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Three Killed In First Fatal Houthi Attack On Red Sea Shipping; Russia Strikes Odesa With Missile During Visit By Zelenskyy And Greek Leader; Hungry Children Are Dying In Gaza As Israel's Chokehold On Aid Drives Territory Toward Starvation; Biden And Trump Prepare For Contentious November Rematch; Kremlin's Propaganda Machine Works to Prop Up Putin's Image; Chaos in Haiti; China Holds National People's Congress; Philippines And China Race Off in Territorial Dispute; February 2024, Hottest on Record. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired March 07, 2024 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead here on CNN Newsroom.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think that was sadly inevitable.
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VAUSE: What was it, despite weeks of us airstrikes Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea have now turned deadly.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): They don't care where they strike.
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VAUSE: A Russian missile strike lands within a few 100 meters of the leaders of Ukraine and Greece during their meeting in the port city of Odesa. Also this.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Death is better than this.
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VAUSE: Children in Gaza vulnerable innocents now starving to death.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Atlanta. This is CNN Newsroom with John Vause.
VAUSE: Weeks of Houthi attacks on commercial shipping off the coast of Yemen have now claimed their first lives. Houthi officials say the ship true confidence was warned before coming under attack and attack which killed three onboard and forced the crew to abandon ship. These four others were injured. Here's more now from the White House press secretary.
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KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: These reckless attacks by the Iran backed Houthis have not only disrupted global trade and commerce but also taking the lives of international seafarers simply doing their jobs.
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VAUSE: more details now from CNN's Oren Liebermann reporting in from the Pentagon.
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OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: We have seen in recent days and certainly recent weeks an escalation in the results and the damage caused by Houthi attacks on commercial vessels. The Rubymar just days ago became the first commercial vessel to sink as the result of a Houthi attack when it went down in the Red Sea.
And now we have seen an even greater escalation of Houthi anti-ship ballistic missile attack on the True Confidence, a Liberia owned Barbados flag vessel. Houthi anti-ship ballistic missile hit that vessel according to U.S. Central Command, causing major damage, as well as three deaths and four injuries.
According to CENTCOM, three of those injuries left the crew members in critical condition. They had to be evacuated from that vessel. This is the first time we have seen a Houthi attack on commercial vessels resulted in the loss of life.
Over the course of the past several months, according to U.S. Central Command, there have been some 45 attacks on commercial vessels as well as on U.S. Navy vessels. Some have hit their targets causing minor damage, some minor injuries, another ship had to be evacuated here.
But this is the first time we have seen this level deaths as a result of these Houthi attacks. The U.S. often in coordination with the U.K. have carried out strikes on Houthi, anti-ship ballistic missiles, drones, cruise missiles, radar sites, and yet the U.S. doesn't have a clear understanding of how much of Houthi weaponry has been destroyed. They still clearly have the capability to carry out these sorts of attacks.
In fact, according to U.S. Central Command, they have launched five anti-ship ballistic missiles over the course of the past 48 hours. So the threat to commercial vessels and the U.S. Navy in one of the world's most critical waterways continues and these attacks continue.
The U.S. has warned their strikes on the Houthis in Yemen will not stop until these attacks stop for now this this back and forth we have seen that now has deadly consequences will continue. Oren Liebermann, CNN in the Pentagon.
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VAUSE Live now to Canberra and Malcolm Davis, the senior analyst of defense strategy and capability at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. Welcome back., Malcolm. Good to see you.
MALCOLM DAVIS, SENIOR ANALYST, AUSTRALIAN STRATEGIC POLICY INSTITUTE: It's good to see you, John.
VAUSE: OK. Here's a spokesman for the State Department on the U.S. led airstrikes and those airstrikes, which were meant to degrade Houthi capability. Here he is.
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MATTHEW MILLER, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON: We have always made clear that this is going to be a long term process both to deter the Houthi attacks and to degrade their capabilities to carry them out. And that's a process that is continuing at the same time. We continue to talk to partners in the region about how they ought to make clear to the Houthis that these attacks are irresponsible.
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VAUSE: If only the Houthis were aware that what they're doing is irresponsible. You know, these U.S. led airstrikes so on Houthi targets in Yemen has been ongoing for more than a month and a half. Why aren't they working?
DAVIS: Well, look it's a very good question, John. And I think that it's absolutely critical.
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If the goal is to deter further Houthi attacks and to degrade their ability to do so, then these strikes that are occurring under operation besides an archer are simply not achieving that. And the U.S. and the U.K. need to take a step back and look at how they're carrying out these strikes, what they're attacking, what is the intensity and the frequency of operations to see why, essentially, they're in the phraseology, plinking targets, but they're not achieving any real effect in terms of changing the Houthis or the Iranians mindset.
