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CNN International: U.S. Senate Grills Social Media Executives Over Child Safety; Man Accused of Killing His Father, Posting Grisly Video; White House Formally Assigns Blame for Deadly Drone Attack; U.N. Warns Halting Funding for UNRWA Would Impact Millions in Gaza; EU Leaders Starting Debate on Ukraine Aid this Hour. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired February 01, 2024 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your platforms really suck at policing themselves.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have blood on your hands.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our children are suffering and they're unwell.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm so sorry that we have not been able to prevent these tragedies.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll respond on our own time on our own schedule. The first thing you see won't be the last thing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're two people in a relationship supporting each other and having fun with it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Max Foster and Bianca Nobilo.
BIANCA NOBILO, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and a warm welcome to our viewers joining us from around the world and in the United States. I'm Bianca Nobilo. Max has the day off.
It's Thursday, February 1st, 9 a.m. Here in London, 4 a.m. in Washington, where tensions are still high after top social media executives endured hours of questioning from Senate lawmakers over concerns for children's safety online. The heads of X, TikTok, Snap, Meta and Discord testified about efforts to block material that hurts young people's mental health or exposes them to sexual exploitation. The urgency of the matter was readily apparent from lawmakers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. DICK DURBIN (D-IL): Online child sexual exploitation is a crisis in America.
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): Every parent I know and I think every parent in America is terrified about the garbage that is directed at our kids.
SEN. JOHN KENNEDY (R-LA): To some extent, your platform has become a killing field for the truth, hasn't it?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBILO: But the CEOs were quick to push back against some of the criticism, detailing tools already in place on their respective platforms and pledging to do more.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EVAN SPIEGEL, CEO, SNAP: We provide in-app reporting tools so that people who are being harassed or who, you know, have been shared inappropriate sexual content can report it in the case of harassment or sexual content.
SHOU CHEW, CEO, TIKTOK: I'm proud to say that TikTok was among the first to empower parents to supervise their teens on our app with our family pairing tools.
LINDA YACCARINO, CEO, X: You have my personal commitment that X will be active and a part of this solution.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBILO: In a dramatic moment, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg stood up and personally apologized to families of people harmed by social media.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOSH HAWLEY (R-MO): You're on national television. Would you like now to apologize to the victims who have been harmed by your product? Show him the pictures.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would you like to apologize for what you've done to these good people?
MARK ZUCKERBERG, CEO META: I'm sorry for everything you have all been through. No one should go through the things that your families have suffered and this is why we've invested so much and are going to continue (INAUDIBLE) ...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBILO: CNN's Tom Foreman has more details on the Senate hearing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): But you have blood on your hands.
SEN. JOSH HAWLEY (R-MO): Your product is killing people. Will you set up a victim's compensation fund with your money? The money you made on these families sitting behind you? Yes or no?
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, whose company owns Instagram pushed into apologizing to families who say they were harmed by online content, some waving pictures of children who died or killed themselves. It was an astonishing moment, yet the billionaire head of Meta dug in anyway.
MARK ZUCKERBERG, CEO, META: And this is why we invested so much and we are going to continue doing industry-leading efforts to make sure that no one has to go through the types of things that your families have had to suffer.
SEN. SHELDON WHITEHOUSE (D-RI): Your platforms really suck at policing themselves.
FOREMAN (voice over): Against a torrent of accusations from the Senate committee about enabling sexual exploitation, election meddling, fake news, drug abuse, and child endangerment, the heads of five tech giants tried to push back.
JASON CITRON, CEO, DISCORD: We very much believe that this content is disgusting.
LINDA YACCARINO, CEO, X: X will be active and a part of this solution.
FOREMAN (voice over): But the fury kept coming in a rare show of unity between Democrats --
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN): One-third of fentanyl cases investigated over five months had direct ties to social media.
FOREMAN (voice over): -- and Republicans.
HAWLEY: Thirty-seven percent of teenage girls between 13 and 15 were exposed to unwanted nudity in a week on Instagram. You knew about it, who did you fire?
ZUCKERBERG: Senator, this is why we're building all --
HAWLEY: Who did you fire?
ZUCKERBERG: I'm not going to answer that.
[04:05:00]
FOREMAN (voice over): There was plenty of heat to go around as the tech bosses were scorched with claims their products promote anxiety, depression, and violence, especially among young people.
SEN. MARSHA BLACKBURN (R-TN): Children are not your priority. Children are your product.
FOREMAN (voice over): But no one was hit harder than Zuckerberg, whose attempts at defense at times were literally laughed at.
ZUCKERBERG: My understanding is that we don't allow sexually explicit content on the service for people of any age.
SEN. MIKE LEE (R-UT): How is that going? ZUCKERBERG: You know, our --
SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): Is there any one of you willing to say now that you support this bill?
