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Navalny's Mother Arrives At Morgue, Told His Body Not There; Zelensky: Putin Sent A "Clear Message" With Death Of Navalny; Sources: Russia Attempting To Develop Nuclear Space Weapon Ro Destroy Satellites With Massive Energy Wave; Judge To Decide Whether To Disqualify Fani Willis; "United States Of Scandal" Premiers Tomorrow At 9P ET/PT; German Defense Minister On Navalny's Death & Future Of NATO; 27 Million-Plus At Risk Of Flooding And Landslides From 2 Storms In CA; The Mystery Of The Pregnant Stingray. Aired 1-2p ET
Aired February 17, 2024 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[13:00:48]
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: All right. Hello again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me, I'm Fredricka Whitfield in Washington, D.C.
We're monitoring several new developments as world leaders convened for a major security conference in Munich, Germany. One of the leading topics, the death of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, and allegations that it came in the direction of Vladimir Putin.
New today, Navalny's team says his mother and lawyer arrived at the morgue, where officials told them his body was being examined, only should be told his body was not there.
Navalny's family saying, he was murdered in prison. And the global backlash surrounding his death is growing. Officials at the Munich conference are also discussing new revelations about Russia's attempts to create a nuclear space weapon.
CNN is learning exclusive new details about its capabilities to cripple global communications. All of this as the wars in Israel and Ukraine raged on.
Today, Vice President Kamala Harris met with Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. USA aid for Ukraine is on hold as House lawmakers go on a two-week recess without taking action on a supplemental security package.
Today, the vice president said it's time to stop the political games in Washington.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We must be unwavering and we cannot play political games. Political gamesmanship has no role to play in what is fundamentally about the significance of standing with an ally, as it endures an unprovoked aggression.
There is only plan A, which is to ensure that Ukraine receives what it needs. I will emphasize that an indication of where we can and frankly, must be is that there is bipartisan support in both of our Houses of Congress on the Senate side and the House of Representatives.
And it is my full belief that where the supplemental package and security package to make it to the floor of the House of Representatives that it would actually pass.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: CNN's Christiane Amanpour, who is at the conference spoke with Zelenskyy about the death of Alexey Navalny.
He said this is just another example of why the world needs to stand up to Vladimir Putin.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE (through translator): We have to work in one -- in one join team. That is the answer. If Ukraine will be alone, you have to understand what it will be. Russia will destroy us, destroy Baltic, destroy Poland, and they can do it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: CNN chief international security correspondent Nick Paton Walsh is also in Munich. Nick, what else are we hearing from world leaders?
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Look, I think as in yesterday, today, still great focus, great sadness over the death of Alexey Navalny, as we hear more details about his team's bid, to essentially confirm that death and retrieve the body.
His mother went to the prison colony this morning, we are told up in the Arctic Circle known as Polar Wolf was told there that his body had been taken to a nearby administrative center, a town called Salah Hara.
She went to the morgue there, was told the body wasn't in the morgue. And his team were being told by the Russian investigators that they have looked into this initially and found, nothing criminal about it.
The mother has now officially been informed by a Telegram. So, feeling, I think, there by Navalny's supporters that the circumstances of his death are essentially being covered up, and the main never get to the bottom of it despite their desperate efforts.
And that, perhaps, reflected I think, in the reaction we're seeing here internationally.
I should point out at this stage, that we don't have concrete proof that Navalny was murdered by the Putin government, although, they certainly didn't look after a man of frail health by sending him up to an Arctic Circle jail.
Yet still, Antony Blinken, U.S. Secretary of State, saying very clear, this is another sign of extraordinary brutality of the Putin administration.
In fact, we had European officials yesterday directly using the word murder when they referred to the death of Navalny. But his passing, his unexpected death has galvanized I think opinions here that could easily have been slightly more focused or troubled by former President Donald Trump's assertion that NATO's integrity might lapse and he might even go Russia to invade people.
