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Britain's King Charles Diagnosed With Cancer; Blinken, Saudi Crown Prince Focus On Gaza In Riyadh Meeting; Storm Pounds Southern California With Flooding, Mudslides And Power Outages; Netanyahu Faces Pressure from Hostage Families and Cabinet; Ukraine Drones powered by Jet Skis Sink Russian Warship; Chasing Migrant Smugglers on Jet Skis; Massive Job Cuts in Tech Industry Amid Economic Uncertainty; Loud Budgeting. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired February 06, 2024 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Coming up here on CNN Newsroom.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: He's in good spirits. But of course, we're talking about cancer here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: We're talking about the king's health. Buckingham palace reveals Charles III has cancer but little else, sparking a frenzy of speculation.
The IDF now bearing down on Rafah in the south, home to almost the entire population of Gaza. Civilians displaced by war with nowhere left to run.
And the Pineapple Express turns deadly, delivering historic rain to California, triggering flash flooding, landslides and statewide power outages.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Atlanta. This is CNN Newsroom with John Vause.
VAUSE: Buckingham Palace's decision to release to break his tradition rather and announce King Charles has been diagnosed with cancer was about transparency to try and avoid rampant speculation. But a lack of detail has in fact now sparked a frenzier theories over just what type of cancer the king has, as well as possible treatments and side effects.
This is what we know. Something was detected last month during treatment for an allergic prostate, but a source tells CNN it's not prostate cancer. The 75-year-old monarch will step back from what the palace describes as public facing duties while undergoing regular treatment.
Charles will continue with state business, but other members of the royal family, including Prince William and Queen Camilla, are expected to step up public duties. Meantime, many across the U.K. are offering their support to the king.
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ANDY BLOOMER, HOTEL MANAGER: So it's a bit of a shock. Like I'm genuinely heartfelt thoughts to him. That sounds pretty scary.
STEVE COSTELLO, RETIRED ARCHITECH: I wish him well. I wish him well. It's very sad. Very sad.
DOLORES, SEMI-RETIRED NURSE: Well, I'm very sad to hear this. Very sorry to hear. And I pray that he will recover.
LAURA DUDLEY, CARE HOME WORKER: Got under best doctors. Got the best chance. Age against him. Rest up boy. Advocate. Give up the throne. Give it to William. You get better. Crack on. Enjoy Camilla.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Crack on. From the British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, a tweet, wishing his Majesty a full and speedy recovery. I have no doubt he'll be back to full strength in no time and I know the whole country will be wishing him well. And here's U.S. President Joe Biden.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, do you have message to King Charles? A message for King Charles?
JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: Yes, I'm about to call him. I'm concerned about him. Just heard his diagnosis. I'll be talking to him, God willing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: More details now from CNN royal correspondent Max Foster.
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FOSTER (voice-over): Buckingham palace announcing that King Charles III has been diagnosed with a form of cancer just over a week after undergoing a corrective procedure for a benign enlarged prostate. The palace outlining that during that procedure a separate issue of concern was caught resulting in the diagnosis.
The type of cancer hasn't been specified, but a source tells CNN that it's not prostate cancer. The statement released by the palace revealed that the British monarch has already commenced a schedule of regular treatments and announced that he'll postpone public facing duties as advised by his doctors.
Monday's statement also saying that Charles decided to share his diagnosis to prevent speculation and help spread awareness for those affected by cancer. The king will also continue state business and official paperwork as usual as head of state, with CNN hearing that he'll continue his weekly audience with the British prime minister.
CNN also understands there are no current plans to appoint councilors of state, which refers to designated members of the royal family who are delegated the monarch's duties temporarily if he becomes too unwell. The public would be told if that were to change.
The diagnosis less than a year into Charles' reign, also becoming a moment of unity for the royal family. CNN is learning that Queen Camilla is preparing to play an important role during this time, continuing her full program of public duties.
Kensington Palace also announcing earlier in the day that the Prince of Wales would return to public duties this week after taking time off to support his wife Kate after recovering from her recent abdominal surgery.
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Meanwhile, Prince Harry set to fly back to the U.K. in the coming days to visit his father. The family, despite their fractures over the last few years, coming back together amid this crisis. Max Foster, CNN, London.
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VAUSE: Joining us now from Washington is Dr. Kirtland Deville, medical director of Johns Hopkins and Therapy Center and Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology and Molecular Radiation Sciences. Dr. Deville, thank you for being with us.
DR. CURTILAND DEVILLE, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: Thanks for having me. Pleasure to be here.
VAUSE: Thank you. Now, one of the reasons why King Charles went public with his diagnosis was to avoid speculation, bringing headlines like these from Australia's news.com.au, worrying signs King Charles and the royal family won't survive this.
Also from Britain's Daily Mail, world holds its breath following monarch's shock diagnosis as prime minister, world leaders and the public pay tribute.
And then from the telegraph, also in Britain, the king's diagnosis, what kind of cancer does he have?
