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Biden to Deliver his Last SOTU before November Polls; Hamas to Continue Negotiations as Israeli War Cabinet is in London with British Officials for Ceasefire Talks; Ukrainian President and Greek PM Spared from a Missile Attack; Children Now In the Brink of Extreme Hunger and Famine in Gaza as Aid Supplies Running Out; U.S. Calls Out Haiti Leader for a Transitional Council as Violence Worsens; February 2024 is the Warmest on Record. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired March 07, 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]
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world and everyone streaming us on CNN Max. I'm Rosemary Church.
Just ahead, the clock is counting down to what could be Joe Biden's final State of the Union address as president.
And it comes as a likely rematch with former President Donald Trump is starting to take shape. Plus --
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VOLKER TURK, UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS: This situation is beyond untenable for the people of Haiti.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Violence spirals out of control in Haiti with armed gangs taking over police stations in the capital. I will speak with a Pulitzer Prize finalist who has reported extensively on Haiti about the chaos on the ground.
And Earth just experienced its warmest February on record. We will take you to the CNN Weather Center to break down this winter's heat waves.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Rosemary Church.
CHURCH: Good to have you with us.
President Joe Biden is set to deliver his State of the Union address in the coming hours before a highly polarized U.S. Congress. He will make his case to American voters on why he is the best choice heading into the November election, especially since it's set to be a rematch with Donald Trump. Both men are turning up the heat on each other in the wake of Super Tuesday. President Biden says Americans have a choice to move forward or allow Trump to, quote, "drag us backwards into the chaos".
Meantime, Donald Trump claimed, quote, "If we lose this election, we're not going to have a country". One thing Trump doesn't have to worry about any longer is rival Nikki Haley, who formally suspended her presidential bid on Wednesday. She told supporters she wants Americans to have their voices heard and she has no regrets. Haley did not endorse Donald Trump, but she didn't attack him either. She simply said it's his turn to convince voters he is the right man for the job.
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NIKKI HALEY, FORMER U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: In all likelihood, Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee when our party convention meets in July. I congratulate him and wish him well. I wish anyone well who would be America's president. Our country is too precious to let our differences divide us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: CNN's Jeff Zeleny details the road ahead for President Biden and Trump after Haley's departure and the challenges each candidate will face heading into November.
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JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF U.S. 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 coalitions.
Nikki Haley, the last standing Republican rival, suspended her campaign without offering an endorsement.
HALEY: 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 bending 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's 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, and calling her names isn't going to help him win.
ZELENY: Do you worry that some of her supporters may go to Biden?
UNKNOWN: Maybe third party.
ZELENY (voice-over): Eight months before the general election, the Republican Party is rallying around Trump.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: November 5th 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.
[03:05:08]
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 a task of uniting Democrats, like in Minnesota on Tuesday, where Uncommitted received 19 percent of the vote.
With a general election contest finally taking shape, history will be tested anew 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 wild cards 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's no modern day historical guide for the campaign that is to come, but it starts now.
Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Larry Sabato joins me now. He is the director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. Always a pleasure to have you with us.
LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR OF CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: And it's always fun to be here.
CHURCH: So President Joe Biden is set to deliver his State of the Union address tonight as wars rage in Gaza and Ukraine and just eight months away from the general election. What can we expect to hear? And what does the president need to say to counter his many critics? And, of course, the string of new polls showing he would lose against Donald Trump in November?
SABATO: Well, fortunately for President Biden, he doesn't believe those polls. I don't think it will depress his presentation. And that's important. Style and substance are important in a State of the Union address, especially one being given in an election year with the election about eight months off.
This is late for a State of the Union address as well. They used to be given always in January, occasionally early February.
But this is helpful to Biden because it is closer to the election.
Stylistically, he's got to show energy. He has got to dispel some of what he would say is false impression about age.
And he can do that. He's certainly done a good job before, as he did last year. He's really shown in that State of the Union address partly by responding spontaneously to Republican catcalls.
He's been around politics a long time, and he knows how to do that. As do British politicians.
So the style is important. And he certainly has to focus on issues that really matter to people in their lives. That's the substance of it.
