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Teixeira has Weapons in his Home and Threats History, according to Prosecutors; 13-Year Old Girl Wounded at a Rocket Attack inside a Residential Building in Kyiv; Foreigners Rushed to Escape Sudan as Fighting amid the new Truce continues; Iranian Activists Will Stage a Rally to Designate IRGC as Terrorists; Haiti's Crime Rate Increases Owing to Gang Violence; South Korean President Addressed U.S. Congress. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired April 28, 2023 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to all of you watching us here in the U.S., Canada, and all around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber.

Ahead on "CNN Newsroom," a judge considers bail for the suspect in the Pentagon leak's case, why prosecutors say he is a flight risk.

A first in modern history, former Vice-President Mike Pence testifies before grand jury about his former boss, Donald Trump. And --

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Reports of fighting in Khartoum, despite a new ceasefire as foreign citizens rushed to evacuate.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Kim Brunhuber.

BRUNHUBER: We're learning startling new details about the 21-year old man accused of leaking top-secret Pentagon documents online. Prosecutors say Jack Teixeira had an arsenal of weapons in his Massachusetts home, and a history of making violent threats. And it all came to light in a bail hearing on Thursday.

CNN's Jason Carroll has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CAROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The detention hearing got underway with Jack Teixeira's father first taking the stand. He told the court he would not hesitate to report his son if he was released on bail in his custody and broke any rules the court imposed.

The defense argued that 21-year old Air National Guardsmen is not a flight risk nor a security risk and that Teixeira did not intend for the classified information to go beyond the chat room where he had shared it.

Judge Hennessy challenged that notion, someone under the age of 30 has no idea they put something on the internet that could end up anywhere in the world, seriously? He had no idea that would go beyond the little people on the server? That is like someone arguing, I pulled the trigger, but I had no intent to kill him.

Prosecutors argue Teixeira could still have access to hundreds of documents, the defense filing asserts Teixeira no longer has access to those documents, saying prosecutors are exaggerating their client's threat.

Court documents filed by the U.S. Attorney's Office, Wednesday, argued Teixeira should not be released on bail, claiming he poses a serious flight risk, riding, he could take refuge with a foreign adversary to avoid the reach of U.S. law.

Prosecutors claim the information Teixeira allegedly accessed, far exceeds what has been disclosed on the internet. The filing also includes pictures from the search warrant executed on Teixeira's bedroom. The photos show a gun locker next to his bed containing multiple weapons, including an AK style high capacity weapon, handguns, shotgun rifles, and a gas mask.

Prosecutors say law enforcement also found a smashed tablet, laptop, and a gaming console in a dumpster at the home. Prosecutors say that Teixeira also obstructed justice by telling those that he was communicating with online to delete all messages. And that if anyone comes looking, don't tell them expletive.

Prosecutors also questioned why Teixeira was a candidate for the Air National Guard, given his history surrounding guns. The Pentagon is defending its procedures.

PAT RYDER, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: I think it is important not necessarily to take the actions of one individual and somehow paint a picture that -- that indicates a systemic breakdown. Again, this is under investigation and the investigation will tell us a lot more about this particular individual and what he did and did not do.

CAROLL (voice-over): The court documents state that in 2018 he was suspended while in high school after a classmate allegedly overheard him making remarks about guns and racial threats. That same year, prosecutors say he applied for a Firearms I.D. card, but was denied due to the concerns of the local police department over the defendant's remarks at his high school.

Court documents mentioned his social media post, reviewed by the FBI. One post from last November reads, I hope ISIS goes through with their attack plan and creates a massacre at the World Cup. Going on to say that, If I had it my way, I would kill a ton of people.

Jason Carroll, CNN, Worcester, Massachusetts.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BRUNHUBER: A developing story we are following this hour. The U.S. Army says that three soldiers were killed after two military helicopters crashed near Healy, Alaska. Another soldier was injured and is being treated at the hospital. The army says that two AH-64 Apache choppers were returning from a training flight at the time of the crash.