[13:05:10]
He didn't pay towards their defense enough. Instead, very clear statements and vision now about the threat that Russia poses. And that's also I think, assisted the message of Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who today took the stage, gave a very impassioned speech, essentially telling European leaders that his struggle could soon be their struggle that Russia may not stop with Ukraine.
And to having to deal with the complex news, not only the death of Navalny and the reminder of how brutal Putin can be on distanced and to the outside world, but the loss of a key town by Ukraine, Avdiivka get in the east, the subject of fierce fighting for months for weeks, frankly.
And finally, this morning, Ukraine saying that they are withdrawing from it. A sign that, that lack of $60 billion from the U.S. is taking a bitter toll on the front line here. There are multiple areas we're hearing of Russian advances about at this stage or potential advances.
And so, a real-life consequence of that Republican dysfunctionality in Congress Zelenskyy saying, for every seven -- every one Ukrainian soldier that died, seven Russians died. That may sound like a benefit to Ukraine, but it shows how many lives Russia is willing, in Ukraine's view to squander here to take a small town and assign an enormous challenge ahead for Ukraine, even if it does get all that Western aid Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right. Nick Paton Walsh in Munich. Thanks so much.
Ahead on CNN, a special encore of the Oscar winning CNN film that follows Alexey Navalny's life as an outspoken opposition leader and assassination target.
"NAVALNY" airs tonight at 9:00 Eastern right here on CNN. All right, let's get more analysis now from someone who knows Putin's Russia very well.
Bill Browder is the CEO of Hermitage Capital Management and head of the Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign, a campaign named for Browder's lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, who died in a Russian prison after Browder had been forced out of the country.
Good to see you. So, no one doubts, you know, Putin was behind Navalny's death. We're hearing it, you know, a real cacophony of voices. His family, an advocates want his body returned, especially to get to the bottom of the cause of death. Do you believe they will ever receive it?
BILL BROWDER, CO-FOUNDER, HERMITAGE CAPITAL MANAGEMENT: I do not. They may receive the body, but what what's going to happen is the Russians have a script for playing out these cover ups. We saw it when they murdered Sergei Magnitsky, they then forced the family to bury the body because they said that if the family didn't bury the body immediately, it would decompose. So, the family wasn't entitled to their own autopsy.
Same thing -- same types of things will happen here. And we're already starting to see it, where they first said, there was -- that no foul play, that he died of natural causes.
Then, they want -- the family wants the body, and they say they don't know where the body is. When they finally find the body, there will be some more nonsense like this. These are the games that the Russians play in order to prevent people from learning the truth about what happened to Alexey Navalny.
WHITFIELD: I mean, the cruelty of playing these games. And then, just a day prior look, we're looking at the video right now, you can see Navalny's charisma. You know, here he is in a penal colony, and even appearing before the judge, showing humor, you know, connecting with the judge.
So, was that enough to anger Putin or someone in Putin's orbit to see that he is not breaking down, so to speak?
BROWDER: Well, I think that this is -- this is the whole reason why Putin hates Navalny generally is that Navalny is a symbol. He is a symbol of defiance. No matter what they did to him, they sent -- they poisoned him with Novichok, he survived.
He then was brave enough to come back to Russia. And then, they put him in jail. And basically, put him in torturous conditions with solitary confinement. And whenever he comes out, he smiles. And so, he is a symbol of what it means to defy Putin. No matter what they throw at him, he still smiled, he still joked, he was still sarcastic, and he still ridiculed Putin.
And so, that -- if Navalny could do that, then, other people could do that. And so, for Putin, who is like a mafia boss, he can't tolerate that kind of disrespect. And so, at a certain point, he decided to end it. And he ended it with the -- with the murder of Alexey Navalny. And there is no question in my mind that this was a murder.
WHITFIELD: And what about the timing that this would happen, while this global security conference is happening in Munich? Surely, Putin would know that it would be a topic of conversation, of concern.
