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CNN International: U.S. Launches Fourth Round of Strikes on Houthi Rebels; Study: Anonymous Tips Help Prevent School Violence, Suicides; Congressional Leaders Meet with Biden on Ukraine, Border; Djokovic Takes on Heckler at Australian Open. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired January 18, 2024 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

BIANCA NOBILO, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM, I'm Bianca Nobilo.

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Max Foster. If you're just joining us, let me bring you up to date with our top stories this hour.

Now, with just five days to go until the New Hampshire primary, Donald Trump is escalating his personal attacks on his rival Nikki Haley. The former president is hoping another victory on Tuesday will help seal his GOP presidential nomination.

Pakistan says it's targeted seven militant locations inside Iran. This comes a day after an Iranian missile strike on Pakistan's territory reportedly killed two children.

NOBILO: The U.S. has carried out another round of Tomahawk missile strikes on Houthi sites in Yemen. U.S. officials report the targets include missile launches used to attack international shipping lanes in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

The Iran-backed Houthis control a large part of western Yemen, including the capital city Sanaa and the port of Hodeidah. Earlier on Wednesday, they struck a U.S.-owned and operated vessel in the Gulf of Aden, and that is the second incident this week.

FOSTER: In the coming hours, the U.S. Justice Department is expected to release the findings of its probe into law enforcement's response to the Uvalde school shooting in 2022. Yesterday, families of victims met with the U.S. Attorney General in Texas and were briefed about its contents.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[04:35:02]

BERLINDA ARREOLA, GRANDMOTHER OF UVALDE SHOOTING VICTIM: I don't have a lot of words to say right now because I have to process everything that took place right now. It was a lot of information. And I guess the next step is to find out what will be done with this information.

BRETT CROSS, LEGAL GUARDIAN OF UVALDE SHOOTING VICTIM: Hopefully that this will bring some changes and some accountability that we have been fighting and asking for since the very beginning.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NOBILO: Those calls for accountability after it was learned that it took law enforcement 77 minutes to stop the gunman. It holed up inside two adjoining classrooms while more than 370 officers gathered at the scene. 19 children and two teachers were killed in that shooting.

FOSTER: Researchers have found that systems used by school children, where they can report suspicious and dangerous behavior without identifying themselves, help to prevent school violence, planned attacks and suicide.

NOBILO: CNN's Josh Campbell has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: An anonymous reporting platform that allows U.S. school children to confidentially report possible threats by their peers has been successful in stopping numerous acts of violence. That's according to new research published Wednesday by the medical journal Pediatrics.

In a review of data from one U.S. state over a four-year period, researchers found that the Say Something anonymous reporting system, operated by the public safety group Sandy Hook Promise, resulted in over 1,000 mental health interventions, the prevention of over 100 suicides and averted six planned school attacks.

Now, public safety experts have long called for increased mechanisms for students to report potential threats confidentially. According to the U.S. Secret Service National Assessment Center, which studies gun violence, anonymous and confidential reporting options can broaden the appeal of reporting, especially for students who are concerned about being identified and ostracized by their peers after reporting. Research finds that the fear of being ostracized or experiencing other forms of retaliation is a significant barrier to reporting.

Now, the Say Something anonymous reporting system serves more than five million students in sixth through 12th grade in 23 U.S. states, according to the study. Similar programs include confidential reporting systems such as Stop It, and some districts across the country have created their own unique apps in order to report threats.

While the topic of gun violence in the U.S. can be politically polarizing, improving mechanisms for anonymous reporting of threats by students has been met with bipartisan support. One Republican lawmaker in Michigan who served on a school safety task force advocating for more resources for that state's so-called OK2Say reporting app says the issue is so critical because so many U.S. school shootings have shared one thing in common.

LUKE MEERMAN, MICHIGAN HOUSE REPUBLICAN: When you look back and you hear the news reporting, and then a few months later, as more information comes out, you often find out that somebody knew something. Our hope is that this OK2Say is that vehicle that can be used to let somebody know.

CAMPBELL: Now, in addition to creating awareness of such reporting programs, some lawmakers also want such anonymous systems to become mandatory in schools in hopes of saving lives.

Josh Campbell, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NOBILO: Still ahead, U.S. President Joe Biden warns that Congress must act now to help Ukraine, but Republicans are focused elsewhere. That's next.

[04:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NOBILO: U.S. President Joe Biden is calling on Congress to swiftly pass more funding for Ukraine, stressing that it is vital for protecting the free world.

