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Hundreds Of Rockets Fired At Israel Amid Deadly IDF Airstrikes In Gaza; Ukraine Claims Successful Counterattack Close To Bakhmut; George Santos Pleads Not Guilty To Federal Charges; Former Pakistani PM Khan To Remain In Police Custody For 8 Days; Natalee Holloway Suspect Extradited To The U.S.; Asylum Seekers Weigh Next Moves As Title 42 Set To Expire; Biden Says End Of Title 42 Will "Be Chaotic For A While"; Erdogan Has Staked Out Distinctive Foreign Policy; Inter Milan Dominate Rivals AC Milan In 2-0 First Leg Win; 80 Fires Burning Across Alberta, Record Heat Expected. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired May 11, 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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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome everyone. I'm Rosemary Church. Ahead on CNN NEWSROOM. Islamic militants make good on their vows or respond to Israeli airstrikes by launching hundreds of rockets of the Jewish state.
Ukrainian forces say they have launched a counteroffensive near the besieged city of Bakhmut and the story of Canada's spirit bear on the indigenous people protecting its habitat.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from CNN Center. This is CNN NEWSROOM with Rosemary Church.
CHURCH: Good to have you with us and we begin in the Middle East where Israel is again bombarding what it says are Islamic Jihad operatives in Gaza, with another airstrike early Thursday. Palestinian authorities say the strike left three people dead including the head of the Palestinian militant groups missile unit. In all at least two dozen people have now been killed in Israeli airstrikes since Tuesday, including several other Islamic jihad commanders and women and children.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the battle is not over yet.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): Citizens of Israel, we are still in the middle of a campaign. At this very moment our forces are fiercely attacking the Gaza Strip and exacting a heavy price from the terrorist organizations. I would like to reiterate, whoever harms us, whoever sends terrorists against us, we'll pay the price.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: The U.N. Secretary General is urging all parties to use maximum restraint and Egypt is trying to broker a ceasefire, but Palestinian militants are retaliating with Israel saying hundreds of rockets have been fired from Gaza. The Palestinian ambassador to the U.N. is condemning the deaths of civilians.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RIYAD MANSOUR, PALESTINIAN AMBASSADOR TO THE UN: We condemn those who committed these crimes, particularly killing large number of children and women. And we believe that it is the duty of the Security Council to condemn these crimes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: CNN's Hadas Gold has more on the escalating violence in the region.
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HADAS GOLD, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): After the tense quiet the expected storm. Palestinian militants firing hundreds of rockets from Gaza towards Israel starting Wednesday afternoon. Reaching as far deep as Tel Aviv, sending beachgoers running for cover. Much of the barrage though focused on southern Israel, a seemingly delayed response by the militants to Israel killing three top Islamic jihad commanders early Tuesday morning.
In Gaza, Meanwhile, the casualties mounting. One child among those killed Wednesday. Israel carrying out additional airstrikes targeting it says dozens of rocket launchers weapons sites and more belonging to the Iranian backed Islamic Jihad. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning that the campaign will continue.
NETANYAHU (through translator): We say to the terrorists and their enablers, we see you everywhere you cannot and we choose the place and trying to hit from (INAUDIBLE).
GOLD: Hamas standing alongside the Islamic jihad vowing unity in their response. As news of a possible Egyptian brokered ceasefire swirled in the evening will need to be met with more rocket barrages in Israel and more airstrikes in Gaza. The possibility of quiet slipping into the night. Hadas Gold, CNN, Jerusalem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Yaakov Katz is a senior columnist and editor at The Jerusalem Post and joins us now from Jerusalem. Thanks so much for being with us.
YAAKOV KATZ, SENIOR COLUMNIST AND EDITOR, THE JERUSALEM POST: Thank you.
CHURCH: So another deadly Israeli airstrike early Thursday in Gaza in response to rockets fired at Israel from Gaza. So how does this escalating violence and can Egypt be part of a solution with a ceasefire perhaps?
KATZ: Well, Egypt has played a very productive role in the past and mediating a ceasefire between Israel in some of these terrorist organizations. There are other players in that space. You have the United Nations, you have the Qataris and you have some others who are trying to basically bring the sides together other than they're not going to sit at around the same table, Rosemary, but they could find a way to bring the conditions that each side requires to be able to end this round of violence like we've seen in the past.
[01:05:10]
This isn't the first round. And sadly, as I predict this won't be the last one as long as this is the situation.
CHURCH: This bombardment of Islamic Jihad operatives does appear, though to be more concentrated than previous attacks like it and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the battle is not over yet. There's clearly a very defined operation underway. So what is the end game here for Israel?
KATZ: Well, look, Israel is trying to minimize the threats against its citizens, right. Last week, we saw over 100 rockets that were fired into Israeli cities at the time, Israel did not really retaliate. And what we saw Tuesday morning with the targeting of those three Islamic Jihad operatives was Israel's response to what had happened before.