[03:09:54]

Now, to a first in modern American history, a Former Vice-President compelled to testify about the President that he served beside. Mike Pence spoke Thursday with a federal grand jury investigating the U.S. Capitol insurrection into Donald Trump's role in instigating it.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz has details.

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KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Former Vice- President Mike Pence testified before a federal grand jury on Thursday for more than five hours, that testimony would have been about what happened after the 2020 election leading up to January 6th. All of those conversations, he directly would have had with Donald Trump, the President at the time, at a time when Donald Trump was pressuring him to overturn the vote. Pence refused to do so.

Pence has also spoken about those conversations publicly, he's written about them in his book, then he has been on a tour about, now he is talking about them really regularly. But never before has an investigation, has a grand jury and have prosecutors gotten Pence under oath to reveal exactly what he thought, what he felt, and what was said to between him and Donald Trump on those crucial days as part of this investigation.

So this is a really significant moment in the January 6th criminal investigation being led by Special Counsel Jack Smith at the Justice Department, it is also quite a momentous moment in history. There has never before been a vice-president called to testify in a subpoena about the President that he served alongside, and that did not happen in Watergate with Richard Nixon, it did not happen with Whitewater with Bill Clinton, which both had very active grand jurors. So this is different.

It also is a very crucial moment putting Mike Pence here, because the Justice Department had to fight for this testimony. They went to court over this, Donald Trump tried to block the testimony, he tried to limit what Pence could say about the direct conversations, lost those court battles.

Mike Pence also went to court to fight on this and did not want to testify under subpoena, but he did get a little bit of leeway from the court being able to protect what he was doing when he was the presiding officer on January 6th.

But today, that federal grand jury did hear from Mike Pence for more than five hours, one-on-one, the grand jurors would have been able to ask him questions, they would've been able to piece him into the investigation. A very active investigation that they have heard from many, many witnesses on. And now the prosecutors will take that to testimony and see how it fits, tried and feet it into potential charges as they look towards the future. It will become, at least part of the record of what will now be known about January 6th to the Justice Department and potentially to the public later on.

Katelyn Polantz, CNN, Washington.

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BRUNHUBER: And joining me now from Los Angeles is Civil Rights Attorney Areva Martin, and CNN Senior Political Analyst Ron Brownstein. Thank you so much for joining us, both of you.

Areva, I want to start with you, how crucial of a witness is Pence, and do you think they will have learned anything new here?

AREVA MARTIN, CIVIL RIGHTS LAWYER: Oh, I think absolutely, Kim, even though Mike Pence has been on a booked tour, even though he has written about what happened leading up to January 6th in his book, it's very different than testifying under oath before a grand jury.

The grand jury -- in that grand jury proceedings, they get to learn details that I would imagine have not been disclosed in that book. You know, how long were meetings with Donald Trump exactly what he said what Mike Pence said in response. This is a dramatic turn of events, we know that Mike Pence resisted any efforts that were aimed at trying to get him to give his testimony before a grand jury or before the January 6th committee. So this is a significant development and it just shows how the special counsel has been appointed in this case has been a lot more aggressive in this investigation.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, that's right. And Ron, I mean we've been emphasizing the historic nature of this, the first time that the Vice-President has been compelled to testify about his former boss. How worried should Donald Trump be?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think this really underscores the magnitude of this investigation and of the many investigations that he faced. You know, Mike Pence did the right thing on January 6th. After that, he has been circumspect, he has gone so far in criticizing Trump and no further. You know, he said we will never see eye to eye about what happened that day, which seems a pretty, you know, kind a mild way of describing those events. It's certainly well short of what others like Liz Cheney have said, saying that it would disqualify Trump from being president again.

But I think the fact that the Justice Department, you know, went to this effort, brought him in, first of all, it suggests that if that Vice-President can be compelled to testify, others that they are seeking are going to be compelled to testify as well.

