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President Biden Considering Options on Jordan Drone Attack; Israel Alleges UNRWA Employees Participated in Hamas Attack; Imran Khan Gets 10-Year Jail Sentence; Alex Murdaugh's New Trial Request Denied; NATO Secretary General Urges Support for Ukraine; Venezuela's Court Bans Leading Opposition Presidential Candidate; Proposal Offered to Hamas to Release Hostages; Pregnant Women Not Getting Enough Care; U.S. Lawmakers Wants Strong Immigration Laws; Millennials Not Pleased by President Macron's Offer; Kito Process Victimize LGBTQ Members in Nigeria. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired January 30, 2024 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN HOST: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world and to everyone streaming us on CNN Max. I'm Rosemary Church. Just ahead, a delicate balancing act, the Biden administration weighs how to respond to a deadly attack on U.S. troops without escalating tensions.

A dark reality for Gaza's most fragile. Newborns in Gaza face overwhelming odds with a failing healthcare system and dire living conditions.

Plus, one issue, coming to the forefront of French politics, infertility. President Macron's plan to help tackle the country's declining birth rate and how French women are responding. We'll have a guest later this hour.

Appreciate you joining us. U.S. President Joe Biden is weighing options for retaliation in response to a drone attack in Jordan that killed three American soldiers and injured more than 40 others. President Biden huddled with his national security team on Monday as they considered the options.

Officials blame Iran-backed militants for the attack, though Iran is denying any involvement. The White House says the U.S. is not looking for a war with Iran, but won't rule out the possibility that President Biden is considering strikes within the country. The drone strike on Sunday marks a significant escalation of tensions in the Middle East at what the U.S. Secretary of State called a volatile time in the region.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We've made very, very clear from day one that we're going to defend our people, we're going to defend our personnel, we're going to defend our interests, and that's exactly what we've done. We've taken action, significant action to deter groups, to degrade their capabilities in Iraq, in Syria, in Yemen.

At the same time, the president's been very clear that we want to prevent broader escalation. We want to prevent this conflict from spreading. So, we are intent on doing both.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: The three soldiers killed have been identified as Sergeant William Rivers, Specialist Kennedy Sanders, and Specialist Breonna Moffett, all part of a U.S. Army Reserve unit based in Georgia. The parents of Specialist Breonna Moffett spoke with CNN in a heartbreaking and emotional interview. They called the 23-year-old an amazing person who could always light up a room. They also spoke about the last conversation they had with their daughter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRANCINE MOFFETT, MOTHER OF U.S. SOLDIER KILLED IN JORDAN ATTACK: If we knew what we know now, we would have held on to that phone call as long as possible. We would have recorded it. We (inaudible) I love you's. (Inaudible) to make sure that she knew how much we loved her. And that we never wanted her to feel alone. And it was to always be right there by her side. And some of this, we just, what is just try to prolong the time as long as possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Moffett's parents say she was on her first deployment and was proud to be following in her mother's footsteps by joining the military. CNN's Scott McLean is following developments. He joins us now from Istanbul. Good morning to you, Scott. So, what is the U.S. signaling it might do in response to this deadly attack in Jordan, as pressure builds for President Biden to retaliate?

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Rosemary. Look, you heard the Secretary of State earlier saying that the U.S. does not seek escalation and you heard U.S. officials yesterday going to great lengths to say that over and over again. They do not seek escalation. They do not seek any kind of war or direct confrontation with Iran.

[03:05:00]

But clearly though, now that three U.S. service members have been killed, the calculation has been different. It is different than how they've responded to the other 160 plus attacks on U.S. interests in Iraq and Syria up until this point, which have been relatively targeted, relatively limited.

President Biden is under a lot of pressure to make sure these attacks don't happen again in the future, but diplomacy is obviously not an option. We heard directly from one Iran-backed militant group or militia in Iraq saying that, look, their attacks are going to continue until the U.S. leaves the region.

And there's no indication that that's gonna happen. They have more than 3,000 troops across Iraq and Syria, thousands more across the broader Middle East. There is even pressure from some Republican lawmakers to bypass these militant groups in Iraq and Syria and strike Iran directly, something that the White House hasn't ruled out, but officials also say it's not likely because they know that it would likely spark a broader conflict.