So, this is a real problem that U.S. is facing now. They don't seem to be making headway here.
VAUSE: And last month, the U.S. Secretary of Defense called out Iran for its role in these attacks. Here he is.
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LLOYD AUSTIN, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: With the Houthis, I mean, their activity needs to come to a halt. And we will call upon Iran to quit or to cease supplying the Houthis with these advanced conventional weapons that they've used to attack ships in the Red Sea and the Bab- el-Mandeb.
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VAUSE: Can you stop these Houthi attacks on commercial shipping if Iran continues to have a free hand to supply weapons, and if it comes to Iran, what could potentially be a U.S. target here?
DAVIS: Look, I don't think they're going to stop the Houthi attack so long as the weapons are flying from Tehran into Yemen. I think that the U.S. does need to realize that it needs to cut off the flow of those weapons by attacking the shipments of those weapons.
The second thing it needs to do is to cut off Iran's ability to support these attacks, through providing intelligence surveillance reconnaissance. There's an Iranian vessel that's deployed in the Red Sea that provides a real time intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance to the Houthis to coordinate these missile strikes, that ship either needs to be seized, or it needs to be sunk.
So long as that ship is providing intelligence, surveillance reconnaissance to the Houthis, as long as the missiles flow from Iran to the Houthis, then these attacks will continue.
So I think that the U.S. does need to take a step back and realize that if it wants to achieve deterrence, if it wants to degrade capabilities, it may actually need to intensify and broaden its air and missile campaigns against the Houthis and also attack the Iranians.
VAUSE: What is the hesitation going after that Iranian ship?
DAVIS: I think it's probably a fear that if we attack that ship, the Iranians could then retaliate, either in the Red Sea area or against U.S. forces directly, which to me, they're already doing by the Houthis or the Iranians could launch more attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria.
And so, it's this fear of this wider regional war that is underpinning the hesitancy on the part of the Biden administration to really bring this threat to a close. But sometimes you've just got to nip it in the bud.
VAUSE: Yes.
DAVIS: Sometimes you've actually got to go in there and actually do the -- do what's needed to stop a threat from happening, because these sort of half measures whereby we continue these attacks, but as the Pentagon spokesman said, for an extended period of time, well, that's actually not achieving anything. It's only encouraging the Iranians to continue this threat in the process.
VAUSE: Houthi fighters are now the first in the world to carry out successful attacks using an anti-ship ballistic missile. Now the first fatal strike using an anti-ship ballistic missile. They've also deployed bomb carrying drones as well as underwater attack drones. Seems they've been underestimated here from the get go. DAVIS: Well, remember that all these weapons are coming from Iran. So
the Iranians developing these anti-ship ballistic missiles, the ASPMs, these are new types of weapons that we first saw emerge in the arsenal of China with the PLA Rocket Forces developing anti-ship ballistic missiles. Now the Iranians have them. I'm sure the Russians probably aren't far behind.
The anti-ship ballistic missiles, a new type of capability that is much more difficult to stop. It's coming in a lot faster from a higher altitude than a typical anti-ship missile, which skims the surface of the waves.
And so it's actually a much more deadly threat and providing that the Houthis have that intelligence surveillance reconnaissance capability provided to them by the Iranians, they can continue to use these ASPM that will.
VAUSE: Malcolm, good to have you with us. We really appreciate it as always, thank you. Malcolm Davies there Canberra. Thank you, sir.
DAVIS: Thank you.
VAUSE: Deadly Russian missile strike on the Ukrainian port city of Odesa Wednesday came within a few 100 meters of the Ukrainian president and the visiting Greek Prime Minister.
Ukrainian officials say five people were killed in the attack. The Greek Prime Minister says he heard a loud explosion just as he was about to leave the city in President Zelenskyy's motorcade.
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One source says the force of the blast was felt by those traveling in the official convoy. Zelenskyy often tours areas close to the front lines, there have been close calls before but it seems not this close.
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ZELENSKYY (voice-over): We saw the strike today. You can see who we are facing. They don't care where they strike. They don't care whether they are military or civilians, whoever they are, whether they are international guests, these people don't care.
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VAUSE: CNN's Fred Pleitgen has details now about that deadly attack on Odesa.
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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's not clear whether the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy was the target of this attack. But it certainly appears to have been a pretty close call. Source with knowledge of the situation tells CNN that the impact of this missile appears to have been about 500 meters away from the Greek Prime Minister, which is essentially also the same area that the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy was as well.
The Greeks are saying that the Prime Minister of Greece was in Odesa on a surprise visit, that he had been getting a tour of the port of Odesa from Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the Greek Prime Minister of the importance of that port for Ukraine, of course, for goods that the Ukrainians continue to want to import and export.