[13:10:03]
It would, you know, ignite something here. BROWDER: Well certainly, one thing I can say is that the Russians weren't invited here after they invaded Ukraine. And so, this is Putin's way of making sure that he is the top of every single person's mind here, even though he is not invited.
But moreover, the timing has something to do with the election that's coming up. I shouldn't even call it an election, because this is not an election. But the coronation of Putin for another few years. And Putin didn't want to have any mishaps and he doesn't want any people to emerge as opposition candidates.
And the best way to prevent anybody from emerging as an opposition person is to take the biggest opposition person, the most popular opposition person Alexey Navalny, and kill him.
And the message to everybody else is, if you even think about opposition, and if you think about challenging Putin, the consequence is death. And I guarantee you, nobody is going to want to challenge Putin after that.
WHITFIELD: Do you worry about Navalny's family?
BROWDER: Their tactics generally are to stop at the principal, they don't usually go after the family. And so, I think the family is safe.
But I can also say that the people who were Alexey Navalny's political allies are certainly at risk, because the next thing that the Russian government is going to do is going to make sure that those people don't emerge as sort of filling in Alexey Navalny's shoes.
WHITFIELD: Yes. Right.
BROWDER: And so, we've, we've seen that kind of thing before.
WHITFIELD: Bill Browder, always great talking to you, sadly, under such circumstances, because I think, globally, it's clear, people are very saddened and also very frightened about what all of this means. Thanks so much, Bill.
We're also getting exclusive new details about another potential Russian threat with global implications. Sources tell CNN that Russia is attempting to develop a nuclear weapon capable of knocking out satellites orbiting Earth, the effects of which could be devastating.
CNN's Oren Liebermann has more from the Pentagon.
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: According to three sources familiar with the intelligence, Russia is trying to develop a nuclear space weapon that would use effectively the byproduct of a nuclear explosion, to try to disable and destroy satellites in space.
The idea here, according to the sources, is not to use the explosion itself, which is how we traditionally think of a nuclear weapon or a nuke.
Instead, the explosion produces an electromagnetic pulse, an incredibly powerful wave of energy that essentially fries the insides of satellites and renders them ineffective.
Now, crucially, this is not a system that's operational yet it's still in development. The White House and the Biden administration said that earlier this week, and President Joe Biden himself said on Friday that there is no threat or any sort of nuclear threat to the United States at this time.
But this is clearly something the U.S. is watching. And here is why. Critical satellites for the U.S., including many military satellites, are built to defend against these sorts of electromagnetic pulse waves, and be able to withstand these waves.
But an explosion like this in space, would affect a lot of commercial satellites and disrupt not only U.S. satellites, but Russian satellites, Chinese, and so many others.
And those satellites are used for a number of different reasons, including communications, cell phone, services, Internet, and so much more. It would effectively disrupt or could disrupt all of that, if it were use. Not to mention it would be a violation of the Outer Space Treaty of the late 60s, which prohibits the use of nuclear weapons in space.
And that's why the administration is watching this so carefully, because of the threat and the risks such an explosion would have.
Russia would only likely use it the official say or the sources say as a last-ditch effort, because it's indiscriminate.
It doesn't just affect U.S. satellites. It affects any satellite that's near it, and could potentially render a large number of satellites ineffective.
Still, it is a capability that the U.S. is watching very closely as Russia presses forward with this program. Oren Liebermann, CNN, at the Pentagon.
WHITFIELD: All right. Still to come, a new CNN exclusive interview with Germany's defense minister. He is warning about the threats facing Europe and the future of NATO.
And new developments at the U.S. southern border.
[13:14:28]
Texas Governor Greg Abbott announcing plans for an 80-acre base for the National Guard near Eagle Pass Texas.
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Texas Governor Greg Abbott says he plans to build an 80-acre base to house up to 1,800 Texas Army National Guard members on the U.S. Mexico border.
He says the base will be built in Eagle Pass, the border city at the center of the contentious feud between Texas and the Biden administration.
CNN's Camila Bernal, joining me now with more on this. Camila, what are you learning?
CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Fred. Yes, this is just another layer in that feud that you mentioned between Texas and the Biden administration over federal immigration policy.
And Governor Greg Abbott announcing that this base, not only will be able to give space and flexibility to members of the National Guard, but he says, there will be ability to expand as well. So, there will be room for 1,800 members of the guard, but could expand to 2,300 members.
In this base, he says there will be not just the rooms, but also an area for dining and area for exercising, even a hell of pad.
[13:20:00]
Now, the governor did not say exactly how much all of this will cost, but he did say that there will be a cost involved in all of this. But also said that he believes they will eventually save money by not having to pay hotel rooms for these National Guard members.
Now, the governor also saying that because of the proximity to the border, this base will give these members of the guard access, it will get make them faster when responding to things happening at the border with Mexico and Texas.
Now, he also says this will give members of the guard the ability to continue expanding the razor wire in that area. I want you to listen to what the governor had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R-TX): To make sure that the National Guard has the flexibility and the proximity to any type of crossings north or south of Shelby Park, so that they will be able to move swiftly to those locations, and be able to impede the ability for anybody to cross illegally.
This will organize substantial forces also to expand the range of wide barriers that are going up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERNAL: And the razor wires have also been a contentious point here between the two. Last year, the federal government had to fight over this because Texas is sued for having some of that razor wire cut.
Now, the Supreme Court said that border patrol agents can remove the razor wire as this legal process plays out. The Biden administration saying that immigration is a federal matter, and that they should be the ones in charge here. But Governor Greg Abbott and the state of Texas, as you are seeing here, just not backing down. Fred.
WHITFIELD: All right. Camila Bernal, thanks so much.
BERNAL: Thank you.
WHITFIELD: All right. Two teenagers remain detained on gun-related charges and resisting arrest following that mass shooting in Kansas City. Gunfire broke out at the Super Bowl parade last Wednesday, killing 43-year-old Lisa Lopez-Galvan and injuring 22 others.
Law enforcement officials tell CNN they believe the shooting was not a response to the Super Bowl celebration, but the result of a personal dispute. Missouri court, excuse me. Missouri court officials expect additional charges to follow in the ongoing investigation.
In the meantime, donors, including Taylor Swift, the Chiefs, and the NFL had made sizable contributions to support the victims and to help in the support of violence prevention.
All right. Still to come, an explosive week of testimony from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. Will a judge disqualify her from overseeing Donald Trump's election subversion case?
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[13:27:09]
The judge in Donald Trump's Georgia election subversion case will now decide whether Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis should be disqualified from prosecuting the case because of her past romantic relationship with lead prosecutor Nathan Wade.
Willis's father took the stand on Friday, as did Wade's divorce attorney and former law partner.
Nick Valencia has details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- late today?
NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Terrence Bradley was supposed to be a star witness for defense attorneys trying to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the Donald Trump election interference case.
But on Friday, Wade's former law partner and divorce attorney couldn't provide details to show Willis and Nathan Wade were lying about the extent of the romantic relationship.
TERRENCE BRADLEY, FORMER LAW PARTNER OF NATHAN WADE: I have no personal knowledge of when it actually happened. I was not there. I do not have any personal knowledge.
VALENCIA (voice over): Attorney client privilege, a major hurdle for the defense, especially, after Judge Scott McAfee rule Bradley could not be asked about what privileged conversations he had with Wade about his relationship. ASHLEIGH MERCHANT, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: -- talk about the privilege, I'm happy to ask him the substance of the question.
VALENCIA (voice over): Yet, one defense attorney managed to introduce a text exchange with Bradley in 2023, about the Wade-Willis romance.
BRADLEY: And so, what I have is a text message from you, saying, oh, my god Nathan took Fani on a trip to Napa. And pay for it with his firm.
MERCHANT: OK. Continue reading.
BRADLEY: And you said, is he that dome?
