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Nikki Haley Scores Victory in Washington D.C. GOP Primary; Thousands of Cattles Affected by Texas Wildfire May Get Lost and Impact U.S. Food Supply. VP Harris Appeals for More Aid in Gaza; ASEAN Neighbors Pressured on Taylor Swift's Eras Tour Singapore Leg; Iowa Hawkeyes Superstar Made History in Her Regular Season-Finale Game. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired March 04, 2024 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers, joining us here in the United States and all around the world. You are watching CNN NEWSROOM and I'm Rosemary Church.

Just ahead, Nikki Haley picks up her first primary win in her bid to defeat Donald Trump for the Republican nomination. But on the eve of Super Tuesday, can she win again?

Taylor Swift is in the middle of a series of sold-out concerts in Singapore. How it became a hot-button issue in Southeast Asia.

And Caitlin Clark makes history. It wasn't a signature three-pointer, but a free throw that broke a record that stood for decades.

ANNOUNCER: Live from Atlanta, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Rosemary Church.

CHURCH: Good to have you with us.

It's a pivotal week for U.S. politics with a jam-packed schedule of events set for the coming days, all to determine who will face President Joe Biden in November.

Super Tuesday is just a day away and all eyes will be on Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley to see if she can gain traction against Donald Trump. Fifteen states and one U.S. territory will hold Republican primaries on Tuesday and Democrats will hold contests too. One of those states is Colorado. Trump's name is on the ballot, even though the U.S. Supreme Court is still deciding whether he's eligible to serve. The high court could announce an opinion in the coming hours, but there is no guarantee.

Meantime, President Joe Biden is preparing to deliver his State of the Union address on Thursday. It comes at a crucial time as he's seeking to convince Americans to give him a second term. Nikki Haley received a much-needed boost on Sunday. She won the

Republican primary in Washington, D.C., her first win so far. But Donald Trump gained more than double her D.C. delegates with wins in Idaho, Missouri and Michigan.

Trump supporters heckled Haley at a campaign stop in Maine on Sunday. Two men were removed from the event after briefly interrupting her. During her remarks, Haley slammed Trump for pressuring Republican lawmakers into blocking progress on immigration laws.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: -- congress, what they should have done, was gotten in a room, strengthened the bill and then gotten something out. But Donald Trump said don't pass anything until after the general election because it would hurt him. We can't wait one more day to pass a strong border bill. Congress needs to do their job and Trump needs to stay out of it, period.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein. He's also a senior editor at "The Atlantic" and joins me from Los Angeles. Always great to have you with us.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Hi, Rosemary.

CHURCH: So a big political week ahead with Super Tuesday, the State of the Union address. And in the coming hours, the Supreme Court releasing an opinion that most legal experts believe will decide if Donald Trump stays on the ballot for Tuesday's Colorado vote.

So let's start with Super Tuesday. Could this crucial day of voting put an end to Nikki Haley's campaign despite her big win in Washington, D.C., and hand Trump the GOP nomination? How do you see all of this playing out?

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah, it sure seems that way. I mean, she's you know, she's been very careful to say that she was in the race until Super Tuesday without making any promises for what comes after.

I mean, she has made a point. There is a portion of the Republican coalition, particularly among independents who lean toward Republicans, college educated voters, more moderate voters who are still resistant to Donald Trump. It's probably around 30 percent of the party and kind of a neutral setting, maybe as high as she's been able to get as high as 40 percent in the states where she's been able to spend time and money.

I doubt that she's going to get much past that in many of the Super Tuesday states. There was a poll in Virginia that had her a little higher than that. But I think, you know, the point is not likely to change.

And obviously, her coalition is not big enough to actually beat Trump for the nomination. So I suspect that she will conclude that there's really not much to be gained by going on. But we'll see. She is obviously a very different candidate than she was earlier in the race when she went through very contorted gyrations to avoid criticizing Trump.

She still doesn't go as far as Chris Christie or Liz Cheney, but she's certainly much more critical of it than she had been earlier. And she may want to continue to use the platform to do that.

