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CNN International: Fleeing Sudan; Russia Launches a New Wave of Missile Attacks; France Braces for Day of Mass Protests Over Pension Reforms; Is the U.S. Witnessing a Banking Crisis; Ceremony for Britain's King Charles Steeped in Tradition. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired May 01, 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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MAX FOSTER, CNN HOST: Hello and welcome to CNN "Newsroom", I'm Max Foster in London. Just ahead, thousands are still fleeing Sudan many can't get out. While some lucky few managed to escape. CNN's team is on the ground where evacuees are being processed live in just a moment.

Also ahead, First Republic Bank becomes the second largest bank failure in U.S. history. We'll ask how that happened despite a $30 billion lifeline it received and in just five days, King Charles will be crowned in Westminster Abbey and look at what to expect this week.

The devastating conflict between rival military forces in Sudan is now in its third week. It doesn't appear to be any end in sight despite the extension of yet another so called ceasefire. Witnesses tell CNN explosions were heard in at around the Capital earlier. On the ground, the situation is quickly deteriorating, with the U.N. warning of a humanitarian breaking point.

Thousands of foreign nationals have been evacuated from Sudan to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, including 100 Americans that's where CNN, Larry Madowo joins us now live, Larry, what they telling you?

LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They're saying that they're still Americans who remain in Port Sudan or in the largest Sudan country; some of them have chosen not to leave. But those were communicated to the U.S. Embassy, that we'll be communicating with them and helping them how to get out of the country.

But the first U.S. run naval ship arrived here in the USNS Brunswick, and it had about 100 Americans on board. Some of them are here that you see here, but the vast majority were Americans, but they're also about 24 Brits on there, some people from Germany, from Australia, from Scotland, and from all over the world.

And you see what happens here is they get processed and then they go over across the other side to get their passport stamped, then they spend a couple of days in Saudi Arabia before they can move on to mostly other parts of the U.S. and across the world. And so many of the people we spoke to are grateful to the Saudis for helping set this up, but also grateful that they can leave. But there's also a sense of heartbreak and loss, almost survivor's guilt that they have the chance to leave because these were here all Sudanese dual nationals with another country which means that the power and ability that they can leave the country but for so many, they can leave Sudan this 45 million people were stuck in that. I spoke to one mother who's got two young kids this is her response to this crisis. There so many children had to live through this?

AMELHAMIMY, EVACUATED FROM SUDAN: Yes, a lot and I have a lot of friends and family who like their kids are having like trauma from this and like they're still there are these came out to run. But they're still having like, you know their heartbeat and like, you know, sweating when they hear any sound on their like, wake up suddenly. Yes, they are very scared to now.

Such a heartbreaking situation but the beauty of it is this seventh child's childlike innocence here when he says some of these kids who don't understand what's going on one of them. One of the families here has a three-week old baby that was just born at this conflict was beginning.

And so they made the calculation that it was the best decision for them was to leave. The Saudis said that they have so far evacuated about 5200 people from about 100 nationalities using this shuttle service almost they're running between Port Sudan across the Red Sea here to Jeddah.

But there's so many more people in the Port Sudan, Max, who haven't had a chance to leave hoping to get into one of these ships across the Red Sea to safety to whatever countries they're from.

FOSTER: Yes, our force with them. Larry Madowo, thank you for joining us from Saudi. Now in Ukraine, Officials say Russia has launched a new wave of missile strikes in several East Europe, Ukrainian regions including least 34 people who were injured earlier the military said Ukraine's air defense system intercepted 15 of the 18 cruise missiles fired by Russia, including over Kyiv.

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Ukrainians in the capital took shelter in the city's Metro Tunnels sleeping on platforms waiting for the danger to pass. Meanwhile Ukraine says Russia is replenishing its troops with convicts recruited by the Wagner group. 400 of them reportedly just arrived in Zaporizhzhia region. Nic Robertson is following all the developments from Kyiv for us. He joins us now live, Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Max, it seems again for a second time that air defense is in Kyiv kept out all the Russian missiles but they didn't. Or they weren't so effective, as you said out of 18, incoming 15 were taken down. But again, those few that got through, causes huge destruction are those 34 civilian casualties.

You mentioned five of them were children, a lot of buildings, apartments, shops, schools, were damaged in the Dnipro region in the south and east of the country. What we have seen here and our experience in the City of Uman, and just south of here, where 25 civilians were killed by Russia's last round of big strikes.