And the reason why there is a frenzy of speculation is because there are myriad types of cancer. So far some are far more serious than others and without any kind of real diagnosis here, without knowing actually what the outlook is, any talk about a prognosis for King Charles kind of is. But difficult or almost meaningless in some ways, right?
DEVILLE: Yes, absolutely, I would agree with that. I mean, it's quite premature. I mean, we know he has cancer and that's about. And, yes, one does not want to over speculate, but really, you know, you can have a cancer of any type of cell in the body.
And so really it can be anything. And cancer can manifest on a wide spectrum of aggressiveness. You can have a very indolent cancer that is not life threatening and the person may live many years or decades with it.
I mean, you can have kind of the extreme opposite end of the spectrum where it's quite aggressive and things may be very imminent and so really don't have any sense of where things fall in line, you know, other than knowing that he has begun some treatment.
VAUSE: And the facts that we do have essentially come from a statement from Buckingham Palace which read that something was detected during treatment for the king's enlarged prostate. It goes on to say this, subsequent diagnostic tests have identified a form of cancer. His Majesty has today commenced a schedule of regular treatment, during which time he's been advised by doctors to postpone public facing duties.
What that does say is that I guess the treatment began fairly quickly after those results came back in. He should still be able to work, but at the same time he is unable to make public appearances. Keep in mind that Charles is 75 years old.
So in very general terms, what does this say about possibly the type of cancer he has, the kind of treatment he may be receiving, and how debilitating could it ultimately be?
DEVILLE: It's hard to say. One, you know, might be given the advice simply to take it easy and help the body really sustain and, you know, tackle the treatments that it's about to encounter. There may be more severe risks, such as, you know, chemotherapies, that might lower blood counts and make the patient more susceptible to infection. And therefore you might tell the patient to not sort of overexpose themselves to the risk of infection. And that might be why that type of recommendation might be made.
Other treatments just simply cause fatigue or tiredness. We may see that with forms of radiation and again, chemotherapy or other systemic therapies. And, you know, the best thing the patient can do in those circumstances is make sure they're not overstressing the body so that they do have some reserve. They are able tolerate the treatments that they're going to encounter.
You know, I will say if we're thinking about the types of treatments that we use for cancer, we think of things like systemic treatments, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, hormonal therapy. Those may be given by an infusion, an IV, or they may be an oral pill, medication, they may even be an injection. We haven't heard much of any details in terms of what types of treatment he might be receiving at that level.
VAUSE: Well, the official announcement about the king's health was made by the BBC on their 6:00 p.m. news. Here it is.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the last few moments we've received breaking news from Buckingham Palace, which has announced that the king has been diagnosed with cancer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: And two minutes after that, another person in the U.K. was diagnosed with cancer. Every two minutes, someone in the U.K. on average, receives a cancer diagnosis. So, you know, and for a long time, being diagnosed with cancer was seen as a, you know, a death sentence in many ways.
But what's happened over the last two decades, last 20 years, is actually quite, you know, phenomenal in the way that the mortality rates have fallen and the hopes of surviving many types of cancers now are far greater than it's ever been.
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DEVILLE: We have excellent treatments now, and we're, you know, continuously discovering and researching and improving those outcomes for cancer. So it doesn't have to have that same connotation of a so called, you know, death sentence that one might have expected in the past, that we really do have long term survivors.
The other issue is that, you know, we are increasing in age. Our health care is improving in general. And, you know, that's sort of the downside in that cancer, you know, continues to increase, is still a top killer globally because longevity is increasing, and therefore people aren't dying of other things such as infection and other things that used to have higher rates, and that's increasing the rate of the incidence of cancer globally.
VAUSE: Dr. Deville, thank you so much for being with us. Really appreciate your time, sir.
DEVILLE: Thanks for having me. Absolutely.
VAUSE: What might just be mission impossible for the U.S. secretary of state once again on an urgent diplomatic tour of the Middle East. With the U.S. military striking Iran-backed militant groups in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, Secretary Blinken is trying to prevent further escalation of regional conflicts which erupted in the wake of Israel's war with Hamas.
Blinken is also hoping to make progress on a hostage deal as well as an enduring end to the violence in Gaza. Blinken's fifth trip in four months began in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and a two-hour long meeting with the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. They discussed regional coordination to end the fighting in Gaza, as well as what comes next.
For now, though, no let up in Israel's almost four month long military offensive on Hamas, Palestinians in neighborhoods west of Gaza city and in Khan Younis to the south have been advised to evacuate. But many are asking to where? With Israeli officials again making no secret their hunt for senior
Hamas leaders will focus next on the southernmost city of Rafah, where almost one and a half million displaced Palestinians have taken refuge.
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YOAV GALLANT, ISRAELI DEFENSE MINISTER (through translator): The Hamas leadership, led by Yahya Sinwar, is on the run from IDF forces. Sinwar moves from hideout to hideout, unable to communicate with those around him.
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VAUSE: Israel says Sinwar was the mastermind behind the October 7 attack by Hamas militant who murdered more than 1,200 civilians, including pregnant women, children and babies.
So for the very latest on Blinken's round of shuttle diplomacy, here's CNN's Nic Robertson reporting in from Tel Aviv.