[03:04:58]

CHURCH: And Ron, on Thursday will be a big day for President Joe Biden as he delivers his State of the Union address, highlighting his achievements and presenting his vision for the future. Can he convince voters, though, that he is able to tackle another term in office when he appears more vulnerable now than ever before? According to recent polls and more specifically, the poll of polls that has him behind Trump, 48 to 46.

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah. You know, four high quality national polls out this weekend with a very similar portrait of where we are. Two of them with Trump ahead by four points nationally, two of them with Trump ahead by two points. He's ahead slightly. And I think even more importantly than the horse race, the head to head comparison, because it's not clear the voters are fully focused on the implications of a -- of a second Trump term yet.

Are the findings about the approval rating for President Biden himself and the doubts about his ability to execute these duties for another term? Three of those four polls had him below 40 percent in approval.

There are -- we saw in 2022, there are a substantial number of Americans who will say that I am disappointed in Biden's performance. I am disappointed in the economy, but I still am going to vote for Democrats because I consider the Republican alternative too extreme, a threat to my rights, to my values, to democracy itself. But Rosemary, there's not an infinite pool of those voters.

And to go from an approval rating of 36 or 38 percent to a winning coalition in a presidential election requires a very large number of people to say, I don't like the job of the incumbent, but I'm going to vote for him because I like the alternative even less. He needs to begin improving his own standing with the public and certainly laying out a compelling agenda for what a second term might mean, which he's done very little of at this state of the union would be an important step in that direction.

CHURCH: Yeah, because, I mean, Democrats face a dilemma right now, don't they? With Joe Biden's age becoming an increasing vulnerability as well as his low energy. What do Democrats need to be doing right now to reverse the president's low approval ratings and how concerned is the party at this juncture with only eight months to go before one of the most critical elections in this nation's history?

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah, I think the party's understatement to say the party is concerned. They don't have a lot of leverage over his decision, that's for sure. I mean, there is kind of no council of elders. You know, if there's anybody who is going to convince him that this is not worth doing, it's as someone else has said, it's probably someone with a Biden at the end of their name. Even Obama might not have that influence over him, given that he told him, you know, unceremoniously not to run in 2016. And that didn't turn out so well for Democrats.

You know, I think there is a view in the Democratic Party, however, that beyond Biden, the party itself needs to be more aggressive in pushing at the vulnerabilities of Trump, which are still very real, even though they've been kind of overshadowed by the manifest vulnerabilities of Biden.

So, you know, I think there is a desire for the groups working on the various issues where Trump might be vulnerable, abortion, some of his immigration responses, which has obviously been an issue that has been hurting Biden, to become more forceful in making a case against him. But there's not that much anyone else can do. It really is Joe Biden who has to meet the dual challenge of convincing people that he is physically and mentally up to another term, and that he has plans that will produce better conditions than voters believe they're experiencing now.

Obviously, inflation is just overshadowing a lot of other positive developments in the economy. They can kind of highlight those positive developments in advertising in the key states. But as long as necessities of life are costing 15, 20 percent more than when Biden took office, it's probably going to be the contrast with Trump more than selling Biden's record that it's going to get him over the top if he gets there.

CHURCH: All right. Our thanks to Ron Brownstein for your analysis. I appreciate it, as always.

BROWNSTEIN: Thank you, Rosemary.

CHURCH: U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is set to sit down with Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz in the war -- in the hours ahead. The meeting coming amid an urgent U.S. push for more humanitarian aid and a temporary ceasefire in Gaza.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: The threat of Hamas poses to the people of Israel must be eliminated. And given the immense scale of suffering in Gaza, there must be an immediate ceasefire.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: But so far, there's no sign of an imminent deal. An Israeli official tells CNN that Israel is not sending a delegation to Cairo for ceasefire talks after Hamas failed to respond to two key demands. And a Hamas source says the group has its own sticking points.

[03:09:57]

Joining me now is journalist Elliott Gotkine, live from London. Good morning to you, Elliott. So what do we know about why Benny Gantz is in D.C., especially in light of the ongoing talks and ramped up pressure from the U.S. for a ceasefire?

