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CNN International: Biden Takes His Message On The Road After Fiery Speech; Senator Katie Britt Delivers Republican Response; Biden Pushes For Ukraine Aid In State Of The Union Speech. Aired 8-9a ET
Aired March 08, 2024 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:00:00]
CARLOS SUAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sara, the mood out here is one of some hesitation about how the next couple of weeks are going to play out. We expect the biggest crowds to show up despite all of these security measures taking effect this Thursday, or this Thursday, rather, going through the weekend and the rest of the month to be in the second and third week of March.
SARA SIDNER, HOST, "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Carlos Suarez, thank you so much for your reporting. John.
JOHN BERMAN, HOST, "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": This morning, some unexpected political news. George Santos is running for Congress. Yes, that George Santos, the serial fabulist who was expelled from Congress after a series of lies and federal indictments. That George --
RAHEL SOLOMON, HOST, "CNN NEWSROOM": Good morning, and welcome to our viewers all around the world. I'm Rahel Solomon, and this is CNN Newsroom.
Just ahead, U.S. President Joe Biden taking his State of the Union message on the road. We will be live in Washington in just a moment. And the U.S. says that it is planning an emergency aid port on Gaza's coastline. We're going to have the details on this fresh attempt to get desperately needed aid into the territory. Plus, Haiti extending its state of emergency another month, as the country continues to be engulfed in chaos.
Taking their message to the American people, today, the U.S. President, Vice President, First Lady, and second gentleman, all have their backs packed and are hitting the road to sell the message that the President laid out last night in his State of the Union address. Now, with both houses of Congress and millions of American voters watching, Joe Biden delivered a fiery defense of his presidency and an optimistic view of the future in Thursday's night's State of the Union speech, repeatedly ad-libbing at times, providing humorous jabs. President Biden seemed dead set on countering that Republican narrative that he is too old for the job, and he made it clear that he thinks Donald Trump presents an existential threat to American democracy. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We must be honest. The threat to democracy must be defended. My predecessor and some of you here seek to bury the truth about January 6. I will not do that. This is the moment to speak the truth and to bury the lies. Here is the simple truth. You can't love your country only when you win.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: Now, Mr. Biden made a point of never mentioning Donald Trump by name, but he did repeatedly attack his predecessor for policies he called outrageous and dangerous, especially when it comes to reining in Vladimir Putin's aggression.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: Now, my predecessor, a former Republican President, tells Putin, "Do whatever the hell you want." That's a quote. A former President actually said that. Bowing down to a Russian leader, I think it's outrageous. It's dangerous and it's unacceptable. My message to President Putin, who I've known for a long time, is simple. We will not walk away.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: Now, as is the custom, Republicans gave their rebuttal to the State of the Union immediately following Mr. Biden's speech. Senator Katie Britt of Alabama slamming Mr. Biden's policies on the border, the economy and national security. She suggested that his performance did nothing to ease or raise concerns about his age.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. KATIE BRITT (R-AL): Right now, our Commander in Chief is not in command. The free world deserves better than a deterring and diminished leader.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: Senator Britt also said that Joe Biden's policies are directly affecting the daily lives of Americans in a negative way.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRITT: Right now, the American Dream has turned into a nightmare for so many families. The true, unvarnished state of our union begins and ends with this. Our families are hurting. Our country can do better. And you don't have to look any further than the crisis at our southern border to see it. President Biden inherited the most secure border of all time. But, minutes after taking office, he suspended all deportations. He halted construction of the border wall, and he announced a plan to give amnesty to millions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: Now, President Biden's presumptive rival Donald Trump gave his own response in real time via social media. And in a pre-buttal video released before Mr. Biden's speech, Trump touted his own record on the border, claiming that the Biden administration squandered it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When I left office, we gave Joe Biden the most secure border in U.S. history.