He certainly doesn't want to get into attacks on Donald Trump. He can make contrasts with the Republican Party. That's easy enough to do. I'm sure he will focus on immigration, reminding the audience, which is quite large, the largest he'll have until he's inaugurated again.
If he gets that second inauguration, he needs to remind people that he did have a solution, a bipartisan solution too much of the immigration problem. And one person who happens to be his opponent now and was his opponent in 2020 made a telephone call to Republicans in Congress, and instantly the solution died.
So that -- that's important to point out to people. I suspect he will do it once or twice.
CHURCH: And I do want to bring up those poll numbers again, because you say that Joe Biden doesn't take any notice of them, but are they sending panic through the ranks of the Democratic Party, and if so, what is the plan to turn the fortunes of Joe Biden around?
SABATO: It's long been said by Democrats that Democratic activists are bedwetters, and I'm not going to go that far, but I would say they tend to be nervous, much more nervous than I've always found Republican activists to be. And are Democrats nervous right now? Absolutely. Even if Biden were
ahead by 20 points, they'd find something to be nervous about.
But it's pretty clear that Biden has ground to make up. He has not communicated well on many occasions. He hasn't gotten across to people what he's really accomplished. And it's quite a long list. So this is a great opportunity for him to try to do that.
And when you accomplish something in a speech as -- as public as the State of the Union address, you can do something about those poll numbers, too.
[03:10:01]
CHURCH: And meantime, in the wake of the Super Tuesday results and Nikki Haley dropping out of the race, Donald Trump is solidifying his position as the presumptive GOP nominee for president, with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell endorsing him, despite years of tension between the two men and the rest of the GOP uniting behind him. Poll numbers appear to show Trump's support soaring. But what will Haley's supporters likely do in November? Will they vote for Joe Biden or Donald Trump or perhaps not at all, with Haley saying it's up to Trump to earn her supporters' votes?
SABATO: Well, there are going to be some Haley supporters in all of those baskets.
A slice of the Haley voters will, in fact, vote for Biden. I don't think it's a majority, but maybe a quarter or maybe 20 percent, something like that.
And you'll have more than that ending up in Trump's column again. And you say, well, how can that be true? She said so many negative things about Trump. And the answer is we live in a very partisan, polarized era.
And so people gradually return to the house of their mothers and fathers, the party I.D. that maybe they grew up with or adopted in college or shortly thereafter.
It changes for some people, but it doesn't change for most people. What people claim they're going to do in March about their vote in October or November, frequently they don't follow through on that. They change their minds. They don't recognize that now, but they will toward the end.
So Haley herself, I don't know whether she'll end up endorsing Trump. If she has a political future in the Republican Party, she'll probably have to.
And I must say, all of the Republicans, many of whom should know better, end up caving. Some of them even grovel before Trump. It doesn't help them. It hurts them, at least those politicians who do it. But they do it anyway. It's the path of least resistance.
CHURCH: Larry Sabato, great to have you back with us. I Appreciate it.
SABATO: Always enjoy it, Rosemary.
CHURCH: Tonight, U.S. President Joe Biden will deliver his State of the Union address. CNN's coverage gets underway at 8 p.m. Eastern Time, 1 a.m. in London.
There is new urgency for a ceasefire in Gaza as people are starving to death. Hamas said on Wednesday it will continue participating in negotiations to reach a ceasefire. The militant group accused Israel of evading the obligations of the agreement being discussed.
Ceasefire and hostage talks were among the topics discussed when an Israeli war cabinet minister met with senior British officials in London on Wednesday. Israeli Minister Benny Gantz thanked the U.K. for its efforts to secure the release of hostages. He also defended Israel's strategy to root out Hamas. He says Israel's actions in Gaza follow international law.
The U.K. is among the many countries calling on Israel to allow more aid into Gaza amid a spiraling humanitarian crisis and rising hunger in the besieged enclave.
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron says he made clear the steps Israel needs to take to get the aid flowing, saying, quote, "we are still not seeing improvements on the ground. This must change".