[02:09:48] But, it just underscores just how much -- how many nets Donald Trump is facing and how they are tightening around him. He held a rally after the Manhattan, you know, D.A. indicted him, he is looking at potentially two more federal indictments, and a very serious investigation in Georgia. The challenges are -- the legal challenges, and the political challenges that go with that are only getting more pronounced.

BRUNHUBER: And Ron, just staying with you, I mean you know, we heard from Areva, I mean he is written about all of this in his book. How actually forthcoming do you think Pence will be about those crucial one-on-one conversations between himself and Donald Trump?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, you know, based on everything that we have seen for Mike Pence, I don't think he is going to go out in his way to damage Donald Trump or to deliver incriminating evidence. If anything I think he would probably bend in the opposite direction. But I also think he is someone who prides himself on his fealty to the law and I think you will answer questions that he is asked.

So, there is no predicting. I don't think anybody can entirely predict whether his testimony will be helpful or harmful to Trump, but I do think that, you know, he is not going to overtly mislead a grand jury. You know, it just does not seem in character from Mike Pence, and how he receives his role to be as we saw under that pressure on January 6th.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah. Areva, since they won't get Trump himself here, I mean Pence is obviously sort of the top of the food chain in terms of his profile in this investigation. Do you think that suggests the special counsel is almost done here?

MARTIN: I think it is a significant development and we should not underestimate what this may mean, in terms of how close the special counsel is with respect to, you know, determining whether there is going to be an indictment or not. Now, I think it is also important, Kim, to note that this is a testimony by Mike Pence before this grand jury is happening on the day when E. Jean Carroll, in a federal courthouse, in a civil matter, not a criminal matter, but in a civil matter has testified that Donald Trump raped her.

This -- the level of legal jeopardy that this former president finds himself in is unprecedented, and this is all occurring while he is running for President again.

And Mike Pence also has signaled that he is likely to become a candidate for President, so we have a former Vice-President testifying about a former President, trying to overthrow a legitimate election of the sitting President while that former President is being accused of raping a woman.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, I mean plenty of legal woes facing Donald Trump, since Areva, you have been talking about the political implications, Ron, let's pivot there. Do you think that Mike Pence will be hurt politically here just by testifying, or could this help in some way do you think? BROWNSTEIN: Well, you know he is having trouble getting traction in

the race so far. And you know, Donald Trump is taking up a lot of space. I mean -- you know Kim, the coalition that is supporting him in polls at this point looks an awful like -- lot like the coalition that he mobilized to win the nomination in 2016.

I mean, he is winning about half of Republicans without a college degree, is winning a quarter and a third of the Republicans with a degree but that is essentially what he managed last time. You see Ron DeSantis fading, but still a very strong second place. And between the two of them, they are carving out about three quarters or more of the Republican primary vote.

I think all of the Republican candidates face the same challenge. I mean, the evidence is very clear that most Republican voters do not view all of this as disqualifying, even though there are plenty of general election swing voters who are recoiling from the cumulative wait as we are discussing all these legal matters.

And none of the other Republican candidates including Pence have been willing to make an explicit race to Republican voters about why they should not renominate Donald Trump. I think the evidence of the last six months is that strategy is not going to work. If they want to dislodge him they are going to have to give Republican voters a more explicit reason to do so.

All of this is giving them plenty of ammunition, if nothing else, on that kind of expediency argument that he can't win, it will be difficult to him to win a general election, but so far they've been tiptoeing around it, and I think very clearly, Mike Pence or anyone else, they're going to have to tell Republican voters why they should not renominate Donald Trump.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, that's right. Last word, Areva, on this special counsel probe. Former Chief-of-Staff -- Trump Chief-of-Staff Mark Meadows -- I mean, he could be the single most important witness in all of this -- Trump himself of course, so could he and will he be compelled to testify do you think?