This was an act of self-defense. Just over the last 48 hours, we've seen over 500 rockets fired towards Israel, some of them landing inside Gaza, those are failed launches, but several 100 of close to 400 landing and crossing into Israel, many of them intercepted by Israel's missile defense system.
I think that I don't know that there's a solution. I don't know that in the way that we want to look at this kind of with our Western eyes, Rosemary, we can see a solution or an end to this conflict.
What we sadly have at the foundation is a desire by some Palestinian terrorist groups to try to kill Israelis to target them and their civilians with these rockets. And with cross border tunnels, there is an attempt by an anti-tank missile squad in the Gaza Strip to target Israeli vehicles traveling along the border.
This is something that we've seen over the last 20 years coming from Gaza, and until the Palestinians lay down their arms. Unfortunately, this is going to continue and Israel will have to do what it needs to do, which is defend itself.
CHURCH: And the U.N. Secretary General is calling for maximum restraint on both sides. But we are seeing sadly, women and children killed in these Israeli airstrikes. What is Israel's position on that?
KATZ: Look, Israel is really does a remarkable work in terms of trying to minimize civilian casualties, or what can also be referred to sometimes as collateral damage. I think when you look at the images that are coming out of Gaza, from the Israeli strikes, you see, like five, six-storey buildings, and you see only in a top apartment bombed, or you see the bottom floor taken out, right. Israel is not taking out the entire building. It's trying to be as accurate, as surgical and as precise as it can be.
Unfortunately, we know though, that these terrorists embed themselves within civilian infrastructure, they hide behind what are called human shields. They purposely and intentionally use children and women and other civilians, thinking that this will provide them with immunity.
And unfortunately, this is the reality. It's a terrible reality, every loss of life is tragic. But we also have to keep in mind, Israel does have to find a way to be able to defend itself and taking out these terrorists is way that is able to impair their operational capabilities. And that is what any democratic country that wants to protect civilians would be doing.
CHURCH: So let's talk about Egypt's efforts to somehow broker a ceasefire here to get to some members, some parties to the table, if that's even possible or viable at this juncture, I mean, what is the first step in that process?
KATZ: What the first step is trying to because we've been through this before right, Rosemary. So we kind of know how these things tend to play out. But what Egypt is trying to do is understand from Islamic Jihad, what their conditions are. We've seen some reports that what they want, for examples, the return of a body of one of their terrorists from Israel, they want a cessation of all targeting of their top operatives and their top militants and terrorists. They would like to see Israel stop targeting and going after their infrastructure in the West Bank, another Palestinian territory.
So they're making conditions. Israel will not agree to all of this. And I think what you're seeing is Israel, keeping up the pressure on them to A, weaken their capability, but also get them to understand they're not going to walk away with the win. It's important for these terrorist organizations to understand that force is not what's going to make them come out victorious from this. They're not going to destroy Israel. They're not going, you know, they're able to cause damage. They're able to terrorize Israeli civilians with these hundreds of rockets that are raining down on our cities.
But at the end of the day, we -- this country is trying to restore deterrence and to get this terrorist group to understand this path. This strategy is not going to work long term.
CHURCH: Yaakov Katz, thank you so much for talking with us. Appreciate it.
KATZ: Thank you.
CHURCH: There's been a dramatic turn of events in the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut following months of brutal Russian attacks.
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Ukraine released this video on Wednesday saying it shows its forces going on the offensive near the city. Russian troops have already been pushed back as much as two kilometers in some areas according to Kyiv. Ukraine also says Wagner mercenaries who led the Russian onslaught have been pulled back to Bakhmut from other areas. This all comes after the head of Wagner lashed out at Russia's military leaders and accused regular Russian forces of abandoning positions in backwoods CNN's Sam Kiley has more.
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SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Once again, the leader of the Wagner group is lambasting the military structures within Russia's Ministry of Defense. This time over what he says has been a catastrophic failure of the southern flank in the battle for Bakhmut even suggesting that his own fighters from his private military company, his mercenary fighters could risk being encircled by Ukrainians.
Now the Ukrainians have said that they have indeed won a significant victory on the southern flank of Bakhmut after many, many months in which they've been very slowly it has to be admitted but grinding backwards, they were able to recapture a significant amount of territory. Both sides agree on that.
From Prigozhin's point of view, he's saying that this occurred because a unit of the Russian Armed Forces, the formal part of the armed forces, abandoned their positions. Military bloggers on the scene have said that this is on the Russian side have said that this actually occurred because Wagner moved their location left this flank unguarded and there were no Russians around to invest that area and no communications and this is what was most important, no communications between the Armed Forces of Russia and the Wagner mercenaries.