And the Greek side said that as the leaders were getting back into their car, that at that point, they heard a very loud explosion. The Ukrainian president for his part is going a step further even than that he said that they saw the missile. And they even felt the impact because the impact was so close.
Originally, Volodymyr Zelenskyy had said that he knew that there had been killed and wounded in the attack. But he said at that point, he didn't have more information than that. Well, the Ukrainian Navy has since then come out and said that five people were killed and that they were people wounded even though they have not given specifics as to how many people exactly were wounded in all this.
Of course, Odesa, that port town in the south of Ukraine has been taking a lot of hits from Russian drones and Russian missiles for the past couple of months. And just on March 2, there was a big drone attack that killed several people in that town.
The Russians, for their part have acknowledged that they did strike Odesa and the port area. They claim that they hit a warehouse which -- in which were unmanned see drones. Now all this comes not very long after the Ukrainian said that they had sunk a Russian warship using sea drones. So it's unclear whether or not this was retaliation by the Russians. But it certainly does appear as though this was a very concerning situation for the Ukrainians. Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Berlin.
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VAUSE: 15-year-old boy died in ghost city on Wednesday, one of at least 20 people, some of them just children babies barely months old to die from starvation and dehydration since the war began, according to the Gaza health ministry.
One in six children in Gaza are acutely malnourished, according to the World Health Organization, and there are fears a tipping point is coming.
CNN's Nada Bashir reports parents are burying their children, as hospitals run out of food and there is no food to be had anywhere, especially in northern Gaza where aid is scarce. And while these images you're about to see are the reality and they are very distressing. Their mothers which we spoke to want the world to see them.
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NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER (voice-over): Tiny limbs, bones protruding. The constant sound of crying from children now facing starvation in Gaza. In this overrun hospital ward, anxious mothers watch on as doctors provide whatever care they still can. But for some, there is nothing more to be done.
Three-year-old Mila, who had been suffering from acute malnutrition, now another victim of this merciless war.
She was healthy, there was nothing wrong with her before, Mila's mother says Then suddenly everything dropped. She wasn't eating anything. We had no milk, no eggs, nothing. She used to eat eggs every day before the war. But now we have nothing.
Across Gaza, too many are feeling the pain of this deepening hunger crisis. Small children emaciated and malnourished. These were little Yazan's final moments, his tiny fingers gripped in his mother's hand. She, like Mila, would not make.
Others are still just barely holding on. But there is no telling how long they will survive.
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Standing beside me this body Dr. Atman SaLam (ph) says many children at this hospital are now dying due to a lack of food and oxygen supplies. With limited aid getting in, many have grown desperate, searching for food wherever they can.
Nine-year-old Mohammed says he walks for about a mile every day to collect water for his family.
You seems sad, why? This journalist asked him. Because of the war, he says. It is all too much.
On Tuesday, U.N. experts accused Israel of intentionally starving the Palestinian people in Gaza. Noting that the Israeli military is now targeting both civilians seeking aid and humanitarian convoys.
Israel has denied targeting civilians and says that there is quote, no limit to the amount of humanitarian aid for civilians in Gaza. But the reality on the ground paints a very different picture.
There is no food, no water, no flour, cooking oil or anything, this woman says. Death is better than this.
According to a senior U.N. official, at least a quarter of Gaza's population is now said to be just one step away from famine with aid agencies facing overwhelming obstacles in getting the bare minimum of supplies into Gaza. And as Israel's ground offensive threatens to push further into the strips, densely populated south, time is quickly running out.
While international efforts to airdrop humanitarian supplies have provided some respite. It is simply not enough. With stalling negotiations, leaving little hope for an end to the suffering and hunger of the Palestinian people in Gaza. Nada Bashir, CNN, London.
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VAUSE: CNN has a list of vetted organizations on the ground responding to this dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza. To find details on how to help special section of our website cnn.com/impact. Manmade crisis should never happen.
Still to come, deja vu in the U.S. politics with President Biden said to face Donald Trump in an election rematch. Sequel (INAUDIBLE). We'll break down how they're now preparing for this.
Also, the Kremlin fires up the propaganda machine. After all, there's a presidential election to be won this month.
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VAUSE: The sequel, which almost no one wanted is now the only show in town a November rematch between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Now slugging it out in earnest for the White House, or both are yet to receive the majority of delegates needed to be their party's presumptive nominee. That is now a mathematical formality after both dominated voting on Super Tuesday.
The U.S. president has a chance to come out swinging when he delivers the State of the Union to Congress Thursday night. Earlier he released a statement saying Americans have a choice to move forward or allow Trump to quote, drag us backwards into the chaos.