[08:04:00]
We gave him Remain in Mexico, very tough to get but I got it, safe third agreements, the asylum ban, Title 42, 571 miles of border wall, rapid deportations and much more. We had the safest border in the history of our country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: President Biden also using his State of the Union speech to ramp up pressure on House Republicans to unblock desperately needed aid for Ukraine.
CNN's Nick Paton Walsh is covering the view from Ukraine and sent us this report from Odessa.
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NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Pretty much the first thing out of the gate by President Joe Biden in a speech laid and otherwise with key domestic issues and the forthcoming campaign against President Trump. Still, Ukraine was the first matter of substance he got to, sounding an extraordinary alarm, frankly, as to the existential crisis for European and possibly U.S. security that Ukraine represents at the moment because of the lack of aids, they are currently getting held up by a Republican-led Congress, making a comparison to his moment on the podium met in 1941 and President Roosevelt back then, referring not subtly, really to Putin as a comparison to Adolf Hitler, suggesting that back in 1941, Hitler was on the march in Europe. Well, now, Putin is on the march in Europe.
And indeed, suggesting that Putin will not stop with Ukraine. He will potentially continue and threaten U.S. allies in Europe. So, stark rhetoric indeed. He referred to the current U.S. plan as not requiring American boots on the ground indeed. If the aid got through to Ukraine, Ukraine hoped they can hold the Russians back there. But, I should point out, 1941 was followed by 1944, where there certainly were U.S. boots on the ground to fight the Nazis and the D-Day landings.
And so, an ominous tone, frankly, by President Biden, hinting at the possibility of wider conflict. I think many Ukrainians will take the gravity of his tone and feel some comforts in how prominently their struggle, their fight featured, but he didn't produce any actual financing for them. There was no new policy behind that speech. And indeed, he sought really to point the finger at Republicans for not providing him the bill he consigned to send the $60 billion over to Ukraine that's so urgently needed. That is causing them to run out of ammunition in the frontlines that we've been seeing over the past week.
So, I think the stark moments certainly in terms of the rhetoric not met necessarily by new policy. Remember, there are some suggestions, may be frozen Russian assets could be used to fund Ukraine. That's not something that's been left upon yet. But, at stark warning about the future ahead, stark words about the threat Putin poses, but also nothing necessarily new in that speech to make Ukrainians wake up this morning and feel that they've somehow got a little stronger in a fight that we've seen them, sadly, look like they're beginning to lose in multiple points.
On the frontline, a resurgent Russia going forwards now, trying to attack the new defensive positions that Ukraine has put for itself in the East after they withdrew from the town of Avdiivka two weeks ago now. And so, a very tough fight here for Ukraine. The speech reminding the world how important it is, but not necessarily getting that money to them any faster.
Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Odessa, Ukraine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SOLOMON: Our thanks to Nick for that report.
Let's get some more reaction to the speech here domestically. Let's bring in CNN Congressional Correspondent Lauren Fox. Lauren, of course, as you know, the reaction that you seem to see a lot this morning is it was a fiery speech. Walk us through what we heard from him last night.
LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. I mean, the President wasn't leaving anything to chance in that room. He knew that this was the pivotal moment for his campaign. And he went in not only as the President, but as candidate Biden, as he was trying to not just convince the Democrats that he has got this. He knows how to campaign. He has the rigor and vigor to continue going in the months ahead, but also to point the finger at Republicans. I'm not going to be so easy to beat. Specifically, he called on House Republicans for not putting on the floor a package to aid Ukraine.
You saw him going after them for the overturning of Roe v. Wade, really laying out the case for what has transpired, including making it more difficult for people in Alabama to get IVF treatment in the wake of that court decision in the state. He also walked through in detail what the Senate bipartisan immigration deal would have done and what is not being done at the southern border because it was not passed out of the Senate nor was it passed in the House of Representatives. If you remember, Rahel, that bill died a very quick death after House leaders made apparently clear that they were not going to put it on the floor, no matter what, even if it got out of the Senate. That was the final death knell.