ELLIOTT GOTKINE, JOURNALIST: Rosemary, Benny Gantz, as you say, is a member of the Israeli war cabinet, so one of the key decision makers when it comes to the war between Israel and Hamas.

And he is in D.C. He's going to be meeting with V.P. Kamala Harris, as you said, with Secretary of State Tony Blinken, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, as well as other lawmakers and pro-Israel lobby groups.

And what he's going to be doing is conveying Israeli messages, advocating for Israel's war with Hamas and its war objectives, namely destroying Hamas and getting those 100 or so hostages back home into Israel, and also discussing tensions in the north of Israel between the Iranian proxy Hezbollah and Israel, where things have been simmering, there's tit-for-tat fire on a daily basis, and where the U.S. is very adamant that there shouldn't be an escalation into full- blown war.

But there is a bit of a subplot going in here, going on here as well, because Benny Gantz doesn't seem to be going with the blessing of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and only seems to have informed the prime minister on Friday. And there are a number of comments in the Israeli media and also even on X, for example, one of Netanyahu's justice ministers, describing Benny Gantz as something of a Trojan horse on his trip to the United States and perhaps positioning himself for a day when, after elections, which all opinion polls suggest Netanyahu would lose and Benny Gantz would win, that Gantz would then go on to be prime minister.

And certainly, although they won't say this in public, Benny Gantz would seem to be someone that the Biden administration would feel that it could do business with on a much more easier basis than it can with Netanyahu. For a start, Gantz's position on a two-state solution, although somewhat undefined, is certainly not as obdurately opposed to a Palestinian state as Prime Minister Netanyahu. So there is a bit of a subplot going on here.

Will there be any breakthroughs from this trip or indeed Gantz's subsequent trip to the U.K., which is where he's going to next? I think that's very unlikely. Rosemary.

CHURCH: Our thanks to Elliott Gotkine joining us live from London.

Ukraine's president says defense forces have shot down seven Russian military aircraft in the past week alone and 15 over the month of February. Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russia is launching aerial attacks meant to kill as Ukraine's defense forces struggle with a significant shortage of artillery. He's pleading for U.S. military aid now.

Meanwhile, six people were injured in Russian missile attacks in eastern Ukraine Sunday. This police video shows a heavily damaged school in one of the towns that was hit and the death toll from a Russian drone attack on Odessa Friday night has now risen to 12, including five children. President Zelenskyy says rescuers spent all- day Sunday digging through the rubble, recovering bodies and searching for survivors.

Tributes are still pouring in for Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny two days after he was laid to rest. Hundreds of mourners flocked to his grave in Moscow on Sunday with many laying flowers. Navalny died last month in a Siberian prison, sparking accusations he'd been murdered. The Kremlin has denied any involvement in his death. The outpouring of support comes as President Vladimir Putin is set to secure another six-year term in an election with no real competition.

And for more, CNN's Sebastian Shukla joins me now live from Berlin. Good to see you, Sebastian. So hundreds of mourners still queuing up in Moscow to visit the grave of Putin critic Alexei Navalny after many defied threats of arrest at his funeral on Friday. What's the latest on this?

SEBASTIAN SHUKLA, CNN PRODUCER: That's right, Rosemary. You just saw those images from the Borisov Cemetery in Moscow. Underneath that pile of petals is Alexei Navalny's body. And the queue, as we've reported, over the weekend has been stretching back, you know, some almost 500 meters. That was after Friday, the day that he was finally laid to rest and has continued throughout the weekend.

His mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, who, of course, went on that epic quest to Russia's high north to try and get her body back and faced various roadblocks along the way by the Russian authorities, was also there again, assumedly, you know, just looking at her son's grave and the number of mourners who had come to pay their final respects. People were hugging her and saying thank you so much to her son.

[03:14:51]

But one of the most astonishing things, Rosemary, is that there was a real fear that the funeral on Friday could have been a real flashpoint with people being arrested and detained, much like what we saw on the days after he immediately died on the 16th of February, where there were huge numbers of detentions across Russia.

In this instance and since Friday, there have been very few. There have only been really 100 that have been reported, and that's 100 across the whole country.