Iran has also distanced itself from this attack in Jordan saying that resistance groups, as they call militant groups that they back, don't answer directly to Tehran. And in this case, the U.S. in part agrees with that. Officials say that there's no direct evidence suggesting that Iran specifically ordered this attack or wanted specifically to escalate things in the Middle East. But even though they didn't pull the trigger, White House official John Kirby also made clear that their hands are not clean. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KIRBY, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY SPOKESPERSON: We know Iran supports these groups and the degree to which they order and direct is something that, you know, intelligence analysts will look at. We know they support them. We know they resource them. We know they train them. We know that they're certainly not discouraging these attacks, whether it's attacks by the Houthis, what Hamas did on the 7th of October, what Hezbollah has proven capable of doing, and now, of course, what these militia groups continue to do in places like Iraq and Syria, now Jordan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCLEAN: And Rosemary, U.S. officials have made clear that the response to this will likely be more powerful than we've seen in previous responses to previous attacks. It's also clear that the U.S. has a pretty good idea of which militant group and where this attack actually came from, but they don't want to say too much about that because they are trying to preserve some of the surprise element in their response. Rosemary?

CHURCH: Scott McLean, joining us live from Istanbul. Many thanks.

Retired U.S. Army General Wesley Clark is a CNN military analyst and former NATO Supreme Allied Commander. He joins us now. Good to have you with us, sir. So, in the wake of this deadly attack on U.S. troops in Jordan, President Joe Biden is vowing to retaliate and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says that response will come at a place and time of America's choosing, calling it the most dangerous moment in more than 50 years.

All this complicated by the need to prevent this Middle East conflict from further escalating. How has that delicate balancing act achieved with those two conflicting goals? And what is the appropriate retaliatory action to meet this moment?

WESLEY CLARK, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: That's a really difficult problem that President Biden has. You want to strike hard enough that Iran won't do it again. But at the same time, you want to try to not give Iran an opportunity to further escalate and draw in the United States more deeply. So, it's a tough problem. And I'm sure the White House is looking at three options notionally.

One is a really heavy option. Go after Iran, pick the set of targets. Another is a lighter option. Hit four or five different militia points and hit them again and again, over a period of two or three days. And there's a middle ground that says maybe you hit a couple of Iranian assets in the Gulf or maybe Iranian command and control in Iraq somewhere, but you don't strike into Iran proper.

Those would be like three different packages. They're going to be debated, talked about, looked at for feasibility, impact, consequences, and so forth.

CHURCH: Yeah, President Biden, he met with his national security team Monday to weigh these possible retaliatory options. How did they work through those options and how dangerous do you think this moment is that we're confronting right now?

CLARK: Well, I have to work through the options by first asking, are they militarily feasible and what's the risk militarily for executing them? Can you do it successfully and are you going to take losses in doing it? That would be the first criteria.

[03:09:58]

And then the second would be, what's the impact going to be on Iran? And then the third criteria would be, what's the impact in the region going to be? And so, they have to weigh all that. You've got diplomatic considerations. You've got military considerations. And so, there's a lot in this.

But I think that this is a moment where we're going to see a much stronger U.S. response than the previous tit for tat. Now it may take a day or two more because we're going to -- whatever it is, we're going to put together and I would guess that it would be more than one set of strikes.

CHURCH: And some Republicans calling for the U.S. to target Tehran and hit it hard with devastating military retaliation. What do you say to that?

CLARK: Well, I think that the Republicans do want to see a strike into Iran, a powerful strike at the Republican -- Revolutionary Guards Command Centers, at the Shaheed drone factories, at radars that would then send the signal to Iran that you're naked now, we can blow out your radars, you'll never see us coming again, et cetera. Those kinds of strikes should be in the packages that the president's considering.

If I were in as part of that chain of command, I'd be recommending a relatively robust set of strikes. What you want to do is cap this escalation now and say to Iran, you can't afford to go forward so call off the dogs.

CHURCH: And what we're learning about this deadly attack is that an enemy drone apparently entered the base undetected along with a returning U.S. drone. How does that happen and how do you prevent that from occurring again? CLARK: Well, I'm sure our intelligence assets are really busy trying

to determine how this did happen. Conceivably, it could have just happened coincidentally, but it's more likely, in my view, that actually it was deliberate. They know the drone flight patterns over Syria. They have radar, they have other means of knowing what those flight patterns are and someone figured out, hey, let's just tag along behind that drone and we'll get in. And they tried it and it worked. So, you know, obviously the United States is going to change its procedures, henceforth, but it's likely that this wasn't accidental.