So, you saw several moments where Biden was poking fun at Republicans.
[08:10:00] At one point, he was ribbing them for some times going back home and touting infrastructure projects in their district, even though many of those same House Republicans didn't actually vote for the underlying bill, a notable moment when he essentially said, if you don't want the money, you can send it back. I'd be happy to take it. And Pete Buttigieg, his Transportation Secretary, smiling a huge smile there. I think that it was really a moment for him to try to show that the campaign has begun. Rahel.
SOLOMON: Yeah. That was a really interesting moment where it seems like he was trying to poke fun at the hypocrisy, at least, of what he calls some of the GOP members.
Lauren, let me ask, of course, one of Biden's largest liabilities you might say is his age. What did he do, and what's the reaction been this morning to whether he did enough to push back about concerns over his age?
FOX: Yeah. I talked to Senator Joe Manchin yesterday, a moderate from West Virginia. He is not running for reelection in his state in the next election. And he said it did feel like Biden had a little gas left in the tank. And he said he was really surprised and happy to see that. Another person I talked to, Representative Gerry Connolly, a Democrat from Virginia, someone who is stuck by the President at every turn. Going into the speech, he said, President Biden really does. They've set expectations high. He really does have to meet them. And after the speech, I got to catch up with him, and he said that he really felt like the President delivered a strong and vigorous address.
He did note, however, that it matters where he goes from here. On the campaign trail, he needs to show up and he needs to be the person he was in the room last night. Gerry Connolly argued otherwise, this speech was all for naught. So, obviously, a lot of preparation, months of preparation goes into a speech like the one that happened last night in the chamber. But, I thought it was a really interesting moment, and a lot of Democrats felt like they are feeling good running under Joe Biden on the ticket come November.
SOLOMON: Yeah, fascinating. I'm sure we'll learn a lot more just in terms of the reaction as they come in over the next few days. Congressional Correspondent Lauren Fox, Lauren, thank you.
Well, President Biden also made strong remarks about the "gut- wrenching crisis in Gaza" during his State of the Union address, saying that humanitarian assistance cannot be a bargaining chip or a secondary consideration. He announced that he has directed the U.S. military to establish a temporary report in Gaza for aid deliveries, and he called on Hamas to release the hostages, and he repeated calls for a two-state solution.
Let's bring in CNN's Jeremy Diamond, who joins us from Tel Aviv. So, Jeremy, we've heard Biden announce his plans on a temporary aid port on Gaza's coastline. We're learning that more Western allies are joining the effort. Walk us through -- give us a sense of how this would work in practice. JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, that's right. Well, President Biden giving this announcement primetime footing during the State of the Union address. And today, we're learning that it won't just be the United States, but also Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Cyprus, all joining in this effort to create a maritime corridor that would essentially see ships carrying aid arrive in Cyprus. They would be checked there by Israeli forces in terms of the security checks on that aid, and then be brought to this temporary port that the United States plans on building off the coast of Gaza.
Now, President Biden was very clear that this will not involve bringing U.S. troops into Gaza, that this will be coordinated with the Israeli government. But, this is also important to note that this is not an immediate solution to the desperate humanitarian situation that is unfolding on the ground in Gaza, where we are seeing more and more children dying of malnutrition as a result of the lack of aid, the insufficient aid that has gotten into northern Gaza. This will take weeks to actually get up and off the ground.
So, in the meantime, the United States, and you heard President Biden yesterday, continuing to pressure Israel to do more to allow more land routes into the Gaza Strip. He said last night that Israel cannot use humanitarian aid as a bargaining chip. And he also made clear that Israel needs to do more, some of his strongest remarks on this issue to date. Now, Israel, for its part, did welcome the creation of this port, saying in a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that this will allow the increase of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip and that they welcomed this decision. Rahel.
