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Haiti Declares State of Emergency due to Jailbreaks and Increasing Gang Violence; Trump Settles a Major Test for Super Tuesday after a SCOTUS Victory; France Makes History as the First Nation in the World to Have Abortion as a Constitutional Right; Malaysia Plans to Reopen Investigation on MH370 Disappearance; Iowa Hawkeyes' Women's Team Coach Speaks to CNN on Caitlin Clark's Historic Achievement in Women's NCAA. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired March 05, 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]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world and to everyone streaming us on CNN Max. I'm Rosemary Church.
Just ahead, spiraling gang violence and a state of emergency in Haiti after thousands of prisoners escaped from jail. We have a report from inside the country's violent ganglands.
We're just hours away from Super Tuesday here in the U.S., the biggest day yet in the 2024 election season, and as polls prepare to open, Donald Trump is celebrating a major legal victory.
Plus, she is one of the biggest names in U.S. sports, Caitlin Clark shattering records, selling out arenas and inspiring a generation of young athletes. We'll talk to Clark's coach about her incredible achievements on and off the court.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Rosemary Church.
CHURCH: Good to have you with us. And we begin with the situation in Haiti as the country plunges into chaos. The U.N. says it's alarmed by the rapidly deteriorating security situation after a new wave of gang violence in the country's capital, Port-au-Prince. The U.N. Secretary General is stressing the need for urgent action. The U.S. says it's closely monitoring the situation.
Haiti has been engulfed in turmoil for years, but violence surged over the weekend. The government declared a state of emergency after thousands of inmates escaped from its largest prison. Amid all this, the whereabouts of the country's Prime Minister are currently unclear after he visited Kenya last week.
CNN's David Culver traveled to Haiti to see what's happening there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID CULVER, CNN SR. U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So we're like a block away?
CULVER (voice-over): It's as close as we can get driving. So we layer up and walk.
CULVER: Oh yeah. You can already smell it. Wow, look at people just still making their commute as tires are burning right in the middle of the street here.
CULVER (voice-over): No police barricade. No firefighters. Most, seemingly unfazed. These flames have been burning for several hours. Haiti has been engulfed in turmoil for years.
CULVER: We don't have a home to live in. We don't have food to eat. That's what they're shouting.
CULVER (voice-over): Many here now fear their country is on the brink of exploding.
CULVER: Does it feel safe right now?
JUNOT SAMEDI, PROTESTER: No, no, no.
CULVER: It doesn't.
SAMEDI: No, it doesn't. It doesn't. My country is broken right now.
CULVER (voice-over): These folks blame the current government and Prime Minister Ariel Henry. Appointed following the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in 2021, they want Henry to go, but he says he's not yet ready to step down.
This has panicked street shootouts like this one have become a near daily occurrence. It's often a clash between police and the gangs, which have essentially taken Haiti hostage.
They flaunt their weapons and wealth on TikTok, threatening police and basking in lawlessness. Many residents now living behind barricades.
CULVER: This is not the gangs doing this. This is the folks that live in these neighborhoods, who are putting these up to prevent gangs from coming in and kidnapping.
CULVER (voice-over): Using whatever might stop or slow the kidnappers, efforts to protect families and preserve innocence. That innocence shattered for others. This 14-year-old says he was recruited by a gang at 11, tells me he's often forced to burn the bodies of those killed by other gang members.
I want to change my way of life. He says, with a heavy look of shame.
At an early morning food distribution, we meet dozens of women who have felt the wrath of gang violence.
At times, we notice a lost stare in their eyes.
CILVER: All of them have been victims, so there's nobody here who has not been a victim.
CULVER (voice-over): This woman's sister shot and killed. This one's husband burned alive inside their home. This woman tells us she was raped. She shows us the marks left behind.
In recent months, gangs have seized more and more control over this country, including the roads leading to Port-au-Prince. Officials estimate that gangs now control as much as 80 percent of the capital. Even the U.S. Embassy and International Airport are mostly surrounded by rival gang territories.
[03:05:02]
It led the Haitian National Police to create an undercover unit. We go with them to the front lines.
CAITLIN HU, CNN SR. EDITOR: This unit actually goes into gang areas, looks for gang members and fights them.
CULVER (voice-over): The officers ask us not to reveal our exact location. And they tell us to work quickly, given we're standing exposed on a windy hillside.
CULVER: As police have described it to me, basically everything behind me is occupied by the gangs. It's under their control. There are homes all around us. We're standing on the foundation of one home that had been abandoned.
CULVER (voice-over): They offer to drive us closer.
HU: And you can see they're getting ready.
CULVER: Yes, our drivers all geared up now, ready for potential gunfire to come our way.
