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CNN International: Top Court Orders Fmr. PM Imran Khan's Release On Bail; Islamic Jihad Fires Rockets Toward Jerusalem & Tel Aviv; IDF: More Than 900 Rockets Fired Toward Israel From Gaza. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired May 12, 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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BIANCA NOBILO, HOST, "CNN NEWSROOM": Hello. You're watching CNN Newsroom. I'm Bianca Nobilo, in for Max Foster today. Just ahead, the latest from Pakistan, where former Prime Minister Imran Khan has been temporarily released on bail, days after a dramatic arrest that sparked violence across the country.

Then, Islamic Jihad militants in the Gaza Strip say they fired rockets towards Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. We will be live near the border between Israel and Gaza.

And Turkey's presidential election is only days away. We'll look at the impact of February's devastating earthquake on President Erdogan's quest for another turn.

We begin with dramatic developments in Pakistan. The Supreme Court has ordered the temporary release of former Prime Minister Imran Khan just a day after it ruled that his arrest on Tuesday on corruption charges was unlawful. Khan says he is 100 percent sure he'll be arrested again. Meanwhile, he is accusing the powerful Army Chief of being behind his arrest. This as the current Prime Minister accuses Khan's party of pushing the country toward destruction. CNN's Will Ripley is monitoring all of these rather rapid developments, and joins us now live from Taipei. Will, why would the corruption charges in the arrest of Imran Khan found to be unlawful, and what impact will that temporary vindication have on his political prospects?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it certainly is encouraging from the sense that you now have the nation's highest court, the Supreme Court, ruling in favor of the argument that Khan's party, the PTI Party, has been making all along that these corruption charges are politically motivated and that the military which is not having, in any way, a favorable relationship with the former Prime Minister's party that basically they've arrested all of the senior members of the PTI.

So, it's not just Imran Khan, who is now out on bail. But, you have senior leaders, strings of senior PTI leaders arrested over the past few days, including, by the way, their spokeswoman Shireen Mazari, who actually appeared right here on CNN on Tuesday. And so, you have this party locked up. But, you have the Supreme Court saying, at least for now, this particular arrest of Imran Khan, extremely popular, more than even just a household name, but really an icon in Pakistan, from cricket player to politician, in the public eye since the 1970s, on a platform, ironically, of anti-corruption and rule of law.

You now have him out temporarily. And he actually said, as you mentioned, he said he is 100 percent sure he'll be rearrested again. He said by -- also that he was allowed by the National Accountability Bureau, which is the anti-corruption agency, to talk to his wife, and he said that arrest warrants against her have been issued as well. So, they're really -- what people on the ground in Pakistan and what our excellent team on the ground there says essentially is there is a lot of belief here that what the military leaders are trying to do, Bianca, is to line things up so that the government that's currently in power, which has a favorable relationship with the military.

And by the way, the military is the reason, frankly, why there haven't been countless coups basically ever since 1999. Prior to 1999, the government was overturned in dramatic fashion, so many different times in Pakistan. But then, in 1999, you've got the -- you've had the military taking a much stronger role, essentially the most powerful figure working alongside the government, but they don't like the government. Then they don't like the political party that Imran Khan was a part of, and that's why they're now arresting all of these senior leaders.

They continue to block social media, which is that political party's main way to get messages out to supporters. And the growing fear now is that the people who are actually charged with keeping the peace, these are soldiers who have very hard into battle experience. They've been fighting the war on terror since 2001. You're talking about some people with 23 years of experience dealing with terrorists now being tasked to be on the streets to fight against civilians. So, it's something we have to watch very closely, Bianca.

NOBILO: Will Ripley for us. Thank you so much.

Islamic Jihad says it has fired rockets towards Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and in the last few hours.

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CNN's team in southern Israel saw some of those rockets pass over, most were intercepted by Israeli air defenses. According to Israel's defense forces, more than 900 rockets have been fired at Israel from Gaza since the latest violence began this week. Across the border, Israel says it has carried out more airstrikes targeting Islamic Jihad in Gaza. Palestinian officials say 31 people have been killed during Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, both militants and civilians. CNN's Senior International Correspondent Ben Wedeman is in southern Israel. Ben, what did you see at the border?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Now, we're just a couple of kilometers away from the line that divides Gaza from Israel. What we saw were two volleys of rockets being fired out of Gaza, going high up in the sky. They were intercepted by, we assumed, Israel's Iron Dome system. There were well over a dozen rockets in all fired out of Gaza. So, we don't know of any damage caused by those barrages. But, what happens is afterwards is that the debris from those interceptions falls all over. In fact, here, I picked up this piece of shrapnel that fell to the ground, just one of many that rained down around us.