SOLOMON: Jeremy, we're also getting a more robust response from the IDF about last week's stampede and shooting in Gaza which killed over 100 people. I mean, what are they saying now?
DIAMOND: Yeah. This is the summary of their initial investigation into this incident, which left more than 100 people dead after the Israeli military fired into a crowd near this aid convoy, and there was also a stampede that appears to have ensued, that killed the majority of the people as well as aid trucks running over those people, according to eyewitnesses on the grounds.
[08:15:00]
Now, this summary of the initial investigation found that Israeli troops did not fire at the humanitarian aid convoy itself, but rather they say at a number of suspects who they say approached those forces, Israeli forces, who were nearby. Now, it's important to note that this initial investigation also changed some key details that the IDF had initially presented about the timeline of events. IDF spokespeople were adamant that this gunfire happened only after people were killed and injured in this initial stampede. But, in this new timeline that they're releasing, they actually say that Israeli troops fired their first shots within about a minute of the aid convoy entering the civilian area of western Gaza City.
And that's important because the IDF not only said that it happened after the stampede, but also because they have repeatedly tried to suggest that these were two completely separate incidents. And instead, this kind of seems to buttress what we've heard from people on the ground, including a local journalist who has worked with us in the past, who basically said that it was those gunshots that triggered a kind of sense of mass panic that provoked those truck drivers to kind of flee away and panic and in the process running over additional people. This investigation is going to continue, from what we understand, and of course, there is still more details to uncover.
SOLOMON: We know you'll be on top of it. Jeremy Diamond live for us there. Jeremy, thank you.
Meantime, an Israeli woman who was taken hostage by Hamas during the October 7 attack is talking to CNN about her horrific ordeal. Chen Almog Goldstein described the hell of being held hostage in Gaza after her husband and daughter were murdered. Goldstein and her surviving children were kept in tunnels and an apartment in Gaza, then released after 51 days. Here is a little more of her conversation with CNN's Christiane Amanpour.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Chen Almog Goldstein, welcome to our program. I want to know how you survived those 51 days of hell, as you say. How were you treated by your captors? And were you and your children held in the same place or were you separated?
CHEN ALMOG GOLDSTEIN, FORMER HOSTAGE HELD 51 DAYS IN GAZA (Interpreted): Very difficult 51 days. The control of our life is taken away from us. And I tried to look after myself and to be OK in this hellish reality. But, it's all in the control of our captors. When we're going to eat, if we're going to eat, they tried to provide us with food. There was more at the beginning, but less later. Drinking water was limited, sometimes 330 milliliter in 24 hours. It was very stressful for me. The lack of water is difficult to live with. While shortage of food you can live with, but water limitation is very stressful.
Difficult conditions when you're shut in a flat, trying to open the windows a little bit, but there were heavy curtains, so not much of ventilation. I'm trying to push my body towards some balcony door each morning to get some fresh air. And then, towards 4:30 or 5, it becomes dark. We use a flashlight and then candles, and we're worried that the candles will cause fire.
There is incredible bombardment of the Israeli Air Force and artillery, serious fear. We understand that there are mid cogs in the system, the captors, and we're hoping that they're not going to have instructions to kill us and that they would do it. We would ask them, and they told us that they were guiding us and that they hoped that we were going to be OK, and that we were not going to die, that they were going to die ahead of us, or we were going to die together. This was supposed to calm us down.
We were not allowed to cry. They wanted us happy and told us to be OK. If we cried, we had to snap out of it or hide it. It's a kind of emotional abuse that they didn't let us cry. Agam used to sit down and stare, and they would say, what are you staring at? What are you thinking? There was no personal space. They said to us, we are not thinking.
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AMANPOUR: Chen, were you abused or your children, or were you abused physically by them?