Stay away from the windows as we come in here. They describe this as the last defensive point. And beyond here is what they consider to be their front lines.
CULVER (voice-over): From here, you can see the battlefield. No signs of any suspected gang members, for now.
Police are not the only ones trying to gain the upper hand here. In a fractured state, alternatives to the gangs and government surface.
We're headed to meet a commander of BESAP, Haiti's Armed Environmental Protection Agency, that has splintered from the Henry government, challenging its legitimacy. We pull up to a gated compound. The man in the purple shirt leads us in. He then changes into his BESAP uniform. It's the commander. He's in hiding from police. His message echoes the anti-government protester.
He flexes BESAP's strength in numbers and its potential to help bring stability. But when it comes to his own family?
CULVER: You mentioned you have four kids. What do you think their future is in this country?
CULVER (voice-over): He fears their future is best served leaving Haiti.
The desperation is felt beyond Port-au-Prince, in places like Jeremie. The U.N. chopper is the safest way to get there. It's about an hour ride. Members of the World Food Program take us through this rural coastal community, devastated by recent protests.
CULVER: Right back there, you had five people were killed last week.
Right there?
JEAN-MARTIN BAUER, WFP HAITI DIRECTOR: It was right there, yeah.
CULVER (voice-over): We arrive at this agricultural consortium. The WFP buys food from these local farmers to then hand out. But the recent protests have blocked distribution efforts, leaving some food to spoil. It's frustrating for the WFP officials, as they know you don't have to look far to find hunger here, these farmers pointing to their stomachs, lifting their shirts to us.
CULVER: You hungry?
A lot of folks will look at Haiti and they'll say, it's had issues for so long. The question that no doubt people in the U.S. will ask is, well, why should we help?
BAUER: Well, there are two reasons why you need to help. First of all, they're on humanitarian grounds. But then there's also our own self- interest in the U.S. So the longer you wait to act on Haiti, the more migrants there will be on our southern border. It's that simple.
CULVER (voice-over): Many here search for normalcy where they can't. Even with the threat of violence, missing mass for some is not an option. They wear their Sunday best and unite in prayer.
Places of worship are not immune from gang terror, but they at least offer a moment of tranquility and hope for now.
David Culver, CNN, Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
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CHURCH: Jacqueline Charles is the Caribbean correspondent for the "Miami Herald". She joins me now. Appreciate you being with us.
JACQUELINE CHARLES, CARIBBEAN CORRESPONDENT, MIAMI HERALD: Thanks for having me.
CHURCH: So a state of emergency and a curfew have been declared in Haiti after a mass jailbreak in the capital amid surging gang violence and a notorious gang leader vowing to oust the prime minister. Has the government lost total control of the capital and the country, and could these gangs potentially overthrow the government?
CHARLES: I don't know if the government has lost total control of the country, but what we do see is that gangs have launched a series of coordinated attacks, including on the airport, the international airport, despite the fact that international flight, particularly out of South Florida, had been canceled on Monday.
What we saw was that gangs were engaged in an hours-long fight with the Haitian National Police, as well as members of the armed forces of Haiti. Haiti in the last couple of hours have deployed their armed forces, even though this is a force that doesn't necessarily have the support of the United States that was once disbanded.
It doesn't have enough weapons. But yet they recognize the fact that the police have been weakened and decimated to some degree by these attacks and there needed to be reinforcements.
CHURCH: And the chaos comes just as Haiti secured a deal with Kenya for international troops to help combat gang violence. But this will be a dangerous task for those troops, with more than a thousand people killed, injured or kidnapped in January alone in what the United Nations calls the most violent month in two years.
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What will these troops be able to achieve in the midst of this gang violence and anarchy?
CHARLES: You know, what's interesting is that when the Haitian prime minister was in Kenya last week to sign this deal, a police and security sharing deal, you know, President William Ruto of Kenya, I mean, he mentioned what was happening in Haiti. So he knew exactly what his troops, his police officers would face. And yet he said, we are ready.
And so I think that what the Kenyans as well as the Jamaicans and Bahamians and Benin, all the other countries that have volunteered to feel this force, what they bring is a level of expertise, especially in terms of technology, because what we've seen the last couple of days is the gangs have used drones in order to, you know, isolate their targets and to go after them.
There was video that was shared online where we saw the gangs reporting the activities inside the courtyard of the national penitentiary, which was one of two prisons that was attacked.
And then we also saw the drones pass overhead of the national palace. And then hours later, there was audio that was shared with the gang basically said that the palace was next.
CHURCH: So when will those Kenyan troops arrive and what will their mission be and if these gangs do succeed in overthrowing the government, what will the international community likely do? CHARLES: Wow. You asked a lot of very interesting questions that we're
all trying to figure out. I mean, one, I thought it was very interesting that President Ruto Kenya did not mention a deployment date. What we know is that in order to get support from the parliament of Kenya on this deployment, he promised that they would not be incurring the cost.