Now, if that is persistent and a reflection of the poor communications elsewhere in the Russian Armed Forces, then the Ukrainians who did exploit this, on the battlefield in Bakhmut are likely to exploit it over the coming weeks and months as they prosecute their much vaunted spring and summer offensive. Sam Kiley, CNN in Kyiv.
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CHURCH: Donald Trump claims he could have prevented the war in Ukraine if he was still in power. During the first town hall of the 2024 U.S. presidential race, the Republican candidate also kept up the big lie about the last election being stolen. CNN's Chris Wynn picks up the story from Manchester, New Hampshire.
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CHRIS NGUYEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): Former president and current GOP front runner Donald Trump answering questions directly from New Hampshire Republicans and uncommitted voters.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will you suspend polarizing talk of election fraud during your run for president?
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: I hope we're going to have very honest elections. We should have voter ID we should have one day elections. We should have paper ballots instead of these mail-in votes.
NGUYEN: The former president still refusing to acknowledge his loss in the 2020 election.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will you pardon the January 6 rioters who were convicted of federal offenses?
TRUMP: I am inclined to pardon many of them.
NGUYEN: The CNN hosted townhall comes one day after a Manhattan federal jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming former advice columnist E. Jean Carroll.
TRUMP: I never met this woman. I never saw this woman. This is a fake story made up story.
NGUYEN: It's one in a long list of legal battles he's currently fighting. Trump pleaded not guilty last month to 34 felony criminal charges of falsifying business records in Manhattan. He could also face additional charges in Washington and Georgia in separate cases.
TRUMP: In Washington DC you cannot get a fair trial. You cannot just like in New York City, you can't get a fair trial.
NGUYEN: Sources inside the former president's campaign hopes the townhall provided Trump a chance to appeal to voters beyond his intensively devoted base.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If elected president again, what is the first thing you would do to help bring down the cost to make things more affordable?
TRUMP: Drill, baby drill. We have to save this country. Our country is dying. Our country is being destroyed by stupid people.
NGUYEN (on camera): Trump's decision to appear at this town hall event seems to be an acknowledgment that the former president needs to broaden his appeal inside and outside of the Republican Party if he is to clinch the GOP nomination. Chris Nguyen, CNN, Manchester New Hampshire.
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CHURCH: So there is a lot to cover. I want to bring in CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein is also a senior editor at The Atlantic. Thanks for joining us.
RON BROWNSTIEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Hey Rosemary. What a night.
CHURCH: It certainly was. So the townhall with Donald Trump covered a wide range of issues Trump repeating his false claim of a rigged 2020 election. He also said he would pardon some of the rioters convicted of federal offenses on January 6. [01:15:05]
Trump mocked his accuser in the civil trial that found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation. And he refused to say if he wanted Ukraine to win the war with Russia, even suggesting he could end that war. And CNNs Kaitlan Collins tackled him on all issues fact checking his falsehoods from start to finish.
How do you think Trump handled himself though? And would he have won or lost support from undecided Republican and independent voters?
BROWNSTEIN: Republican voters and the general election are two different things, I think. And even among Republicans, look, he had a very sympathetic audience that came together for him that made it feel at times, like a Trump rally. And Kaitlin did a very admirable job in trying to fact check him on the fly. But he spewed you know, his kind of usual Geyser of falsehoods.
And even amid all that kind of a sympathetic audience and a tendency to mislead and openly lie. He made a series of statements that I think any Democrat is going to look at as extremely damaging for a general election and especially when you consider that the 2018, 2020 and 2022 elections, all three had the same pattern with Republicans underperforming and white collar suburbs that used to vote Republican in part because those voters feel disconnected and alienated by the values of the Trump era GOP.
He said he would pardon most of the January 6 rioters. He said twice that he was honored that his appointments had overturned Roe v. Wade. And then he further said that the overturning of Roe v Wade and the constitutional right to abortion gave him leverage to produce a national law that probe -- would satisfy pro-life voters. And he also said that he would resume the practice if -- strongly signaled that if he is reelected, he will resume the practice of separating families, kids from their parents at the border.
And in all of those ways, I've -- and not to mention demeaning Jean Carroll again and repeating the lies about 2020. In all of those ways, he just embodied all of the challenges he will face winning back any of those swing voters who rejected him in 2020 and rejected the party in 2018 and 2022.
CHURCH: Yes, certainly a lot of material left for the Democrats to use, as you say. So --
BROWNSTEIN: I am honored, twice. Twice.
CHURCH: Yes.
BROWNSTEIN: He said to have over two participants who contributed to overturning Roe. Don't forget in the states that will decide the 2024 election, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania among them, over 60 percent of voters in the midterm said they opposed overturning Roe. They wanted abortion to be legal. He tried to avoid saying specifically how many weeks he would sign a national ban for but he made very clear that he would sign such a ban when he repeatedly said that his actions had given the pro-life side leverage to demand a national law that would satisfy pro-life voters.