CHURCH: And at the heart of all of this is Israel's war with Hamas, making current efforts to negotiate a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of hostages even more critical. How can those efforts be accelerated to help perhaps de-escalate the situation in the Middle East?

CLARK: Well, really, Iran has used this and probably set up in part this attack by Hamas on Israel. It's all part of a larger Iranian campaign plan to drive the United States out of the region so that all of the Iranian assets can be focused exclusively on Israel and in the process disrupting the other regional diplomatic initiatives that the United States and Saudi Arabia are pursuing.

So, we have to recognize there's a plan behind all this. Now, if we could get a reasonable ceasefire temporarily in Gaza, get the hostages released, that would be really good. But for Israel, this situation in Hamas is, you just can't live with it. You've got to get Hamas out of Gaza because that is -- it's a threat to the existence of Israel. And the same thing is true with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah in south Lebanon.

So, it would be great to get the hostages released, take a lot of pressure off if you've got a six-week ceasefire, as is being talked about. But this is going to continue because Israel now sees the writing on the wall. The threat from Iran is closing in and it's going to have to be dealt with.

CHURCH: General Wesley Clark, we appreciate your military analysis. Many thanks for joining us.

CLARK: Thank you.

CHURCH: Israel is revealing details of an intelligence report on the alleged involvement of some UNRWA workers in the October 7th attacks by Hamas. An Israeli official shared a summary of their investigation with CNN. According to that report, more than a dozen employees of the UN's main relief agency in Gaza were allegedly associated with the attack, participating in various capacities, including helping to kidnap hostages, setting up an operations room, and supplying logistics. It also alleges that some of them infiltrated Israel as part of the attack.

[03:14:59]

The summary does not provide evidence to support its claims, and CNN has not seen the intelligence that underlies the allegations and cannot corroborate Israel's claims. CNN's Nic Robertson has been following these developments and has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice-over): More than 110 days into the ugly war Hamas's brutal attack triggered, Israeli allegations of 13 U.N. staff took part are themselves threatening to bring more suffering.

According to a document shared with CNN, six UNRWA employees infiltrated Israel as part of the attack. Four were involved in kidnapping Israelis and three additional UNRWA employees were, quote, "invited via an SMS text message to arrive at an assembly area in the night before the attack, and were directed to equip with weapons." Although it's not known if they showed up.

Israeli officials briefed U.S. counterparts Friday, who quickly paused UNRWA's funding. A dozen other countries have followed raising concerns the agency's absence could escalate suffering in Gaza.

JAN EGELAND, SECRETARY GENERAL, NORWEGIAN REFUGEE COUNCIL: The impact will be devastating of cutting aid to the organization that is the backbone of services to Palestinian civilians. There is no other organization including my own, we're all there in Gaza, that could take over what UNRWA is doing.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): UNRWA is the only organization bringing aid into Gaza. Most of Gaza's 2 million residents depend on them. They provide food, water and shelter. Desperation already so bad, aid trucks are often looted before they reach warehouses. A cut in funding here is feared on a par with Israel's bombs.

This will mean more starvation, poverty and deprivation, this university professor tells us, which ultimately means more death. This decision means killing us, killing the human being, she says. This is a death sentence. This is the only thing we live on. And you want to cut it?

UNRWA has fired nine staff over the allegations and is investigating two others. One person is dead. The U.N. promising a comprehensive and transparent investigation. Israel's foreign minister is calling for UNRWA's director, Philippe Lazzarini, to step down and canceled a meeting with him Monday, as other government lawmakers press for scrapping UNRWA altogether, a long-held aim for some.

DANNY DANON, KNESSET MEMBER: For many years, we have said that UNRWA is involved with terrorism. They collaborated with Hamas for generations. The U.N. is in charge of the UNHCR, which takes care of all the refugees worldwide. Why do you need a special agency for the Palestinian refugees?

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Egeland points to the ICJ ruling Israel must enable humanitarian aid for Gaza.

EGELAND: There will be epidemic disease because of this, unless it is reversed. The stakes are enormous here. And I'm very disappointed with these donors who spent zero time in suspending aid to an entire organization for the sins of a few staff.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: This just in to CNN, Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan has been sentenced to 10 years in jail, according to his political party. Khan had been accused of leaking state secrets. His PTI party says the sentence will be challenged in a higher court. Khan was ousted from power in 2022 in a parliamentary no confidence vote. The decision comes ahead of elections on February 8th.