And one of the things the authorities seem to have been trying to do here is to avoid making a scene. And I think some of that comes down to that there is an election in Russia. President Putin is up for re- election, and that will be at the end of next week.

And I think that they didn't want to cause a scene here. They didn't want to cause any more anguish to the Russian people, and they didn't want to draw the attention to Alexei Navalny's funeral, which is something that President Putin has avoided completely for huge parts of Alexei Navalny's life, barely mentioning him at all, referring to him as a blogger.

And on Friday, the Kremlin even refusing to comment at all about Alexei Navalny's funeral and even having any words of condolences for his parents.

So I think that the message, though, seems to be one of reflection and defiance from the Russian people. We saw on Friday that there were anti-war slogans, which is something that the Kremlin has really tried to crack down on across Russian life in general.

And what we saw as one of the key takeaways, I think, is that Alexei Navalny was seen as an opposition leader and his life may have been extinguished. But I think that the mourning that people showed and that people are continuing to show shows that -- that dissent and liberal views and wants for Russia may not be completely dead. Rosemary.

CHURCH: Sebastian Shukla, joining us live from Berlin. Many thanks.

Germany's defense minister suggested Sunday that Russia is behind a leaked conversation between top-ranking air force officers. They were discussing a possible transfer of long-range tourist missiles to Ukraine. The conversation was posted online last week by the head of Russia's state broadcaster. German defense minister Boris Pistorius said the timing of the leak and the quick reaction suggested a certain, quote, "choreography that he suspects is part of a Russian campaign".

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BORIS PISTORIUS, GERMAN MINISTER OF DEFENSE (through translator): The incident is clearly more than just the interception and publication of a conversation within the air force. It is part of an information war that Putin is waging. There is no doubt about that. It is a hybrid attack aimed at disinformation. It's about division. It's about undermining our unity. And accordingly, we should react to it with particular prudence, but no less determinedly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Officials say the leak will be investigated intensively and quickly.

Still to come, thousands of cattle could be lost in the aftermath of the largest fire in Texas history and it will likely affect the U.S. food supply.

In parts of California, road crews and residents are dealing with the aftermath of a blizzard and more snow is in the forecast. We'll take a look.

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CHURCH: A volcano on an uninhabited part of Ecuador's Galapagos Islands is erupting, spewing lava into the night sky. The eruption started late Saturday, but the government says there's no threat to visitors to the islands. The volcano also erupted in 2017, 2018 and 2022, and geologists believe this eruption will be more powerful than the previous ones.

No end in sight for the Texas panhandle as the biggest wildfire in Texas history continues to decimate buildings, cattle and livelihoods across the region. Conditions are expected to improve today as temperatures dip slightly but remain well above average. Forecasters say isolated gusty winds mean there's still an elevated risk for fire.

Containment has improved for the three major fires. As of Sunday, the Smokehouse Creek fire has burned more than 436,000 hectares and is 15 percent contained. The other two fires are 60 percent contained.

Well, the fires are impacting the U.S. beef supply. A Texas official tells CNN the region produces nearly 30 percent of U.S. beef, as Camila Bernal shows us how the fires have impacted the ranches and the cattle. A warning, though, parts of this story can be difficult to watch.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHANE PENNINGTON, RANCH MANAGER, FIELDS/MAHLER RANCH: I'm guessing we may have found 50 dead so far. We're not finding many calves, so I know they burned up.

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Shane Pennington is the ranch manager at the Field/Mahler Ranch in Canadian Texas. This is also where he lives and raises his family.

As the largest wildfire in the state's history began to encircle the ranch, Pennington was forced to evacuate.

PENNINGTON: I wasn't scared of it. I was more angry, I guess. Just 20 years of taking care of this and it could all be gone. I wasn't really fearful for the house. I figured it would probably be okay. I was more worried about the cattle.

BERNAL: For you, the hard decision was actually leaving.

PENNINGTON: Yes, yeah. And feeling like I didn't do enough to get them.

BERNAL (voice-over): Local officials estimate thousands of cattle among area ranches will be lost to the Smokehouse Creek fire, which has already scorched more than a million acres. The state's agricultural commissioner, Sid Miller.