I think that was the most significant thing that he said all night actually when he said he was honored to have contributed to overturning Roe.
CHURCH: Yes, very important point. And on the civil trial verdict that found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation. The former president claimed the trial was rigged and then went on to defame further and mock E. Jean Carroll, his accuser, to cheers and applause from his very sympathetic Republican leaning audience.
But this issue could potentially have enormous political consequences for his presidential run, couldn't it? How do you think women voters will react to not only the verdict, but his performance Wednesday night at this town hall on that very issue?
BROWNSTEIN: Again, the gulf between Republican voters and the general election voters, you know, we talk a lot about how the modern Republican coalition is bound together by anxiety about demographic change, resistance to immigration, three quarters of Republican voters now say bias against my -- whites is now as big a problem as bias against minority 70 percent say, immigrants are undermining traditional American culture.
We don't talk enough about how much of the modern Republican coalition has a view that men are being unfairly accused has a negative view of the Me Too movement say that men are punished just for acting like men. So within the Republican coalition, he was kind of playing to the rafters.
But there is, as you say, a universe beyond that. And, you know, the biggest problem, the biggest movement away from Republicans has come from both college educated white men and college educated white women in the Trump era. And everything that has happened around that case, I think only compounds those problems, even before that verdict came down.
We saw in a recent poll by NPR, PBS, PBS NewsHour and Marist that three quarters of voters under 45, three quarters of independents, three quarters of people of color and four-fifths of college educate whites said they did not want a second Trump term especially if he is convicted of a crime.
[01:20:05]
You know, that maybe not -- that may not be the last verdict that is rendered against him between now and the first voting next January.
CHURCH: All right, Ron Brownstein, always a pleasure to get your analysis. Appreciate it.
BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me.
CHURCH: And if you want to watch the townhall, we will replay it next hour starting at 7:00 a.m. in London, 2:00 p.m. in Hong Kong. New York Congressman George Santos has pleaded not guilty to 13 criminal charges brought by the U.S. Justice Department. He appeared in federal court in Long Island, New York on Wednesday, to answer allegations ranging from wire fraud and money laundering to making false statements to the House of Representatives. Santos was released on a $500,000 bond. Santos his brief political career has been overshadowed by scandal, but he maintained his innocence after the hearing.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you planning on running for reelection?
REP. GEORGE SANTOS (R-NY): Yes, I am. I'm going to keep fighting. I'm fighting for what I believe in. I'm going to get fighting representative my district. I'm going to keep fighting for resulted. Now I have to keep fighting to deliver, you know, to defend my innocence and I'm going to do that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: But the Congressman does not seem to have the support of his fellow Republicans. CNN's Manu Raju spoke with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and asked him whether reelection is realistic.
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MANU RAJU, CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Santos saying running for reelection. Are you going to support that?
REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY, HOUSE SPEAKER: I'm not going to support that.
RAJU: You're not. So you're going to work to try to defeat him in the primary?
MCCARTHY: I think he has to focus on his life.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You don't plan to support Santos relented?
RAJU: It benefits can be comes back and says that (INAUDIBLE).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: At this point, most Republicans are not considering removing Santos from his House seat. But many Republican lawmakers are making their opinions about him known.
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SEN. MITT ROMNEY (R-UT): He should have resigned a long time ago. He said embarrassment to our party's. He's an embarrassment United States Congress.
RAJU: Would it be better if he resigned?
REP. STEVE WMACK (R-AK): Oh, absolutely. It's a distraction. And it's a punch line for a lot of commentary regarding the Republican Party that we don't need.
RAJU: Could you vote to expel him if it came to it?
REP. RYAN ZINKE (R-MO): Yes, if the charges have veracity, and they're true, then he should not be a member.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: If he is convicted of the top counts in his indictment, Santos faces up to 20 years in prison. Although a reduced sentence is more likely.
Still to come, violent protests escalate in Pakistan as police clashed with supporters of Imran Khan. We will have the latest on the corruption charges against the former prime minister.
Plus, one home owner and her son can't believe their luck. They avoided a lightning strike don't once but twice.
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CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. Well there is optimism around another potential ceasefire in Sudan. Reuters is reporting the peace talks between the Sudanese army and Rapid Support Forces brokered by the U.S. and Saudi Arabia are making progress and an agreement is expected soon.
But smoke was still billowing over the country's capital Khartoum on Wednesday, as the conflict continues for a third week. Previous ceasefires between the warring parties have failed to end the fighting, and a top U.S. official says sanctions could be imposed on those tied to the violence if a peaceful solution cannot be reached.
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VICTORIA NULAND, U.S. UNDERSECRETARY OF STATE FOR POLITICAL AFFAIRS: I would argue that the fact of the executive order on May 4th that we gave ourselves this tool was had an effect on the parties being willing to come to Jeddah as I said, we are working on how that executive order could be populated with names depending upon how the talks go.