U.S. Central Command says it conducted strikes on two drones in a Houthi-controlled area of Yemen because they presented an imminent threat to U.S. Navy ships and merchant vessels in the region. The strikes came hours after Houthi missiles killed three crew members on a commercial ship in the Gulf of Aden on Wednesday. We are learning the two of them were Filipino.
According to U.S. officials, these are the first deaths since the Iran-backed Houthis began their missile attacks in response to Israel's war in Gaza. U.S. Central Command says it was the fifth anti- ship ballistic missile fired by Houthis in the past two days. One attack struck and damaged a Swiss-owned container ship in the Gulf of Aden on Monday.
For more on this, we turn to CNN's Scott McLean, who joins us live from Istanbul in Turkey. So, Scott, what more are you learning about this deadly attack?
SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, Rosemary, the ship is called True Confidence, and it is a bulk carrier. That means it's carrying something like salt or cement or grain, things like that.
And bulk carriers, along with tanker ships, make up the majority of ships that are still using the Red Sea to transit their cargo. Many container ships, the vast majority of them, are now taking the longer way around Africa.
And according to the Houthis, at least, this ship ignored calls to change course. Now, Ambry, a maritime security company, says that there are indications that True Confidence actually did change course before going adrift.
[03:15:10]
The Houthis say that this ship was accurately targeted based on American ownership. But a U.S. defense official tells CNN that it wasn't American at all. It was previously owned by an American company, but it's since been sold to a Liberian company. So, this was a mistake in their telling.
The Houthis, we know, of course, have been targeting British, American, Israeli ships in an effort to put pressure on the Israeli government to end its war in Gaza.
Right now, and of course, the U.S. has tried to step up attacks on Houthi targets to try to make shipping safer. But they also recognize that despite their best efforts, they still have a pretty sophisticated and large arsenal of weaponry at which to attack commercial ships that is supplied by Iran.
And the industry itself, while they are trying to make things safer, of course, it is pretty difficult to prevent a kind of attack like this. Armed guards, barbed wire on the ship are not going to prevent something like an anti-ship missile or aren't going to do much to deter an anti-ship missile hitting your boat. Rosemary?
CHURCH: And, Scott, what more can you tell us about the meeting Benny Gantz had with British leaders on Wednesday?
MCLEAN: Yeah, so David Cameron, the U.S. foreign secretary, says that this was a tough but necessary message for the Israelis to hear. Benny Gantz is a member of the Israeli War Cabinet, also Netanyahu's chief political rival.
And this message was about pressuring Israel into providing more aid, opening up more aid corridors, and also getting to a humanitarian pause, and also about Israel's international obligations. And I want to read you what the statement from David Cameron said afterwards, said, quote, "as the occupying power of Gaza, Israel has the legal responsibility to ensure aid is available for civilians. That responsibility has consequences, including when we as the U.K. assess whether Israel is compliant with international humanitarian law".
So this is clearly raising questions about Israel's compliance with international law. This is seemingly contrasting, though, with the message from Benny Gantz' National Unity Party after the meeting.
Gantz leads that party, by the way, which said, Gantz also noted in the meetings Israel's commitment to complete the just and necessary goal of removing the threat of Hamas and ending its rule in the Strip, while its actions are carried out in accordance with international law.
It's important to note, though, Rosemary, that back in January, David Cameron said that he was worried that Israel had breached international law and said that the advice he had gotten at the time is that they were compliant, but that there were serious questions that still were outstanding.
Last month, he said that Israel must follow international law not only on the battlefield, but also when it comes to providing civilians enough food and water. And if they don't, that is a breach.
He also said just this week that they are now at the point in Gaza of famine and preventable disease and that people are dying of hunger. So he's not explicitly saying that Israel has broken international law, but we can read between the lines of what he's saying. This is one more tactic, it seems, by the U.K. to try to pile some pressure on the Israelis to do more to help people in Gaza. But it is still an open question whether Israel is going to listen. Rosemary.
CHURCH: All right. Our thanks to Scott McLean, joining us live from Istanbul.
And still to come, warnings of genocide in Haiti from a gang leader using a wave of violence in an attempt to push the prime minister out of power. Details coming up after the break.