SID MILLER, TEXAS AGRICULTURAL COMMISSIONER: This fire was so intense, you couldn't get the fire trucks anywhere close to the fire.

BERNAL (voice-over): Pennington says he did not have time or a place to move the cattle.

PENNINGTON: A lot of them have been blinded by it. It burned their eyelashes, eyelids, everything. It just burned all the hair off of them. Their feet are coming off, their hooves. They're bloody. It burned their udders. And, you know, even if they survive it, more than likely they're going to get pneumonia, they're going to get sick. We've already had to put some down. It's better than letting them suffer and just die, you know.

[03:25:01]

This is one little calf here. I don't know if he's going to be alright. His feet are burned really bad. It's extremely hard to see them suffer. I mean, they're just, like I say, I've raised some of them since they were babies, you know.

BERNAL (voice-over): State officials call the impact to cattle and crops catastrophic.

MILLER: We've lost over 3,000 head, which is a very small number. That will double or triple easily. We've got cattle that we're going to have to euthanize because of the damage to their hooves, their udders.

BERNAL (voice-over): The ranch's owner says his cows bring in anywhere from $1,800 to $2,400 each, much of it for beef sales.

PENNINGTON: It's going to hurt the business extremely bad, so. And it'll take years to recover because it takes years to put a cow herd together before they're productive in producing like they should be. The job is to keep them alive. It's not to destroy them. And it's tough. It's really tough.

BERNAL: And you see the hay here behind me, so many people donating hay, feed, water. And look, we were told that some of these ranchers are maybe 25 miles away from the closest small town. But these volunteers will do everything they can to get all of this to them. That's what you're seeing here, a community coming together to help those most in need.

Camila Bernal, CNN, Borger, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Dry winds propelling the panhandle fires are also threatening Kansas. A large wind-fueled fire is burning north of the state capitol. The sheriff's office said Sunday that people who live in the area have already been evacuated. But it's not clear how many homes were impacted.

And from fire to snow, parts of California are dealing with a massive snowstorm. The National Weather Service says more than 7 feet of snow has fallen in parts of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Blizzard warnings remain in effect through the northern and central parts of the mountains.

And this was the scene in Lake Tahoe Sunday morning as the blizzard hit. In the coming hours, conditions are largely expected to improve across the west. High wind alerts for more than 5 million people are set to end.

Meantime, state transportation crews are busy clearing roads. The California Highway Patrol says many vehicles got stuck in the heavy snow, as you can see in this video.

Kamala Harris is suddenly in the forefront of the Biden administration's response to the war in Gaza. What she's saying about a temporary ceasefire and the push for more humanitarian aid.

And a march to remember what's become known as Bloody Sunday in the U.S. What the nation's vice president shared in Alabama about the voting rights activists who were brutally attacked that day?

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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back everyone.

The Biden administration is pushing to address the dire situation in Gaza, an issue already looming large over this year's presidential election. In the hours ahead, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is set to sit down with Israeli War Cabinet member Benny Gantz in Washington. The meeting comes amid an urgent U.S. push for more humanitarian aid and a temporary ceasefire in Gaza.

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez has details from Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Vice President Kamala Harris forcefully called for more humanitarian aid to get into Gaza during remarks on Sunday.

She said that people in the region were, quote, "starving" and also called conditions, quote, "inhumane". She also urged Israel to do more to get assistance into the region, saying that there were, quote, "no excuses". This has been a situation that the vice president has been closely monitoring and has been involved in discussions about the humanitarian situation, as well as the day after planning for Gaza.

But on Sunday, she took a moment to reflect on what is happening on the ground in Gaza, saying this.

KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: What we are seeing every day in Gaza is devastating. We have seen reports of families eating leaves or animal feed, women giving birth to malnourished babies with little or no medical care, and children dying from malnutrition and dehydration.

ALVAREZ: Now, the vice president also called for an immediate ceasefire within the context of a deal that is currently on the table. That includes a six-week ceasefire that would allow for the release of the most vulnerable hostages. That includes the wounded women and elderly and allow also for more aid to go into Gaza.