GOLDSTEIN (Interpreted): They didn't hate us, but I did describe abuse. If you didn't understand, I will repeat. Not to let a person cry will give them privacy or take control of our life. This is abuse, mental abuse. They put us in traditional clothes in order to move us from apartment to another, which is supposedly an external act. But, Agam and I looked at each other, the first time we did it and we cried. You need to understand, they took our identity away. It was extremely difficult for us. This is also abuse.
They didn't hate us. There wasn't any sexual abuse. They humiliated us, though, sometimes smoking us.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SOLOMON: And that was CNN's Christiane Amanpour speaking with, as we saw there, an Israeli woman who was taken hostage by Hamas during the October 7 attacks.
Well, still to come for us, Haiti's government extends the state of emergency. More on what officials are trying to do to keep the system situation "under control". We'll be right back.
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SOLOMON: Welcome back. Today, Haiti remains engulfed in chaos with the country's state of emergency and curfew now extended in the western region, to include the capital of Port-au-Prince. The state of emergency will now be in effect until early April, and the curfew will be in place until Sunday. Officials have banned all demonstrations on public roads, day or night, in order to "regain control of the situation".
Let's get the regional view from CNN's Patrick Oppmann, who joins us live from Havana, Cuba. Patrick, good to see you again. So, we are getting these reports that Secretary Blinken spoke to Prime Minister Henry to try to accelerate the political transition and have a "more inclusive government". What more can you tell us about this conversation?
PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know those conversations took place yesterday, on Thursday. They're being described as intensive conversations. And what the Secretary of State is talking about here is essentially forming a government that includes more political parties, and looks towards elections, possibly in 2025. Elections that have not been held now in so many years in Haiti. The hope is, because, of course, many political parties do hold sway with gangs or are tied to gangs that will get the gangs off the streets and cease their attack on the state and the citizenry.
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It's hard to really see that in and of itself working. The police have basically -- the police force in Haiti is basically been overpowered at this point by the gangs. The gangs have the upper hand. There is still no update on when this force of 1,000 Kenyan troops would arrive. They appear to be the only force that is really available to come to Haiti to try to restore order. So, that is going to be key as well.
But, the diplomacy has taken a lot of time here, certainly more pressure on Ariel Henry from within Haiti and with outside of Haiti, the U.S. being a key ally of the Haitian government. And while the U.S. State Department says they are not pushing Henry to resign, they are certainly trying to ease him out the door and create a government that involves more political parties, and is able to negotiate more effectively with these gangs, and of course, preventing Ariel Henry from returning to Haiti, have prevented him all this week from going back to his own country. This is sending shockwaves, this crisis, across the region.
We saw the Bahamas yesterday saying that they're going to set up a naval blockade in the waters north of Haiti to keep migrants from taking to the seas in boats and fleeing to places like the Bahamas. Certainly, as this goes on longer and longer, more countries across the region are concerned that this is going to lead to mass migration event. Haitians can eat if they're being terrorized by these gangs. Many of them will try to flee as this country inches closer to total collapse.
SOLOMON: Yeah. The situation on the ground there becoming even more dire than it has been. Patrick, what is the latest situation on just the humanitarian situation right now in Haiti?
OPPMANN: The few NGOs, the World Food Programme, the UN, Red Cross, Medecins Sans Frontieres, they're really having difficulties operating if one hospital that is barely operating, and even the aid that is being sent there, it is -- in runs in these checkpoints and essentially choke points that the gangs have set up to prevent that aid from getting to the people who need it the most. Essentially, what these gangs are doing is terrorizing their own people to try to pressure the government of Ariel Henry and the international community to act, to acquiesce to their demands.
And certainly, these gangs are not interested in any kind of force coming in and taking away their control. They have illegal businesses like drug trafficking, kidnapping, gun running, and they do not want to lose these very lucrative businesses that basically prosper, because Haiti is essentially, in so many ways, a failed state now where the gangs are more powerful than the government and are able to operate with impunity.
SOLOMON: Patrick Oppmann live for us there. Patrick, thank you.