Now, shortly after those two volleys of rockets, there was an Israeli airstrike in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, a fairly large explosion. In just in the last seven or eight minutes, there was another airstrike in the area behind me as well. We've also been hearing occasional interceptions of smaller rockets fired out of Gaza. But, certainly, this is a change from -- after midnight, Bianca, there was actually a period of about 13 hours where there was very little, if any, fire coming in or going into Gaza, but that seems to have stopped. We know that the Egyptians are trying to mediate a ceasefire, but until now, their efforts don't seem to have resulted in anything. Bianca.

NOBILO: Ben Wedeman for us in southern Israel, getting a first-hand look at the situation there. Thank you so much.

Now, to the major shift in U.S. immigration policy, a pandemic-era expulsion rule called Title 42 has expired. The American Homeland Security Chief says it does not mean getting into the country will be easier, and warns migrants not to believe what he called lies told by smugglers. With the end of Title 42, thousands of migrants, many of them seeking asylum, have made their way to the U.S.-Mexican border. And our Nick Valencia joins us now from Brownsville, Texas, which is near the Mexican border. Nick, are migrant facilities any more crowded today than yesterday before Title 42 expired?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So far, we haven't seen that influx or that surge that everyone has had been anticipating to this point, Bianca. Title 42 ending on Thursday at 11:59 p.m., and there wasn't that rush to the border that had been talked about so frequently here. I want to show you the scene here of what we're going through in downtown Brownsville. This is sort of a one-stop shop for the migrants. They're dropped here after they were released on humanitarian parole, and then they're processed by the city of Brownsville and then handed over to the care of those migrant facilities. Team Brownsville is the main nonprofit here.

And you're seeing people here on the streets because that's where they're waking up. These migrant facilities are just at capacity, and they have been for the last about two weeks. Between 800 and 1,000 migrants per day, that's what they're seeing, and their facilities are really just overrun, which is why people are taken to the streets to sleep here. Many of these migrants we've been speaking through throughout the week have journeyed for some upwards of 20 days. I spoke to one individual who said it took him two months to get here. And some are hanging around this area, waiting for others that they crossed with, that they were separated from, to come off potentially from those immigration buses.

We know that the city of Brownsville is working hand in hand with buses and airlines to try to get migrants on to their next destination. They will be helping some migrants do just that. There is a handful of cities in the United States that groups of migrants have requested to go to, and the city is going to help them get there, places like Brooklyn and Denver, Dallas and Houston, Miami, the list is a short one. But, it's not just an impact here along the borders is what I'm trying to say. This is going to be an impact for the entire nation.

What remains to be seen is, U.S. President Biden has said that this is going to be a chaotic situation. It appears at this time, though, the chaos will be over time. And what remains to be seen is whether or not these migrant facilities and the services here of cities on the border will be able to handle that chaos that is to come. Bianca.

NOBILO: Nick Valencia near the U.S.-Mexican border in Texas. Thank you very much.

Ukrainian leaders are again reporting significant progress in the fight for the city of Bakhmut. The Deputy Defense Minister says Ukrainian troops have pushed Russian forces back about two kilometers around the besieged city. Russia's defense ministry is now acknowledging its forces have pulled back from the areas north of the city.

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The leader of the Wagner mercenary group called the move fleeing, not regrouping. He has invited Russia's Defense Minister to take a firsthand look at the situation on the ground. Yevgeny Prigozhin's forces are on the front lines in Bakhmut, and he has frequently complained about ammunition shortages. Scott McLean is here for the very latest. Scott, when Prigozhin started talking about the lack of ammunition and the need to pull troops out of Bakhmut? People were wondering how true that was if that was subterfuge. But, it turns out that the Ukrainians have actually made big gains this week. What do we know about the situations there?

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So, it wasn't that long ago that they were worried that the Ukrainians might be surrounded in Bakhmut and may have to pull out at some point. Now, it seems like the opposite, concern is true for the Russians that maybe the Ukrainians that are trying to surround them, forcing them to either surrender or to pull back.

And so, as you mentioned, we are starting to see some signs of that. The Ukrainians are not giving a whole lot of detail as to where precisely they are. But, the deputy defense minister did say that they managed to move up two kilometers along the flanks of the city, within just the past week alone, which is monumental considering that over the past few months of really hard fighting with massive losses in this city, they've been fighting over a few meters, a few hundred meters a day, perhaps where the front line is moving just ever so slightly. And now, all of a sudden we're talking about two kilometers. It's a long time.

You have Yevgeny Prigozhin, as you mentioned, complaining about a lack of ammunition. You also have him complaining about the Russian forces that are protecting the flanks of the city while the Wagner fighters, that he represents, seem to be in the center of the city. And now, you have the Russian Ministry of Defense, which last night put out a very unusual statement, saying that, look, things are under control in Bakhmut, now they're acknowledging that, yes, in fact, their forces have actually moved back a substantial distance in the northern part of the city, which confirms what the Ukrainians are saying. They say that it's moving to a more favorable position.