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NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: The focus of that meeting between Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Saudi Arabia really about what the State Department is talking about the day after there's a ceasefire in Gaza, the importance of reconstruction, the importance of humanitarian aid, the importance of finding Palestinian Authority leadership, the importance of governance in Gaza, all those ideas being discussed so that there's an immediate sort of roll forward if and when a peace pause, a humanitarian pause or a full ceasefire goes into place, that still remains a very big question.
The State Department saying the ball is really in Hamas's court at the moment following that meeting the weekend before last between the heads of intelligence of the United States, of Israel, of Egypt, along with the Qatari prime minister, putting forward a formula for Hamas to consider.
That formula doesn't meet what Hamas has demanded in the past. Hamas is demanding a complete cessation of hostilities, a complete ceasefire, the complete pull out of Israeli forces, and as well, a serious consideration given to the release of their prisoners.
That position that they hold apparently is a position that they still have. And this is why the State Department is saying they don't know if they're going to hear while Secretary Blinken is in the region, if there's any movement on that.
But they are saying that it's the release of the hostages that is going to be at the forefront of Secretary Blinken's meeting when he gets here to Israel, which really begs the question of that ceasefire in Gaza and pressure undoubtedly coming on Prime Minister Netanyahu, who again reiterated his position, even sort of doubling down on it, saying there will be no end to the war in Gaza until the leadership of Hamas are killed.
So he's really setting the terms there very high bar. It's not clear if that is aimed just to put pressure on Hamas to come to better terms, the terms that Israel wants. But that's what Secretary Blinken is walking into, a very high bar set. No guarantees at all about those hostages.
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VAUSE: So far, 122 days of war have left north and central Gaza a barren wasteland. No building has been left untouched. Tens of thousands are dead. Next, it seems, will be Rafah. But there, almost the entire Gaza population has taken refuge. More now from CNN's Nada Bashir. But first, a warning, her report contains graphic and disturbing images which are hard to watch.
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NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER (voice-over): Surrounded by chaos and panic, the wounded lay quiet. This little girl's pain masked by shock. It is all too much. This mother shields her child's eyes from horror, telling him, don't look.
In the morgue at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, the bodies of those who did not survive lay shrouded on the ground, the tiles beneath still bloodied. A doctor here says at least 14 were killed as a result of a series of airstrikes by the Israeli military on this mosque in the central region of Deir al-Balah.
The IDF, however, did not respond to CNN's request for comment on the incident. Locals here are left to sift through the rubble, retrieving fragments of bodies. Those killed said to have been leaving the mosque following morning prayers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): This neighborhood is full of people who've been displaced, all taking shelter in schools. Clearly, there's nowhere safe anymore. Not our mosques, not our schools, not in the streets. Nowhere in Gaza is safe.
BASHIR (voice-over): But just as there is no escape from the airstrikes, it seems there is also no escape from grief. The families of Gaza's latest victims, old and young, left to share in their unending mourning.
Elsewhere in this hospital in central Gaza, at least 20 women and children have arrived seeking safety, forced to flee once again after being ordered by the Israeli military to evacuate their shelter in Gaza City.
WALLA AL-ARBEEL, DISPLACED GAZA RESIDENT (through translator): The Israelis came and surrounded us with tanks. We were not able to go out. There was no food, no drinks, no water. We were not even able to turn on the lights. We were scared they would see us. ASRAA AL-ASHKAR, DSIPLACED GAZA RESIDENT (through translator): They
took all the men and started beating them. They stripped their clothes off and took them to the tanks. After that, they told all the women to go down to the basement and they deployed explosives. They wanted to lock us in and then blow up the whole building. They wanted to kill us. We told them that we are civilians, that there are children with us, that we have done nothing to deserve this. We begged them and then they agreed to let us out.
BASHIR (voice-over): Troubling accounts like this shared with CNN by several women forced to flee central Gaza. Though CNN has received no comment from the Israeli military. What comes next for these families and for all in Gaza is unclear. But there is little hope left.
In Rafah, now home to more than a million Palestinians, tent cities for the displaced continue to grow. This region once said to be a safe zone, now facing relentless airstrikes. Israel's defence minister has warned that troops will soon enter the southern city, they say, targeting terrorist infrastructure. But there are deepening fears over the potential for a humanitarian catastrophe and the looming threat of untold bloodshed in the south. Nada Bashir, CNN, in London.
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VAUSE: Deadly storms are lingering over southern California, submerging roads, traffic, vehicles knocking out power. Call it an atmospheric river or the Pineapple Express. We'll have the very latest in a moment.
Also ahead, one year on life for survivors after a massive earthquake killed tens of thousands of people in Turkey and Syria.
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VAUSE: There's the view, right, of the botanic gardens in southern California in Santa Barbara. In fact, what you can see is water basically overtaking the gardens there. Another day of heavy rain and dangerous weather is expected across the region from a storm system known as an atmospheric river.
More than 120 mudslides have been reported across Los Angeles, some of them in the ultra wealthy communities of Beverly Hills and Bel Air. Disasters tend not to discriminate on zip codes. Hundreds of thousands of homes have no electricity.