As for Donald Trump, now that his last rival, Nikki Haley has suspended her campaign, a string of high profile endorsements have come with many calling for party unity. But for now, it's not clear if those who voted for Haley will hear that call and support Trump come election day, or can they be convinced to vote for a Democrat Joe Biden. So the 243 days until the election season ends. Jeff Zeleny has gone out on the challenges facing both Biden and Trump.
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JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The curtain finally goes up on a historic presidential rematch, Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Emerging from Super Tuesday primaries as the effective nominees of their parties, but there are warning signs in winning with both men facing distinct challenges of rebuilding their coalition's.
Nikki Haley the last inning Republican rival suspended her campaign without offering an endorsement.
NIKKI HALEY, FORMER U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party and beyond it who did not support him. And I hope he does that.
ZELENY (voice-over): After months of warning Republicans about Trump's vulnerabilities, she bluntly said the burden is on the former president to win over her supporters and unify the party.
HALEY: At its best politics is about bringing people into your cause, not turning them away. And our conservative cause badly needs more people. This is now his time for choosing.
ZELENY (voice-over): Any fence mending got off to a rocky start with Trump saying on social media. Nikki Haley got trounced last night in record setting fashion. President Biden struck a different note and extended his hand saying Donald Trump made it clear he doesn't want Nikki Haley supporters. I want to be clear there is a place for them in my campaign.
It's far from certain where Haley voters ultimately will go but an analysis of CNN exit polls from five states found only 19 percent said they would be satisfied with Trump as the nominee and 79 percent dissatisfied. In the closing days of the primary voters expressed the challenges of unity.
MARTIN GREEN, REPUBLICAN VOTER: Trump can't win without her supporters, you know in calling her names isn't going to help him win.
ZELENY: She worried that some of her supporters may go to Biden.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Maybe third party.
ZELENY (voice-over): Eight months before the general election, the Republican Party is rallying around Trump.
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: November 5 is going to go down as the single most important day in the history of our country.
ZELENY (voice-over): Senator Mitch McConnell, who hasn't spoken to Trump in more than three years offered his endorsement, saying it should come as no surprise that as the nominee he will have my support.
After a string of Democratic primary victories, President Biden is preparing to make his case at the State of the Union address on Thursday, a primetime opportunity to tackle myriad challenges he faces to win reelection. Biden easily swept away long shot rivals like Dean Phillips but a series of protest votes made clear he faces the task of uniting Democrats too, like in Minnesota on Tuesday were uncommitted received 19 percent of the vote.
With a general election contest finally taking shape history will be tested a new as Trump seeks to become the first president since Grover Cleveland was voted out of office to be sent back for a second term.
ZELENY: So the sequel between Biden and Trump will play out in a far different political context. And there are wildcards galore from Trump's criminal cases, to Biden's foreign policy challenges and the fitness of both of these presidential candidates. There is no doubt these primaries have shown the vulnerabilities of both campaigns and both candidates. There is no modern day historical guide for the campaign that is to come. But it starts now. Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE) VAUSE: Joining me now CNN political commentator and Republican strategist Alice Stewart, who's also host of the podcast, Hot Mics from Left to Right. It's good to see you.
ALICE STEWART, CNN POLITICAL COMMETATOR: You too, John. Great to be here.
VAUSE: OK. So when it comes to Republicans like yourself on Super Tuesday, 55 percent majority of voters in Virginia Republican primary, this does not include you. So Trump would be fit to be president, even if convicted of a crime alongside large minorities -- majorities rather of Republican voters in North Carolina and California those voters overwhelmingly supported Trump.
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So Trump's legal troubles have often been a reason why many were backing Haley, even though they knew she couldn't win, they still lodged a protest vote for her, which seems to indicate just how deep their opposition to Trump really is. But is it deep enough for them to stay home on election day? Or more importantly, is it deep enough for them to actually vote for a Democrat?
STEWART: I think a couple things to point out. Look, I think the reason you're seeing so many Republican voters say that even if Donald Trump were convicted of a crime, they would still vote for him. That's because his base in the core members of the Republican base, thinks that all of these legal issues are all the same. And they are weaponization of liberal justices. And Donald Trump is a victim of overzealous liberal prosecutors and justices. And all of the legal issues are simply going after him because he is the main challenger to Joe Biden. All that's not true. But that's what his base thinks.
And so a conviction isn't anything more than the product of him being a victim of weaponization of the DOJ. That's why you're seeing many Republicans say if he's convicted, I'm still going to vote for him.
But I think there's more to it than that as to why many voters supported Nikki Haley, and looking in many states, she got a 30, 40 percent of the electorate in the States. And that's not insignificant. There are a lot of people in the Republican Party that were looking for something different than Donald Trump.
And a large part of that it -- some of it is the legal issues. Some of it is they're tired of the drama and the chaos that follows him. Many of them were really frustrated and disgusted, quite frankly, with what he did on January 6, and the attempt to stop the certification of the election and the insurrection we saw at the Capitol. And they're looking for a new generation.