On Friday, the resilience of the community, but humanity of the community that comes together. The people are not being cowed, if you will, by these acts of Russian aggression. They are in fact, responding with help for their community, but also with some anger. This is a couple of people we talked to in the aftermath in Uman.

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NATALIE ALEPIKHOVA, VOLUNTEER: We saw all this family of the children they were crying, I don't know, we just felt that something we need to do to help them. We feel some hate for our Russian neighbors if we can call him like that. But most we are focused on helping just only happen.

ROBERTSONFOSTER (voice over): Police already documenting the scale of the loss. Boris Bob telling them his vehicle destroyed. It's not what's been destroyed that matters he tells us. It's the lost lives. We sent photos of the destruction to our distant relatives in Russia, so they can see what the Army is doing. They didn't reply, he says.

(ENDVIDEOCLIP)

Resilience, I think is the word there, Max. And this is what I think will be happening today in the citizen places that have been damaged again, their medical services will come in, they will help treat the injured. There'll be counseling perhaps there will be immediate support to try to give people somewhere to live to put clothes on their backs if they've lost the clothes where their houses have been burned down.

But the reality is it's not denting people's desire here if you will, to see the country to see the country take bad Islam to have that counter offensive that is somewhere in the not too distant future, Max.

FOSTER: OK, Nic in Kyiv, thank you. Now next hour, Kevin McCarthy will become the second ever U.S. House Speaker to address the Israeli parliament, the Knesset. Earlier he held a private meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. McCarthy arrived in Israel on Sunday and as promised to invite Netanyahu to Washington D.C., if Joe Biden doesn't.

There's been no White House invitation from President Biden yet amid the controversy of Netanyahu's judicial overhaul plan. CNN's Hadas Gold joins us live from the Knesset in Jerusalem, many sensitive issues here for both these men to juggle.

HADAS GOLD, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yes, lots of sensitive issues. The Speaker of the House just arrived you had a welcome ceremony just outside of the Knesset. The parliament in the next few minutes is actually expected to pass likely right by here because the parliament floor is just out here to my right.

He will then give a speech to the Israeli parliament. As you noted, he is the only second speaker of the house in Israeli history to address the Israeli parliament, the first one being Newt Gingrich in 1998. This is also Kevin McCarthy's first trip abroad as Speaker of the House and just the last few minutes, brief remarks as he was being welcome to the Knesset.

He said that that's no mistake. But this is his first visit abroad because he wanted to make clear who the United States is best ally, the biggest ally was in the world, and that is Israel. Those are the same messages he gave in an earlier meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier today.

It's a much different feeling atmosphere than really the current atmosphere is between Benjamin Netanyahu and the Joe Biden administration. Of course, you mentioned that the President Biden said that Netanyahu will not be invited to the White House really anytime soon.

This is over the controversy over the massive judicial overhaul plan that the Netanyahu government has pushed forward but is paused for right now. It's a different sort of atmosphere for Kevin McCarthy, who actually yesterday in an interview with an Israeli paper saying if Joe Biden does not invite Kevin McCarthy to the White House anytime soon.

McCarthy will invite Benjamin Netanyahu to address Congress even without a White House invitation. He even made a joke saying that he is being treated the same way as Netanyahu because he McCarthy has not had a meeting yet with President Biden since coming into office.

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So he's clearly taking a much different position than the Biden ministration is right now trying to show how much Republicans are still great allies with the Benjamin Netanyahu with Israel despite all the controversies, not only over the digital overhaul, but also the makeup of this Israeli government.

Some of the most far right extremist Ministers in Israeli history are sitting in this government. That's not all McCarthy is talking about here, Max.

OK, Hadas in Jerusalem, thank you. We follow it closely. Former U.S. President Donald Trump arrived in Aberdeen in Scotland a short while ago. He's in the country for a short trip to visit his golf properties. The Republican presidential candidate also scheduled to visit his golf courses or his golf course in Ireland later this week.

A massive manhunt is underway. Meanwhile, in the U.S. for a government accused of shooting and killing five of his neighbors including a child in Cleveland, Texas. Authorities are offering an $80,000 award for this man 38-year-old Francisco Oropesa.

Mexican national and FBI officials says they have "zero leads" on the suspects whereabouts. CNN's Ed Lavandera joins us from Cleveland, Texas; they literally don't know what area that is at.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and that's the great concern at this point. It has been more than 48 hours, since this tragedy unfolded here in the small town of Cleveland, Texas, which is about an hour's drive north of Houston. This is the area where all of this unfolded.