As U.S. Senate negotiators inch toward a potential bipartisan border deal, House Republicans and Donald Trump are criticizing that deal and trying to shut it down. Details just ahead.

Plus, a CNN crew in Ukraine comes under fire while reporting on the war, trying to show how Ukrainian forces are surviving Russian attacks as they run out of supplies and funding. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:20:00]

CHURCH: Welcome back everyone. A judge in South Carolina has denied Alex Murdaugh's request for a new trial. Murdaugh's legal team claims the court clerk in his murder trial 11 months ago tampered with the jury and say they plan to appeal Monday's ruling. Murdaugh was convicted of murdering his wife and 22-year-old son in June of 2021. Prosecutors said the killings were an attempt to distract from and delay investigations into alleged financial crimes targeting his own clients and law firm.

Ukraine says its troops have expanded their foothold across the Dnipro River in the Russian-controlled Kherson region. The river has become a major target for Kyiv since it's used as a natural defensive barrier for Russian forces. Ukrainian officials stress that the situation in the area is fluid and Russian attacks are not letting up.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is urging allies to send Ukraine more weapons and ammunition calling it a quote, "investment in our own security." He spoke at a press conference on Monday alongside U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, and thanked the U.S. for its continued commitment to support Ukraine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENS STOLTENBERG, NATO SECRETARY GENERAL: Russia's brutal war against Ukraine is nearing the two-year mark. And a Russian victory would embolden Iran, North Korea, and China. That matters for Europe's security and it matters for America's security.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Ukraine's military is struggling to hold off Russian attacks as supplies run low and another round of U.S. funding remains stalled in Congress. CNN's Fred Pleitgen shows us what it's like on the front lines in eastern Ukraine and a warning some images in his report are graphic.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): All-out warfare in unforgiving terrain. Forest battles in eastern Ukraine mean facing a near constant Russian onslaught. Vladimir Putin's army trying to break through Ukrainian defenses. Dmytro is one of those holding them up.

DMYTRO, BUREVIY BRIGADE, UKRAINIAN NATIONAL GUARD (through translation): The situation is very active and very tense, he says, because the enemy has much more equipment and manpower. Basically, every day they try to storm the positions.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): A dead Russian soldier and a destroyed tank show just how close the Russians have come. It's a fight for survival and against the elements. The trench, cold, wet and soggy, the only heat coming from candles the soldiers cower around, gathering strength to face overwhelming Russian firepower.

DMYTRO (through translation): They shoot direct fire. Planes are flying. Basically, they have it all, he says. But probably the worst are tanks. When they fire, you don't even hear it. You hear an airplane when it comes over. With a tank, you're in God's hands.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): Artillery fire another threat here, as we found out when we came under fire trying to make it to the area.

[03:24:56]

UNKNOWN: (Inaudible)

PLEITGEN (on camera): This is unfortunately something that when we work here in the east of the country, it happens all too often. We were getting ready to film here and then all of a sudden, we heard what appeared to be outgoing artillery but then a shell came in --

UKNOWN: (Inaudible) 100 meters.

PLEITGEN: One hundred meters, gotcha. We're now trying to make our way out of here as safe as possible. That means we have to keep distance between our cars but we also of course have to keep moving the entire time to make sure that we can get out of here hopefully safely.

(Voice-over): We believe a Russian drone spotted us and directed the artillery fire. But two can play that game. Nazariy is a Ukrainian drone pilot. He guides Kyiv's artillery guns targeting Russian infantry, but also armored assault formations, including main battle tanks. He says ammo shortages mean he has to be extremely precise.

NAZARIY, DRONE PILOT (through translation): It's no secret we're starved of artillery shells, he says. We try to work as efficiently and accurately as possible to hit the enemy's firepower.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): Trying to fight back any way they can on one of the toughest battlefields of this war. Fred Pleitgen, CNN in eastern Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: New political turmoil in Venezuela after another opposition leader was banned from running for president. The country's Supreme Court, which is controlled by President Nicolas Maduro's ruling party, recently disqualified Maria Machado from holding any public office for 15 years.