VAUSE: And you really see that demographically, these Haley voters, they are moderate. They are college educated. They are suburban voters. And you know, there wasn't enough of them to stop Donald Trump from getting the nomination or looks like at this point anyway. But it certainly seems that could be enough of them at the end of the day to stop him from being president. Is that true? STEWART: If you underestimate Donald Trump, you really don't understand Republican voters. Republican voters that supported Donald Trump, they don't care about the legal issues. They don't care about the drama. They don't care about the chaos. They don't care about what happened on January 6. They're looking at what impacts them.
They think that Donald Trump's policies helped the economy, help secure the border, helps with foreign policy and helped with education and energy independence. And that's a big issue that Donald Trump talked about. In his when he secured Super Tuesday, many of the victories there. So they look at the policies that Donald Trump reflects, and that's why they're supporting them.
VAUSE: This group of voters is highly sought as they think they seem to be up for grabs, if you like for both the Trump camp and the Biden campaign. Biden was quick to congratulate Haley. He talked about common ground. This was just after Super Tuesday. And then after she essentially ended her campaign.
While on truth social, Trump pointed out that Haley got trounced last night in record setting fashion. He then went on to invite her supporters to join the greatest movement in the history of our nation.
I'm wondering if there's a choice here for the Biden campaign? Do they invest resources in going after and trying to win over those voters who supported Haley who are essentially Republicans? Or do they take that time? And do they focus on turnout on the coalition, which effectively sent Biden to the White House back in 2020, try and motivate those voters and get them to the polls, rather than trying to win over new ones.
STEWART: The Biden campaign and the Democratic National Committee has a massive war chest, John, and they can do some of both, and they're going to do polling. They're going to do research and see where's the best allocation of the resources, but we can tell based on how he responded to Nikki Haley, suspending her campaign and doing an outreach to her voters, goes to show that that is a priority.
But another challenge he has is there's a lot of division and fracture within the Democratic Party. We're seeing that with Gaza and what we're seeing with the concern over the Israel situation. So, he needs to also bring about his base and his party.
And you're we're looking at a lot of polls that the enthusiasm surrounding Joe Biden is not quite as high as Donald Trump. So their best investment is to try and go after the Nikki Haley voters but also secure their base.
[01:29:41]
VAUSE: Alice Stewart, thank you so much for being with us. We appreciate your insights. Have a good night. Thank you.
STEWARTS: Thanks. Thanks, John. You too.
VAUSE: Just over two weeks after IVF was effectively put on hold in the U.S. state of Alabama comes an about-face. The state governor has signed into law a bill which protects IVF patients and providers from legal liability after an unprecedented ruling by the state Supreme Court that frozen embryos were legally children.
Some fertility clinics in Alabama are now preparing to resume IVF treatments. The three biggest clinics here have put all treatments on hold, but not all of them.
Others still feel vulnerable since the new legislation does not address the issue of whether embryos are still people. Last month, that was that a ruling from the Alabama state Supreme Court, which threw everything into chaos and confusion.
Still ahead here, warnings of genocide in Haiti from a gang leader using a wave of violence to try and push the prime minister out of power. Details in a moment.
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VAUSE: Welcome back, everyone. I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
No expectations of an election night cliffhanger, no pundits declaring too close to call for Russian President Vladimir Putin. He's all but assured of reelection this month.
Voting for president begins March 15th. Then, according to many observers, it is a rubber stamp to give Putin at least six more years in office. Despite that, the Kremlin's propaganda machine is still working to prop up Putin's image.
Details from Clare Sebastian.
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CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Flying into a fifth term, the war, Putin's nuclear capable strategic bomber, almost as loud as the propaganda machine propelling him forward.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Vladimir Putin on board the most powerful, the biggest, the fastest strategic bomber.
SEBASTIAN: This is Putin's desired pre-election image -- strong, vigorous, calling the shots in his so-called special military operation and letting his chief propagandist campaign on his behalf on state TV.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He works until late, late at night. Starts again in the morning. I just want to say thank you to him, to our president.
SEBASTIAN: As we get closer to elections in Russia in March, we're seeing more and more of this more obvious propaganda.
There are also slightly more subtle tactics at play. And the most prominent of those is the constant scapegoating, or even outright trolling of the U.S. One popular talk show played this split-screen or loop -- Putin
boarding his bomber, Biden, tripping up the steps of Air Force One.
[01:34:54]
SEBASTIAN: News reports on the war in Ukraine regularly showing off the wreckage of western weapons. There's even a discarded Starlink antenna.
Boris Akunin (ph), one of Russia's most popular modern authors, says the West needs to take note of this.