And so while the fact that this multinational security support mission, which has the support of the United States as well as the U.N., but it's not a U.N. peacekeeping mission, it has faced legal challenges in Kenya. He seems to believe that they've addressed these legal challenges with the support that he signed with the Haitian government.
But there is an issue of funding. Republican lawmakers in the United States have blocked a request, initial $50 million that the Biden administration is asking as part of a $200 million pledge that they have made to finance this. So if the U.S. does not provide that funding, then once again, this force goes up in the air because the Kenyans have said, no money, we're not coming.
And that leaves the question of what happens to Haiti. I mean, everybody is of the agreement to that time is of the essence right now. The gangs haven't just struck at the airport or the prisons, but they've also struck at the seaport. They're going after key government installations for the first time since we've been watching this crisis. We're noticing that the gangs are coordinated in their attacks.
They're talking to one another rather than fighting one another. And that has put a price in fear. Because not only do you have thousands of prisoners who have escaped from the prisons, roaming the streets of the capital, but at the same time, now you have gangs who have specific targets in mind. And you have a police force that a year ago was barely 9,000. And we suspect that it is a lot less after the U.N. has said that it has been losing troops at an alarming rate.
CHURCH: Jacqueline Charles, many thanks for joining us. I Appreciate it.
CHARLES: Thank you for having me.
CHURCH: Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz is expected to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in the coming hours. But Israel is making it clear Gantz, a political rival of Benjamin Netanyahu, is not representing the government during his trip to Washington.
On Monday, Gantz sat down with Vice President Kamala Harris, who expressed her deep concern about the humanitarian conditions in Gaza. The White House says Harris discussed the urgent need to reach a deal to release the remaining hostages and is calling on Hamas to accept the terms of an agreement in exchange for an immediate six-week ceasefire, which would allow for more aid to enter Gaza.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: The president and I have been aligned and consistent from the very beginning. Israel has a right to defend itself. Far too many Palestinian civilians, innocent civilians have been killed. We need to get more aid in. We need to get the hostages out. And that remains our position.
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CHURCH: The White House says Harris and Gantz discussed the situation in Rafah and the need for a credible humanitarian plan before considering any major military operation there.
[03:14:59]
Those talks in Washington are underway amid reports of an Israeli strike on an aid truck in central Gaza.
Gaza's health ministry says at least eight people were killed when the truck carrying aid from Kuwait was struck on a coastal road.
Some people could be seen looking through the sand for aid that was still intact. The Israel Defense Forces has not responded to a request for comment on the claims about that strike, but the IDF did say in a statement that it eliminated a Hamas terrorist in central Gaza.
Extreme food shortages in Gaza are costing lives. The World Health Organization says it visited two hospitals in northern Gaza and witnessed children dying from starvation. The top Palestinian envoy at the U.N. urged the General Assembly to take action.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RIYAD MANSOUR, PALESTINIAN OBSERVER TO THE UNITED NATIONS: Look at our children. Look at Yazan. Look what agony they are enduring. Dozen more children who died of malnutrition have been identified. And many more have died and are dying in darkness and destitution. This has to stop. For God sakes, this has to stop.
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Meantime, a new United Nations report says there is clear and convincing information that hostages held in Gaza were sexually abused. The U.N.'s Special Envoy on Sexual Violence in Conflict said it includes rape, torture and inhumane and degrading treatment. The U.N. says there are reasonable grounds to believe the sexual violence may be ongoing against those still held captive.
The report comes after a U.N. team visited Israel to gather, analyze and verify information on conflict-related sexual violence during the Hamas attacks and their aftermath.
Well joining me now is journalist Elliott Gotkine, live from London. So Elliott, what more are you learning about this new U.N. report on the sexual abuse of hostages in Gaza?
ELLIOTT GOTKINE, JOURNALIST: Rosemary, this U.N. report is really the most definitive finding yet into the allegations, into the accusations that Hamas perpetrated sexual violence and rape as part of its terrorist attacks of October the 7th, and certainly lends credence to what Israel has been saying for months and what has been widely reported in the international media.
Indeed, in the past hour, President Isaac Herzog of Israel has said that this report substantiates with moral clarity and integrity the systematic, premeditated and ongoing sexual crimes committed by Hamas terrorists against Israeli women.
And a couple of elements of this report, I wouldn't say highlights, of course, I would just say a couple of elements worth noting. Talking about, for example, the Nova Music Festival, where hundreds of Israelis were killed in the opening hours of those terrorist attacks of October the 7th.