Let's bring in CNN's Karen Maginnis for more at the CNN Weather Center. So this is not just two days of a bad weather event. This has been ongoing for a while now, right?
KAREN MAGINNIS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, it started essentially on Sunday, but we saw the most impactful rainfall amounts and the debris flows and the mud that occurred just in the past twelve to 24 hours. And I mentioned yesterday this would be a multi day event. Well, the super saturated hills, because some areas saw as much as a
foot of rainfall all the way from Los Angeles county to Ventura to San Luis Obispo, up towards Marin County. This happens to be the Pacific Coast Highway, Monterey County, and it is closed. At least that portion is closed.
It's one of the most beautiful highway vistas that you would ever see in the entire country. A gentleman was walking near the .LA. River. His dog fell in the river. He went in to get his animal.
A lot of us who are pet owners can certainly understand that, but this became very treacherous. So he was rescued there. You can see the helicopter picking him up. If you're probably wondering what happened to the dog, the dog was also rescued. The dog had some minor injuries. He was being taken care of and this gentleman also went to the hospital, but both are reportedly being doing well right now.
Also, the atmospheric river continues to flood portions of southern California, but now there's going to be a little bit of a shift. We will still see a continuation of that rainfall areas around Los Angeles, primarily Santa Monica, Calabasas and into the Santa Monica mountains. This is where we're looking at some of the heaviest rainfall, one to three inches possible. So we're looking at another round of epic rainfall totals.
But now it shifts a little further towards the south. And now for the mountains, Sierra Nevada, and into some of the coastal ranges, we're looking at significant snowfall. This is a mixed blessing. It's going to be challenging to get on some of those roadways, some of those canyons. You go up into the hills or the mountains, those roads are going to be very treacherous.
But this is good for the snowpack. This is what Californians need when we get into those fire months. And this is going to be very critical. All right. There's a flash flood warning out Los Angeles, Ventura counties. Over 4 million people impacted by this, and this ends. The flood warning ends at 5:00 a.m. Local time. John.
VAUSE: Karen, good to have you with us. Thank you for that. It's hard to believe that California was in a state of extreme drought not so long ago. That's obviously gone. Thank you.
Tuesday marks one year since 55,000 people died in a series of devastating earthquakes which destroyed entire cities and villages in Turkey and Syria. Hundreds marked the grim anniversary on Monday in Hatay, Turkey. Many who've lost homes as well as loved ones are struggling still to pick up the pieces, as CNN's Scott McLean reports.
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SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On February 6 last year, people around the world said prayers for Turkey. Five and a half days later, they witnessed this miracle. Sezai Karabas and his then six- year-old daughter Sengul, somehow pulled out of the rubble without a scratch. My house was here. He shows us. Even we didn't know how we survived.
It was cold. We had no food or water. But God gave us strength. But Karabas is not as lucky as he seems. His wife and four-year-old son were killed.
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On one hand, he says, you feel happiness. On the other, you feel sadness. I didn't know if they made it out, but deep down, I knew they probably hadn't.
One year on signs of destruction are impossible to miss. Some streets still look like the earthquake happened yesterday, and most others, the destruction has been replaced by blocks of lifeless, empty lots. The rubble has mostly been cleared away, but mass reconstruction still seems a long way off. Only a small fraction of the 650,000 homes the government promised to build have been finished.
MCLEAN: There are almost 700,000 people still living in hundreds of these sprawling container cities. They are basic people, have power and water, but not much else. It's all meant to be temporary, but you won't find many people here with any immediate plans to leave.
MCLEAN (voice-over): We're waiting for the government to give us an apartment, Ismail says. Until then, we don't have another place to go.
Beyond the destruction, the quake killed more than 50,000 people in Turkey alone, but some are still missing. Cigdem Nur's brother, sister in law and niece were never found.
It's been a year and there's no trace of them, she says. I'd even settle for one cell. Imagine what it's like to envy someone who's found their relatives dead. My niece was six years old. Do you know how difficult it is to go to an orphanage and look for her every day.
In the seaside city of Iskenderun, Sema Gulec's 25-year-old son, Batuhan, was never found after his building collapsed that morning.
MCLEAN: You believe in your heart that your son is still alive.
MCLEAN (voice-over): I'll be waiting for him all my life, she says, hoping deep down I want a miracle to happen. Sometimes at night, I dream he shows up at my door.
Khaled Kassar is one of the more than 3 million Syrian refugees living in Turkey. His house collapsed in the earthquake. It's now this empty lot. He had to move to a new city to find this tiny apartment. But there his kids can't attend school because of a law that requires refugees to remain in the province they are officially registered in. Countless other kids are in the same boat.
MCLEAN: Are you worried about your children's futures?
MCLEAN (voice-over): My God, I worry a lot, he says. The last school year wasted, this year wasted, and I don't know what will happen with them. I don't know. Scott McLean, CNN, in southern Turkey. (END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: When we come back here on CNN, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, facing pressure from within his coalition to continue the war in Gaza, but also pressure from the families of hostages to cut a deal and bring their loved ones home.