Meantime, a nightmare is unfolding in Nigeria. That's where armed man reportedly kidnapped hundreds of schoolchildren in the northwestern town of Kuriga on Thursday morning. A member of the community who confronted the abductors was killed. That's according to a local official. Now, reports on how many children were abducted, that actually varies, ranging from 227 to 287. CNN cannot independently verify these figures. And as of now, it's unclear who is behind the kidnapping. But, we should say that mass abductions from schools aren't uncommon in the country, but early figures do indicate that this could be the largest incident since 2021.
All right. Still to come for us, U.S. President Joe Biden on the offense, laying out his vision for America's future. So, how was his State of the Union address? How was it received? We'll take a closer look straight ahead. And then, we'll go to Florida where Donald Trump is expected to host Hungary's Viktor Orban. What we know about this meeting, coming up next.
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[08:30:00]
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SOLOMON: Well, in the United States, former U.S. President Donald Trump is preparing to host Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida a little later today. Now, the meeting will be closed to the media. Trump and Orban have often openly supported each other, and the longtime Hungarian Prime Minister is considered the EU and NATO's closest leader to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
CNN's Kristen Holmes joins us now live from West Palm Beach in Florida. Kristen, Hungary is a NATO member and Orban has reportedly not received an official invitation from the White House. Curious how many eyebrows this meeting is raising.
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rahel, not only did he not receive an official invitation for the White House, but he didn't reach out and ask for any sort of meeting. Now, this takes on significance for a number of reasons. One, Donald Trump is a former President, but he is also the presumptive Republican nominee and could very well be President again, and it gives you some insight into the kind of leader that Donald Trump wants to be if he is reelected to office.
He has long admired strongman, which of course Orban is. He is an authoritarian leader in Hungary. He has praised the fact that he is a strongman, saying at one point, some people don't like him because he is too strong. Nice to have a strong man in control of the country. Again, this gives you an idea of how Donald Trump is aligning himself or would align himself if he is brought back to the White House in November.
The other part of this is that the two really are politically in sync on immigration, on various issues. Orban is considered very far right, obviously, as is Donald Trump. Orban, the only other thing we know that he has done while he has been in the United States is speak at the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation. So, yes, eyebrows are being raised. And I will tell you that when I asked Trump's team what exactly is happening, what kind of meeting is this? They said it was a "social meeting". When I asked what exactly does that mean, they said it was just a friendly meeting with no agenda. Now, when two people like Orban and Trump sit down, it seems unlikely that there is no agenda, but that is what they are telling me as of now, Rahel.
SOLOMON: And then, Kristen, just to take a step back a moment, I mean, this is a relationship that at one point sort of led those to wonder, what is the source of this relationship, or what is the origin of this relationship? And we have seen this relationship grow over the last few years. Just give us a sense of what we know about their relationship, between the two men.
HOLMES: One thing that Donald Trump really cares about when it comes to leadership, when it comes to working with world leaders, when it comes to his own staff, is loyalty and praise. And one thing that Orban has been very good at since while he was in office, while Trump was in office and afterwards, is praising Donald Trump, praising his policies, praising him on immigration, really aligning his rhetoric with Donald Trump's. At one point, he said that the war in Ukraine wouldn't have happened if Donald Trump was in the White House. That sounds awfully familiar, because that is something that the former President has repeatedly said over and over again, obviously, with no proof, but that is one of his talking points.
Their relationship has only grown. Now, I do not have any sort of background on whether or not they have met recently before this. It doesn't seem likely. Donald Trump has not traveled overseas recently at all, other than to go to his own golf course in Scotland. But, the two have clearly been praising each other in public, and that goes a long way with former President Donald Trump.
SOLOMON: Very interesting. CNN's Kristen Holmes live for us. Kristen, thank you.