And the Greek prime minister got a terrifying firsthand taste of war, how he and Ukraine's president escaped a Russian missile attack. That's next.
Plus, the Kremlin's propaganda machine goes into overdrive to bolster President Putin's image ahead of upcoming elections. Back with that and more in just a moment.
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CHURCH: Ukraine's president and the Greek prime minister narrowly missed being hit by a Russian missile on Wednesday. It happened while Mr. Zelenskyy was showing his counterpart around the port city of Odessa.
The Greek leader says they were getting into their cars when they heard a big explosion. According to a source, the convoy felt the impact of the strike just 500 meters away and saw a huge mushroom cloud of smoke. Ukrainian officials say at least five people were killed and several more injured in the attack. Mr. Zelenskyy says it's more proof that Russia acts with disregard for life.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We saw this strike today. You can see who we are dealing with. They don't care where they strike. I know that there are victims today. I don't know all the details yet, but I know that there are dead and wounded. We need to defend ourselves first and foremost. The best way to do that is with an air defense system.
(END VIDEO CLIP) CHURCH: Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to cruise to re-election later this month. Independent observers say the presidential vote, which begins on March 15th, is a rubber stamp to give him at least six more years in office.
Despite that, the Kremlin's propaganda machine is still working to prop up Mr. Putin's image. Clare Sebastian reports.
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CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Flying into a fifth term, the war of Putin's nuclear-capable strategic bomber almost as loud as the propaganda machine propelling him forward.
UNKNOWN (translated): Vladimir Putin on board the most powerful, the biggest, the fastest strategic bomber.
SEBASTIAN (voice-over): This is Putin's desired pre-election image. Strong, vigorous, calling the shots in his so-called special military operation, and letting his chief propagandists campaign on his behalf on state TV.
UNKNOWN (translated): 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. But 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.
SEBASTIAN (voice-over): One popular talk show played this split screen on loop. Putin boarding his bomber, Biden tripping up the steps of Air Force One. News reports on the war in Ukraine regularly showing off the wreckage of Western weapons. There's even a discarded Starlink antenna.
Boris Akunin, one of Russia's most popular modern authors, says the West needs to take note of this.
BORIS AKUNIN, RUSSIAN WRITER: Putin benefits from this picture of the outside world as a something hostile so that people would unite around him. When the war started, a lot of Russians are immigrated then they met with hostility, a lot of them have to return, and every single case has been used by Putin's propaganda to strengthen this idea that we are together. We are a besieged camp.
SEBASTIAN (voice-over): 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.
[03:25:07]
And yet his death was something state media temporarily found itself unable to ignore.
First discrediting his legacy.
UNKNOWN (translated): He was a Nazi.
SEBASTIAN (voice-over): Then blaming the West.
UNKNOWN (translated): For them, this is excellent timing, we have elections coming up. Support for the president is off the charts.
SEBASTIAN (voice-over): Finally, turning on his widow, Yulia.
UNKNOWN (translated): We looked at the life of the queen of the opposition, during the time he was in prison.
UNKNOWN (translated): 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 (voice-over): For Akunin, Navalny's death is more than just a propaganda challenge. It signals propaganda may now be taking a back seat to a much blunter instrument of control, outright repression.
AKUNIN: By killing Alexei Navalny, they lost the last chance of trying to pretend that they were legal, decent, law-abiding. Intimidation is now going to be the main instrument.
SEBASTIAN (voice-over): Clare Sebastian CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: The Kremlin has called accusations the 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.
The widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is calling for nationwide protests during the upcoming presidential election. In a social media post on Wednesday, Yulia Navalnaya called Russia's leadership a cult.
And she urged Russians to show up at the polls at noon local time on March 17, the final 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. Navalnaya also praised the thousands of people who attended her husband's funeral last week.
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YULIA NAVALNAYA, WIDOW OF ALEXEI NAVALNY (through translator): You are the best, the bravest, the most honest people of our country, the people who give me hope. It's you on Friday, March 1, who stood in a queue for many hours to say goodbye to Alexei. But the next day, there are even more of you. The third day, Sunday, a kilometer-long queue and a mountain of flowers for which the cross is not visible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Navalnaya blames Vladimir Putin for her husband's death at a penal colony in Siberia. The Kremlin denies any involvement.