VALENCIA (voice over): Also, testifying Friday, Fani Willis's father, backing up her heated testimony from Thursday, when she said she always keeps cash on hand.
FLOYD WILLIS, FATHER OF FANI WILLIS: I've always kept cash, you know. And I've told my daughter, you keep six months-worth of cash always.
VALENCIA (voice over): On both days' money was centerstage, because defense attorneys are trying to prove that Willis somehow benefited financially from a relationship with wade through gifts and vacations that Wade paid for with money he earned on the case.
FANI WILLIS, DISTRICT ATTORNEY, FULTON COUNTY, GEORGIA: We went out multiple times. That probably went to the level of more than $100. But if we're doing tit for tat like that, I probably paid for as many meals as he paid for it.
And so, I did not receive any gifts from him.
VALENCIA (voice over): And Willis and Wade both maintain the relationship began only after Wade took the job of special prosecutor. Willis's father testified he didn't know about the relationship until the rest of the world found out and only met him recently.
FLOYD WILLIS: I did not meet Nathan Wade until 2023.
VALENCIA: In a surprise turn, Willis did not take the stand again on Friday. Her team believing they had enough to beat back efforts to disqualify her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The state has no further questions for Miss Willis.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VALENCIA (on camera): The judge has signaled that these hearings will continue sometime in the next week. When they do eventually wrap up, his going to allow the state and defense attorneys to write replies in written legal briefs, which means that it could be weeks before we know the conclusion of these hearings altogether.
[13:30:08] These allegations have already led to a delay in this case. Prior to them surfacing, the D.A. appeared to be on track for an August start to this trial. For now, all of that has been put on hold.
Nick Valencia, CNN, Atlanta.
WHITFIELD: All right. Joining me right now to talk more about this, is Anthony Michael Kreis. He is a constitutional law professor at Georgia State University.
Professor, great to see you again.
So pretty powerful testimony from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, her father, there, and a prosecutor, Nathan Wade, this week. Did the Trump co-defendants' attorneys prove any of their allegations that would have Willis and team dismissed in your view?
ANTHONY MICHAEL KREIS, CONSTITUTIONAL LAW PROFESSOR, GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF LAW: I don't think so. So I was sitting in the courtroom and I was trying to act as if I were Judge McAfee, right, the assessment, the assessor of the facts.
And by that, I mean not taking into account the allegations themselves, not taking into account news accounts or anything like that, but just simply looking at the evidence produced in that evidentiary hearing.
And the defendants have the burden here to show that Willis basically profited from this prosecution and they really just couldn't show that.
WHITFIELD: So what does the judge, Judge McAfee, have to weigh and consider now?
KREIS: Well, what he has to do is essentially look at all of the different pieces of testimony, look at all the evidence that has been entered in in terms of statements and documents and the like, assess the credibility of the different witnesses.
Weigh how much evidence or how much weight he wants to give to be able to assess that. And then basically determine what he thinks happened.
And then from there, he has to decide what standard of the kind of ethical standard that he wants to apply.
So for judges. We typically call, we talk about an appearance of impropriety. It's a very low standard. Essentially, if it looks bad, we don't want judges, right, to look anything other than impartial.
We generally don't put that standard to prosecutors. But Judge McAfee suggested that that was possibly on the table here.
The other question is, if he applies this concrete conflict of interest, the defendants really didn't show anything, right? The defendants did not prove, through evidence, through testimony, that Fani Willis profited in any way, shape or form from Nathan Wade's employment with Fulton County das office.
WHITFIELD: OK. So but the co-defendants did achieve one big thing, right? Creating a distraction or a spectacle, choose your word.
If Willis and team remain on this subversion case, will this kind of evidentiary hearing, all that played out, still serve as a distraction or liability for the prosecution in anyway?
KREIS: Well, I think she certainly has a political problem. Right? She has an election coming up in 2024. This may be an issue in that.
There's also a body that has been impaneled in the Georgia State Senate to investigate her and to look into the office and that could be problematic.