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VAUSE: Welcome back.
The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has again made clear the war in Gaza will not end any time soon. Speaking at a meeting of his Likud Party on Monday, Netanyahu says the war must not end before Israel kills Hamas leadership. And the goal is an absolute victory over Hamas.
But as CNN's Jeremy Diamond reports, Netanyahu is facing pressure from Israelis domestically including demands to bring home the remaining hostages.
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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: On the streets of Tel Aviv, wartime unity beginning to crack.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To call for election in war time is very, very difficult. It hurt my stomach to speak up against my government in war time while my friends are inside fighting. But it's a must.
DIAMOND: Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu facing a mounting wave of anger and discontent that could threaten his hold on power.
After nearly four months of war, Israeli forces have yet to route Hamas from Gaza. Hostage families are demanding he agree to a ceasefire to free their loved ones.
PROF. REUVEN HAZAN, DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, HEBREW UNIVERSITY: The pressure is everywhere he turns. This is an extremely difficult time for him politically. The pressure that he's getting from the right-wing is ironically from people who are sitting in government with him.
DIAMOND: As talk of a ceasefire grows far-right members of his government are threatening to walk, putting his governing coalition at risk.
ITAMAR BEN GVIR, ISRAEL NATIONAL SECURITY MINISTER: I say this clearly, a reckless deal means a dissolution of the government.
DIAMOND: Tensions are also rising to the surface between Netanyahu and his chief rival, Benny Gantz, the former defense minister who joined an emergency unity government days into the war.
Gantz's right-hand man, Gadi Eisenkot going so far as to call for new elections in the coming months, citing a lack of trust in Netanyahu.
If elections were held now, a recent poll found Netanyahu's party would lose half its seats in the 120-member Knesset. While Gantz's party would nearly triple in size, likely making Gantz Prime Minister.
Sources tell CNN, Gantz is looking for the right moment to make his exit, but that he is likely to stick around as long as the war is ongoing.
Benny Gantz is walking a tight rope.
HAZAN: Yes.
But notice that everything he's done, not just in the last three months, but even before it's as if he's reading the polls and whatever the majority of Israelis want, that's what he's going to do.
The polls right now, don't want him to leave the government. When you see those polls change take out your stopwatch.
DIAMOND: As for Netanyahu, he sounds like he's already back on the campaign trail, appealing to his right flank
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): My insistence is what has prevented over the years the establishment of a Palestinian state that would have constituted an existential danger to Israel.
DIAMOND: And the politics of fear that have kept him in power for so long.
NETANYAHU: If someone has a different position, they should show leadership and candidly stake their position to the citizens of Israel.
DIAMOND: Jeremy Diamond, CNN -- Tel Aviv.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Necessity is mother of invention, especially during war time. And so it is that Ukraine using sea drones, for example, powered by jet skis to attack Russian warships.
CNN's Fred Pleitgen reports now on a secretive Ukrainian unit that had a surge in drone attacks, an attempt to level a very lopsided battlefield with Russia.
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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: it was one of the most brazen and most successful operations by Ukraine's military intelligence service, sea drones attacking and, the Ukrainians say, sinking a Russian warship inside occupied Crimea.
And he was one of those involved. His call sign is 13 from the elite sea drone unit named Group 13. So secretive, we had to hide his face and change his voice.
"We used 10 drones in the operation," he says, "Six of them hit the Corvette Ivanovets.
[01:34:42]
PLEITGEN: CNN cannot independently verify that the Ivanovets was sunk, but video provided by the intelligence agency seems to show the mini sea drones evading machine gun fire from the warship and then massive explosions.
"Their weapons are not designed to deal with such small sea drones," 13 says, "In most cases, they use anti-ship guns."
Ukraine barely has a functioning navy, but Magura drones pack a massive punch, around 500 pounds of explosives.
These sea drones might not look like much and they might not go very fast. But the Ukrainians say they've been extremely effective at attacking Russia's Black Sea fleet and even sinking warships.
"The main thing is to feel the drone, 13 says, not everyone can hold a firm grip. If you squeeze a little, you can lose control of the drone. I would say it's like working with jewelry.
Asymmetrical warfare, they call it and the Ukrainians outmanned and outgunned, say they need to do a lot more of it.
After visiting the southern front this weekend, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy telling Italian media, he not only plans to fire his top general, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, there could be a larger government shakeup.
A front runner to become the new commander in chief, the defense intel boss, known for brazen attacks against Russian military and infrastructure targets.
"The Russians are waking up at night to explosions," he says. "Explosion in the air, explosions directly at the facilities. They see the real picture of war. They see burning oil depots, destroyed buildings and factories and so on. This is all beneficial."
And the Ukrainians vowed to continue hunting Russian military vessels in this battle of David versus Goliath on the high seas.
Fred Pleitgen, CNN -- in southern Ukraine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: We'll take a short break. When we come back, when we come back migrant smugglers on jet skis, fleeing U.S. border patrol agents, making a mad dash for American shores.