After that decision, both the U.S. and the Venezuelan opposition accused the Maduro government of violating the deal signed several months ago. It promised free and fair elections in exchange for some U.S. sanctions to be lifted.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIRBY: The Maduro regime, when they signed on in October down in Barbados, made some commitments about opposition political parties, about free and fair elections and what all that meant. And they haven't taken those actions. Now, accordingly, they got until April to do so. So, we have options available to us. I'm not going to preview any of those at this time. But we certainly have options with respect to sanctions and that kind of thing that we could take.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Meanwhile, Machado is blasting the court's ruling and vowing to stay in the presidential race. Stefano Pozzebon picks up the story.

STEFANO POZZEBON, JOURNALIST: Political tensions are rising in Venezuela after on Friday the Supreme Court ruled that Maria Corina Machado, an opposition leader who won her coalition primary to run as president later this year, is banned from running and from holding public office due to corruption charges. On Monday, Machado denied the charges, accusing instead the government of breaking its word.

MARIA CORINA MACHADO, VENEZUELAN OPPOSITION LEADER (through translation): About that ban or the so-called sentence, once again the government is walking back on their commitments. Once again, they break what we agreed. They invented documents and presented a decision that we cannot call a sentence. This is judicial crime.

POZZEBON: In the last of few days, both the government of authoritarian president Nicolas Maduro and the opposition traded accusations that of breaking the deal, which was agreed on October 22nd in Barbados. Under that deal that was mediated by Norway and with the support of the United States, Treasury and the State Departments, Maduro would allow for free and fair elections in exchange for partial sanctions release.

But the new ban on Machado has seen politicians both in Venezuela and in the United States calling on the White House to reinstall the sanctions, which include sanctions on the oil exports of Venezuela.

Late on Monday, the White House said that Maduro has until the spring to commit to what he pledged in Barbados and that sanctions remain on the table. For CNN, this is Stefano Pozzebon, Bogota.

CHURCH: Still to come, cautious optimism from officials for a possible deal to release Israeli hostages and pause the fighting in Gaza. We'll hear why.

And in Gaza, a new life begins every 10 minutes. We'll show you how those young babies manage to survive.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:30:00]

CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone.

Negotiators have agreed to a broad framework for a hostage release deal and a pause to the fighting in Gaza. An official familiar with the talk says that framework has been presented to Hamas, but details, quote, "are going to be very difficult to work out." Even still, that official tells CNN that they are sensing optimism.

Alex Marquardt has details.

ALEXANDER MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR U.S. SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: According to most of the parties who were involved in talks over the weekend, it does appear that progress has been made in trying to reach a deal for hostages and for a pause in the fighting in Gaza. There was a meeting on Sunday in Paris attended by the CIA director as well as his Egyptian and Israeli counterparts and the Qatari prime minister, who then came here to Washington and on Monday talked about a broad framework that the parties had discussed with initiatives from all of them.

It is clear that a lot of work still remains to finalize this deal and get it across the finish line, but a source familiar with the discussions tells me that a broad framework was agreed to by those parties who were in Paris.

That would include an initial phase of civilian Israeli hostages released by Hamas and other groups that would be accompanied by a six- week pause in the fighting. That pause could be extended if more of the hostages are released, including the IDF soldiers, both men and women, and the bodies of hostages who are still being held in the Gaza Strip.

Now Hamas would expect Palestinian prisoners to also be released from Israeli prisons, three Palestinian prisoners for every civilian hostage. That ratio could go up with the IDF soldiers. Now I asked Secretary of State Antony Blinken about the deal that is being discussed. He called it a strong and compelling proposal and said that there is some real, that there is real hope going forward. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I can just tell you that there is again strong, I would say alignment among the countries involved that this is a good and strong proposal. And the work that was done over the weekend, including by CIA Director Bill Burns, was important in helping to advance this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUARDT: Now one party not at those talks in Paris was Hamas. The ball now essentially in their court. I'm told that Egyptian intelligence has delivered the proposal of this framework to Hamas. And the source who said that the framework had broadly been agreed to by the others said, quote, "I sense optimism."

Alex Marquardt, CNN, at the State Department.

CHURCH: The United Nations is urging Israeli survivors of sexual violence during the Hamas attack to come forward. The U.N.'s Special Representative for Sexual Violence in Conflict says, we owe you all more than solidarity. We want to ensure that you have justice.