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CHURCH: Hundreds of people have been killed and thousands injured in the conflict so far. A Sudanese doctors group says only 27 of the 88 main hospitals in the region are functioning. And even those are at risk of closing due to shortages of medical staff and basic supplies.
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan will remain in police custody for eight days, as he faces multiple corruption cases. He was indicted in one of those cases on Wednesday at a special hearing. Unprecedented protests have escalated across the country since his arrest on Tuesday. Three other senior members of current political party have also been arrested. Police report Khan supporters setting fire to vehicles and buildings storming into military officers locking roads and engaging in clashes with officers. Pakistan's current Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif addressed the country on Wednesday calling violent protesters supporting Khan quote, terrorists.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHEHBAZ SHARIF, PAKISTANI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): The perpetrators who take the law in their hands will be dealt with an iron hand, they will be punished according to the law and constitution.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: During the special hearing, Khan told the court he had been beaten and tortured overnight by police, according to his attorney. And CNN's Ivan Watson has more now from Hong Kong.
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IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): The dramatic arrest of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday has touched off a firestorm in Pakistan with two competing narratives here, the government and the military arguing that they're carrying out rule of law that they're arresting a politician who was resisting arrest and he's accused of corruption charges he and his supporters deny and his supporters are accusing the government of abducting him and basically ripping up rule of law in the country.
Now, Imran Khan after being detained overnight was brought to the police headquarters where he appeared before a judge. We're not seeing him shown in public. The police don't seem to want to show him and his lawyer says that Imran Khan had bruises that he claimed he was beaten overnight, that he's being kept in a dirty room without even being provided a toothbrush. This is what one of his supporters had to say kept outside of a cordon for outside the police headquarters where police periodically fired tear gas to keep demonstrators at bay.
HASSAN RASHEED, IMRAN KHAN SUPPORTER (through translator): We're standing here for the truth. If we have to give our lives, we'll even take a bullet but one that anything happened to Imran Khan.
WATSON: And there has certainly been a second day of unrest at least three people reported killed in the western city of Peshawar. The armed forces being called in to two provinces as well as the capital to help restore order. The radio Pakistan building in Peshawar was set on fire after it was stormed. Government officials are accusing Imran Khan's PTI party of fomenting chaos and unrest.
AHSAN IQBAL, PAKISTANI MINISTER FOR PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT: PTI who are part of the provocation incitement and violence, which you've all seen yesterday across the country. Obviously, they will be held accountable. And if there are cases against them for inciting violence, police will arrest them. [01:30:00]
WATSON: Imran Khan has been remanded into custody for eight more days. Meanwhile, we are getting additional reports of senior members of his political party also being detained by the authorities.
Ivan Watson, CNN, Hong Kong.
CHURCH: Still ahead, less than 24 hours remain before a controversial U.S. border policy expires. Asylum seekers are bracing for the end of Title 42 and what that means for their future.
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CHURCH: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Rosemary Church.
Well, the prime suspect in the disappearance of American student Natalee Holloway in Aruba 18 years ago is heading to the United States to face charges. Peru has agreed to temporarily extradite Joran Van Der Sloot to Alabama, where prosecutors want to try him for extortion and wire fraud.
Van Der Sloot has been serving 28 years in a Peruvian prison for murdering the young student he met in a casino in 2010. Holloway's parents say the extradition means they will finally get justice for Natalee.
U.S. officials, federal agents and migrants seeking asylum are all bracing for the end of Title 42 in less than 24 hours. Hundreds of troops are set to begin anew mission along the southern border as the COVID era policy expires at 11:59 p.m. Eastern time Thursday night. The measure allowed federal authorities to swiftly expel migrants.
The head of the U.S. Border Patrol is downplaying a potential surge of asylum seekers. He says the bulk of the influx is already behind them. Still, officials in cities along the border are taking action. The mayor of Laredo, Texas, says the city is preparing as if, quote, it's a hurricane coming. In El Paso, the mayor says they are preparing for the unknown.
CNN's David Culver is in Ciudad Juarez in Mexico, just across the border from El Paso, Texas, and he spoke with migrants seeking asylum about what's next.
DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Now down to just hours until the anticipated end of Title 42 and from our vantage point here in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, we've seen increased activity on the U.S. side because that's what we're looking at over here. That's Texas soil.
On the other side of that barbed wire, and yet not yet. through the border wall, you see hundreds, if not thousands of migrants now camped out, some of them for hours, some days, some weeks, and pretty dire conditions, cold at night, scorching sun and heat during the day. And at this hour, a lot of wind too, whipping up the sand.
[01:35:13] But what was interesting was what we've seen now happening just within the past day or so, and that is increased activity in processing some of these migrants. Let me show you what we captured from above, and that is Customs and Border Protection vans coming through what's known as Gate 42 here. This is just one small portion of the border wall.