[08:35:00]
Well, next hour, the trial of James Crumbley will resume. He is the Michigan father facing involuntary manslaughter charges over his son Ethan's 2021 school shooting. That rampage claimed four lives. Prosecutors say that Crumbley and his wife gave their son the firearm and also ignored signs of mental illness. Jennifer Crumbley you might remember, has already been convicted of the same charges. A former detective is set to take the stand when trial gets underway.
And today, we mark 10 years since the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Earlier this week, the Malaysian government said that it may renew the search for that doomed flight. And you may remember that on March 8, 2014, flight MH370 was heading to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur. But, about an hour into the flight, it dropped off radar and it vanished. Well, aviation experts tell CNN that improved detection technology could actually help them find out what happened.
CNN's Anna Coren takes a closer look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Somewhere in the depths of this vast seemingly endless Indian Ocean is believed to be the resting place for the 239 souls onboard MH370. The Boeing airliner had vanished a decade ago. Multiple searches spanning hundreds of thousands of square kilometers found nothing, dozens of pieces of floating and washed up debris, the only evidence of the 777. For the families and loved ones of those who made that fateful flight on the March 8, 2014, from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, it has been an agonizing 10 years.
At a memorial in Malaysia, time has not eased their anguish and pain.
SARAH BAJC, PARTNER PHILIP WAS ONBOARD MH370: Families need closure. The world needs closure, and somebody needs to be held accountable.
COREN (voice-over): Sarah Bajc hasn't spoken to the media for many years.
COREN: So lovely to meet you and --
COREN (voice-over): And her partner, Philip, was onboard MH370. And the search for answers consumed her life, as it did for so many others who shared in the collective anger, frustration and grief.
BAJC: Waking up in the middle of the night and expecting him to be there, that still happened for a while, and maybe that's because of a lack of closure.
COREN (voice-over): She believes closure only comes once MH370 is found, and there is now renewed pressure from the families and a verbal commitment by the Malaysian government to reactivate the search.
ANTHONY LOKE, MALAYSIAN TRANSPORT MINISTER: This is the biggest mystery of aviation in the whole world, and we must solve this mystery. It is a commitment and a promise that the search will go on.
COREN (voice-over): Malaysia has agreed to speak to Ocean Infinity, the U.S. Marine robotics company that ended its last search in 2018. But, world-renowned aviation expert Richard Godfrey believes they'd be looking in the wrong place again. Armed with new information from the latest technology, he believes he knows the coordinates of the crash site and the area they need to search, 1,500 kilometers off the coast of Perth.
RICHARD GODFREY, AVIATION ENGINEER: I think it will only take one more search, and search technology has improved. The crash location has been more narrowly defined. It will take them I think just a few weeks to find MH370.
COREN (voice-over): A bold statement, yet one family is counting. Jiang Hui who lost his mother on MH370 has taken Malaysia Airlines to court on behalf of the Chinese families that represent nearly two thirds of the victims. He says he knows his hard-working mother who instilled the same ethos in him, is driving her son to find the truth. I can find her shadow in me, he says. Whatever I am doing now is what my mother wants me to do.
As for Sarah, the trauma has forced her to rebuild her life, running an eco-tourism resort in Panama with her new husband. But, she says, on this day, her thoughts are always with Philip.
BAJC: I make my coffee exactly like Philip used to drink, and I sit and I think about him and maybe look at some pictures and then I put it away. I don't think that you can effectively walk forward. You can't walk forward with positivity and confidence if you're always looking backwards.
COREN (voice-over): Anna Coren, CNN, Hong Kong.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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[08:40:00]
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SOLOMON: Welcome back. Protests are happening around the world today to mark International Women's Day. In Rome, for example, and other cities across Italy, demonstrators are putting the focus on what they call patriarchal violence. That's because there are signs that violence against women is on the rise in Italy.
CNN's Barbie Nadeau reports from Rome on what's being done to fight it.