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VAUSE: A rare bipartisan deal on border security in the U.S. looks set to fall victim to demands by Donald Trump to kill it. A vote in the U.S. senate is scheduled for Wednesday, but at least 23 senators publicly oppose the bill. Only 41 votes are needed to sink it.
Even if it survives the Senate, the Speaker of the Republican- controlled lower House says it's dead-on-arrival. This $118 billion deal would be the first major change to U.S. immigration law in decades.
But Republicans have turned against the bill calling it weak. That's after Donald Trump wanted it killed so the issue could stay alive for the November race for the White House.
Meantime, the crisis on the U.S. southern border continues. Land crossings get a lot of attention, but we're learning migrants are increasingly being smuggled by sea with jet skis. However, border control agents are now waiting with high-speed boats.
And CNN's David Culver has our report.
[01:39:47]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hours before the sun's up over San Diego, we get on board for a rare look at border security from the Pacific Ocean.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's going to be four to five-foot seas out there. So we're going to be getting tossed around.
We planned for a few minutes to get set up.
Which way would you prefer the (INAUDIBLE)?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It doesn't matter.
CULVER: But off to the side, we noticed the crew already getting word of movements on the water.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They just passed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you follow them to the (INAUDIBLE) so I could see where we can maybe try to apprehend (INAUDIBLE).
CULVER: Something's up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Theres a boat headed towards Sunset just on the other side of this.
CULVER: Suspected migrant smugglers are about to make a drop.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 200 yards at the door right now.
CULVER: Suddenly we're zero to 60. On the water, that is fast and cold.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pack it up early. Cowboy get his dog.
CULVER: This is a side of U.S. Customs and Border Protection you don't often see and for good reason.
With border patrol on land, these agents handle the skies and seas. They're part of AMO, Air and Marine Operations.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's going to be just off our starboard beam heading right for the beach.
CULVER: And what does it sound like, a boat or jet ski.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They don't have a visual of it. So all they know is that there's a radar contact eastbound, right behind us.
CULVER: Headed our way, so they kill the lights and we wait in the dark.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The pursuit's coming right to us right now.
CULVER: This place.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
CULVER: After a few minutes, still nothing. Seems the suspected smuggler on a jet ski turned back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a lot of incoming so we're more constantly busy.
CULVER: What we see at the southern border on the land crossing people got them right up to border patrol agents wanting to surrender themselves. You don't see that here. People are trying to get away from you as quickly as possible.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's right. A lot of times we're getting people that don't want to be caught because they carry criminal records, or members of gangs. And then you get family units to that are that are the smugglers have convinced that this is a safe and easy passage.
CULVER: In the past year, the agency has become increasingly deadly, but like drug trafficking, migrant smuggling is a business.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are reckless with their lives. They're reckless with other people's lives.
CULVER: Do we know? Are they -- are they connected often to cartels? Do we know their background.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At a smaller level, yes. This is all cartel driven.
CULVER: They often launch in the dark of night, leaving from various points along the Mexican coast. Once they crossed the maritime boundary line, the ocean's border separating the U.S. and Mexico, the smugglers usually head to the beaches of San Diego County where they drop off the migrants. Though more recently, they've ended up cruising even farther north to places like Malibu.
We could actually see the boat right here just sitting on the shore.
Just before 02:00 a.m. Tuesday, officials say roughly two dozen migrants scattered from this boat as soon as it hit the beach, border patrol was able to detain 19 of them. The rest, somewhere in malibu more than 130 miles from the southern border.
And if you look closely, you can see some of the remnants of what was a long journey. I mean, up here you've got food wrapper left behind, some cracker remnants. You've got orange and banana peels. Then you've got trash bags in there. A lot of the times the migrants will wrap themselves in those trash bags to keep warm. Even some leftover fuel canisters.
Hours later, another beach landing, a videographer in La Jolla captures it from the surf, watches this boat runs ashore. You see several suspected migrants then hop off. They sprint towards the beachside homes. CBP says they're still searching for them. The boat, left stranded.
Officials tell us the number of incidents along the southwest coast is up threefold over the last five years. And they've migrants like these often pay tens of thousands of dollars for a one-way ticket on the open ocean
And you'll have people that actually tried to swim.
CAPT. JIM SPITTER, U.S. COAST GUARD, SAN DIEGO SECTOR: They often do it at night and under fog. And sadly is tragic, some of them don't always make it.
That's where the Coast Guard comes in. We joined them on a deterrence patrol positioned just north of the maritime boundary line with a view of the southern border I'd never seen before.
And then right there, that's all Mexico.
SPITTER: Very much, right in front of us.
CULVER: The Coast Guard here focused primarily on keeping folks alive. To do that, you need to keep the lines of communication open.
SPITTER: There really are no egos amongst the different organizations. We all speak on the same frequency so when you -- when somebody gets notified and were all notified at the same time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 350, 28 nautical miles, that's 350.
CULVER: That frequency also shared by the CBP's air assets, watching and tracking from above.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They give us a (INAUDIBLE) when we do detect a target, I hook it for the system is now tracking it. And we had we get everything down here, right? The coordinates where it's at, how fast it's going.