Still to come, a U.N. official says it's an alarm like no other. Children in Gaza are dying of starvation as supplies run out.
Plus, criminal gangs have violently taken over parts of Haiti's capital. And they're calling for Prime Minister Ariel Henry to step down, just ahead, a conversation about what's at stake for the embattled Caribbean leader.
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[03:30:00]
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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: The international community is racing to address the deepening levels of hunger and suffering in Gaza right now. South Africa is asking the International Court of Justice to take emergency measures against Israel in Gaza, citing widespread starvation.
The request comes on the same day a 15-year-old boy died of malnutrition in Gaza City. The Gaza Health Ministry says the boy is one of at least 20 people who have died from starvation and dehydration since the war began, and it warns famine will claim thousands of lives unless the fighting stops and aid is allowed in. Plans to create a maritime aid corridor at the top of the agenda when the European Commission president visits and meets the president of Cyprus today.
As CNN's Nada Bashir reports, parents are burying their children as hospitals run out of food and supplies, and while these images of their reality are very distressing, the mothers interviewed say they 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. He, like Mila, would not make it.
Others are still just barely holding on, but there is no telling how long they will survive.
Standing beside Mila's body, Dr. Ahmed Salem 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 Mohamed says he walks for about a mile every day to collect water for his family.
You seem sad. Why? This journalist asks 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.
[03:35:03]
And as Israel's ground offensive threatens to push further into the strip's 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.
(END VIDEOTAPE) And last hour, I spoke with Abeer Etafa, the senior Middle East spokesperson for the World Food Program. And I asked her what's her greatest concern right now for the people of Gaza. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ABEER ETAFA, SR. MIDDLE EAST SPOKESPERSON, WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME: We already have reports from WHO and from people in the hospital seeing that this is becoming a trend. They are seeing more and more children who are dying because of malnutrition and because of hunger.
We have assessments that are ongoing in many parts of Gaza. And I think we are expecting some numbers soon that will show that we have famine conditions in many parts of Gaza.
Now, the situation is extremely difficult because of the huge limitations in access, in getting food and the right supplies inside some parts of Gaza.
It's extremely difficult at the moment. And we need high volumes of food delivered to Gaza every day by road. We need more entry points into Gaza, including from the north, not just from the south. And the use of ports like Ashdod, safe and unhindered access is critical. And it's the only way that can save lives. And we are in a race against time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: As the deadly fighting between Israel and Hamas continues, so too does a dire humanitarian crisis. And CNN has gathered a list of vetted organizations that are on the ground responding. You can find details on how you can help at a special section of our website, cnn.com/impact.
Turning now to Sudan, where the civil war is triggering the world's largest hunger crisis, according to the head of the U.N.'s World Food Program. It says 90 percent of Sudan's population faces emergency levels of hunger. Many are trapped in areas that are difficult for aid groups to reach. Due to the relentless violence between the army and paramilitary rapid support forces, we're told some 25 million people face deteriorating food security, not just in Sudan, but also in neighboring South Sudan and Chad.
As violence surges across Haiti, the U.S. is calling on Prime Minister Ariel Henry to urgently establish a presidential transitional council, which will clear the way to hold elections. But the gang leader known as Barbecue says Haiti will suffer a genocide if the prime minister remains in power.
CNN's David Culver recently returned from Haiti and has more on the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID CULVER, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): 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'll 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 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.
[03:39:57]
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 (voice-over); Where Henry 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)
CHURCH: Jacqueline Charles is the Caribbean correspondent for the Miami Herald. She joins me now from Miami. Good to have you with us.
JACQUELINE CHARLES, CARIBBEAN CORRESPONDENT, THE MIAMI HERALD: Thanks for having me.
CHURCH: So Haiti is on the brink of civil war, the U.N. saying the situation there is untenable, with violent gangs controlling most of the capital, threatening to overthrow the government and warning of genocide if Prime Minister Ariel Henry does not resign.