There's also a prosecutorial Ethics Commission, which could discipline her potentially for this, and that could be an issue there.
I doubt it, in terms of the legal matters here in the Trump case, there'll be ramifications. But the politics of this are very -- maybe not gravely bad for her, but they're -- they're not great.
WHITFIELD: So at the same time, if Willis and her team remain on this subversion case, what did you see in her demeanor and method that might foreshadow how she would prosecute the subversion case?
KREIS: Well, Fani Willis is known -- is known for being very, very tough. And I think she demonstrated in her testimony that she does not anticipate or plan on being anything other than tough with these defendants and really bringing to bear the full force of her office.
In terms of bringing all the resources to bear, right, kind of bringing an intense passion and really driving the message that she thinks that these individuals need to be held to account for election interference in the 2020 election.
So I think she -- she's full -- she seems to be very, very much full steam ahead. She seems to basically -- she's basically taking the same approach that she took right from day one, where she basically said, the people need to be held to account and she's going to hold them to account.
But I think the real big question here is, in terms of her timing. She really wanted to get this trial done in the summer. This has pushed things back a little bit.
Now we've got a trial scheduled in March in New York for Donald Trump's criminal trial there. The D.C. trial for election interference has been pushed back into the summer.
So I mean, she's -- she's looking at a pretty prolonged process. And so that's I think the big question outstanding.
WHITFIELD: All right. Professor Anthony Michael Kreis, good to see again. Thank you so much.
[13:35:02]
KREIS: Thank you.
WHITFIELD: All right, lies corruption, bribery, prostitution. Sometimes the goal of upholding deals like truth and justice in American politics goes awry. And the stranger-than-fiction situations that result leave the voting public's head spinning.
And now, in the new CNN original series, "UNITED STATES OF SCANDAL," CNN anchor and chief Washington correspondent, Jake Tapper, dives into some of the most sensational political controversies and talks to some of the most infamous political figures of the modern era to dissect the truth from spin.
Here's a preview.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR & CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: We are here to get your side of the story.
Where are the weapons of mass destruction?
How do you view your time as governor?
ROD BLAGOJEVICH, FORMER DEMOCRAT ILLINOIS GOVERNOR: I had 2,896 days in prison to ask myself a thousand questions, including that.
TAPPER: For 30 or so years, I've shined a bright light on the inner workings of American political power.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It never occurred to him that extorting a hospital might harm people.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I engaged in a consensual affair with another man.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was shocking.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: How did you end up with the sex tape of John Edwards and Rielle Hunter?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): They say, get on the phone, find some pigs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wait, what?
TAPPER: You can't write this stuff.
Looking back, I can't help but feel that we were all so quick to embrace the headline that we may have forgotten to dig a little deeper.
(voice-over): This guy who's a crusader against human sex trafficking is actually a customer.
UNIDENTIFIED NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Did someone at the White House blow the cover of a CIA operative?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is horrifying.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's still in danger.
UNIDENTIFIED NEWS CORRESPONDENT: The South Carolina governor is missing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His staff said he was hiking the Appalachian trail.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The bottom line is this, I've been unfaithful to my wife.
TAPPER: Why do we keep ending up here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll never truly understand it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've always been on the reporting side of things. Welcome to the hell we all have to live in.
(LAUGHTER)
ANNOUNCER: The "United States of Scandal" with Jake Tapper --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've got to get a therapist after having an interview with Jake Tapper.
ANNOUNCER: -- back-to-back, premieres tomorrow at 9:00 on CNN.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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[13:41:21]
WHITFIELD: World leaders are reacting to the death of Russian President Vladimir Putin's fiercest critic and opposition leader, Alexei Navalny.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told key allies today in Munich, Germany, that Putin is a, quote, "thug who maintains power through corruption and violence," end quote.