FOREMAN (voice over): Many of the lawmakers are intent on overturning a longstanding federal law that immunizes those companies from lawsuits over user generated content and putting tough regulations in place.
KLOBUCHAR: It's time to actually pass them, and the reason they haven't passed is because of the power of your company. So let's be really, really clear about that.
FOREMAN (voice over): And while the tech bosses say they're happy to work on safeguards, skepticism ran rampant.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): Nothing will change until the courtroom door is open to victims of social media.
FOREMAN: Sometimes in hearings like this, lawmakers seem like they just don't understand how tech really works. But they do understand human suffering. They know the political power of that. And they know how to count votes, as one of them noted today. And big tech could be on the wrong side of the next one and facing regulations like never before.
Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NOBILO: During his testimony, Mark Zuckerberg mentioned a lack of data in the study of social media use and mental health.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ZUCKERBERG: Mental health is a complex issue. And the existing body of scientific work has not shown a causal link between using social media and young people having worse mental health outcomes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBILO: Anecdotally, I'd definitely raise an eyebrow at that. But one clinical psychologist who specializes in the relationship between children and technology use say there may be no causal link, but other data is easy to interpret.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. LISA STROHMAN, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: He can use the word causal because he knows that we cannot do studies where we put children in front of harmful content and see whether or not it hurts them.
So this CDC data shows, that overlay shows, the correlational relationship between when these products are coming out and the effect that it's having on our teenagers. So when he says that mental health is a complex issue, that was the part that really got to me because it's a simple issue. We're either well or we're unwell.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBILO: We want to warn you now about some disturbing graphic images that were posted online Wednesday. A man in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania is facing murder charges accused of decapitating his own father.
Officials say he posted a video of a politically charged rant where he appeared to be holding a bag containing the severed head. The video was viewed thousands of times on YouTube before it was taken down. CNN's Danny Freeman has more on this grisly case.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHIEF JOSEPH BARTORILLA, MIDDLETOWN TOWNSHIP POLICE: It's a horrible, tragic incident.
DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Around 7 p.m. Tuesday evening, Middletown Township police got a call from Justin Mohn's mother saying she'd found her husband, 68-year-old Michael Mohn, dead.
According to a criminal complaint obtained by CNN, when officers arrived, they found an elderly male in a bathroom with blood around him who had been decapitated. Officers found a machete and a large kitchen knife in the bathtub.
Court documents said police then found Michael Mohn's head in a plastic bag in a cooking pot in the next room. Only then did police learn of his son's video posted to YouTube, which stayed up on the site for about five hours before being taken down.
In the 14-and-a-half-minute video, Justin Mohn rants about the Biden administration, the border, and calls his father a traitor to his country because he was a federal employee.
Saying, quote: America is rotting from the inside out because of far- left woke mobs.
Justin then raised his dead father's head on camera.
BARTORILLA: I am very sad for the family. I'm very sad for the community, you know, and also for the people that knew him.
FREEMAN (voice-over): While police were at his home, MoHn, though, was heading west.
A spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of Military and Veterans Affairs told CNN at around 9 p.m., Mohn's cell phone was traced to just outside of the Fort Indiantown Gap National Guard base, Pennsylvania's National Guard headquarters, nearly 100 miles from the crime scene.
The PADMVA said Mohn was armed with a gun but was ultimately arrested without incident.
As authorities investigate, a former roommate of Justin's tells CNN he believed, quote, the government was out to get him.
Mohn also filed multiple lawsuits suggesting he was angry about his status as a white man. This disturbing incident renews concerns about the risk of political violence.
ANDREW MCCABE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: The kind of overheated, deeply politicized, extreme rhetoric that you hear sometimes in this country actually has an impact on these marginalized people with extremist views.
[04:10:02]
FREEMAN (voice-over): Danny Freeman, CNN, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NOBILO: As the U.S. prepares its response to the drone attack on American troops, Iran is issuing a stern warning saying that any threats made by the U.S. will not go unanswered. That word from the chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard just one day after U.S. President Joe Biden said he'd made a decision on how to respond to the drone strike that killed three U.S. soldiers and injured dozens more. But the White House isn't saying exactly what that response will look like.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN KIRBY, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: We'll respond on our own time, on our own schedule. The first thing you see won't be the last thing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBILO: Meantime, the White House has formally assigned blame for the drone strike, saying the U.S. believes the Islamic resistance in Iraq was behind it.
That is an umbrella group of a number of Iranian-backed militants, including Kataib Hezbollah. The attack in Jordan on Sunday targeted a small U.S. military base and marked the first time U.S. troops have died under direct fire in the Middle East since Hamas' October 7th attack on Israel.
The U.N.'s key agency in Gaza is facing a crisis that threatens its very existence. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is now calling for an end to UNRWA. He also specifically is accusing UNRWA officials of being complicit in the October 7th Hamas attack against Israel. In his comments, come as Sweden joins a growing list of countries that have suspended funding to the agency after Israel's claims that 13 staffers were involved in the massacre.