BORIS AKUNIN, RUSSIAN AUTHOR: Putin benefits from this picture of the outside world as something hostile so the people would unite around him. When the war started a lot of Russians start emigrated. Then they met with hostility. A lot of them had to return. And every single case has been used by Putin's propaganda to strengthen this idea that we are together. We are besieged camp.
SEBASTIAN: Alexei Navalny knew how to get around Putin's propaganda machine and its longstanding policy of ignoring him.
From this cramped Moscow headquarters, which I visited in 2017, he and his colleagues beamed their message to millions of Russians via YouTube. And yet his death was something state media temporarily found itself unable to ignore.
First, discrediting his legacy.
Then blaming the west --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For them, this is excellent timing, we have elections coming up. Support for the president is off the charts.
SEBASTIAN: Finally turning on his widow, Yulia.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We looked at the life of the queen of the opposition, during the time he was in prison.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two hours after the news of the death of her husband, the wife emerges all made up. Listen the girls will understand me, even her mascara didn't run. How do you manage that.
SEBASTIAN: For Akunin Navalny's death is more than just a propaganda challenge. It signals propaganda may now be taking a backseat to a much blunter instruments of control, outright repression.
AKUNIN: UNIDENTIFIED MALE: By killing Alexei Navalny they lost the last chance of trying to pretend that they were legal, decent, law- abiding. Intimidation is now is now going to be the main instrument.
SEBASTIAN: Clare Sebastian, CNN -- London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: The Kremlin has called accusations that Russian authorities were behind Navalny's death unfounded. Navalny's spokeswoman says the official cause of death on his medical report seen by his mother was natural causes.
But Yulia Navalnaya, widow of actually female (ph) there of Navalny, has called for nationwide protests during the upcoming presidential election.
In a social media post Wednesday Navalnaya described Russia's leadership as a cult and praise supporters who attended her husband's funeral last week.
She also urged Russians to show up at the polls noon local time, March 17, the last day of voting, and hold rallies against President Vladimir Putin. The election is widely seen as a mere formality with Putin fully expected to secure a fifth term, but Navalnaya still wants Russian voters to take a stand.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
YULIA NAVALNAYA, WIDOW OF ALEXEI NAVALNY (through translator): We can still use that so-called election against Putin to achieve our goals. Alexei himself told us how to do it. We need to use the election day to show that we exist and there are many of us.
We are real. We are alive. We exist. And we are against Putin.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: And last hour I spoke with exile Kremlin critic and political activist Garry Kasparov, who many will remember as the former world chess champion.
A Russian financial watchdog has included him on a list of terrorists and extremists. There's no specific reason why, but the listing puts limits on individual's bank transactions and forces them to seek approval every time they want to use their accounts.
I asked Kasparov, why he believes Moscow would actually do this now.
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GARRY KASPAROV, PUTIN CRITIC: Now I think it's obvious. They use every tool at their disposal to silence the criticism. Of course, it doesn't affect me directly because I live in exile for 11 years.
But it's still a message to others and many of my colleagues who are in exile as well. So they already got this (INAUDIBLE) to be called terrorists and extremists. And it reminds us as living in inside the George Orwell book, "1984", freedom with slavery, war with peace, ignorance with strength.
So those who are killing people, those who are real terrorists and murderers like Putin and his gang they are calling us, those who have been advocating peaceful transition for democracy in Russia, terrorists.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Thanks to Garry Kasparov for his perspective on that.
And warning: water cannon and heavy ships colliding. Details on this dangerous confrontation at sea and what led up to it?
[01:39:52]
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VAUSE: Well CNN reported Wednesday, the Haitian prime minister Ariel Henry is actually in Puerto Rico. His exact whereabouts still seems to be something of a mystery.
All this happening while the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince is under attack by armed gangs carrying out systematic, well-coordinated attacks on police stations, as well as the police academy and the airport.
Now we're hearing from the gang leader known as "Barbecue", who says Haiti will suffer a genocide if the prime minister remains in power.
CNN's David Culver, who recently returned from Haiti, has more details.
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DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A major escalation of gang violence is taking Haiti hostage. Scenes like this playing out in Port-au- Prince Wednesday. Banks looted with ATMs smashed open, people scrambling to gather whatever they can.
Several police stations bombed out by powerful gangs who now freely stroll through the streets. The rising anger directed towards prime minister Ariel Henry.
One gang leader in the capital, threatening that if Henry does not step down, it will mean genocide for the Haitian people. And it is most often the people who pay the price.
We were in Haiti just before this recent surge in violence, people venting to us their frustrations, wanting Henry to go and barricading their neighborhoods to stop would-be gang kidnappers.
Perhaps the biggest indicator of dysfunction comes from the top. All of this happening while, a major mystery looms where exactly is Prime Minister Henry?