The report finding reasonable grounds that victims there were being subjected to rape and or gang rape and then killed or killed while being raped. Adding in another part of the report, credible sources describing finding murdered individuals, mostly women, whose bodies were naked from their waist down and some totally naked, tied with their hands behind their backs, many of whom were shot in the head.
As far as the hostages are concerned, and there are around 250 hostages abducted by Hamas and others on October the 7th, around 100 still believed to be alive, including a number of women.
The report finding clear and convincing information of rape, sexualized torture and sexualized, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, which may still be ongoing. Now, the report was hampered somewhat in its evidence gathering by a number of factors. One, that most of the victims of rape and gang rape were killed. The other, that those who survived were, in the words of the report, still receiving very specialized trauma treatment and therefore were not in a fit state to be interviewed.
Others who witnessed such crimes said that they didn't want to speak to the report because they either don't trust international organizations, in particularly the U.N., or they were concerned about being outed in the international media as something that would compound their trauma.
On top of that, you had a situation where the authorities and institutions in Israel were just completely overwhelmed on October the 7th. And instead of noting or taking note or investigating or doing the right tests, forensically, for example, to see and find evidence of rape and other sexual crimes, they were very much focused on identifying the victims, gathering all the body parts and burying people as quickly as possible in accordance with Jewish law.
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Now, I should say that Hamas has rejected the findings of this report. It says it strongly rejects them. But as I say, this is the most definitive finding yet into sexual violence committed by Hamas and others on October the 7th, Rosemary. CHURCH: And Elliott, what can you tell us about the Palestinian
allegations against Israel that were also in that report?
GOTKINE: So as part of the mission, the U.N. special envoy was in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, wasn't able to go into Gaza, but did hear a testimony from people describing that there was a cruel and inhuman and degrading treatment of women and men in Israeli custody, including things like invasive body searches and threats of rape.
But it did note that it wasn't there to verify such claims and indeed has asked Israel to allow the U.N. to investigate such claims, something Israel says it won't do because it says those claims are simply designed to undermine its verifiable claims and accusations of rape and sexual violence committed by Hamas. Rosemary?
CHURCH: All right. Our thanks to Elliott Gotkine joining us live from London.
Well, now to the volatile situation on the Israel-Lebanon border. Israel's emergency rescue service says at least one foreign worker was killed and seven others injured Monday when a missile hit northern Israel near the Lebanese border. This comes as a senior advisor to the U.S. president landed in Lebanon again on Monday to work on a diplomatic solution to the ongoing hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.
And CNN's Paula Hancocks has been following the developments and has this report.
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PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The voice of a child narrating the sounds of conflict. Israel's Iron Dome blocking another barrage of Hezbollah rockets.
Billows of black smoke have become an almost permanent fixture on the horizon of the Israeli-Lebanon border.
Near daily exchanges of fire, Israeli strikes pound parts of southern Lebanon villages, homes have been reduced to rubble, buildings burned to the ground.
And tens of thousands of Israelis remain evacuated from the border out of reach of Hezbollah rockets.
Escalating tensions over recent weeks between Israel and the Iran- backed Islamist group Hezbollah, one of the most powerful paramilitary forces in the Middle East, are sparking increasing fears of a wider regional conflict.
U.S. administration and intelligence officials tell CNN they're concerned Israel may be planning a ground incursion into Lebanon in the late spring or early summer.
Israel's defense minister warned even if there's a temporary ceasefire in Gaza, it will continue and may even increase its attacks against Hezbollah.
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said their rockets would stop once a Gaza ceasefire is in place.
HANCOCKS: For the past few months, strikes have focused fairly close to the border region. However, Israel is now edging further north, hitting a town just last week over 100 kilometers from Lebanon's border. The deepest attack yet into Lebanese territory.
HANCOCKS (voice-over): The IDF now ramping up drills, releasing this video showing its forces conducting training exercises in the north. One former officer believes greater Israeli force is inevitable if diplomacy fails, which he suspects it will.
GIDEON HARARI, FORMER IDF OFFICER AND MILITARY ANALYST: If we want to make Hezbollah withdraw from the border, I don't see any other way to do it. And sadly, I'm saying it, I don't want to, I don't think that it's good for us or even for the Lebanese. It will be ugly. It will be painful for both sides. It won't be short.
HANCOCKS (voice-over): A bloody war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006 is still fresh in the region's memory. With concerns a repeat would be even more deadly.
AMAL SAAD, LECTURER, CARDIFF UNIVERSITY: This is Hezbollah 2.0. We don't know what Hezbollah is capable of today. This is a very secretive organization. And we can already see it has way more sophisticated anti-tank guided missiles, for example, and much more sophisticated drones.