Obviously, Yevgeny Prigozhin is putting it very differently, saying that this is called fleeing, not regrouping. He has actually invited the Minister of Defense, the Russian Minister of Defense to come and see for himself the situation in Bakhmut, because it seems quite dire for the Russians at this moment. And all before, the Ukrainians are even acknowledging that any kind of official counter offensive has even begun.

NOBILO: Scott McLean, thank you so much. Is it remarkable to see that much movement in a week on a battle which has now become the longest and the bloodiest throughout this entire conflict?

In a highly unusual move, U.S. Ambassador to South Africa has publicly accused the government of delivering arms and ammunition to Russia. He says weapons were loaded onto this sanctioned Russian cargo ship late last year at a naval base near Cape Town.

Joining me now is CNN's David McKenzie from Johannesburg. David, what more can you tell us about this, and will there be any reprisals?

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly, it was something that caught the attention of many people in December, Bianca, when this sanctioned Russian cargo vessel docked at a naval station in Cape Town, in Simon's town, turned off its transponders, and then according to witnesses and opposition members of Parliament, unloaded and offloaded in the dead of night. So, at that point, there were a lot of questions asked, and very few answers from the South African government about what exactly was going on.

Subsequent to that, you had this bombshell announcement by the U.S. Ambassador to local media here in South Africa, saying that there were South African dealings with Russia, point blank saying that they placed arms and ammunition on that sanctioned vessel that was bound eventually for Russia. Not, he didn't provide proof of those assertions, and there has been a continued fallout of the statement, the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, same day bringing the Ambassador in for a de Marche or talking to you today. There'll be discussions between Secretary Blinken in the U.S. and his counterpart Naledi Pandor here in South Africa today. And the question is, why did the Americans make this very public announcement?

I think it's based on a long-standing frustration, and it may be the straw that broke the camel's back of the USA, that while South Africa says it's non-aligned when it comes to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. and some Western powers don't necessarily believe that based on the South African government's action. You have this latest news of allegedly these arms going to Russia. Before that, South Africa hosted naval war games with China and Russia. The South Africans have repeatedly abstained from condemning Russia at the UN Secretary General -- UN Secretary General Assembly, excuse me, and all of this points to a trend that I think at least Western diplomats feel is showing South Africa is leaning in the Russian direction.

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What comes next, well, the South African government says they'll have an inquiry. They haven't denied these accusations, and there is a very important and strategic trade relationship with the U.S. that they'll need to protect if they're looking to the interests of the South African people at least. Bianca.

NOBILO: David McKenzie for us in Johannesburg. Thank you.

Still to come, Turkey looks to its future and elections on Sunday, but many are still trapped in the past and the earthquake that devastated their lives. Their stories, when we return.

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NOBILO: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan puts his two-decade rule on the line when Turkey votes in landmark elections this Sunday. Three candidates remain in the race, after one candidate withdrew Thursday. A runoff will be held between the two leading candidates if no one secures more than half of the votes in the first round. But, many in Turkey are still trying to recover and move forward from February's devastating earthquake. Here is Jomana Karadsheh with more on that.

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Few are the tombstones that identify the dead. They call it the cemetery of the unknown where more than 4,000 victims of Turkey's catastrophic quake are buried, some of the youngest like here with poignant clues left for those still searching for their missing loved ones. Time has yet to heal the wounds of the broken city of Antakya and its people. Life amid the ruins a mere existence in this deserted town where elections and campaign promises are overshadowed by despair. Grief and pain still so raw for those who survived, left only to mourn.

Meltem lost her mother, father, sister, brother, little nieces, and the hardest loss of all, her only child.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the last photo.

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KARADSHEH: Little Ellen (ph) had just turned six. He was with his cousins for a sleepover when the earthquake hit, Meltem and her husband Ayhan dug through the rubble with their bare hands. The three longest days of their lives ended when an Italian Search and Rescue Team recovered the lifeless bodies of their boy and the rest of the family.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They give them all.

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KARADSHEH: The couple, like thousands of others, blamed their tragedy on the state's initial chaotic slow response and on shoddy construction and government amnesties for contractors who violated building codes. On Sunday, they'll take their anger to the ballot box.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (Translated): Over the years, they stole our future from us. Now, our loved ones were taken away from us, Ayhan says. Elections is our only way to hold officials to account. We hope to slam the doors of hell shut.

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KARADSHEH: Anger may not translate into any major surprises at the polls in the city, historically split between the opposition and ruling party, but the stakes are much higher in strongholds of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party across the massive earthquake zone.

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There was no time wasted to impact the hearts and minds of their people in places like Kahramanmaras, the epicenter of the devastating quake. This hilltop project with a dozen newly constructed homes was inaugurated by the Turkish President, the kind of photo op Erdogan needed in the wake of the disaster.