Authority say that the suspect 30 to 38-year-old Francisco Oropeza came out of his driveway and walked over to his neighbor's home after they heard a group of men had asked him to stop firing his weapon in the yard because they had a month and a half old baby boy that was trying to sleep and was startled by the gunfire.

They'd asked him to move to another area of his property to fire that gun. Wilson Garcia, who was the father and the owner of the home next door, said that at that point, the man said that it's my property; I can do whatever I want. And then about 10 to 20 minutes later, after the family had called 911 multiple times.

Authorities say that the suspect came over and then started shooting people including Wilson Garcia's wife. In all five people killed. There were 15 people in all at the home sort of 10 people were able to escape and survive the situation. But at this point, investigators say that the hope of trying to find this suspect immediately has not happened.

And they are urging the public to be on the lookout. And they're saying at this point, they literally have no leads that are coming in as to where he might be, if he's in this area or not.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES SMITH, FBI SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE: Right now, we just don't know, because we would have custody right now. We don't know where he is. We don't have any tips right now. And that's why we've come up with this reward so that hopefully somebody out there can call it.

I can pretty much guarantee and he's contact with some of his friends right now. We're just running into dead ends. Right now, we have zero leads.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: Max, the last time that they were able to follow him, authority said that they had lost his track on this suspect Saturday night where they found his clothes and cell phone but since then, everything's gone completely dark, Max.

FOSTER: OK, Ed, thank you. People in France are joining Mayday marches and protests across the country calling for the government to drop its pension reforms. Labor unions say they are not ready to give up the fight against a new law, raising the retirement age from 62 to 64.

The bill was pushed through but bypassing a parliamentary vote and then lastly approved by Frances Constitutional Council. CNN's Melissa Bell joins me live from Central Paris. I mean, the authorities expected these protests to go away once it became law.

MELISSA BELL, CNN PARIS CORRESPONDENT: No, that doesn't look likely to happen. And in fact, so far nothing has dampened the enthusiasm, the unions and the people to come out to practice. Don't even the rain that's just started to fool here in Paris. Let me just show you what's happening around here, Max, this is the very front of the march.

It's going to head off from here just behind us -- onwards. And this is what you're seeing here, the very front of the black block. These are the people that gather at the front of the march ahead of the unions, and the typically over the course of the last few weeks have been the ones responsible for the most damage and violence.

Again, authorities are saying they expect that to happen. There are 12,000 police men and women on the streets of fraud say they're using drones in several French cities to try and keep an eye on things. And what they say they expect to some 1000 to 2000 protesters they believe determine on causing the kind of violence that we've seen sporadically over the course of the last few weeks, Max.

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FOSTER: OK, Melissa, thank you so much for joining us from Paris. We'll wait to see how they develop. Now still to come it is the second largest bank failure in American history, the latest in the collapse of First Republic, what happens now and what it all means as well coming up.

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Is the U.S. witnessing a banking crisis for the third time in just six weeks, another American bank has collapsed First Republic has become the second largest bank failure in American history? JP Morgan will buy most of the lenders assets and assume as deposits.

Attempts have been made by bigger banks provide a $30 billion lifeline. But ultimately, it wasn't enough to turn things around. Christine Romans is in New York with more on what this all means. And it's not just this example that is quite alarming. Is it Christine? Its fact we've had three examples and the crisis isn't over. It feels more like a slow motion crisis.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: You know, Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase just a couple of seconds ago on his call with journalists said it is almost over and that it isn't out of crisis like 2008. Certainly not at all that the banking system is much more solid than that. And there could be some other blips because of high interest rates and because of the value of some of the loans on some banks books, but he said it is not a banking crisis.

And that this the way that this deal got done, shows that the system is strong and that it's a good thing moving forward here. It was done resolved. So quickly, there was a lot of interest over the weekend we're told the government seizing First Republic and then having an auction for it and there was a lot of interest from other very healthy banks.

So all of that working as it should have also a little bit of color about this deal some 800 JPMorgan employees working round the clock to say nothing of the hundreds of people working in all the banking regulators and other banks over the past few days to get this deal done.

So people who are bank at First Republic can use their normal banking login this morning, but it will be owned by JP Morgan and his all been signed off by all the regulators, this is done here. So this is the third major bank failure. That is worrisome. Of course, when you look at the top four banking failures, the first one was Washington Mutual, that was in 2008.