Now, all of those talks are still ongoing as U.S. officials try to get a deal across the finish line by Ramadan. All of this, of course, looming over the State of the Union address by President Biden that is set to take place on Thursday as he grapples with this both abroad and domestically.

Priscilla Alvarez, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Joining me now from Israel is Izi Srulik Kalvo, whose father is currently being held hostage by Hamas. Thank you so much for joining us at this difficult time for you and your family.

IZI SRULIK KALVO, FATHER HELD HOSTAGE BY HAMAS: Thank you for having me.

CHURCH: So, what is your reaction to the latest hostage release and ceasefire negotiations in Cairo after news that Israel's delegation will not be attending?

SRULIK KALVO: Well, it's not -- obviously, it's not good. But in my opinion, you have to talk. Talk all the time. Whenever they let you, go and talk. We're not playing here. It's the life of 135 hostages over there that needs to be back home as soon as we can, because they're dying there. It's almost five months now.

And there's no time for kindergarten games. If there is a delegation, we should be there, no matter what, even if we don't have something to contribute.

For the whole thing, it's weird for us to understand that from our side, it looks like we're not doing enough. And we can say that what we see is that even your President Biden is doing more than our Prime Minister, and we don't like it at all. And we need help. I mean, if it's not obvious, something is wrong here with the hostages' situation and how we deal with them. There are things that you negotiate and you play with. I'm not a negotiator.

[03:35:03]

I never was and never learned that. They probably have their own moves. But if you look from outside, it seems that there are better things we can do. And I think that you, as an American, I'm sorry to give it to you, to hand it over, but you should put more pressure. Unfortunately, we didn't manage to do it. It's already five months. My father is there. Another 133 hostages are there. Their situation is not good. They're dying every day. We need to bring them home easily.

CHURCH: So Izi, what message do you have for your government if they fail to make a hostage and ceasefire deal? Because it is the Israeli government that's not sending a delegation to these latest critical talks.

SRULIK KALVO: It's all about the delegation. They can do whatever they think needs to be done. Again, they're professionals. I'm not. I just have my father over there.

But I can tell you, for the people I'm meeting here, and we're doing a lot, we're trying to do our best to help from all sides. We flew to Hague. We had the demonstration in Jerusalem. Now we are doing whatever we can, but we are very, very incapable of helping much.

So the message is not about not or yes, sending a delegation to Cairo. The message is, right now, this is what you call the money cut. If there won't be any deal now, my personal belief, it will not happen. Never. Because in the Ramadan we will get into the Ramadan, which is the holiday of the Muslims, nothing will move, and the time will pass, and things are going to change over there. God forbid, and we'll get into Rafah, which I think is going to be a total disaster. But again, I'm not an expert.

So my message to the government, to my government, is put the hostages in first place, not in second, and then do whatever you can to bring them on. We can deal with Hamas later. First we need to deal with our people that are still alive over there. What Hamas did on October 7th was awful.

The things they did back then are slightly forgotten by the world. It happened five months ago, and now what they see is Gaza is bombed, Gaza is bombed. I can understand. It's getting tougher and tougher.

But don't forget what happened on October here, when women were slaughtered, pregnant women were opened, and their babies were taken out, beheaded. You know everything. I don't have to repeat everything. But it happened five months ago.

People are starting to forget that. We do not forget that. And we don't forget our parents, our beloved ones, that right now are in the tunnels over there in Gaza, with almost no food and water, with all this situation. And they're not young. My father is 85 years old.

Imagine an 85-year-old human being needs to survive five months in a dump, humid, no air, no water, no food tunnel, when he was not a soldier. He was taken from his bed. You got to get them home. So my message to my family, and by the way to you, to the American citizen, again, I said, please help us. We used to be the toughest in the neighborhood. It looks like we're not. We need help. And you can help us.

CHURCH: Izi Srulik Kalvo, we hear your message and hope a deal can be reached very soon. Many thanks for joining us.

SRULIK KALVO: You're welcome. Thank you for having me.

CHURCH: This week marks 59 years since Alabama state troopers attacked hundreds of black voting rights activists as they marched peacefully across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama.