He was appointed, of course, after the 2021 assassination of the country's president. So how likely is it that the prime minister is being pressured by the international community right now to step down?
CHARLES: Well, at the "Miami Herald", we actually broke an exclusive story that said that the United States and the Caribbean community are both pressuring Prime Minister Ariel Henry to step down. And we saw that the White House and the NSC are basically trying to deny this story.
But other reporters have matched the story. And today, again, we talked to a senior administration official who basically confirmed that there is a proposal that has been presented to the prime minister.
And that proposal, which we have basically will lead to his eventual resignation after leading some sort of transition government in place.
CHURCH: Interesting, because, of course, publicly, the U.S. says it's not pressuring Prime Minister Henry to resign, but does say that now is the time to finalize a political accord to help set Haiti on a path to a better future. That's the official word. What's the political plan and who would take over from Henry if he steps down?
CHARLES: Well, you know, that's also a very interesting question, because today the head of CARICOM, the chairman who happens to be the president of Guyana, he released a video in which he says that after three days of round-the-clock discussions with Haitian stakeholders, they still have not arrived at a consensus, and that they are still discussing and trying to find agreements over some of these details.
I mean, under this plan that is being proposed to Prime Minister Ariel Henry, you would have a new government structure, some sort of a transitional government with a presidential panel that has the powers of a president that would then bring on a new prime minister.
And then Ariel Henry will step down, either when this new prime minister is named or this multinational security support mission that the United States and the U.N. are backing when it arrives. But we do not even know when that deployment will happen. And as you mentioned, Haiti right now is on the brink of collapse.
CHURCH: And that's the problem, isn't it? Because it's going to take time to put a plan in place for the transition of power from Henry to any other alternative. So what happens in the interim period while the country appears to be on the verge of collapse and anarchy?
CHARLES: Well, and that's the concern. Even among people who are not fans of Ariel Henry, their concern is that this move at this particular time, especially when a gang leader is saying that if you don't remove him, there's going to be civil war and genocide, that it sends the wrong message. And it basically says that the gangs have won. Meanwhile, we're in a situation today where international flights have
been suspended, gangs have been circled the airport and we do have the police that are there. But even U.S. officials are saying they're not sure how long the police can hold on.
And they're even surprised that they have managed to fight back this long, given the fact that that force is so small and it's outgunned and it doesn't always have ammunition or even proper weapon.
CHURCH: And of course, the other issue at stake is Henry's future. He is currently in Puerto Rico, we understand. Where will he likely go next, because Haiti doesn't appear to be an option, or does it not matter if he's being pressured to step aside anyhow?
CHARLES: Well, Ariel Henry wants to go back to Haiti. This is somebody who has lived abroad. He's the country's top neurosurgeon, so he had options and he chose to remain there.
And he wants to go back there. What happened was he was on his way to Haiti via the Dominican Republic in a charter plane. He was not allowed to land. And so they had to go someplace and they decided to go to Puerto Rico.
But at this point, I have not heard anything otherwise that he has no intention on going back. But international diplomats say that if he goes back, he needs to have a plan and he also needs to have security.
CHURCH: Jacqueline Charles, I appreciate you joining us. Many thanks.
CHARLES: Thank you.
[03:45:01]
CHURCH: Scientists have published alarming new climate change studies. Coming up, the record-setting temperatures warming our land and sea.
And China's top diplomat lashes out of the United States, accusing Washington of imposing a bewildering level of trade curbs on the world's second largest economy. More on his comments, next.
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CHURCH: Day three of China's biggest political gathering of the year has turned to foreign affairs. As Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with reporters during the National People's Congress earlier, China's top diplomat talked about Taiwan and tensions in the South China Sea and lashed out at the United States, saying Washington's tactics to suppress China have reached what he called bewildering levels of unfathomable absurdity.
CNN's Kristie Lu Stout joins me now from Hong Kong with more on this. Good to see you, Kristie. So with foreign affairs in the spotlight, Wang Yi's comments on U.S.-China relations raised eyebrows. What did he say?
KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. It's quite a mouthful what he said, right? Foreign Minister Wang Yi accused the U.S. of suppressing China to, quote, "bewildering levels of unfathomable absurdity", unquote.