CULVER: That information relayed to crews on land and sea.
BRANDON TUCKER, DIRECTOR, AIR AND MARINE OPERATIONS: They have to be prepared for anything on the water. And you're doing that at night, pitch black, six-foot seas. It can be very challenging.
CULVERS: Moments like these where boats filled with migrants rushed towards the shore line a near nightly occurrence now.
[01:44:51]
TUCKER: Over the last three years, we've seen an exponential increase in maritime smuggling. They don't understand fully the peril that these smugglers are putting them in. It's the callous nature of their operations and how they just don't care about human life.
CULVER: We spot another team about to takeoff just as we touched down. Forecasting the smugglers schedule and routes, impossible. So the agents work all hours.
KURT NAGEL, U.S. MARINE INTERDICTION AGENT: Living in the dark just kind of wear you out. So now, it's kind of nice to get a little sun now and then.
CULVER: Physically, emotionally securing our borders, especially on the ocean, takes a toll. But there are perks like clocking out at sunrise
NAGEL: That was pretty. My favorite time of the day.
CULVER: David Culver, CNN -- San Diego, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: we'll be right back with a lot more news.
You're watching CNN. Back in a moment
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LIONEL MESSI, PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL PLAYER (through translator): Unfortunately football things can happen in any game. We could have an injury. It happened to me and I couldn't be in the Hong Kong game. And it's a shame because I always wanted to participate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: That's football player Lionel Messi, possibly one of the most unpopular men in Hong Kong right now. He was addressing the uproar over a failure to play in a friendly match over the weekend.
A stadium packed with fans, paid lot of money to see the World Cup champion play. They booed and chanted, "Refund. Refund." when Messi spent the entire match on the bench.
He says he had to sit out the match because of an injury. He hopes to return to Hong Kong some time and play. He better do it soon.
Well Snap is the latest tech company to announce big job cuts laying off 10 percent of its workforce, about 500 jobs. The news came Monday in a regulatory filing by its parent company.
It's all part of a massive shakeup in the tech industry adjusting to a new economic reality of higher costs and no more cheap money, no more zero interest rates.
Let's go live to San Francisco. Josh Constine, venture partner with venture capital firm SignalFire. It's been a while. Welcome back.
JOSH CONSTINE, SIGNALFIRE: Thanks so much for having me again.
VAUSE: You're welcome.
Now, according to Bloomberg, the headline number here is tech layoffs continue to roil industry with 32,000 job cuts. That's just this year, right?
So layoffs and cutbacks in big tech, they happen. But the big question in all of this is why is it happening now when the overall economy is meant to be doing well, said to be doing well, unemployment at record lows. What explains why big tech and the general economy are out of sync?
CONSTINE: Well, you may see some of these big companies trying to finally recover from over hiring during the pandemic and pushing users are workers into remote work when maybe that wasn't the best for them.
In fact, we're seeing a new phenomenon called quiet layoffs. You might remember quiet quitting from a few years ago where employees just sort of stopped doing work. In this case, companies are actually telling employees they have to come back to work in the office or resign and they're actually hoping a fair amount of them will resign. So they don't have to do mass layoffs that end up in the news like this.
VAUSE: Ok. So it does say though that working for big tech, you know, with their free food and their foosball tables and their bean bags and all that hippy dippy stuff you mentioned this. They looked a lot like working in the real-world.
Here's three questions which Google CEO was given at a recent staff meeting which are normally kind of scripted and dull.
Ok?
"We get that executives are excited about Google's future. Why should we be excited when we might get laid off and not be around to share in that future."
Another one, "If we lose our jobs and equity grants, its cold comfort that Google is succeeding off our hard work and we don't get rewarded for it, but you do."
[01:49:51]
VAUSE: Another one, "Why has there been such an extraordinary effort to limit the internal visibility of layoff announcements?" To your point.
You know, has big tech now become like every other employer out there? It kind of just a tough (ph) place. You turn up, you do your bit and you leave.
CONSTINE: Well, we are seeing this massive drain of A.I. talent in particular from the big tech companies like Google and Meta towards a new set of startups that our research found that were calling the A.I. Ivy League.
Basically instead of the best talent being concentrated at Ivy League schools and tech giants like Google, it's now at A.I. startups like OpenAI, Anthropic (ph), Stability and others.
And so what this really means is that big companies also want real applied work experience instead of theoretical academic experience or rest investing at big tech companies where they're basically just moving little pixels around.
You know, smart companies want people who've worked in a fast-growing startup and really applied these newest A.I. tools and we are also seeing that some of these big tech companies are laying off old teams who are working with old technology approaches to their products in laying them off so that they can then go in hire the new hot talent in large language models and OpenAI style A.I. that can help them build new products that they hope to excite users with.