The era of Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been defined by a construction boom, and he has promised to rebuild the earthquake zone within a year. And this is what the opposition is up against, convincing people that they too can deliver.

Thousands of subsidized housing units are under construction here, more rebuilding in the city center that's rumbled back to life, but beneath the facade of normalcy, a reality of life in limbo. Mealtime brings hundreds into the food queues. Those who have lost everything, now rely on their state to feed them. Most still live in tents. But, not even the worst earthquake in generations seems to have shaken the loyalty of Erdogan supporters, and they're keen to show us as they wave his party's flag.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (Translated): As long as Tayyip Erdogan is in power, our houses will be built, this man tells us.

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KARADSHEH: Down the road, the city's old bazaar is bustling once again, quake survivors struggling to get back on their feet, now also facing their country's crushing economic crisis. The 69-year-old once Erdogan supporter says he is boycotting the vote.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE (Translated): They see him as a saint. It's too much, he says. I can't afford to buy anything. I survive on earthquake aid.

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KARADSHEH: A cafe nearby is the only escape from it all for students like 18-year-old Zia (ph). He is a first time voter but hasn't decided if he'll cast his vote.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (Translated): Should we worry about elections or about the collapsed buildings or the lives lost, he says, about what surrounds us are my dreams.

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KARADSHEH: Confusion, apathy, loyalty, anger, it's just all too much for those still trapped in a life from hell. They can only hope when the dust settles from these most consequential elections, they won't be forgotten. Jomana Karadsheh, CNN, Kahramanmaras, Turkey.

NOBILO: And coming up, unleashing a source of clean and limitless energy, CNN takes you inside the lab where scientists are pursuing the dream of nuke fusion.

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NOBILO: A laboratory in California is working on technology which could revolutionize how we make electricity. They've already made some major breakthroughs. CNN Chief Climate Correspondent Bill Weir reports.

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Inside this building, some very smart people built a star on Earth, not the Hollywood kind. That's easy. No, the burning ball of gas in the sky kind, one of the hardest things humans have ever tried.

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TAMMY MA, LEAD, INERTIAL FUSION ENERGY INITIATIVE: I was at the airport when my boss called me and I burst into tears.

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WEIR: Tammy Ma is among the scientists who have been chasing nuclear fusion for generations.

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WEIR: And in the middle of a December night, they did it.

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WEIR: And you only need a tiny little bit of fuel. MA: That's right. Yes, because our little pellet, that sits right in the middle you can't even see it on this target, is just two millimeters in diameter.

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WEIR: That target includes an abundant isotope found in seawater, and goes into a chamber about the size of a beach ball in the 60s, but is now a round room 30 feet across with 192 massive lasers aimed at the center.

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MA: They're big laser beams about 40 by 40 centimeters. Each one alone is one of the most energetic in the world. Every time we do a shot, it's a thousand times of power of the entire U.S. electrical grid. But, your lights still flicker at home when we take a shot. So, what we're doing is taking a huge amount of energy and compressing it down just in 10 nanoseconds.

WEIR: All right.

MA: So, it's about $14 of electricity.

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WEIR: A national ignition facility then amplifies all that concentrated energy on the target, and if they get it just right, more energy comes out than went in, with no risk of nuclear meltdown or radioactive waste.

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MA: In a fusion power plant, you would shoot the same target over and over at about 10 times a second, dropping a targeted and shooting it with laser.

WEIR: So, you'd need a target loader, like I a machine gun or something.

MA: We need a target loader, exactly. So, there is still many, many technology jumps that we need to make. But, that's what makes it so exciting. Right?

JENNIFER GRANHOLM, U.S. ENERGY SECRETARY: A lot of people were saying you've invested all this money, it's time to pull the plug because you guys haven't achieved emission (ph).

WEIR: Right.

GRANHOLM: I mean, it's called the National Ignition Facility, right? And--

WEIR: At some point, you are better. GRANHOLM: At some point, you're better at night. I mean, it's really hard to replicate the process that's happening on the sun, on Earth. It's just really hard. And so, when that happened in December, what it said is that this is actually possible. So, it's no longer a question of whether. It's just a question of when that fusion is actually possible. Now, let's get to work.

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WEIR: Well, conventional wisdom and the International Energy Agency tells us it'll be decades before anybody is really plugging anything into fusion electricity. There was a startup called Helion, which says they have a reactor that can fire plasma rings at a million miles an hour, and will demonstrate electricity by next year. And in fact, in a first of a kind, power purchase agreement, Microsoft has already bought fusion electricity from Helion for the year 2028. The future is coming fast. Bill Weir. CNN, in Northern California.

NOBILO: Thanks for joining me. Have a great weekend. World Sport is up for your next.

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