Wang added that China also opposes all acts of bullying. Now this happened during questions that were vetted with reporters at the National People's Congress, the annual political gathering is taking place this week in Beijing.
And Wang made his comments when asked about the US-China relationship. He called for mutual respect. He acknowledged that, yes, there have been some improvement in relations since recent summits, including the APEC summit in San Francisco.
And he also said this. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WANG YI, CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): But it has to be pointed out that U.S. misperception toward 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)
LU STOUT: Now, the U.S. and China have been locking horns over an array of issues, including what Wang Yi just mentioned, sanctions, access to technology, especially sensitive technologies like semiconductors, but also other issues as well, like the South China Sea, Taiwan.
And in regards to the South China Sea, Wang said that China will take justified actions to defend its rights there. He also said that China has been exercising, in his words, a high degree of restraint.
This even after the Philippines this week accused Chinese vessels of dangerous maneuvers, something that a CNN team that Ivan Watson witnessed and filmed on camera in contested waters this week.
[03:50:02]
Now, in regards to Taiwan, Wang Yi said that China will continue to strive for peaceful reunification. Xi Jinping also, in the last day or so, called for peaceful reunification while rallying patriots to help reunify China. Now, according to Xinhua, this is what she said. He urged his audience to 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 jointly advance the peaceful reunification of China, unquote.
Rosemary, back to you.
CHURCH: All right. Thanks to Kristie Lu Stout, joining us live from Hong Kong.
Well, the earth has reached a grim new climate change milestone. Scientists say last month was the world's hottest February on record, more than 1.7 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial levels. CNN's Chad Myers has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: 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 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.
It's 0.2 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 was a 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.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: The Paris Olympics will be the first to hold an opening ceremony along a river, but the number of attendees will be smaller than expected. We'll explain.
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CHURCH: Attendance for the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics will be cut in half due to security concerns. French authorities originally boasted that some 600,000 people would be able to attend the festivities along the Seine River. Now it will be closer to 300,000. Keep in mind, that's still about four times the capacity of the country's main stadium, the Stade de France.
The French interior minister said Paris is facing no specific terrorist threat. However, airspace around the city will be closed during the ceremony and an anti-terrorist security perimeter will be in place. [03:54:58]
A white shirt that stole the hearts of a generation and helped turn Colin Firth into a heartthrob has sold at auction for a swoon-inducing $25,000.
(VIDEO PLAYING)
There it is. Firth wore the legendary white button-down while playing Mr. Darcy in the BBC adaptation of "Pride and Prejudice". The scene where he emerged from a lake swim only to bump into his demure love interest as the wet garment clung to his chest is one many people will never forget. The linen shirt was expected to fetch close to $13,000 at auction, but fans of Mr. Darcy drove the price up to nearly double that.
Well from "Pride and Prejudice" to "Twilight", March 7 celebrates all the books, characters and stories that have stolen our hearts.
It's World Book Day in the U.K. This year, two lucky book lovers will be able to spend a night celebrating in a remarkable place, the hidden library of St Paul's Cathedral in London. The recently restored library contains books dating back from the 1700s to modern-day novels.
Airbnb is hosting the special listing. On March 15th, two guests will get a tour, dinner and signed copies of unreleased new novels. It will cost less than $9 and you can try to grab those tickets on March 12.
Well she has the honor of Dame Hood, an Academy Award and now her very own Barbie doll.
Actress Helen Mirren is now the proud owner of a Barbie created in her likeness. The doll features the same look Mirren donned on the red carpet at last year's Cannes Film Festival. She's holding the Oscar she won for her role in the 2006 movie "The Queen". The star who narrated the hit film "Barbie" said she was blown away by the doll.
Toymaker Mattel created it for the actress as part of a series of eight to mark International Women's Day on Friday. Other stars who received their own dolls include Carly Minogue, Viola Davis and Shania Twain.
And thank you so much for your company. I'm Rosemary Church. Have yourselves a wonderful day. "CNN Newsroom" continues with Max Foster and Bianca Nobilo, next.
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