HANCOCKS (voice-over): Saad says that while Hezbollah may be war averse, it is not afraid of war. While some in Israel's war cabinet appear keen to use a truce in Gaza as a chance to sharpen focus on its northern border.
Paula Hancocks, CNN, Abu Dhabi.
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CHURCH: Still to come, polls open in just a few hours for Super Tuesday here in the United States. But Donald Trump already has one major victory under his belt. We'll explain after the break.
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CHURCH: This is what it looked like just a short time ago when NASA's SpaceX Crew 8 docked with the International Space Station. Three American astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut blasted off Sunday from Kennedy Space Center. They will relieve a four-member crew that's been on the space station for a little over six months. NASA says their mission will include more than 200 science experiments and technology demonstrations.
Donald Trump is heading into Super Tuesday, a day with the most delegates at stake in the U.S. presidential primary calendar, with a chance to all but secure the Republican nomination and bolstered by a major U.S. Supreme Court ruling in his favor.
Polls open just hours from now in more than a dozen states and U.S. territories for primary elections and caucuses. And that list includes Colorado, where Trump's name will indeed appear on the ballot after the Supreme Court ended months of debate on Monday and unanimously ruled the state could not unilaterally exclude him for allegedly violating the insurrectionist clause of the U.S. Constitution.
While that ruling has no impact on the four criminal cases Trump is facing, it carries nationwide implications for other states considering similar efforts to keep Trump off the ballot. States such as Maine, which quickly restored Trump's eligibility after the Supreme Court's decision was announced. Colorado's Secretary of State disagrees with the ruling.
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JENA GRISWOLD, COLORADO SECRETARY OF STATE: I'm disappointed. We believe that it's up to Colorado or any state to determine whether to disqualify oath-breaking insurrectionists from our ballots. Ultimately, the United States Supreme Court disagreed.
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CHURCH: CNN's Kristen Holmes has more on how Donald Trump took the Supreme Court victory in stride.
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KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Former President Trump doing somewhat of a victory lap Monday after the Supreme Court ruling on the ballot case. One thing to keep in mind here is that Trump and his team believed they were going to win this case. Trump himself had watched the oral arguments. He had complimented his legal team and overall both his legal and political team thought that this was their strongest case, that they had the most legal backing in this case.
So it wasn't that surprising when Donald Trump almost immediately in his victory lap pivoted to those immunity claims and the fact that the Supreme Court is going to take up those cases. Take a listen.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Another thing that will be coming up very soon will be immunity for a president and not immunity for me, but for any president. If a president doesn't have full immunity, you really don't have a president because nobody that is serving in that office will have the courage to make, in many cases, what would be the right decision or it could be the wrong decision.
[03:30:00]
It could be, in some cases, the wrong decision, but they have to make decisions and they have to make them free of all terror that can be rained upon them when they leave office. KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Now, when you talk to
Donald Trump's advisors, allies, legal team, most of them do not believe that the immunity claim is going to be successful in the Supreme Court. In fact, they're actually pretty squishy on it compared to, say, the ballot case. However, it is very important to Donald Trump's team for a number of reasons.
One, they get to present their presidential immunity case, which the Supreme Court has never ruled on. But two, this is a delayed tactic and a successful one. There is now a chance that these federal trials will not be heard before the 2024 presidential election in November. In fact, if you talk to Donald Trump's team, they fundamentally believe that there will be no federal trials before that election date. Remember, this is something they had been working towards.
They had been trying to structure their legal planning, their maneuvering, exhausting every avenue to try and delay these until after the election with the hope that Donald Trump will get elected to president and then these cases would be dismissed. This gives them some hope that their strategy, their plan is working.
Kristen Holmes, CNN, West Palm Beach, Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Jessica Levinson is a Loyola University law professor and host of the "Passing Judgment" podcast. She joins me now from Los Angeles. Always great to have you with us.
JESSICA LEVINSON, LAW PROFESSOR, LOYOLA LAW SCHOOL: Good to be here.
CHURCH: So a lot to cover in politics and law. Let's start with the US Supreme Court's unanimous decision to keep presidential hopeful Donald Trump on the Colorado ballot. Was this ruling the right legal and constitutional outcome that it's not up to the states to enforce and execute the 14th amendment?
LEVINSON: Well, all members of the Supreme Court agreed that it was. Was there another way to go here? Of course. But it is somewhat remarkable in this fractured Supreme Court to get all nine to agree to the ultimate outcome. Now, as always, when we talk about these cases, I think the devil is in the details. And what we see is that unanimity really dissipates and fractures as you get to the rationale.
But the headline here is that Colorado and any other state, they don't have the power to look at the Constitution and determine that even if somebody engaged in an insurrection, that that person is not eligible for the ballot, that this is a power instead left up to the federal government and specifically Congress.