Israel has strongly criticized the United Nations for its delay in condemning Hamas' brutal acts of sexual violence and torture on October 7. Israel's foreign ministry says it invited the U.N. special representative so she could hear the extent of the atrocities for herself.

[03:34:53]

In Gaza, the extraordinary business of life has not stopped despite the war. Women are still having babies, their families growing, just as their lives are falling apart.

Jomana Karadsheh shows us how war haunts these new lives, but a warning, some of the scenes in her report are difficult to watch.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Born into this world all alone. No parents by her side. Only a stranger's touch for the baby with no name. Delivered by C-section last month to a mother already gone, fatally injured in an explosion. She's been in an incubator since, stable now but still fragile, doctors say.

Nearly 20,000 born into this war. And for 10 minutes, a baby is born in Gaza, the U.N. says. Gaza is where the blessings of life are now a curse.

Umm Yazan is five months pregnant. Like most Gazans, her family is homeless. This, the toilets of a school turned shelter is where they live.

"This is our life in the toilets," Umm Yazan says. We lay our mattresses and sleep here. Umm Yazan and her husband can hardly feed their children. There's not enough for their unborn child.

I'm in my fifth month craving foods, but there's no food, no flour, nothing," she says. She's not had her iron supplements, not even a checkup in months. "We wanted to check if there's a heartbeat, but there are no hospitals. They're only dealing with emergencies," she says. "There are no scans to see if the baby's alive or not. Life is nonexistent for pregnant women."

Gaza's few remaining hospitals are overwhelmed with the seemingly endless flood of war casualties. There's no chance of carrying out routine care, and the estimated 50,000 pregnant women and their unborn babies are left out in the cold. They're already precarious situation before the war, now dramatically worse.

About 40 percent of all pregnancies are now high-risk, aid groups say. Miscarriages, stillbirths, preterm labor and maternal mortality are much more likely. For first-time mothers like Hiyam, the excitement is overshadowed by this miserable existence that's now her life, soon to be her baby's.

"Being pregnant with your first child should be nice. You eat, you rest, you sleep. But I didn't get any of that," Hiyam says. Instead, she's had to flee several times, taking shelter in overcrowded hospitals, walking miles searching for safety.

"After walking for many hours, I was exhausted," she says. "The baby was very weak. They told me I should be staying in the hospital, but there was no room, so I had to leave." She's now in this tent, sleeping on a sand floor. "How will I give birth in war, when I have nothing for the baby, no formula, no diapers? We're in a tent, and it's very cold for us. What will life be like for a tiny baby born into these conditions?"

It's hell. This burnt-out classroom in what's left of northern Gaza is the only shelter Nujood could find. She barely made it through the bombardment and labor, now struggling to keep her newborn healthy, clean, and warm.

"We want to clean the classroom but there's no disinfectant," Nujood says. There's no health care, no clinics, no vaccinations for the baby." War has separated Nujood from her husband. She's only been able to reach him once when she told him they had a baby girl," Habiba.

Nujood's mother spends her days trying to find what she can to feed her daughter. "This is my first grandchild. It's supposed to be happiness," she says. "But I couldn't celebrate. I wanted to prepare so many things for her to celebrate her arrival, my precious first granddaughter. She didn't even get the new clothes I bought her."

It's never been harder to be a mother in Gaza. All you can do is hold your baby tight and hope you both survive this nightmare.

Jomana Karadsheh, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: As U.S. senators get closer to a potential bipartisan border deal, former President Donald Trump is blasting the legislation, calling it unnecessary and saying it will make the border worse. And House Speaker Mike Johnson is calling the deal a non-starter. Other Republicans are also echoing their sentiments. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ELISE STEFANIK (R-NY): Texas is the first line of defense against this full-fledged invasion at our southern border, as Joe Biden and Secretary Mayorkas refused to enforce our laws by rolling out the red carpet for illegal immigrants. Texas not only has the right to defend itself, but must take a stand for the sake of our country's sovereignty and future. I am proud to stand with Texas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[03:39:56]

CHURCH: Twenty-six attorneys general have signed a letter to President Joe Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in support of Texas's fight to secure its border. And in a stunning political shift, Mr. Biden is promising to shut down the border right now, if given new powers by Congress.

Well, new measures to protect French agriculture are expected to be announced today, as angry farmers try to bring traffic to a halt around the country. And these are live pictures of one of those protests. Farmers have been demonstrating for weeks over grievances including environmental regulations and competition from Ukrainian farms. The government has already scrapped a plan to phase out subsidies for diesel fuel.