And they come through with a few vans and begin processing. So it seems some of these migrants and then loading them up into the vans. Now in months past, we know that many of those migrants would then go through the border wall, be processed. Sometimes they would be in custody for a few days. And under Title 42, could be immediately expelled back to Mexico.
And we saw folks who were then loaded up, dropped off on the Mexican side, and then would try again. If they're processing under Title 8, which will take precedence after Title 42 comes down, then they'll have to go forward with their claims for asylum. And the stakes are much higher if they don't qualify. They could be banned from entering the U.S. for five years. So it can be a bit more significant if they don't have the criteria to meet asylum.
We caught up with some of the folks who want to do it the right way. They want to enter the U.S. legally. We saw those migrants camping out, not here, but near to the city center in Ciudad Juarez and hundreds filling sidewalks and then starting their mornings on their cell phones, trying to log into the CBP One app.
That's essentially one of the ways that the Biden administration has started to enhance so that they could log on and people could potentially get an appointment for an asylum officer to meet with them. Now the people we were speaking with had been trying for days and seemingly unsuccessful.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(Speaking Foreign Language)
CULVER: She's saying she was doing it through the app because she wants to go in legally through asylum, but it's getting frustrating for her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking Foreign Language)
CULVER: She says she's not really sure if she's going to try right after Title 42. She'd really rather just have an appointment through the app. She has faith that it's going to work out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CULVER: They're determined to keep trying. And a lot of them say they simply do not want to risk entering the U.S. illegally, knowing that if they get to the other side, as they've talked to a lot of their friends and relatives who have gone through, they know that they will face a lot of pressures.
And one woman told me she simply doesn't want to deal with the persecution that she could face, undocumented in the U.S. So she's going to continue to try from this side to get that appointment. Others have told me, though, quite frankly, they'll enter undetected if they have to, just to get in the United States.
David Culver, CNN, Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
CHURCH: Raul Reyes is an attorney, immigration analyst and CNN Opinion Writer. And he joins me now from New York. Appreciate you being with us.
RAUL REYES, CNN OPINION WRITER: My pleasure.
CHURCH: So, as we count down to the end of Title 42 in the coming hours, thousands of desperate migrants aligning the streets of towns on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border in the hope that they and their families will get to live in America, but the reality may be very different. How will the U.S. handle and process this unprecedented number of immigrants trying to get into the country?
REYES: Well, as things stand now, it looks like this is going to be a very steep challenge for the Biden administration to tackle. But, you know, to be clear, you know, the chaos -- a lot of the chaos and confusion that we are seeing at the border is not because of the migrants. The chaos and confusion is because the United States has failed to prepare an adequate response to these migrants.
And this has gone through multiple American administrations. We've gone through eras of, you know, family separations, talk of build the wall, mass deportations under Obama. And through all these different policies, really nothing has stemmed the tide of migration. And that's because for so many of these Central Americans, people from around the world who are migrating, this is not a choice that they are living.
Migration is a matter of survival. And in my view, as long as the United States pursues these deterrence based efforts, it seems like an almost impossible task to handle.
CHURCH: Yes, it certainly does. And President Biden has admitted that the situation at the southern border will be chaotic for some time because the U.S. is dealing with this unprecedented surge of migrants. But conservatives don't want Title 42 to end. And they're using disinformation in some instances to instill fear in the hearts of Americans about immigrants taking over their jobs and their nation. What would you say to those spreading these falsehoods about this issue?
[01:40:03]
REYES: Well, that type of disinformation is so widespread. In fact, this evening in the United States, we even saw that from the former president himself at the Trump Town hall, where the former president was talking about people coming across the border who spread diseases and who were, in his words, criminals, and bringing all kinds of things over the border.
The fact is, if any person who is talking about open borders with regards to the United States or talking about -- and this catchphrase amnesty, they are not looking at this issue seriously. And this is very much a pressing issue, not only for Republicans, but Democrats as well, because as the Republicans have seized on this issue politically, because it resonates very much with their base, what we see on the Democratic side is really a failure to counter this type of misinformation.
I think the average American voter knows where Republicans stand on immigration. They want to shut down the border and they don't want to let more people in. But when it gets to the Biden administration's approach, I think people are not even sure what that is. So far, President Biden has tried to move on immigration in sort of what he sees as a balance attempt between -- a balance between border security and a more humane approach.
But so far, that really doesn't seem to be working. And we saw polling out just this month of Global Strategies Group, about two-thirds, 68 percent of Americans want a humane immigration system and border security. It doesn't always have to be an either or type of situations.
CHURCH: Right.
REYES: I think for the Biden administration, they're trying to figure out that balance, but it's going to be a rough few months ahead.
CHURCH: And smuggling organizations, of course, the ones who have benefited financially from the immigration challenges, how might their role change in this, if at all, once Title 42 ends? And will there be any effort to cut these smugglers out of the equation, and how can that be done?