MARTIN: Yeah, you know there is a lot of conversation happening about whether he may be given immunity, Kim, to testify. Obviously, he has lots of information. He was in contact with Donald Trump, he was in the White House doing some of those critical meetings as they were trying to determine what could be done to overthrow the election.

[03:14:55]

We know that he has lots of information and I would not be surprised if there is not an immunity deal that is struck with Mark Meadows and that he is forced to testify. And again, I think the information that he has might be the linchpin, might be that critical information that connects all of the dots. So, even though Mike Pence has been timid and has been hesitant to give any testimony that could be considered unfavorable to Donald Trump, it's not so clear to me that Mark Meadows and all of the other people who might be called into a grand jury are going to take the same approach. At some point, people are going to start to realize that they

themselves may face criminal prosecution and legal jeopardy, if they are not forthcoming with the information that they have about what happened now leading up to January 6th.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah. That is why he would need the immunity precisely for that reason. We'll have to leave it there, thank you so much for your analysis, both of you. Areva Martin and Ron Brownstein, again, thank you.

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having us.

MARTIN: Thanks, Kim.

BRUNHUBER: Ukraine is being hit with a deadly new round of missile attacks from Russia. Just ahead, we'll show the destruction of the high-rise residential building in the central part of the country. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Ukraine says rescue operations are underway after a barrage of Russian strikes across the country.

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That was the sound of air-raid sirens in Kyiv a few hours ago. Officials say air defense systems shot down more than a dozen missiles over the capital. The city still took some damage but there are no reports of civilian casualties. But three other cities across Ukraine have also been struck with at least nine people killed and more than a dozen wounded. Now, this video shows the aftermath of rocket attacks in the city of Uman where some high-rise buildings partially collapsed.

CNN's Scott McLean is monitoring developments and joins us now from London. So, Scott, what more can you tell us about these deadly strikes?

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kim. Yeah, the air defenses may them working over Kyiv. But there were other missiles that landed in Ukraine, though whether they hit their target is a completely different question. Because it is hard to understand what possible military value there would have been in some of the residential areas that we know were hit.

There was, according to the local Mayor of Dnipro in the eastern part of the country, there were high precision strikes in his words overnight that resulted in the death of the three-year-old child and another young woman.

There was also a missile strike that hit at least two-floors of an apartment building in the town of Ukrainka, which is essentially a suburb of Kyiv there, where a 13-year old was injured. We do not have any more information on who may have killed in that strike.

But the most dramatic pictures that we are seeing thus far come from the city of Uman. It is about 125 miles south of the capital Kyiv, and it is nowhere near the front lines. So what we know from authorities there is that two missiles came down in the city, hitting a warehouse and damaging several apartment buildings and one in particular.

Authorities there say that there are now seven people have been killed. There are more injured. And the death toll is very likely to rise because there are people who have been hospitalized, one in particular who is in quite poor condition.

And we know from watching the live pictures that have been coming in throughout the morning, that there are still very much an active rescue operation taking place on the site there. And although there have been people rescued in the early hours following this missile strike, it is difficult to imagine anyone impossibly able to be pulled out at this point given what the scene looks like.

It is essentially a smoking pile of rubble and you can see from those pictures, it looks as if the missile dropped essentially straight down out of the sky and destroyed every single floor on the way down. President Zelenskyy put out a statement in reaction to this, saying in part, that this Russian terror must face a response from Ukraine, and the world and it will.

One other note to point out, Kim, and that is that the Ukrainian Air Force just released a photograph of its new Patriot air defense system, the second one that they say is now in operation across the country, but of course, as we know from these strikes the system is still far from perfect, far from foolproof here, Kim.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, exactly. Scott McLean in London, thanks so much.