On Sunday, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris joined a march across that same bridge to commemorate what's become known as Bloody Sunday. Harris acknowledged the hundreds who made that trek back on March 7, 1965, in spite of the risks they faced.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: They knew violence against them was inevitable. And they returned to this bridge while many were still bound in bandages because they knew what was on the other side, a promise of a future that was more equal, more just and more free.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[03:39:51]

CHURCH: As a shutdown deadline looms in the U.S., top lawmakers have unveiled six funding bills, setting off a race against the clock to pass them by the end of the week. Top Democrats and Republicans in both chambers backed the package of bills, which are a breakthrough for negotiators. Until now, lawmakers struggled to reach consensus. The package includes bills to fund government agencies until early fall.

Opening day at the Six Flags amusement park in Georgia turned into a shootout over the weekend. Police say officers exchanged gunfire with what they called an unruly crowd. Authorities now say a handgun has been found at the scene.

CNN's Rafael Romo has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is now looking into the shooting that happened Saturday night here outside Six Flags, the amusement park behind me.

According to police, Cobb County Police Department officers were called to assist the local security here because it was clear that they were not going to be able to control an unruly crowd of as many as 600 people, people that were running inside the park and getting into fights. And also the Georgia Bureau of Investigation says that several other fights broke out as people were leaving the park. And then the situation became even more chaotic.

Authorities say that as police were leading these people out trying to clear the area, an unknown number of people started shooting at police. An officer responded with fire, and that's when a 15-year-old got shot and is now in critical condition at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta.

CNN has obtained a video that shows how terrifying the situation got at one point. Let's take a look.

(VIDEO PLAYING)

We have also heard about what happened from Six Flags. A spokesperson said in a statement the following. It is incredibly disappointing, she said, that our community is disrupted at public events throughout the region by groups of underage youth. There was police activity involving gunshots. We want to confirm there was no shooting at our property or parking lot. This took place on self-service road that is not owned or operated by Six Flags.

Earlier, we had an opportunity to talk to a visitor from Alabama. He said that in spite of what happened, he was not going to change any plans about visiting the park. UNKNOWN: That doesn't impact how I feel about it. Crime happens

everywhere. I don't think it's going to happen. You're more likely in one place than another, you know. It's just a chance of where you're going to be at that day.

ROMO: The shooting happened on opening day here at Six Flags, which is beginning its 57th season. The park reopened on Sunday, and as far as we were able to see, it was business as usual.

Rafael Romo, CNN, Austell, Georgia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Still to come, Singapore pushes back against rumors over how they secured their own set of concerts from Taylor Swift. We'll have the latest in a live report.

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[03:45:00]

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CHURCH: Singapore's culture minister is addressing rumors surrounding a grant to Taylor Swift's promoter to secure the only performances in Southeast Asia of her record-breaking Eras tour. It's an issue that's created some Bad Blood in the region.

So let's turn to CNN's Kristie Lu Stout. She's been tracking this story from Hong Kong and joins us now. Good to see you, Kristie. What is the latest on this controversy?

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Singapore's neighboring governments in Southeast Asia are not happy. In fact, they're upset amid allegations that Singapore paid up to three million U.S. dollars a show for this exclusive arrangement for Taylor Swift and her Eras tour. And today, we heard from Singapore's culture minister. He addressed the controversy to Parliament, saying that the grant is not as high as speculated.

Now, let's give you the background, what's been happening here. So, last week, we heard from a lawmaker in the Philippines. He called on his country to put the pressure on Singapore to get an explanation.

This is what we heard from Joey Salceda. He said, quote, "this isn't what good neighbors do". And he goes on to say "it was at the expense of neighboring countries, which could not attract their own foreign concertgoers and whose fans had to go to Singapore", unquote.

Now, the allegations -- they were made earlier by the Thai prime minister, and he made them at a business forum in Bangkok earlier in February. And he said that Singapore paid Taylor Swift up to three million U.S. dollars per show, allegedly on condition of exclusivity, that this would be only in Singapore and across the entire Southeast Asia region. And Srettha, the prime minister of Thailand, also added this quote to bring it up for you, "if I had known this, I would have brought the shows to Thailand", unquote.