VAUSE: Ok. So not only are workers at big tech and social media companies getting laid off, but many are posting those moments on social media. Here's a sample.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you sure I'm getting laid off today?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unfortunately, you know, today will be your last day with the organization.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My first meeting of the morning was canceled and I just got a message from someone I've never talked to or met who's asking me what my team uses to track projects.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My next meeting just got canceled. So I'm going to go ahead and take a shower.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three hours and 45 minutes until I get laid off.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: This is really uncharted waters. Not long ago, no one would dream to announce to the world that they were laid off. But you know, now you know, just tell everybody. And this kind of presents some unique challenges for employers, right?
CONSTINE: Yes. I think that this is making all of their seemingly private layoff announcements very quickly public in the news. You know, investors and others are looking to that news to say is this a weakness of the company or is this actually trying to poise for future growth?
We are seeing the ad market roar back for some of these social media companies. You saw Meta suddenly spike the other day.
And so some of them say might be thinking, wow, our ad money might be coming back finally if we can just shut some of these employees, maybe we'll be able to get right with the market and people will want to invest in us again.
But this is also this massive transition and transformative period where A.I. and new technology is just getting rid of a lot of the old technology. This is often when we see big tech giants stumble and new giants arise.
And so that's actually very exciting for the technology sphere where, you know, the big set of incumbent companies that have been around, they've been around for 20 plus years now. And so it might be time for them to step aside and let some new, more nimble start-ups working in A.I., building the future of cyber security or health care or enterprise like we're investing in at our fund SignalFire and where we're seeing the best A.I. talent moving away from these big, big tech companies.
It really is this sort of technology change, the same way 15 years ago we saw with the rise of mobile, it spawned all these new companies like Uber and Instagram. Now it's happening again, but it's A.I., driving the change, not mobile.
VAUSE: The disruptors are being disrupted and it took 20 years and time has come.
Josh, thanks for being with us. Good to see you.
CONSTINE: My pleasure. Thanks again.
VAUSE: You're welcome.
So what started as a joke has now become a serious personal finance strategy. People proudly showing that they cannot afford something.
CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich explains how loud budgeting became a hot trend.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: in an online world, where opulence is king.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was sad, so I went shopping.
YURKEVICH: This was a joke.
LUKAS BATTLE, COMEDIAN AND WRITER: Loud budgeting is a new concept I'm introducing for 2024. It's the opposite of quiet luxury.
If you're friend texts you, I want to hang out. You say, I don't want to spend gas money on coming to you to hear you talk about your ex for three hours.
YURKEVICH: Comedian and Gen Zer Lukas Battle inadvertently started a new financial trend. What is loud budgeting?
BATTLE: Loud budgeting is kind of new terminology for people to use when they don't want to spend money. And I think it's a term people can use that doesn't make talking about money awkward.
YURKEVICH: The joke took off with his more than 600,000 TikTok followers, financial influencers, and even himself.
Were you surprised by how many people have related to it?
BATTLE: Yes. Only because and I would love to say I'm a genius, brilliant economist. But this is a concept that's been around. And I really do think the loud part in front of it is what people are kind of drawn to.
[01:54:50]
YURKEVICH: Gen Z and millennials, especially feel the burden of inflation, expensive housing, and student loan payments.
Budgeting has been around since the beginning of time, but in just the four weeks since Battle came up with loud budgeting, more and more people are feeling they now have permission to talk about it.
What do you think about that being transparent about the fact that you're on a budget?
JAMES SAMPSON JR., SOCIAL WORKER: I think more so it should be normalized about budgeting and saving.
YURKEVICH: Why do you think so many people are resonating with it?
VIVIAN TU, FOUNDER, YOUR RICH BFF: Because for so long we have been shamed into silence. Loud budgeting is amazing because instead of having to hide and be ashamed about the fact that you have dad or need a budget or want to save for certain things in your life, you can proudly say them and share them with your friends.
YURKEVICH: Gen Z and Millennials, social media is most active users were either entering the job market or working when the pandemic hit. Despite having the lowest financial literacy of any generation, recent economic uncertainty has made them the hungriest for information.
TU: With the social mediafication (ph) of society, keeping up with the Joneses is no longer the Joneses. We're keeping up with the Kardashian, so we're starting to get visualizations of wealth that most regular people will never ever see in their lives.
And so if I'm a young person and I'm in an environment where I feel like it's going to be challenging for me to succeed I want to arm myself with as much information as I possibly can to give myself that leg up.
YURKEVICH: That makes it cool to talk about money. Not just on social media.
BATTLE: Through all this attention, which I love, I decided that I'm going to become an economist. Which means I'm going to have to push Janet Yellen out of office.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Thanks to Vanessa Yurkevich for that report in New York.
Finally, London Somerset House is wishing a happy birthday to an absolute icon. Hello Kitty. It's the 50th anniversary.
The museum is featuring her in an exhibit called "Cute", which explores bright, cheerful, colorful objects and ideas in pop culture. It also shows how cuteness can be used in insidious ways.
Like pro-Hitler propaganda for example or to sell drugs like oxycontin. Hello Kitty though, does not like Hitler and does not stand for oxycontin.
Thank you for watching. I'm John Vause.
CNN NEWSROOM continues with my friend and colleague Rosemary Church after a short break.
See you back here tomorrow.
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