The next three have all happened in the last two months. One interesting thing to remember was just six weeks ago $30 billion was put into this bank First Republic member of 11 different banks. They fused deposits into this bank. It held the bank above water for a while but it simply wasn't enough to let it be enough to keep it going.

Is it going into -- on its own? That just wasn't enough confidence people were moving their 100 billion dollars of the deposits out of First Republic it just couldn't stay as a standalone company any longer, Max.

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FOSTER: As you say the system did work and it's been pretty impressive, hasn't it? How then, you know, the financial authorities and also, the private financial institutions have come together to make sure this hasn't turned into a crisis. But what is the common link here between these banks and what they got wrong?

ROMANS: It's interesting. You know, one interesting thing is higher interest rates over the past year, interest rates have gone up, and that has made some of the value of their super safe hedges in treasuries, those have gone down. So some book value has changed here for some of them.

You know, two of the banks had pretty, you know, mismanagement; quite frankly, Silicon Valley Bank was a classic case of mismanagement. And also, regulators were not aggressive enough, honestly, with some of the red flags that they had seen. First Republics is a different case altogether.

It had so many uninsured deposits that cater to wealthy people along the coast and businesses along the East Coast and the West Coast. And it had account holders who had a lot of money that were above that was above the insured limit. And so when there started to be concerns about banks, people took their money out of the bank, you know, they wanted to just keep the insured limit so they lost $100 billion in customer deposits and it just turned out to be a fatal blow.

FOSTER: OK, Christine, thank you so much for your time. Really appreciate your analysis is over. Still to come the pomp pageantry, Britain hasn't seen anything like this in 70 years, the preview of King Charles's coronation when we return.

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FOSTER: Pomp pageantry rituals dating back hundreds of years we are now just days away from the coronation of King Charles the third. Saturday ceremony will be Britain's first in seven decades. There will also be some notable differences compared to the coronation of his mother, Queen Elizabeth the Second.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER (voice over): Not since 1953 that we had a glimpse of this sacred moment. The crowning of a monarch, Queen Elizabeth, then just 27 thrust to the throne after her father's untimely death. Her coronation designed to introduce the young Queen to the world and give a morale boost to postwar Britain 70 years on, and amidst the cost of living crisis.

King Charles's coronation will have many of the same traditions Incorporated, albeit slightly toned down. Up to 2800 guests in Westminster Abbey CNN understands versus the 8000 who gathered for the late Queens.

ELIZABETH NORTON, ROYAL HISTORIAN: The King has actually ruffled some feathers by not inviting many members of the ancient nobility, including some of the Dukes in fact, if it instead actually the Kings invited members of the community so charitable workers, for example.

FOSTER (voice over): Assign perhaps that Charles wants to make the monarchy more accessible, though much of the pomp and ceremony will of course remain. He'll sit on the coronation chair used by monarchs for more than 700 years. And here we crowned with the St Edward's crown, a gold velvet a Jewel crusted base, weighing more than two kilograms.

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FOSTER (voice over): The coronation is first and foremost a religious ceremony. It culminates in the king's anointing with holy oil, which has been consecrated in Jerusalem.

NORTON: It seen as symbolizing the King's commitment to God because, of course, he's a very religious man himself. He's now the head of the church. It's a sacred moment.

FOSTER (voice over): His wife Camilla will also be anointed and crowned. Charles's sons William and Harry will be there although Harry's wife Meghan will remain at home in California with their two young children. It remains to be seen what role Harry will play in proceedings now that he's set back from his senior role duties.

FOSTER (on camera): For many in Britain, the coronation is about more than just another public holiday. There'll be street parties up and down the U.K. and thousands will come here to Buckingham Palace to witness the famous balcony moment to see for the first time the newly crowned King and Queen.

Many more will line the streets for the coronation procession just as they did for Queen Elizabeth seven decades ago. The King and Queen will travel in this gilded carriage accompanied by a huge military procession. Nighttime rehearsals spotted in the streets of London as the Capital gears up for a moment in history. (END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: One quick programming note for you then CNN will air our special coverage of the coronation of King Charles a third on Saturday, May the 6th. CNN's Anderson Cooper, Christine Amanpour and myself will be live outside Buckingham Palace throughout the day.

It starts at 5am in New York, 10am in London right here on CNN. Thanks for joining me here on CNN "Newsroom", I'm Max Foster in London. "World Sport" with Patrick Snell is up next.

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