Now, we did put out word to Taylor Swift's concert promoting, and we are awaiting comment from them. Now, we have heard from the government of Singapore. And Singapore said that it did award Taylor Swift a grant to perform there, but it did not confirm the exclusivity arrangement.

And then today, we heard from its culture minister, Edwin Tong, who made new comments about the grant. This is what he said to Parliament. He said, there has been some online speculation as to the size of the grant. I can say that it's not accurate. It's not anywhere as high as speculated.

Now, he cited confidentiality reasons. He said he couldn't reveal the size of the grant or the conditions of the grant.

Now, this week, Taylor Swift is closing out the Asia leg of her tour. She's playing six solo nights to some 300,000 fans of Singapore. Her only stop in Southeast Asia. And so Singapore is getting a massive economic boost here. In fact, according to an economist at Maybank, a local bank, seven in 10 concertgoers in Singapore are coming in from overseas, and they're spending up to $370 million in Singapore on hotels, on food, and on entertainment. That's a big boost for Singapore. Back to you.

CHURCH: Indeed. Kristie Lu Stout, joining us live from Hong Kong. Many thanks.

Still to come, she's just shot her way into the history books. Ahead, US college basketball star Caitlin Clark eclipses a decades-old record for both women and men. Our report when we come back.

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CHURCH: You're watching NASA's latest mission to the International Space Station, the SpaceX Falcon rocket lifted off Sunday night from the Kennedy Space Center. On board are three astronauts from NASA and a Russian cosmonaut. If all goes well, they will reach the space station Tuesday and stay there until the end of August. Two earlier launch attempts were scrubbed due to weather conditions.

American basketball star Caitlin Clark is now the all-time leading scorer in the top rank of college basketball for women and men. The University of Iowa superstar staked her spot in the history books Sunday at the free-throw line, and messages of congratulations are already pouring in. President Joe Biden posted on X that Caitlin has made her school proud.

CNN World Sport's Patrick Snell shows us how it all happened and explains why this record is special. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PATRICK SNELL, CNN WORLD SPORT: Well, as you may well know, university sports and the world of college basketball are a huge deal over here in America, so it's been no surprise there's been so much attention on the Iowa Hawkeyes' Caitlin Clark.

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On Sunday, the 22-year-old playing in her last regular season home game against Ohio State at a sold-out Carver-Hawkeye Arena, Clark needing just 18 points to become the NCAA Division I all-time leading scorer in basketball, male or female, and passing the legendary Hall of Famer Pete Maravich in the process.

Well, here would come that historic moment. Clark setting the record with a pair of free throws in the final second of the first half. She would end the game with 35 points, nine assists, and six rebounds. Iowa win it 93-83, giving Caitlin a career total of 3,685 points. Quite extraordinary.

If you had a ticket for this one, you should count yourself very privileged indeed, because tickets were the most expensive ever in women's basketball history. Let's hear now from history-making Caitlin Clark herself.

CAITLIN CLARK, GUARD, UNIVERSITY OF IOWA: Everything that's gone on the past couple weeks and even the past couple months, I feel like I'm so focused on helping this team win and be so great that it's like hard for me to wrap my head around everything that's going on. I think I'm just trying to soak in the moment. A record is a record. I don't want that to be the reason people remember me. I hope people remember me for the way I played with a smile on my face, my competitive fire. Sure, they can remember the wins, but also just like the fun me and my teammates had together.

SNELL: And our congratulations to her. Well, earlier this week, you might remember Clark declared herself eligible for the WNBA draft. So she's going pro and will not return to Iowa. But first up, as she said many, many times, she'd like to win the national title with the Hawkeyes. So we shall see how that all plays out in the coming weeks. But Clark's place in history already cemented regardless.

And for now, it's right back to you.

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CHURCH: She is a superstar. Thanks so much for your company. I'm Rosemary Church. Have yourselves a wonderful day. For our international viewers, CNN NEWSROOM continues next with Max Foster, and here in the United States, STATE OF THE UNION is coming up.

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