REYES: The Biden administration has been taking efforts to cut down on traffickers and smugglers. But the broader problem is that when you close off, when we, as a nation, close off legal pathways to migration, people then turn to some illegal pathways, including risking their lives with smugglers and traffickers.
CHURCH: Raul Reyes, thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate it.
REYES: Thank you.
CHURCH: In yet another sign that Syria's Bashar al-Assad is emerging from his diplomatic isolation. Foreign ministers from Turkey and Syria met Wednesday for the first time since the start of Syria's civil war. Russia and Iran hosted the event in Moscow, hoping to push the two countries to reestablish relations.
Turkey backed the Syrian rebels in their fight against Assad and still has troops in northern Syria. It's also hosting more than 3.5 million Syrian refugees.
Millions of Turks go to the poll Sunday in what promises to be a nail biter and potentially historic presidential election. Longtime ruler Recep Tayyip Erdogan is facing his toughest challenge yet. But as CNN's Jomana Karadsheh shows us, win or lose, he staked out a distinctive foreign policy all his own.
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JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Turkey closed down this waterway to Russian warships when the war in Ukraine started. And it is through here the Bosphorus Strait that Ukrainian grain now flows to the world.
It was Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ultimate balancing act, a stamp some describe as pro-Ukrainian without being anti-Russian that allowed him to play mediator and help broker a key grain deal between Turkey's warring Black Sea neighbors, unlocking Ukrainian grain exports and helping to avert a global hunger crisis.
Over the years, Turkish foreign policy has come to resemble the country's president. It's combative with a personal touch. Erdogan has carved out a central role for himself and his country on the world stage. He meted out soft power with Turkish soap operas and launched a spree of diplomatic missions in capitals long ignored by the West.
Erdogan back that with large investments in a growing defense industry that's made Turkey one of the world's top drone manufacturers. This key NATO member has had an uneasy alliance with its western partners. Erdogan's leverage NATO membership for domestically important issues.
Most recently, he's held up Sweden's accession to NATO in an attempt to secure cooperation from the Nordic nation on groups Turkey considers terrorists. Turkey's ongoing economic crisis has forced some diplomatic U-turns that were once unthinkable. Erdogan mended ties with oil rich regional foes, bringing in billions of dollars of investment and much needed hot currency.
[01:45:00]
Turkish foreign policy under Erdogan has been full of dramatic twists and turns, crises that may at times have been exacerbated by the president's personality. But at the heart of these disagreements with allies, our national interest that will remain unchanged, no matter who emerges victorious in these most consequential of elections for a country that wields power and influence far beyond its borders.
Jomana Karadsheh, CNN.
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CHURCH: Coming up, we visit the majestic Great Bear Rainforest, where indigenous communities are winning the fight to protect their territory's natural splendor. Back in just a moment.
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CHURCH: For thousands of years, indigenous peoples have been intimately involved in caring for the ecosystems they live in and depend on relying on generations of accumulated knowledge to sustainably manage their territories. Today, on Call to Earth, we are headed to a majestic place in the middle of Canada's west coast, where the power of native sustainability and know how is on full display.
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BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Behold the Great Bear Rainforest, stretching for 250 miles of beautiful solitude along the coast of British Columbia as part of the largest intact coastal temperate rainforest in the world. It is a wilderness the size of Ireland and home to one of the most extraordinary creatures on the planet.
DOUGLAS NEASLOSS, STEWARDSHIP DIRECTOR: The spear pair is something that's really unique. When you get a pure white bear coming out of a dark green forest, it just looks really magical. And so we want to protect that.
WEIR (voice-over): Spirit bears are actually a subspecies of black bear that due to a double recessive gene, aren't black at all. But this rare species is just one piece of a vital wilderness.
NEASLOSS: The Great Bear Rainforest is extremely special. I mean, I think it's probably one of the most biodiverse places on the planet. You still get wild things like bears and wolves and abundance of salmon and a bunch of different sea life. You still have old growth forests, and so we want to keep it like that.
WEIR (voice-over): In the heart of this remote expanse is the town of Klemtu, home to a community of the Kitasoo/Xai'xais first Nation, who've lived and thrived in this region for thousands of years.
NEASLOSS: This river is right close to the community. We get three species of salmon that come up this river, and this is their spawning ground.
WEIR (voice-over): According to a recent report published by the Kitasoo/Xai'xais, this rich ecosystem suffered from 100 years of unsustainable extraction, fish, wildlife and forests from outside interests.
NEASLOSS: So right now we're just getting ready to enter Kitasu Bay. And that's the area. It's probably the most important area.
[01:50:00]
WEIR (voice-over): In June of 2022, they announced the creation of a marine protected area to preserve the herring stalks that are so vital to both wildlife and the community.