CHURCH: And Jessica, the U.S. Supreme Court will also hear oral arguments next month on Trump's presidential immunity claim. Most analysts appear to think he will lose that case. Do you agree? And when would you expect a ruling on that?
LEVINSON: I think he will lose, but I increasingly am not sure that it is going to be the quick loss that a lot of other people anticipate. Now, if they stay to the timeline that they used for this case, we could have a ruling by mid-May instead of the big rulings that always come out in late June.
I think what we need to look for in that case dealing with whether or not a former president enjoys immunity from criminal prosecution based on official acts is that the court could actually create a new standard, say that immunity is a qualified immunity, and then send it all the way back to the trial court to apply that new standard.
Why is it worth even explaining this? Because that's another delay in the trial. And of course, we are absolutely running up against the election when it comes to that trial calendar.
CHURCH: All right, so let's shift to politics and to Super Tuesday, which gets underway in the coming hours with primary contests in 16 states plus American Samoa. Donald Trump is poised to dominate but still won't get enough delegates to officially clinch the GOP nomination for president. And Nikki Haley continues to shine a light on Trump's inability to get more Republican voters on board. Where is this going, do you think?
LEVINSON: I think this is going to the former president getting the nomination. And Nikki Haley is not where she wanted to be. I think she has exactly, as you said, proven that there are contests where if she stays in, Trump is underperforming. He's not getting the same number of votes as the polling would indicate.
But when and if she drops out, I strongly suspect the vast majority of those votes go to Donald Trump, not to Joe Biden. Again, putting Donald Trump in a good position to get that nomination. And we're looking at, I think, a competitive general election.
CHURCH: So if this is Nikki Haley's last stand against Trump, what will likely happen to her after this politically?
[03:35:03]
LEVINSON: Well, the question, I think, is if Donald Trump gets the nomination and then if he was successful and offered her a position in his administration, which the more he attacks her, the less likely that is, would she accept? If that doesn't happen, then I think what happens to her is what happens to a lot of Republican officials, which is essentially a waiting game. Maybe she works at a nonprofit, maybe she works at a think tank. She waits for the time that the next time to run, probably in four years.
CHURCH: Jessica Levinson, many thanks for joining us. I Appreciate it.
LEVINSON: Thank you.
CHURCH: And CNN will have special coverage of today's Super Tuesday contest covering all the key races across more than a dozen states. Our in-depth coverage begins at 6 p.m. on the East Coast, 11 p.m. in London, here on CNN and streaming on Max. Coming up, China sets ambitious new economic targets for the coming year. We will tell you what they are and what it actually means. That's next.
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CHURCH: Relief and jubilation in France as it becomes the first country in the world to make abortion a constitutional right. This was the moment the decision was made in Parliament.
(VIDEO PLAYING)
The vote easily cleared the three-fifths majority needed to amend the French constitution. The issue was raised in France as a direct response to the US Supreme Court decision overturning Roe vs Wade.
Melissa Bell has more reaction to the vote from Paris.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MELISSA BELL, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Celebrations here at the Trocadero in the heart of Paris just after the joint session of Parliament that took place at and that was shown on that giant screen there, voted overwhelmingly in favor of a woman's freedom to get access to abortion.
And what the French government had said as they tried to push this bill through was that in light of the reversal of Roe vs Wade in the United States in June of 2022, but also the reversal of women's access to abortion elsewhere, it was important that this become a constitutional right.
What the French government had argued was that it was important that future governments not be able to roll these rights back and that this debate should at least in this country be settled once and for all. So celebrations here at the Trocadero as France becomes the first country to place into its constitution that crucial freedom.
[03:40:09]
Melissa Bell, CNN Paris.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Thousands of Chinese delegates are in Beijing for the country's annual Parliament meeting, the National People's Congress. The economy is top of the agenda on Tuesday. The Chinese Premier has set an ambitious growth target of around five percent.
And here's a look at how markets are responding. You can see Hong Kong's Hang Seng down more than two percent, 2.61 percent. The Shanghai Composite is just there at 0.28 percent.
Well, Kristie Lu Stout joins me now from Hong Kong. So Kristie, at a time of deep economic turmoil, China's Premier has presented the nation's work report. What is the message from Beijing?
KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, and Rosemary, it's been really interesting to see those losses here in Hong Kong. Hong Kong markets in the red this day, along with most Asian equities, currencies in retreat. As investors here question just how Beijing will manage to reach its target, China earlier today set this ambitious growth target of around 5 percent this year.
And that was announced this morning as Premier Li Qiang delivered his very first work report. We also learned that defense spending will rise this year to about 7.2 percent from the year before. But China's top priority here is stability.