U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres says he was quote, personally horrified by the allegations, but the U.N. acted immediately and terminated the staffers. And if UNRWA is shut down, the situation in Gaza could become catastrophic.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTONIO GUTERRES, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: I underscored the importance of keeping UNRWA's vital work going to meet the dire needs of civilians in Gaza and to ensure its continuity of services to Palestine refugees. UNRWA is the backbone of all humanitarian response in Gaza.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NOBILO: Meantime, the Palestine Red Crescent Society says the situation around Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis remains precarious and the sounds of explosions and gunfire can be heard regularly from the hospital.
The PRCS says this video was taken on Tuesday and a day after entering the complex, Israeli forces are still there and snipers are on the roofs of the houses surrounding the hospital, they say.
The aid group also says that even though the hospital's stock of fuel and medical equipment is low, the Israel Defense Forces are prohibiting anyone from going out on the street, even to retrieve the body of a Red Crescent employee who was killed outside the hospital door. Now, CNN can't independently confirm these claims and has reached out to the IDF for comment.
Elliott Gotkine is following these developments and he joins me now. Elliott, let's return to UNRWA, specifically what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said about its existence and if it was to end its presence in Gaza, what would happen then?
ELLIOTT GOTKINE, JOURNALIST: Well, Bianca, that is a very big question, but I suppose if we just take a step back and to borrow a phrase from the U.N. Secretary-General, Israel's antipathy to the UN broadly and UNRWA in particular doesn't happen in a vacuum. You know, Israel has an uneasy relationship with the U.N. for decades, everything including the Zionism is racism resolution of 1975 to what it sees as the constant vilification of Israel, for example, on the U.N. Human Rights Council and being singled out in contrast to every other country on the planet. So that's the U.N. in general.
As far as UNRWA is concerned, Israel's always -- not necessarily had it in for UNRWA, but always been uncomfortable with UNRWA because this is an agency set up to provide aid to Palestinians. It confers refugee status not just on the Palestinians that lost their homes in 1948 when Israel was created, but all of their descendants. It's the only agency to do so.
It says that keeping Palestinians in these refugee camps simply perpetuates their status and prevents them from integrating into the countries where they are and that UNRWA helps continue to give Palestinians false hope that they'll be able to return to their homes inside Israel today, which Israel says is a nonstarter.
And I suppose what these allegations that Israel has presented to the U.N. and the United States is a kind of smoking gun. Prime Minister Netanyahu addressing U.N. diplomats yesterday saying that UNRWA's mission has to end, not just because of the dozen or so employees that it says were actually actively participating in the Hamas-led massacres of October the 7th, but because it's rotten to the core. It's not just a few bad apples, is what Israel is saying.
But as you say, the question is, what would replace it?
[04:15:00]
Because the U.N. Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths, saying that these Palestinians, almost 2 million of them inside the Gaza Strip, are completely dependent on UNRWA for humanitarian aid, medicine, food, shelter and the like. And I suppose what Israel needs to be careful of getting what it wishes for, in a way, is that if UNRWA isn't there and if it can't continue to operate after the end of this month because it hasn't got funding, because of all the frozen funding commitments that are now in place, then what would replace it? Would Israel then be responsible? And Israel certainly doesn't want to be responsible for all of these Palestinians that require humanitarian aid.
So if Israel does get what it's asking for, the question is, what would replace it and who would be responsible? And I think that Israel certainly wants to be clear that it doesn't want to be responsible. The question is, what would come in its place? And we really don't know.
NOBILO: Elliott, thank you so much.
According to U.S. Central Command, American forces have carried out a new round of airstrikes in Yemen. This time against 10 Houthi drones at a drone control station. This is the latest in a series of attacks meant to destroy the weapons of Iran-backed rebel groups before they can be launched at shipping lanes. The strikes follow a close call in the Red Sea.
We're told a Houthi missile came within a mile of a U.S. destroyer, the USS Gravely, before it was shot down. That is the closest any Houthi attack has ever come to a U.S. warship.
And those attacks in the Red Sea have had an unexpected consequence for a ship full of livestock. Right now, thousands of sheep and cattle are stranded in a ship off the coast of Western Australia in the middle of a heat wave. Fifteen days into its trip to the Middle East, the ship had to divert from the Red Sea because of security concerns.
Crystal Wu with Sky News Australia brings us this update.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CRYSTAL WU, REPORTER, SKY NEWS AUSTRALIA: The MV Bahija arrived in Fremantle at 4 a.m. on Thursday after lingering off the west coast for more than two days. 14,000 sheep and 2,000 cattle are on board, thought to be worth about $2 million.
The Department of Agriculture says the animals are currently being replenished with supplies to ensure the ongoing health and welfare of the livestock is upheld. No animals are currently being unloaded.