NEASLOSS: Kitasu Bay was declared by the hereditary chiefs, it was supported by the community, and it was launched so the rest of the world knows about it. We've engaged provincial governments, federal governments. We've engaged stakeholders, letting everyone know that it's closed. We've left the document open to collaborating. WEIR (voice-over): But the push to reverse a century's worth of degradation actually started more than two decades ago. In 2000, they released their own land and resource protection and management plan aimed at building an economy based on conservation and non-extractive activities like ecotourism.
NEASLOSS: I think indigenous knowledge is super important, and I think it needs to be integrated, whether it's wildlife management, fisheries management, ocean management. You know, I think right now, we are in a new era of collaboration. We're in this era of reconciliation. And how do you -- how do we work together? How do indigenous people and non- indigenous people work together?
WEIR (voice-over): Neighboring First Nations first came together in 2012 to issue a ban on trophy hunting of bears. And five years later, thanks to indigenous-led research and analysis, the British Columbian government banned the hunting of grizzly bears across the entire province.
NEASLOSS: And that was huge, but we knew we weren't quite finished yet.
WEIR (voice-over): In July of 2022, just a month after the marine protected area was announced, the government agreed to put a stop to black bear hunting as well. And First Nation leaders say they've now managed to protect half of their territory.
NEASLOSS: We've been working with different levels of government, different levels of stakeholders. There's been a lot of negotiation, a lot of debates, a lot of science, a lot of collaboration. And I would say 2022 is probably the first time that we're able to see some significant progress on some of these files.
We have a belief that if you take care of the land, the land will take care of you. So that's ingrained in all of our work here. It doesn't matter if it's in stewardship, if it's in tourism, if it's in economic development. We want to make sure that we're looking at long-term sustainable industries, and we want to make sure that we have a place that the world can enjoy.
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CHURCH: Let us know what you're doing to answer the call with a hashtag Call to Earth. And we'll be right back.
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CHURCH: The first leg of the All-Milan semifinal in the UEFA Champions League got off to a stunning start. With much more than bragging rights at stake, Inter Milan shocked their same city rivals with a 2- nil victory.
Journalist Stefano Pozzebon has with them.
STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN JOURNALIST: The great European football is back at (INAUDIBLE) stadium, it's (INAUDIBLE) Just behind my back. Think that it was exactly 20 years ago, the last time that the two Milan teams, AC Milan and Inter Milan played each other in a derby in the Champions League semifinal.
Back then, in 2003, it was AC Milan who came out on top at the end of the two legs. And while they held a bragging right, they took much two decades. This time, Inter Milan is poised to come out on top because they took a very early lead in the first half with two goals on the 8th and 11th minute.
Even though AC Milan was the one who were playing the whole game on Wednesday, it really looks at Inter Milan will play with more confidence, (INAUDIBLE) and just more on the pinch. However, if just too early to rule out AC Milan, and they have what it takes to turn this picture around, especially if next week their star player, Rafael Leao, is deemed fit to play.
[01:55:16]
Both the coaches, Stefano Pioli and Simone Inzaghi, have said that this is a match to be played in 180 minutes. And it's only at the end of the 1st 90 that Inter Milan is on top.
On Wednesday, however, it was also party for the entire city of Milan, who kind of find itself a little bit by surprise. Back as the capital of European football, we had star players from the golden era of the Italian football, and guests from all around the world think that more than -- these fans from more than 120 countries came to see the spectacle in the stadium behind my back.
And the spectacle, well, the show will repeat itself again in six days time because, well, next Tuesday, the 16th of May, we will be here for the return line.
For CNN, this is Stefano Pozzebon, San Siro, Milan.
CHURCH: More than 80 active wildfires are burning across the province of Alberta in Canada. The flames have created smoky skies across Canada and into the eastern United States. The thick smoke can even be seen on satellite images. Record heat is expected this weekend and may not peak until early next week. Alberta has already recorded 273 wildfires this year.
Well, you may have heard the old saying, lightning never strikes the same place twice. Well, one homeowner can now say, not so fast. In the U.S. state of Washington, lightning hit a tree in her backyard. Just 14 seconds later, a more powerful bolt hit the same spot. The homeowner and her son couldn't believe it.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was raining really hard, so I decided to stop and continue tomorrow.
KIM CONKLIN, HOMEOWNER: And all of a sudden, just boom. Just a huge explosion. And wood chunks started flying over the house.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Then the lightning strike, and then my heart was racing.
CONKLIN: I got really scared because I knew that Andrew was still in the back mowing the lawn. It was intense. Now that you're coming out and you're looking at the tree, it's like wow.
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CHURCH: And luckily everyone is fine and there's only minor damage to the tree and the home. A happy ending again.
Thanks so much for watching. I'm Rosemary Church.
Up next, a special replay of CNN's Town Hall with 2024 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
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