And in order to get there, this is what we heard from China's Premier. Let's bring up the quote for you. He said, quote, "we must push ahead with transforming the growth model, making substantial structural adjustments, improving quality and enhancing performance", unquote.
Now, transform is an important word to zero in on here. China's economic focus, it might be in the process of shifting from breakaway growth to quality and value.
You know, China's economy has seen stunning growth in the last few decades, especially since reopening in the late 1970s. But that growth has really slowed down in recent years. And on top of that, there's a number of deep economic issues like the property crisis, like weak consumer spending, like high youth unemployment, like mounting government debt. The list goes on and on.
The work report addressed these risks, not in too much detail, but there were a couple of key salient points I want to bring up for you. Let's bring up the bullet points here from the work report.
China has this policy plan to prohibit vanity projects and wasteful local government spending, to tighten oversight on accounting at local government levels, to intensify efforts to attract foreign investment and to achieve greater self-reliance in science and technology, but not enough, apparently, to boost the markets, especially the markets in Hong Kong this day. Rosemary.
CHURCH: Kristie Lu Stout, joining us live from Hong Kong. Many thanks for that.
Apple is facing a massive penalty in Europe for its handling of music streaming services. The European Union is fining the tech giant nearly $2 billion for breaking the bloc's competition laws. E.U. regulators found Apple to be unfairly favoring its own music streaming app over rivals like Spotify. The bloc's antitrust commissioner said the company had abused its dominant position as a streaming app distributor.
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MARGRETHE VESTAGER, EUROPEAN UNION ANTITRUST COMMISSIONER: Apple did so by restricting app developers' ability to inform users of Apple devices about alternative, cheaper options to purchase music available on the internet outside of the Apple ecosystem. This is illegal and it has impacted millions of European consumers. They were not able to make a free choice.
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CHURCH: Apple says it plans to appeal the fine. This is the EU's first-ever antitrust penalty against the US tech giant.
And still to come, efforts to revive the hunt for MH370 nearly a decade after the flight vanished in one of the biggest aviation mysteries of all time. We are back with that in just a moment.
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[03:45:00]
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CHURCH: Police in India have arrested three men for allegedly raping a foreign tourist and assaulting her husband. As CNN's Vedika Sud reports, the case highlights India's decades-long struggle to curb sexual violence against women.
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VEDIKA SUD, CNN REPORTER: The alleged gang rape of a female biker and a violent assault on a husband in India's eastern state of Jharkhand has led to outrage. The incident came to light after the couple, both foreign nationals, posted a video over the weekend on their Instagram page describing their ordeal. They had stopped for the night in Dupka district when the alleged attack took place.
CNN is not naming the female victim, who is of Brazilian-Spanish dual nationality, in accordance with Indian law that prevents the naming of victims of sexual violence. It's unclear if the alleged attackers have lawyers. Here's an excerpt from their post.
UNKNOWN: Something happened to us that I do not wish on anyone.
UNKNOWN: We got assaulted in the store. We were beaten. We had a knife to our throats. I thought they were going to kill us. And (expletive) was raped by seven men. Sons of (expletive).
SUD: CNN has watched a series of videos posted by the couple. In one video, the rape survivor shows her bruises. She says she thought she was going to die.
In another video, her husband shows the deep cuts around his mouth. Some videos are no longer up on their page.
Sharing details at a press conference Saturday, the police told reporters the couple were found on Friday night by police officers on patrol. They were taken to hospital, where the woman told the doctor she had been raped.
In a statement to CNN, the Brazilian embassy said they are working closely with the Spanish and Indian authorities on this case. CNN has reached out to the Spanish embassy for comment.
According to government data, more than 31,500 rape cases were recorded in the year 2022, an average of 86 cases per day. Break that down further, and that's a rape almost every 17 minutes in the country.
And experts warn that the number of cases recorded are just a small fraction of what may be the real number in a deeply patriarchal country.
Despite amended rape laws and the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government saying it is committed to tackling sexual violence, India has struggled for years to tackle high rates of violence against women, with a number of high-profile rape cases involving foreign visitors drawing international attention to the issue.
Vedika Sud, CNN, New Delhi.
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CHURCH: Malaysia says it's willing to reopen the investigation into the disappearance of MH370, nearly 10 years after the Malaysia Airlines flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing vanished with 239 people on board. Malaysia's transport minister says the U.S.-based seabed exploration firm Ocean Infinity has outlined a credible new search proposal.
CNN's Richard Quest explains.
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RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS EDITOR AT-LARGE: The announcement by the Malaysian government that it is open to reopening the search for MH370 will be very welcomed by the families of those that perished on board.
But Ocean Infinity is doing it on a no-find-no-fee basis, it's believed. In other words, if they don't find the missing plane off the Australian coast where everybody believes it is, then they don't get paid.