A new three-day truce is supposed to be underway in Sudan between the army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, but a short while ago witnesses reported heavy fire near the Presidential Palace in Central Khartoum. The last ceasefire was repeatedly broken and hundreds of people have been killed since fighting began about two weeks ago. Sudan is also struggling with a worsening humanitarian crisis. There have been shortages of water, food, medicine, and electricity.

We go now to David McKenzie, who lives in Johannesburg. So David, what more can you tell us about the latest on the ceasefire, the evacuations, and the deteriorating humanitarian situation?

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kim, it is a ceasefire in name only. Certainly both the RSF, the Rapid Support Forces, the paramilitary group and the military agreed to the ceasefire, saying that they would respect it for 72 hours further.

But, like the previous one as you mentioned, this one has been met with strikes in parts of the capital, Khartoum, as well as fighting ongoing as you mentioned. And so, that ceasefire brokered by the U.S. and the Saudis does not appear to be holding whatsoever. Part of the reason the ceasefires were pushed was to get foreign nationals and civilians off of Sudan, out of the country. Of course, ongoing fighting in the capital makes that more challenging and more dangerous.

[03:24:51]

We still want to focus, much of our focus has been on the capitol. In the far west of the country, in Darfur, you've had people streaming over the border into Chad, for several days now. And if you look at those conditions therein, according to U.N. officials that I have been speaking to, many are just out in the open waiting to be assisted, hoping that the situation does not deteriorate further, it could be another element of humanitarian catastrophe. And listen to the conditions that people are fleeing.

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DESKI ABDOULAYE BEDIM, SUDANESE REFUGEE (through translator): Armed men came to our compound and asked us to leave before we became collateral victims. Under threat, we left in a hurry on a donkey to come here. I got separated from my seven children. And I can't find them. We have seen parents massacred by Arab militia while they have done nothing. We are victims of gratuitous barbarism that we do not understand.

(END VIDEO CLIP

MCKENZIE: A key place to watch, Kim, is El Geneina, close to the border between Sudan and Chad. For several days now we have been getting reports of Arab militia fighting civilians in that area.

To a certain extent, people are trapped inside and it sounds like awful conditions there. Now, this is not fighting between necessarily, the military and the paramilitary force, this is a general collapse in law and order in the country and an ongoing deterioration of the security situation, Kim?

BRUNHUBER: They're really sad. Thanks so much, David McKenzie, we really appreciate it.

Well, tens of thousands of Sudanese, as we just heard, are crossing into neighboring countries like Egypt and volunteers like my next guest are bringing them supplies. We'll have our conversation just ahead, please do stay with us.

[03:30:00]

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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is "CNN Newsroom."

The U.S. is imposing new sanctions on groups in Russia and Iran that are accused of taking Americans hostage. Officials say the move should serve as a warning to those who might be thinking of doing the same. The sanctions notably impact Russia's Federal Security Service and

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps. The penalties come amid several high-profile cases of Americans that the Biden administration considers to be wrongfully detained. "Wall Street Journal" reporter Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, are both being held in Russia on charges of spying at least three American citizens are being held in Iran's notorious Evin prison.

Iranian activists in the U.K. are calling for a rally on Saturday, demanding that the British government designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization. Activists and members of the parliament have been pushing the U.K. due for months, what the U.S. has already done.

One British-Iranian activist has become the face of this campaign after setting up camp outside of the British Foreign Office going on a hunger strike. It has now entered its 65th day.

Our Jomana Karadsheh has more.

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JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Iran International, a powerful voice the Islamic Republic once silenced. It labeled the U.K.-based opposition channel a terrorist entity, but it did not stop there.

(on-camera): In November, London's Met Police notified the channel of serious security threats against a number of its journalists. Armed police were placed outside its studios, but the threat had become so severe. British authorities could no longer guarantee their safety. And in February, Iran International announced it had no choice but to relocate to Washington.

(voice-over): This past year alone, the Met and Intelligence Services have foiled at least 15 plots, they say, that were protected from Iran, to kidnap or kill individuals including U.K. nationals on British soil.