Well, the French government wants more babies and more future taxpayers. Ahead, reaction to a controversial plan to boost fertility. Back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: Later today the French National Assembly is scheduled to vote on a bill that would enshrine abortion rights in the French Constitution. It's expected to pass and would head to the Senate in a few weeks for another round of debate. The measure is heavily supported by the Macron government.

Meantime, another sexual health issue is being pushed to the forefront of French politics, infertility and the country's declining birth rate. The French president recently caused a stir by proposing free fertility testing for 25-year-old women during routine doctor visits.

Now this comes after France recorded its lowest birth rate since World War II with fewer than 700,000 babies born last year. That's according to national statistics. Emmanuel Macron is also suggesting a better parental leave policy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EMMANUEL MACRON PRESIDENT OF FRANCE (through translator): Because infertility is on the rise, and I'm talking about a kind of taboo of this century, but habits are changing and people are having children later and later. Male and female infertility has progressed a lot in recent years and is causing a lot of couples to suffer. A major plan to combat this scourge will be launched to enable this very demographic reset.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Joining us now from Paris is Marie Gros, she is on the board of the infertility support organization BAMP. Thank you so much for joining us.

MARIE-JOELLE GROS, BOARD MEMBER, BAMP: Thank you, Rosemary, for having me.

CHURCH: So, President Emmanuel Macron is calling infertility a scourge and is now proposing a major plan to help reverse France's declining birth rate, which could include offering 25-year-olds free fertility checks as part of their routine medical checkups.

[03:44:57]

It's a proposal that has triggered a fair amount of anger across the country. What's your reaction to this suggestion from the president?

GROS: We, his propositions are very interesting. We just regret some words he had about demographic rearmament that created a lot of misunderstood and confusion. So that expression was totally unappropriated. People understood it like my children. We need to produce (Inaudible) very quite soon.

So of course, feminists and not only feminists immediately denounced this remark. And our association of patients of reproductive medicine in France was also very disappointed. The point is that any woman should decide to have or to have not children. It is her choice. And men and women need to get information about fertility and infertility just to be able to make the good decisions for themselves.

CHURCH: Right. And some women in France say the government shouldn't be pressuring them into even thinking about fertility so early in their lives. But then others say infertility is a big problem in France and the country needs to offer better treatment. So, what would be a better plan? And should it be offered perhaps to women in their early 30s rather than mid-20s, as Macron has originally suggested? I mean, at least some sort of testing, if infertility is this big problem in the country.

GROS: Yes, it is a big problem. In fact, it is a public health problem. You know, by the past, France was a kind of pioneer country in the field of reproductive medicine. And now things have changed and people need to have more information and prevention.

In our organization, we often hear people saying, if only I should have known, because they don't care about their fertility before being in front of the problem. So, prevention in the -- when people are at school, when they are getting in love affairs with others and so on is very important just to understand that our bodies, our reproductive capacities are really impact nowadays.

But because of pollutions, because of what we eat, what we breathe, that's under mental questions have a very important impact on our bodies and our reproductive capacities are becoming a big and huge, a huge question of public health. And it is an indicator of our global health.

CHURCH: All right. Marie-Gros, thank you so much for joining us and explaining the situation in France. We do appreciate it.

GROS: Thank you very much.

CHURCH: Pope Francis is addressing the criticism of his recent consent for priests to bless same-sex couples. The pontiff says pushback from African bishops was a special case because for them homosexuality is something bad from a cultural point of view and they don't tolerate it.

The new Vatican guidelines have received strong support from bishops across Europe including Catholic clergy in France, Austria, and Germany.

Homosexuality is illegal in many African countries where gay people face imprisonment, violence, and death. In Nigeria, LGBTQ plus people are lured through an online relationship to a situation where they are physically or verbally assaulted and often extorted. It's a practice called kito.

CNN's Stephanie Busari has more as part of As Equals, our ongoing series on gender inequality. And a warning, parts of her report may be difficult to hear.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNKNOWN: They beat me up, stabbed me.

STEPHANIE BUSARI, CNN.COM SUPERVISING EDITOR, AFRICA: Izzy's (Ph) story is hard to hear.

UNKNOWN: I was being tied on my back. My hands were on my back. So I could not do much. So they did what they wanted to do. They had their way with me.

