he was already calling into question the voting machines in Brazil that have been in use here for decades and are considered to be quite safe.

He even went as far as asking for an audit. Kind of like in the style of the Arizona audit that happened in 2021. He made that happen here in Brazil, trying to throw out thousands of votes after the first round of the presidential elections.

And more importantly, they might ask him about a draft decree that was found in his Justice Minister's house during a raid a few days after the January 8 events, where he kind of laid out this document, the structure for a coup d'etat. Basically, how to get the military again in power in a state of siege in a country that you might recall has a very complicated relationship with the military having coming out of a dictatorship not 40 years ago.

So this is another one of the issues that the police might be asking him about. And finally, Max, why did he leave to Florida just days before the inauguration of his opponent, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva? He left about 36 hours before, been in Florida, was in Florida for almost three months.

Did he have any knowledge that something might happen or was he just sulking after a lot? So the question here really is, what did he know and what was his role in getting his supporters to come out? Did he have any actual responsibility for the acts that marked Brazilian democracy with this ugly mark? That's what he will be answering for today, Max.

FOSTER: OK, Julia, thank you.

In just under two hours, U.S. President Joe Biden will welcome South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol to the White House for a state visit. The two leaders met informally on Tuesday evening at the Korean War Memorial. They'll celebrate 70 years of the U.S.-South Korea alliance. They are scheduled to hold talks, followed by a joint news conference and a state dinner.

CNN's Paula Hancocks is tracking the story from South Korea, joins us now from Seoul. What are the big questions that journalists can ask, do you think, at the press conference?

[08:15:05]

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Max, we've had a bit of a preview from senior administration officials telling CNN that there will unveil a new declaration. They call it the Washington Declaration. And what this is, and it's going to be signed by both leaders in the coming hours. It will be a series of steps for the U.S. to try and reassure South Korea that it will be there in its hour of need if necessary.

Seoul has consistently been calling for a strengthened extended deterrence in the face of these increased nuclear threats and testing and launches from North Korea. So what this will be is it will boost the cooperation between the U.S. and South Korea, we're told, for military training, information sharing, and strategic asset movements.

Now, we're also being told that there will actually be a U.S. nuclear ballistic submarine that will visit South Korea in the near future. And that hasn't happened since the early 1980s. So what we're likely to see is a very visible show from the U.S. and also showing the North Koreans that they do have a significant deterrent and they will use it for South Korea if necessary.

There's also going to be a nuclear consultative group, which will mean that leaders from both of the countries will meet on a regular basis to discuss nuclear and strategic planning. Now, this is something that Seoul has been pushing for for some time. So certainly President Yoon Suk Yeol is likely to be very pleased with it.

And what Washington has been concerned about is this growing feeling here in South Korea that there wasn't enough protection from the nuclear umbrella, that maybe there should be U.S. tactical nuclear weapons redeployed to the peninsula, maybe even South Korea should have its own nuclear program. It had even been suggested by President Yoon Suk Yeol himself, although he later walked that back.

So what Washington will be hoping is that this lays those increasing calls for South Korea to have its own nuclear program, lays them to rest. So certainly, this is going to be the big headline today. Of course, other things will be likely discussed.

The threat, of course, from North Korea also potentially whether or not the South Korea is going to be providing ammunition to the United States, which the United States has said it would like to send to Ukraine.

Now, of course, the Pentagon leak just recently gave a remarkable -- remarkably detailed account of senior South Korean officials having deep concerns about that, as their policy is not to send arms to countries which are at war. Max?

FOSTER: OK, Paula, thank you. We'll follow all of that.

Do stay with CNN throughout the day, we'll have full coverage of the meeting between the U.S. President Joe Biden and his South Korean counterparts in Washington, D.C. We'll be right back.

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FOSTER: How much of a threat is the lab seized in Khartoum? The World Health Organization is expressing concerns after one of the warring factions in Sudan took over the National Public Health Laboratory.

The WHO warns trained technicians no longer have access to the facility, so it's not possible for them to properly manage biological materials stored there for medical purposes. A source tells CNN the danger lies in the possibility of any armed confrontation inside the lab.

CNN's Sam Kiley joins us live from nearby Djibouti. Sam, that's because there are worrying samples, some potentially hazardous samples within the lab. Is that correct?

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's absolutely right, Max. What the lab contains, among other things, is samples of live polio, measles and cholera. Now, polio is all but eradicated in the Horn of Africa and Central Africa, including Sudan, almost entirely, we think.

Measles and cholera are endemic. And cholera, in particular, in any case, is a threat in a city like Khartoum, which is riven with violence because the clean water supplies have been disrupted or are non-functioning altogether. The only access to clean water anybody has is through wells. But, of course, sewage systems will be struggling, such as they are.

And cholera itself is always going to be a threat under that kind of circumstances, particularly in very hot weather. So if there was a release of a cholera precursor, if you like, a pathogen into the community, if somebody broke in, smashed these things up, then suddenly, they would be infected and they would be spreading these serious infections into the population.

This is not a COVID type threat, though. This is not some unknown series of biological viruses or bacterial infections that could be unknown and spread into the communities. There are ways of mitigating these infections, and that is precisely why this laboratory exists. But it is a biohazard and it is an example of how, Max, the state infrastructures, all of these things that people might not think about when you think about what happens when a country is plunged into civil war.

We understand water, food, fuel shortages, which are chronic now in Khartoum, but there are other aspects to this as well. Biosecurity is among them. The other, more mundane is the fact that people can't get cash, can't recharge their mobile phones with credit. Therefore, communications are beginning to collapse just at a time when the international community out of Djibouti, out of Cyprus, out of their home countries, is accelerating their efforts during a ceasefire to try to lift their citizens out of the country by air.

But, of course, there is a humanitarian crisis that preexists all of this already in Khartoum and more widely across Sudan. And that is now being exacerbated by, among other things, the threat of some kind of biological disaster out of this laboratory. Max?

FOSTER: OK, Sam, thank you for that report.

Coming up, a grim toll in Kenya. Police uncover bodies as they investigate a cult which allegedly encouraged its followers to starve themselves.

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FOSTER: Police are continuing efforts to uncover mass graves in eastern Kenya. So far, 89 bodies have been found, but there are fears that the number could rise. The Kenya Red Cross says it's had reports of more than 200 people missing from one town.

Eleni Giokos filed this report, a warning that it does, of course, contain some disturbing images.

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ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): 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 relative, but we are just finally rescuing more people and seeing more graves.

GIOKOS (voice-over): 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, PRESIDENT OF KENYA: Terrorists use religion to advance their heinous acts. People like Mr. Mackenzie are using religion to do exactly the same thing.

GIOKOS (voice-over): Kenya's government has called for tighter regulations on those using religion to promote radical ideologies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 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 fast 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, deradicalized and understand what is happening.

GIOKOS (voice-over): 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.

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FOSTER: Thanks for joining me here on CNN Newsroom. I'm Max Foster in London.

World Sport with Amanda is up next.

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