He was last seen last week signing an agreement in Kenya, securing the deployment of Kenyan police officers to Haiti, expected to arrive any day now.
The "Miami Herald" says, Henry then boarded a flight that went first to the U.S. and then on toward Haiti's island neighbor, the Dominican Republic, for an indefinite stopover. But officials in the D.R. blocked his arrival. Instead Henry's his plane went on to Puerto Rico. The "Miami Herald" reporting that Henry was mid-flight when the Biden
administration asked him to agree to a new transitional government and resign. The White House, pushing back on that.
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We are definitely not pushing the prime minister to resign. That is not what we're doing, but we have underscored that now is the time to finalize a political accord to help set Haiti on a path to a better future.
CULVER: Where henry he is now is not clear, nor is the direction of his country, which is increasingly under the tightening grip of gangs.
David Culver, CNN -- New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Well it's foreign affairs day at the National People's congress in Beijing. And that meant foreign affairs minister Wang Yi answered questions from foreign reporters at something that which looks suspiciously like a news conference.
[01:44:48]
He addressed issues about Taiwan and tensions in the South China Sea, also Chinas struggling economy remains a bit of a talker as well.
CNN's Kristie Lu Stout live for us in Hong Kong. So at that news conference, he also talked about the China-U.S. relations which have been up and down, warm and cold in recent years. But he had a couple of interesting things to say, put it that way.
KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, he had some pretty choice words, John. Wang Yi accused the United States of suppressing China to the point of reaching quote, "bewildering levels of unfathomable absurdity," unquote.
While speaking on the sidelines of the National People's Congress today, Wang also said that China opposes all acts of power and bullying. In questions with reporters earlier today, questions that were vetted, Wang commented on the fractious relationship between U.S. and China. He called for mutual respect he acknowledged that there's been some improvement in relations since recent summits, but he also said, this. Take a listen.
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WANG YI, CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTER: But It has to be pointed out that U.S. misperception to what China continues and U.S. promises are not truly fulfilled.
The U.S. has been devising various tactics to suppress China and kept lengthening its unilateral sanctions list, reaching bewildering levels of unfathomable absurdity.
(END VIDEO CLIP) STOUT: Choice words there. Now the U.S. and China are at odds over a number of issues including (INAUDIBLE) walking interests sanctions and access to technology, as well as in South China Sea and Taiwan.
Now on the South China Sea, Wang said that China will take justified actions to defend its rights there. He said that China has been exercising a "high degree of restraint", unquote, even after the Philippines this week accused Chinese vessels of dangerous maneuvers, something that a CNN team witnessed and filmed in contested waters.
Now in Taiwan and that issue once said that China will continue to strive for peaceful reunification. And Xi Jinping on Wednesday, he also used those words. He called for peaceful reunification while rallying for quote, "patriots to reunify China".
This is interesting. According to state-run Xinhua. It quoted China's leaders saying that he was urging a political group at the NPC this week, he said, let's bring it up, unite all patriots from home and abroad in and out of Taiwan to "step up opposition against Taiwan independence, expand support for national reunification and duly advance the peaceful reunification of China," unquote. Now, she is calling for peaceful unification. And Wang Yi at a time when the Chinese economy is ailing and in a bid to boost tourism. We heard from Wang Yi today, he announced a visa exemption to six additional countries, including Switzerland, Ireland, Hungary, Austria, Belgium, and Luxembourg.
This is on the pilot basis. It's going to start from march 14 and John, the United States is not on that list. Back to you.
VAUSE: Unfortunate.
Kristie, thank you. Kristie Lu Stout, live for us there in Hong Kong. And as Kristie mentioned, a CNN crew was witnessing firsthand what appears to be some kind of China's restraint in the South China Sea.
That was Ivan Watson who spent two days on border a Philippine coast guard ship and explains how this particular dispute began. And why these ongoing confrontation in one of the world's biggest shipping zones could spiral into a global conflict.
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IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Water cannons and the collision of heavy ships.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Philippine vessel, this is China Coast Guard.
WATSON: CNN getting a rare chance to witness the David and Goliath confrontation between the Philippines and China in the South China Sea.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are going to curtail your behavior.
WATSON: The Chinese ships make their move at dawn, outnumbering and swarming a small convoy from the Philippines. We have a very good view of a large Chinese coast guard ship. You can
see it written on the side of the vessel and it is currently steaming I would say maybe two stone throws away from this Philippines coast guard ship.
And that's not all. Look over to the starboard side here. There is another Chinese coast guard ship right here. Not far away, another Chinese ship collides with another Philippine ship. Fortunately, no one's hurt.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You are sailing within the Philippine Exclusive economic zone. What is your intention, over?