FOSTER: The president met with congressional leaders from both parties at the White House on Wednesday in hopes of finding a way out of weeks of impasse.

Republicans are demanding that any new funding for Ukraine be tied to passing tighter border security.

NOBILO: Senate Majority Leader and top Democrat Chuck Schumer came away from the talk saying he's now more optimistic than ever before that leaders will reach an agreement on both the border and funding for Ukraine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): There was tremendous focus on Ukraine and an understanding that if we don't come to Ukraine's aid, that the consequences for America around the globe would be nothing short of devastating.

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): We understand that there's concern about the safety, security, sovereignty of Ukraine, but the American people have those same concerns about our own domestic sovereignty, and our safety, and our security.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: A Ukrainian presidential advisor warns any slow solutions to the war will have disastrous long-term impacts, not just on Ukraine, but the world.

NOBILO: Ukraine is contending with a dwindling supply of weapons and troops on the front lines are forced to ration their ammunition while they wait for more aid from the West. FOSTER: Our Clare Sebastian joins us now. Because Sergey Lavrov has been speaking.

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the Russian foreign minister giving his sort of wrap-up of the year, and it really reveals that I think Russia has one central foreign policy, and that is confrontation with the West. So, we've heard from him that Russia's goal is to rid itself of all possible connections with the West in terms of supply chains, logistics, finances.

The irony, of course, of that is that the sanctions were trying to do that in the first place. So, some of that is obviously spin. He's made it very clear that he sees the West as essentially the U.S. and what they call satellites.

I want to give you a taste of some of the rhetoric that we're hearing from him, especially when it comes to Ukraine.

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SERGEY LAVROV, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): Washington has chosen the course of the rampant expansion of the anti- Russian bloc, NATO. The expansion into the post-Soviet space, it provoked a conflict around Ukraine.

And we, as you know, do not accept the use of the Kyiv regime as a instrument to create direct threats to our country, and that not indirectly across the ocean, but directly on the borders of our country. And of course, we do not accept the use of the Kyiv regime for a full-frontal attack on all that is Russian.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN: All frontal attack on all that is Russian. This is the diet that Russians are fed, that it's the West who started the war in Ukraine, that it's the West led by the U.S. that's trying to escalate it now that they are incapable of negotiations. And I think that context is important, his comments about the West and its inability to negotiate.

When looking at Russia's view on the Middle East, he said that, you know, he thinks that in order for this to come to some kind of conclusion, the situation in Gaza, you have to bring Israel and the Palestinian Authority to the table to direct negotiations.

But he criticized the U.S. role in this.

This is what Russia is trying to do in that region, not only sort of continue this policy of confronting the U.S., but present themselves really as an alternative mediator, an alternative guarantor of stability. Lavrov said he's actually going to New York next week to a UN Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East.

FOSTER: OK, Clare, thank you for the update.

NOBILO: it's going on With Republicans in the U.S. Congress linking aid to Ukraine, to changes in U.S. immigration policy, House Speaker Mike Johnson says there isn't a guarantee that any border deal passed in the Senate will reach the House floor.

[04:45:06]

FOSTER: He spoke to CNN after that meeting between President Biden and congressional leaders on Wednesday, discussing a bill that would include both border security as well as aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. Johnson said right now undocumented immigration is costing Americans too much.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNSON: U.S. taxpayers are spending billions and billions of dollars on the housing and education and the health care and all the benefits that all these illegals are getting when they come into the country. This is not a sustainable situation, and everybody knows that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBILO: Meanwhile, Rosa Flores went to one of the hot spots in ongoing legal battles between the White House and the state of Texas over immigration. Here's her report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton saying that Texas will not surrender to the Biden administration when it comes to the border dispute. What does that look like on the ground? Let me show you. We just got access to Shelby Park.

This is the area of the border that was taken over by the state of Texas. And you can see these added border barriers. This is extra fencing, extra razor wire that, according to Texas National Guard, will be added to the border barrier that you see here to my right.

On the other side of this border barrier is the Rio Grande. And according to Texas National Guard, these fencing and razor wire will be added support to these border barriers to stop illegal immigration.

Now, this particular takeover by the state of Texas of this property is just one of several legal battles that are playing out in the courts between Texas and the Biden administration. There's the controversial border buoys. There's the razor wire and also the recent passage of a state immigration law here in the state of Texas.