CNN's senior international correspondent, Fred Pleitgen, spoke with Germany's defense minister in an exclusive interview about the threats facing Europe and the future of NATO.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BORIS PISTORIUS, GERMAN DEFENSE MINISTER: It was made completely clear yesterday, once more, that he is willing and able to provoke us. He is willing and able to do everything to get us challenged. And we have to accept that challenge and we do it.
FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So you think that the death of Alexei Navalny is a direct provocation of what Western nations --
PISTORIUS: At least -- at least the message is certainly, it came on suddenly on purpose.
PLEITGEN: One of the things that the Ukrainians are saying is they are on the defensive now in places like Avdiivka. They've had to retreat -- retreat from that town because they don't have enough arms.
What does Germany need to do? What does NATO need to do to help?
PISTORIUS: Germany is now - not only now, are already for some months, as the second biggest supporter of Ukraine after United States of America with a long, long distance to others.
We do -- only Germany who more than double as all the other European countries. Only this year, we will expend more than 7.5 billion Euros. We came here with a package of 1. billion for added defense for how it says -- for utterly for ammunition, armaments and so on.
So we do everything we can afford, we can make, we can do.
PLEITGEN: How concerned are you about the future of NATO then? Because people like Donald Trump put it into question. And he's the frontrunner right now.
PISTORIUS: But we should not echo what Trump is telling us in his election campaign. We should focus on our efforts and what we are doing. What can we do for strengthening the unity of the alliance and the part and among the partners?
This is a challenge. And I'm not echoing or commenting what Trump is saying here or there.
PLEITGEN: Of course, one of the things you said, it did cause a stir here in Germany when you said Germany has to get -- to stick ready for war again. Do you think German society is ready for something like that? And what does it mean?
PISTORIUS: It's not about conducting a war against anybody. It is about being able to conduct a war if we are attacked and to be able to do whatever it is necessary to win that war. And this is quick strictly.
And now we have to wake up and we did wake up already and wake up in another world in which we have again a threat in Europe, a real threat, and we have to be aware of that and we have to prepare for that.
And it takes, of course, some time. It's not possible to do that in between just a couple of months. But the awareness is necessary and, therefore, I use that word to wake up.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[13:44:13] WHITFIELD: Coming up, more than 27 million people are under a flood watch as back-to-back storms in this country barrel towards California. The forecast, next.
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WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back. More than 27 million Californians are under flood watches this week with two back-to-back storms impacting most of the state.
California is still recovering from record-breaking rainfall and hundreds of mudslides in the Los Angeles area earlier this month.
Joining me now is CNN Meteorologist Karen Maginnis.
So how bad is it going to get potentially?
KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Fred, a lot of people are looking at these back-to-back atmospheric rivers with a lot of trepidation and fear because there's going to be a tremendous risk over the next 36, possibly 72 hours out. So until Tuesday, possibly lingering into Wednesday as well.
I just took a look at some of the rainfall reports right around the bay area. Typically, we're going to see lighter amounts with this first round. So there's going to be gusty winds, still will be rainfall, not as much as the second one.
That's going to be the big punch that we see across California. Not just central California. It shifts more toward southern California. And it's going to linger. If this were fast moving, maybe we wouldn't have the level of concern.
Now as far as that -- as atmospheric rivers are concerned, this is a level two. It goes to five. But there's still the danger here as the accumulation of rainfall could be between one and five inches of rain.
Just to give you some idea, San Francisco has already seen about 10.5 inches of rain so far this year. Typically, for this time of year, they would see about six or seven. The same thing for Los Angeles, but they're looking at much more rainfall.
[13:50:04]
So the threat for rockslides mudslides, debris flows. But not just that. A lot of people headed up towards the mountains to do some skiing for this long Presidents Weekend.
If you're headed towards the Sierra, also into the Wasatch (ph) and into the Cisco (ph), we're looking at between one and three feet of snowfall. The winds could gust as high as 80 miles an hour on those ridge tops.