There have been two previous attempts by Ocean Infinity to find MH370 and both failed. The hope is that new search techniques, new equipment and better understanding of what happened to the plane will make this search successful.
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Despite all that's happened over the last 10 years, the real truth is we are no closer to knowing exactly what caused the plane to go missing.
Yes, we know roughly where it is off the Australian coast, the various bits that have washed up in Africa have confirmed that. But whether it was the captain, whether it was mechanical, whether it was some mass act of mass murder, that we simply don't know.
Richard Quest, CNN, New York.
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CHURCH: Coming up next, breaking records, bringing new fans to women's basketball. We will talk to Caitlin Clark's coach when we come back.
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CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. U.S. College Basketball has a new all- time leading scorer. Caitlin Clark set the record Sunday as her University of Iowa Hawkeyes beat the Ohio State Buckeyes.
These photos were taken right after the sharpshooting guard made a free throw to pass men's basketball legend Pistol Pete Maravich. That's right, Clark now holds the record for most points scored by a woman or a man. Along the way, she is selling out arenas, bringing in impressive TV ratings and transcending the sport.
Lisa Bluder is the head coach of women's basketball at the University of Iowa. She joins us now from Iowa City. Great to have you with us.
LISA BLUDER, CAITLIN CLARK'S COACH: It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you, Rosemary.
CHURCH: So she did it. Iowa basketball superstar Caitlin Clark has become the all-time scoring leader in major college basketball history, breaking the record for men and women on Sunday. Has it all sunk in yet? Can you put this moment in perspective for us?
BLUDER: It's pretty surreal. In fact, the whole year has been pretty surreal because she has just continued to break record after record after record. First, it was Kelsey Plum's record for NCAA and then Lynette Woodard's record for all-time women's scoring. And then, of course, Pete Maravich's record yesterday. And we have a lot of games to play yet.
CHURCH: Yeah, indeed. And Caitlin has grabbed headlines all around the world. She has LeBron James, even President Biden, posting messages of congratulations. She's selling out away games. You've been a basketball coach for a long time now. Have you ever seen anything like this? What has this ride been like?
BLUDER: I've never seen anything like it. Just where one person can really capture the nation and really uplift our sport. And that's what is so exciting is with our program right now. You know, it's not only representing the University of Iowa or the Big Ten Conference, but it's really uplifting all women's sports across the country. And that's what we're really proud of.
CHURCH: And Caitlin was inspired by Maya Moore and the greats who came before her. She is aware of her impact, of course, on young girls who want to follow in her footsteps. How impressed are you by her passion to give back?
BLUDER: It's terrific. And that's what it's all about, really. I mean, she was that little girl that Maya Moore took time to come over and talk to her when she was that little girl.
[03:55:02]
And Maya played for the Minnesota Lynx. And so now Caitlin is continuing to give back and pay that forward and trying to be that role model for little girls and quite honestly, a lot of little boys across the country. And so I think it's just the one way that she can contribute to our game and keep promoting women's athletics.
CHURCH: And the Hawks are setting TV ratings records this season. Viewers are tuning in like crazy to watch your team. Do you think we're entering an era where men's and women's basketball fans are simply turning into fans of basketball? Have we got to that point yet?
BLUDER: I sure hope so. I mean, I just think that, you know, the women's game has been very good for a long time to our sport because we weren't getting that much television coverage.
And now, since we are getting more television coverage, people are understanding, wow, these women are really good. They're really good at what they do. And it's a really fun style to watch. And it's a fun team to watch. And so I think that just the television exposure, quite honestly, has brought us some new fans that we didn't know that we didn't have before.
CHURCH: And you still have some work to do. You mentioned that Iowa has the Big Ten tournament and NCAA championships left before Caitlin heads to the WNBA. What is your message to the team about blocking out the noise and reaching the ultimate goal of winning a title this year?
BLUDER: Yeah, our goal is just to get better every day. And that's just to go out and win the next game. And we don't talk about winning the national title. You know, we just want to win the next game. And that's the first game in the Big Ten tournament on Friday night. You know, our message to our team is we have to stay connected.
We have to just be in our circle and try to block everything else out at this point, because it has been a lot of attention. You know, it's kind of a circus sometimes around our games. And as long as we are just listening to the people in our circle, on our team, and not listening to all the outside voices, it's really going to help us achieve, you know, a long term success here.
CHURCH: Lisa Bluder, thank you so much for joining us. And of course, congratulations to you and the team. I Appreciate it.
BLUDER: My pleasure.
CHURCH: And thanks so much for your company this hour. I'm Rosemary Church. Have yourselves a wonderful day. "CNN Newsroom" continues next, with Max Foster.
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