Now, all of that tells you what the relationship is between the state of Texas and the Biden administration and how the takeover of this park is just an escalation of that.

Now, the obvious question is, are all of these border barriers actually stopping illegal immigration? Well, according to a law enforcement source, smugglers are simply pushing migrants to cross further upriver. And so, they're not crossing through this area where these border barriers are. They're moving up north. And so that just moves migration to a residential area. So, bottom line, this is not working.

Rosa Flores, CNN, Eagle Pass, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: All right, coming up, the man famous for playing the Terminator just experienced the so-called comedy of errors in Munich. But what was a shakedown?

NOBILO: But was it a shakedown?

FOSTER: Ahh, lack of sleep.

[04:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: A tennis fan at the Australian Open --

NOBILO: Oh, yes.

FOSTER: -- got under the skin of world number one Novak Djokovic during his match on Wednesday.

NOBILO: The 10-time Australian Open champion was having trouble with his game and at times was irritated by a rowdy late-night crowd. By the fourth set, he was fed up and traded barbs with an unruly fan, heckling him from the corner. Here's how he described the heckler.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NOVAK DJOKOVIC, TENNIS PLAYER: There was a lot of things that were being told to me on the court, particularly from that corner and the same side, the other corner. I was tolerating it from most of the match, but I, you know, at one point I had enough. And I asked him whether he wants to come down and tell it to my face, you know? And when you confront somebody, you know, unfortunately for him, he didn't have the courage to come down, you know?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: It's generally true, I think, but, you know, sometimes we get grief on social. If you just answer back to them, they start apologizing.

NOBILO: I was also wondering, some sportsmen can obviously block out sound or do it intentionally, whether it's boxers, golfers, like my dad sometimes, tennis players.

So, I wonder if he intentionally stays more aware of what the audience is saying or if they were just so disruptive that he couldn't ignore it.

FOSTER: Yes.

NOBILO: Now to some stories in the spotlight for you. The United Kingdom is celebrating the 80th anniversary of Colossus, the world's first digital computer. It was created back in 1944 and used in World War II to decode German messages, which paved the way for the Allies' successful D-Day invasion.

FOSTER: It'd be a chip now, wouldn't it? Many experts credit this computer with shortening the war. The two-meter-tall machine cut the time it took to decode messages from weeks to just hours, and despite its important role, Colossus remained a secret until the early 2000s. That's actually when its existence was revealed for the first time.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, detained for several hours in a Munich airport and is facing criminal tax proceedings as well in Germany after customs officers in Munich say he failed to declare a very expensive luxury watch.

NOBILO: A source close to the actor says he might be auctioning the watch, which he owns for charity in Austria. The former California governor was reportedly never given a customs declaration form and agreed to prepay a potential tax, and the source calls it an incompetent shakedown because customs officials couldn't figure out a way for him to pay that potential tax for several hours.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SMASHING PUMPKINS: Starting with a smile --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Your friend, neighbor, maybe even knew Bianca. Could be the native powers of the 90s rock band the Smashing Pumpkins.

NOBILO: I could maybe be a trianglist. I could hit a triangle, but I'm not very talented in that respect. The band took to social media this month in search of their newest member after long-time guitarist Jeff Schroeder left the group in October.

FOSTER: The band called for anyone who may be interested to apply, and they've now received more than 10,000 applicants in just two weeks. They say they have eight people working full-time to review each and every one of them.

I think our director Mick should join because he always reminds me of the lead singer.

NOBILO: Oh, yes. We've got quite a few people here in our studio crew that look like they should be in a rock band, and some of them are.

FOSTER: Yes.

NOBILO: Very cool.

FOSTER: That's true, actually.

NOBILO: And something I just wanted to add about the computer story from 1944. I was curious about this. So, AI has been demonstrated to break the Enigma code, which obviously Alan Turing spent painstaking months and years trying to break, in 10 minutes.

FOSTER: Wow.

NOBILO: It just shows you the code-breaking potential of these new technologies.

FOSTER: Yes, we'll see how it --

NOBILO: Maybe people will be reverting to carrier pigeon and invisible ink to try and avoid them.

FOSTER: Yes, well, that would actually -- yes, that would work now, wouldn't it? Because they would be trackable.

NOBILO: Something to think about for when you're writing your ciphers in codes.

FOSTER: Yes, but thank you for joining us here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster.

NOBILO: And I'm Bianca Nobilo. "EARLY START" is next, right here on CNN.

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