WATSON: I'm aboard. The BRP Cabra, a Philippine coast guard ship. Its mission, escort two, resupply boats to the Second Thomas Shoal a teardrop-shaped reef claimed by both the Philippines and China even though it's clearly much closer to Philippines territory.
[01:49:47]
WATSON: For more than 20 years, China ignore were competing claims from smaller countries, occupying and eventually building man-made islands on top of several contested reefs and shoals.
In 1999 an unusual step from the Philippines. It grounded the Sierra Madre, a rusting World War II era ship on Second Thomas Shoal. Filipino marines have been guarding it ever since.
Our convoy is supposed to resupply those marines. But a much larger ship swerved dangerously close to the BRP Cabra and eventually pulls in front stopping it in its tracks.
Meanwhile, this resupply boat doesn't stand a chance.
That little vote in front is the Philippines resupply boat and it is currently being pursued by 1, 2, 3 -- at least 4 Chinese ships.
They blast the boat with water cannons shattering windows and likely injuring four service members on board forcing the crew to abort their mission. The Chinese fleet includes what looked like civilian vessels.
We're currently blocked and surrounded by what looked like ordinary fishing boats that are flying Chinese flags. And they're working in tandem with the Chinese coast guard.
They appear to be members of China's maritime militia a way for Beijing to project power here in the South China Sea.
Beijing now accuses the Philippines of being dishonest and deliberately stirring up trouble.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Philippines rights infringing and provocative attempts will not succeed.
WATSON: but the Philippines remains defiant.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If the hope of China is to weaken the Philippine resolve, they were will be sorely disappointed.
WATSON: The night before the confrontation, we steamed past a U.S. Navy ship, the USS Mobile apparently being shadowed from a distance by this Chinese navy ship and helicopter.
A looming question. Would the U.S. come to the help of its mutual defense treaty ally, the Philippines if tensions escalate further with China -- owner of the world's largest navy.
Ivan Watson, CNN -- on the South China Sea.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: After that skirmish at sea, the Philippines accused China of executing dangerous maneuvers. China claims it took control measures against the Philippine vessel.
After the break, record setting temperatures keep coming as the climate crisis takes hold. The very latest details in a moment.
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VAUSE: The woman in charge of guns and ammunition for the movie "Rust" has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter after a fatal shooting onset during filming in 2021. Hannah Gutierrez Reed mistakenly loaded a live round into a prop gun for Alec Baldwin during rehearsal. When the gun fired cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed and the director was wounded. Gutierrez Reed now faces up to 18 months in prison and a $5,000 fine.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JASON BOWLES, LAWYER FOR HANNAH GUTIERREZ REED: We're obviously disappointed in then verdict, but we are disappointed in a lot of things that happened in that courtroom. We plan to appeal.
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[01:54:47]
VAUSE: Alec Baldwin is also charged with involuntary manslaughter. His trial set for July. And he has pleaded not guilty and insists he never pulled the trigger.
Climate scientists say last month was the world's hottest February on record, more than 1.7 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial levels. Ocean temperatures were also the highest on record.
And now more details from CNN's Chad Myers.
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CHAD MYERS, CNN WEATHER CORRESPONDENT: According to the very latest press release from Copernicus Climate Change Service, February of 2024 globally was the warmest February on record. And really to no surprise. It was 1.77 degrees C above pre-industrial levels. And in fact, there were some days at the beginning of February that were more than two degrees C above normal globally.
Again, we're talking land and sea and all of that and look at this. This is the warmest sea surface temperatures we have ever experienced here.
Look how big of a gap that is too. That's (INAUDIBLE) degrees higher than any time we've ever seen that we've been measuring ocean surface temperatures.
Something that's disturbing for the Atlantic hurricane season is this big red area here, the warmest on record for this time of year for that eastern part of the Atlantic. It is so warm that there was a very rare tropical system that moved into Brazil over their summertime, of course, but still very rare for that to happen.
Moving farther on down to the south because we know it's the southern hemisphere summer we did have a near record for Antarctic sea ice, a near record low, but not quite still about the third lowest.
But look how close that was to the bottom of this scale. So not much ice down there either. And now with sunshine, the northern hemisphere is starting to heat up as well.
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VAUSE: Las Vegas, mecca for tourists and other loons as well. The Bellagio Hotel briefly paused it's famous fountain show Tuesday when a rare bird was actually seen taking bit of a dip. It's the yellow- billed loon, a migratory bird generally found in coastal regions according going to wildlife officials.
Well, it was safely captured the next day, sent it to more suitable, quieter location.
Bye-bye loon.
Thank you for watching. I'm John Vause.
Please stay with us. CNN NEWSROOM continues after a short break with my friend and colleague, Rosemary Church.
I will see you next week. Have a good weekend.
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