If you're in the lower elevations, you're going to go over Donner Pass, Donner Summit, into Echo Summit. You're looking at perhaps some mighty delays coming up as you head in those directions. So be aware the risk of flooding is pretty high. It could go
especially into Sunday afternoon and evening and Monday and Tuesday and moving out by Wednesday.
WHITFIELD: All right, important warnings.
Thank you so much, Karen Maginnis.
All right, coming up, who is the daddy? The aquarium mystery that has everyone talking.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:55:52]
WHITFIELD: A New Orleans artist, inspired by history's mysteries, makes miniatures for her living in today's "START SMALL, THINK BIG."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LADY DELANEY, MYSTERIES & MINIATURES: I'm Lady Delaney. I make miniatures, solve mysteries, and chase ghosts in New Orleans.
My miniatures tend to be replicas of things that you would find in a dusty old museum. Old skulls under domes and butterfly collections and dusty stacks of books. It's old miniature photographs and tiny paper dresses.
Growing up, my grandfather made doll houses for my sister and me. And we enjoyed filling them with all sorts of little treasures. And now I ship my miniatures all over the world to private collectors. And it's been in museums. I've had exhibits, window displays.
I grew up loving ghost stories. In the case of the haunted doll house, I send these mysterious case files to people. It's almost like an escape room in a box, where you assemble the doll house and then you fill the rooms with tiny furniture.
And each little piece in the box is a clue to the larger mystery. It tells a bigger story.
Tiny Tombs is a self-guided walking tour. The Tiny Tombs are scattered all over New Orleans, in hotels and antique stores, all inspired by real New Orleans tombs and mausoleums.
Each Tiny Tomb is dedicated to a different character. You have the center, you have the saints.
Miniatures are a great way of bringing the world of your imagination to light.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Oh, my. It's fascinating. You've got to have a lot of patience and, clearly, she's got a lot of it, too. WHITFIELD: All right, a "whodunit" at a North Carolina aquarium. One
of its stingrays gets pregnant, despite the fact that no male stingrays were present in the tank. So, who's the daddy?
Here's CNN's Jeanne Moos.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): How could a stingray named Charlotte end up pregnant when no male stingray has ever been in her tank?
(on camera): The $64,000 question, who's the daddy?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We think Charlotte is her own dad.
MOOS (voice-over): Staff at the aquarium in Shark Lab by Team Echo and North Carolina are so bonded with Charlotte, she lets them caress her. When they found a lump, they feared it was cancer. An ultrasound proved otherwise.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Here's a baby.
MOOS: Several babies, but how?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She has always been a single ray.
MOOS (on camera): She needs Ray Tinder.
(voice-over): The most likely explanation? Something called parthenogenesis.
(on camera): I've been calling it a do-it-yourself reproduction.
(LAUGHTER)
MOOS (voice-over): Sort of a virgin birth.
The female's egg becomes an embryo without fertilization.
But there's another far less likely theory. Two male sharks that were placed in the tank. This is Mo, and this is Larry, named after, you know who.
LARRY, ONE OF THE "THREE STOOGES": How dare you strike a mother with an infant in his arms.
MOOS: The staff found bites on Charlotte and male sharks tend to bite during mating.
But experts at the Georgia Aquarium and elsewhere say a shark/stingray hookup would be anatomically impossible.
The aquarium plans to do DNA testing when the babies are born.
The Denver Zoo recently used DNA to determine who was the daddy of this four-month-old orangutang. And they had Mori Popovich announce the results.
MORI POPOVICH, FORMER SHOW HOST: Barai (ph), you are the father.
(CHEERING)
MOOS: The aquarium may not yet know.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: How did that baby get here?
MOOS: But if immaculate conception is the best theory --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So we're telling everyone, don't drink the water from this tank.
MOOS: -- tell that to the diverse snorkeling unit.
Jeannie Moos, CNN --
(BANGING)
LARRY: Oh, oh.
MOOS: -- New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[13:59:55]
WHITFIELD: Hello, again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield in the nation's capital.
Happening right now, world leaders are meeting in a major security conference in Munich, Germany.