[03:50:00]

BUSARI: Raped, abused, and extorted, or because of her sexuality, a practice known in Nigeria as kito. For Izzy, whose real name is not being used for safety reasons, it began when she met a woman online. They exchanged messages and soon agreed to meet in person at her date's house. Izzy says it all changed when there was a knock on the door. Two men came in and things quickly got violent.

UNKNOWN: They stripped me naked forcefully and they were just playing with my private parts, playing with my body parts.

BUSARI: It soon dawned on Izzy that the woman she'd been dating had set her up. But Izzy is far from being alone. CNN has spoken to 16 women here in Nigeria who describe being kitoed. Lured through online relationships to meet people who then assault and often extort them. And these are just a fraction of the thousands of LGBTQI plus people subjected to this practice here according to data shared with CNN.

For Raffiata (Ph) it started with pressure from her parents to be straight.

UNKNOWN: I was ridiculed. I was treated like a non-entity. I was extorted.

BUSARI: She moved in with a man she'd met on Tinder, who knew she was gay, but he soon turned it against her.

UNKNOWN: He would tell me that, you know, I know something that people shouldn't really know about you. Do you know what they would do if they found out you were like this?

BUSARI: In Nigeria's deeply religious and conservative society were same-sex relationships at Outlawed. Members of the LGBTQ plus community are vulnerable to exploitation and attack.

AFOLABI AIYELA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, THE INITIATIVE FOR EQUAL RIGHTS: People in the community are regarded as less than, and they don't have the same rights as everybody else. So, it's very easy to take advantage of that. It's very easy to extort. It's very easy to, you know, target people in the community.

BUSARI: With the focus of Nigerian law enforcement on queer people as the criminals, experts tell CNN kito victims find it difficult to find resources to get help. Victims have instead taken things into their own hands, going online to warn each other of individuals who pose a threat. Doing what they can to shine a light on the abuse, while many continue to suffer in their shadows, unseen and unheard.

UNKNOWN: That's the most painful part, when you are going through all sorts of abuse, because of who you are and you can't even say anything. It's a different type of pain.

Stephanie Busari, CNN, Lagos, Nigeria.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Still to come, King Charles and Kate Middleton begin recovery after checking out of hospital. Details on what made them check in just a hit.

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CHURCH: A top Russian figure skater is looking at a four-year ban for an anti-doping violation. Kamila Valieva is just 17 years old. During the Beijing Olympics in 2022, she tested positive for a heart medication that can boost endurance. She says she ingested the drug accidentally. Valieva's team finished first in the team competition, but no medals were awarded at the time.

[03:55:01]

Now the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee confirms the American team will win the gold. Valieva's ban is backdated to December 2021 when she tested positive.

Members of Britain's royal family are on the mend after hospital stays for separate issues. King Charles and Kate, the Princess of Wales, were both discharged on Monday.

CNN's Max Foster has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAX FOSTER, CNN LONDON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A royal wave goodbye. King Charles heading home after undergoing a corrective procedure for an enlarged prostate. The message, the crown is still strong. He left the London clinic on Monday afternoon, accompanied by Queen Camilla, to the applause of onlooking crowds.

Just hours earlier, a car full of flowers for the King's daughter-in- law, Kate, who left the same hospital following abdominal surgery and out of the sight of cameras. Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace both releasing statements on Monday thanking well-wishers for the kind messages towards the royal pair over recent days and weeks.

King Charles is now set for a time of private recuperation at an undisclosed home. With a spokesperson saying the Princess of Wales is making good progress and is set to continue her recovery in Windsor.

It will be several more weeks until the world is able to see the princess again, with her as well as the Prince of Wales pausing all public duties until at least Easter. It's unclear exactly what her surgery was for. However, a royal source confirmed to CNN that the condition was non-cancerous.

King Charles, on the other hand, making the decision to be open about his diagnosis to prompt men to get checked. His announcement resulting in a surge of people looking into information about prostate cancer.

Queen Camilla, who visited Charles daily in hospital, told reporters ahead of the surgery that the king was looking forward to getting back to work. The recent and unusually candid health updates from the royal family, possibly a sign of a slightly evolving and more transparent monarchy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: And thanks for your company. I'm Rosemary Church. Have yourselves a wonderful day. CNN Newsroom continues next with Bianca Nobilo.

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