The vessel, which was heading to the Middle East, departed Fremantle on January 5. A few weeks later, the federal government made the decision to divert the vessel because of ongoing tensions in the Red Sea.
The ship had been idle off the coast because exporters had to undergo a range of biosecurity measures. Animal activists are concerned about the welfare of the live sheep and cattle on board.
MARTHE KILEY-WORTHINGTON, ANIMAL BEHAVIOR SCIENTISTS: I think the export of live animals is outrageous and hopelessly outdated.
It's done in order to maximize income for people who are already very, very rich. And I think it's quite outrageous to continue to allow animals to suffer in this way.
JOHN HASSELL, PRESIDENT, WESTERN AUSTRALIA FARMERS FEDERATION: They're in very good condition. There are no sick animals. They're coming off of the ship to reduce the density so that they can take the longer voyage around the Cape. So there are no actual animal welfare concerns.
WU (voice-over): The Department of Agriculture sent two independent vets on board to assess the situation and so far no health and welfare concerns have been reported. The exporters' registered vet also remains on board and continues to report back to the department daily.
WU: It's another scorcher today. Temperatures in Perth are expected to exceed 40 degrees for a second consecutive day.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NOBILO: Thanks to Crystal Wu, reporter there with Sky News Australia.
Still ahead, a possible major shakeup in Ukraine's military as the country's spy chief makes a fresh plea for more weapons and ammunition to help turn the tide against Russia.
Plus, an ominous FBI warning about Chinese hackers and the key targets that they could strike.
And then later on, Sesame Street's Elmo goes online to ask how everyone is doing and is inundated with some unexpected responses. We'll get into all of those stories for you coming up ahead.
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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NOBILO: The U.S. presidential election is nine months away. And the latest poll from Quinnipiac University shows Joe Biden widening his lead over Donald Trump in a potential head-to-head matchup.
The survey of registered voters shows Biden with 50 percent. That's up three points from December. Trump gets 44 percent, down two points. Neither has a clear lead if independent and Green Party candidates are then included. The results are quite different in a hypothetical matchup between President Biden and Republican Nikki Haley. She, in theory, would get 47 percent of the vote and Biden 42 percent.
European leaders are set to begin their debate at this hour on what some consider a make-or-break issue for Ukraine and its future. They arrive in Brussels -- they're arriving about now and some of them have already arrived for a European Council meeting about the future aid for Kyiv.
EU aid has been stalled for weeks because of internal political disputes. But that's happening as Russia is on the offensive and Ukraine really needs all the help it can get. The EU now says it expects to deliver only about half of the artillery shells it promised to Kyiv by March. And we know they were already very much lacking when it came to ammo.
Melissa Bell joins us now from Paris. Melissa, are we hearing that there will be an agreement on aid to Ukraine at the summit?
MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is aid, Bianca, that's been blocked, of course, since December when Viktor Orban, the Hungarian leader, put his veto against the idea of this latest tranche being released, 50 billion euros.
That was blocked at a time when you saw blockage as well in Washington about its funding for Ukraine. And as you mentioned, Bianca, at a critical time on the battlefield, when the Ukrainian hopes of breaking that stalemate seemed to diminish by the day.
There is hope, though, this morning as the European leaders arrive ahead of this summit, that some deal will be struck, whether or not it includes Viktor Orban, or some sidestepping of him in order for the 26 leaders without him to reach a deal that would allow money to get to Kyiv.
[04:25:04]
There seems to be a fair amount of optimism that some deal can be struck and that that money can be released. Of course, extremely urgent for Kyiv that it should be -- Bianca.
NOBILO: And Melissa, we're seeing huge protests as well outside where these meetings are taking place in Brussels. Tell us what their message is and also why it's happening now.
BELL: This is a summit of European leaders that was meant to be entirely devoted to the idea of unblocking this aid to Ukraine. Of course, it's been rather taken over, or its agenda has by this growing anger you've seen over the course of the last couple of weeks across European countries, from Portugal now to Spain, France, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, all the way to Greece. A great deal of anger from farmers that has now made itself all the way to the center of Brussels. About a thousand tractors gathered there as European leaders meet. We'd expect that they will be discussing what can be done at a
European level, what's been interesting, Bianca, is that you have in the individual countries anger that is specific to the issues the farmers face there. But what unites them is really this frustration, European red tape, European regulations, at a time, they say, when the EU is also allowing in produce from other parts of the world, in unfair competition. So united in that anger that is even now descending on Brussels and that will be part of the discussions there today -- Bianca.
NOBILO: Melissa Bell in Paris, thank you so much. We know that you'll be keeping us posted throughout the day as we get news.
Chinese hackers lying in wait, preparing to unleash on the U.S. That is the new warning from the FBI. We will have all the details for you.
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