UNKNOWN: The IRGC has managed to infiltrate the U.K. to suppress our freedom of expression.

KARADSHEH (voice-over): Many in the Iranian community say they are now living in a constant state of fear. Every time this couple go out to London and protest, they tell us their children fear for their safety.

UNKNOWN: We don't want to check out locks every night, set our alarms, and be scared our families.

UNKNOWN: We want to -- our freedom of speech needs to be valued. We are living in the heart of democracy, and it doesn't look like it.

KARADSHEH (voice-over): British-Iranians have been gathering outside the Foreign Office, demanding their government to do more. They want Iran's Revolutionary Guards, the IRGC, to be designated as a terrorist organization, something the U.S. and a few other countries have done. Their demand is Vahid Beheshti's cause, the British-Iranian activist/journalist has been camped outside the Foreign Office on a hunger strike for more than two months. He was jailed twice and tortured before he fled his homeland 24 years ago.

VAHID BEHESHTI, BRITISH-IRANIAN ACTIVIST/JOURNALIST: They took everything away from us. But I can say I was one of those lucky people who could run away and come out of the country. But they are here now. Here where we are sitting in front of Foreign Office is the most safest place in London. I don't feel safe.

KARADSHEH (voice-over): We met Beheshti on his 59th day of surviving on a handful of brown sugar cubes and water. He says he's lost more than 17 percent of his body mass, too frail to get himself out of the wheelchair.

BEHESHTI: You feel your body start eating the muscles, but mentally and internally I'm getting stronger.

[03:35:00]

KARADSHEH (voice-over): Beheshti's voice is being heard. More than 100 parliamentarians signed a letter to the Prime Minister urging the government to designate the IRGC. With his wife, a British politician by side, Beheshti is vowing to keep up the pressure. It's not only about Iranians, he says, this is about standing up for the most basic of British values.

UNKNOWN: They are terrorists, they must call.

KARADSHEH (voice-over): Jomana Karadsheh, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Now, Iran didn't respond to CNN's request for comment, but it has condemned similar designations in the past. The U.K government spokesperson told CNN they sanctioned more than 300 Iranian individuals and entities, including the IRGC. Now, a spokesperson says that they don't comment on future designations, but quote, we do not tolerate threats to life and intimidation of any kind towards individuals in the U.K. and will continue to use all the tools at our disposal to protect against any threat from the Iranian state.

We'll be right back. Stay with us.

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[03:40:30]

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BRUNHUBER: Already struggling with extreme poverty, the humanitarian and overwhelmed police forces, people in Haiti are now forced to defend themselves against gang violence. And new data revealed Haiti's crime rate is more than double since last year.

CNN's Patrick Oppmann has the story. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PATRICK OPPMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Desperation on the streets of Haiti's capital, as the mob beats and kills about a dozen alleged gang members in Port Au Prince, leaving their bodies to burn in the streets.

UNKNOWN (through translator): It was simply the sound of gunfire that woke us up this morning. It was 3 am, the gangs invaded us, there was shooting, shooting, this neighborhood is a peaceful area. All the people in the surrounding area are peaceful citizens.

OPPMAN (voice-over): The police, the U.N. says, are largely under- resourced and understaffed, leaving frustrated and terrorized residents in charge of their own safety. Activists say 60 percent of Port Au Prince is controlled by gangs.

UNKNOWN (through translator): (inaudible) The gang members have invaded the area. We want the police to go ahead and confront them. We are on our own, we have nothing.

UNKNOWN (through translator): If the gangs come to invade us we will defend ourselves. We have our own weapons, we have our own machetes. We will take their weapons, we will not run away. Mothers who want to protect their children can send them elsewhere.

OPPMAN (voice-over): Elsewhere in the country, violent crime is on the rise too. The U.N. says crime has more than doubled in the past year, with gangs control in large parts of the country, including residential areas. The U.N. says that sexual violence, exploitation, kidnappings, and homicides are rampant, sparing no one, not even children.

MARIA ISABEL SALVADOR, UNITED NATIONS ENVOY TO HAITI: Children are among the victims of the most heinous crimes, including killings, kidnappings, and rape. Over the last three months, school children have been hit by bullets while sitting in their classrooms and kidnapped when being dropped off at school.

OPPMAN (voice-over): Many schools closed last year because of the violence, but parents fear that sending their children to ones that have reopened, furthering frustration over a potentially bleak future for the next generation of Haitians.

Patrick Oppmann, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Still ahead. Rallying Allies. South Korea's President addresses the U.S. Congress saying the countries must present a united front against threats from North Korea. Stay with us.

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[03:45:00]

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BRUNHUBER: South Korea's President delivered a passionate speech to the U.S. Congress on Thursday. Yoon Suk-Yeol was welcomed with enthusiastic applause from lawmakers as he marked 70 years of South Korea's alliance with the U.S.

He accused North Korea of threatening peace with its nuclear program and missile tests, as Pyongyang's obsession with nuclear weapons has thrown its people into an economic humanitarian crisis. Yoon rallied lawmakers to his cause by referencing former U.S. President, Ronald Reagan. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YOON SUK-YEOL, SOUTH KOREAN PRESIDENT: To deter this reckless behavior, the alliance must stand united with determination. As President Reagan once said, there is a price we will not pay. There is a point beyond, which they must not advance. We must make his words clear to North Korea.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: The South Korean president went on to condemn Russia's war on Ukraine. He vowed to help Kyiv as other democratic countries helped Seoul during the Korean War.

In Jerusalem, tens of thousands of right-wing protesters marched in front of Israel's parliament on Thursday in the first big public rally to support Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's controversial plan to overhaul the judicial system. Since January, there's been massive protests against the plan which opponents say would weaken the independence of the Supreme Court.

Here is CNN's Hadas Gold reporting from Jerusalem.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HADAS GOLD, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (on-camera): For months, hundreds of thousands of Israelis had taken to the streets of Israel to protest against this judicial overhaul plan. The Israeli government has put forward that would give unprecedented power in the hands of the Israeli Parliament over the Supreme Court.

But this protest is something different. These protesters, they are in favor of the judicial reform, they say their forces have not been hurt as much in the Israeli streets. And so, that's why they're coming out here in front of the Israeli Supreme Court and the Israeli Parliament, because they want their voices heard by the Parliamentarians.

They want these reforms to pass, they want these reforms to go through, they say that this is what they voted for in those November elections. They say that right-wing parties won the majority, and this is what they want heard.

For the people out here, they say this, for them, is democracy. They want more power in the hands of the people. Now, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had suspended the legislative process on these reforms after the most massive general strike in Israeli history.

[03:49:57]

But the Israeli Parliament is coming back into session next week. And some of the right-wing ministers have said that no matter what, these reforms will come back on to the table, no matter what the negotiations might be happening behind the scenes.

And for these protesters here, they say that is what they want to happen. They say, no matter what, it is their vote that won the majority in November. And they want these reforms done now.

Hadas Gold, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: The war in Ukraine is expected to be on the agenda when Pope Francis meets with Hungarian leaders in the coming hour. The Pope departed Rome, a short time ago. He is headed to Budapest for a short visit. He is set to meet with the right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban, in addition to the civil society leaders of local clergy. The Vatican said he wants to show his commitment to a more fraternal society in Europe that was wounded by war. Now, the Pope's visit comes a few weeks after a health scare. The 86-year old Pontiff spent several nights in hospital for bronchitis.

And for the first time ever, Pope Francis will allow women to participate in the upcoming meeting of the catholic bishops. Traditionally, only bishops are allowed to vote on proposals for the Pope. But the Pontiff is expanding participation this year.

CNN's Delia Gallagher reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: Pope Francis' decision to allow women a vote in an upcoming meeting of bishops in October has been called an important step, but not a revolution, by the cardinal in charge of that meeting, Cardinal Hollerich of Luxembourg.

The Pope has decided that at this meeting, which involves several hundred bishops, there will also be 70 non-bishop voting participants. Half of them, he says, should be women. He also wants young people included.

What these meetings do are they look at recommendations to make it to the Pope and they vote on those proposals. Now this is something that has been going on since 2021 in the Catholic Church all around the world, listening to lay people, that is people who are not priests and nuns, what are some of their concerns. Those concerns now come to the Vatican in October. And from that, the proposals are made to the Pope.

It is something that women's groups within the Catholic Church have been pushing for, for some time, to have a vote at the table. The women's ordination conference called it a significant crack in the stained glass ceiling. What remains to be seen is what the proposals will be. The Vatican

says that the agenda will be published in May and then, they will go for a month-long meeting this October and again in October of 2024 before they put the proposals before Pope Francis.

Delia Gallagher, CNN, Rome.

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BRUNHUBER: Spanish officials are concerned an ongoing drought could devastate crops this year. Some reservoirs now contain about half the water they usually have this time of year. That's happening in Spain's top food producing regions in the south and the northeast. One farmer's union says the consequences for crops could be, in their words, agonizing. Spain has been hit with a prolonged drought, with some cities seeing their highest temperature in decades for this time of the year.

Areas along the upper Mississippi river could be dealing with flooding issues until the middle of next month. Officials warn that ongoing snow melt has caused the rivers to rise higher than usual and, if more rain falls before the river drop significantly there could be substantial flooding. The town of Davenport, Iowa is already seeing rising waters and preparing for the worst.

Flooding in 2019 broke a temporary barrier in the downtown area, swamping many buildings. And voluntary evacuations are happening in some parts of Wisconsin as the river has sent water spilling into homes and basements.

Researchers have begun an ambitious new mission to explore strange, sort of new worlds to seek out new marine species, to boldly go into the world's oceans. Well, look, the Global Initiative by Ocean Census aims to identify 100,000 unknown species in the next 10 years.

New technology like underwater laser scanning will make it easier to study sea creatures in their natural habitat, and Ocean Census will also help find out how marine ecosystems are adapting to the climate crisis. According to the census, of the more than two million species that exist in the ocean, only about 240,000 have been identified.

And after a 20-year loan, the giant panda Ya Ya is back home in China. She arrived in Shanghai on Thursday after a 16-hour flight. Ya Ya had been at the Memphis Zoo in the U.S. since 2003, as a symbol of Chinese-American goodwill, but became an unexpected symbol of deteriorating relations.

In recent months, the 22-year-old had appeared thin, that caused the fur missing. Activists alleged she was mistreated as people in China demanded her return and the Memphis Zoo officials denied any mistreatment and U.S. and Chinese scientists agreed she had excellent care, but had a genetic skin and fur conditions.

And before we go, here's a reminder that students, schools, and livestock don't mix.

[03:55:01]

A group of Illinois high school seniors brought animals to campus as a prank, but a cow escaped. It ended up loose in the nearby neighborhood, police had to corral the beast, turning it into a real life rodeo. Listen to this.

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UNKNOWN: I saw a helicopter and then we saw the track so we walked on over to see if there really was a cow.

UNKNOWN: And what did you see?

UNKNOWN: We really saw a cow.

UNKNOWN: I was standing by the truck and it looked like a rodeo. It was crazy.

UNKNOWN: You wouldn't be expecting to see a cow, you know. Maybe a deer or two but, yeah, this is I guess a great way to start off the summer, right? Like with so little excitement.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Now, luckily, no one was injured and the cow was taken to a nearby shelter, and the students involved were issued citations to appear in local court.

All right, that wraps this hour of "CNN Newsroom," I'm Kim Brunhuber, and the news continues now. Stay with us.

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