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BARBIE NADEAU, CNN CONTRIBUTOR (voice-over): The weight of violence against women hangs heavy of Italy. Last year alone, more than 100 women were victims of femicide, when a murder is committed by a family member, a former or current lover, or husband. That's roughly one woman killed every three days. Italy does not have the highest rate of violence against women in Europe, but scores very low in terms of gender equality, ranking 79 out of 146 countries in the World Economic Forum's 2023 gender parity ranking, falling 16 places from the previous year because of the rise in victims of deadly violence.
One of those victims was Giulia Cecchettin, a college student allegedly killed by her ex-boyfriend who, according to what her friends told investigators, was stalking her. Giulia's story sparked protests, pushing Italians to confront violence against women. But, more than a dozen women have been murdered since her body was found.
Maria Grazia is a survivor. She was able to leave a situation of violence before it was too late. But, she says it wasn't easy for her.
MARIA GRAZIA, ABUSE SURVIVOR (Interpreted): In a situation of violence, you close yourself off and in the darkest solitude, because in the end, there is a prejudice that if a woman is the victim of a situation of violence, it is partly her fault. NADEAU (voice-over): After her own personal struggles. Maria Grazia co-founded Maison Antigone (ph), an organization that has helped support hundreds of women in need of support.
GRAZIA (Interpreted): After having experienced a situation of personal violence, a very strong experience of violence and having gone through courts and so on, I personally realized that there is no help, no real help for a woman experiencing these things.
NADEAU (voice-over): Hundreds of women in Italy navigate a complicated bureaucratic system when it comes to reporting threats like stalking and abuse. Another organization tackling violence against women is CADMI, a shelter for abused women in Milan. It is helping women change their narrative from victim to survivor. The group says it rescued over 600 women from their abusers last year and that it's helped more than 36,000 since its founding in 1986. The organization not only removes women from dangerous situations and houses them in shelters, they rehabilitate women and prepare them to enter back into society, in the workforce, providing legal and psychological support.
CADMI head coordinator Cristina Carelli tells us it's very important for women to be autonomous and economically independent in order to have true freedom. She says her success has not only been through helping women directly, but also through prevention, education and media campaigns. She says they're observing the influx of many young women to the anti-violence center. When she met women 25 years ago, they were generally women, around 40-years-old, who had told very long stories of violence, she says.
[08:45:00]
Italian women are calling for change.
LORELLA ZANARDO, AUTHOR FILMMAKER, ACTIVIST: We have another history. So, I think that we have to work a lot. I believe that we have to start in schools and how the elementary books are written, how the role of women is represented. But, in the last few years, we have moved forward. There are signs of changes. Of course, we don't -- we cannot relax.
NADEAU (voice-over): For these young women, change needs to happen faster.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In the end after those years, there have been important changes that can be seen. But, I think today the playing field is still not totally complete between the two genders.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In my generation, in educating the generations to come because we are failing.
NADEAU (voice-over): Women may be on the frontlines, but all Italians need to wage the battle against inequality for lasting change.
Barbie Latza Nadeau, CNN, Rome.
(END VIDEOTAPE) SOLOMON: And International Women's Day has taken on a different meaning this year for the women of Gaza. After months of war, women living in makeshift camps say there is nothing to celebrate this year. They don't have food. They don't have water or medicine, and they're struggling with their mental health and poverty. Many of them have been forced to move repeatedly as the fighting has spread.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN (Interpreted): Women worldwide easily await and celebrate this day, whereas Gaza's women live in tents, and are deprived of rights and unable to celebrate it.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN (Interpreted): We are going through a tough situation on Women's Day in Gaza, as we face the horrors of bombings, under harsh conditions in tents and suffer from extreme weather, leaving no room for celebration.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: And the UN estimates that more than 1.5 million people in Gaza have been displaced by the war between Israel and Hamas.
Well, still ahead for us, the key perimeter of the U.S. economy is just out. We will break down the latest U.S. jobs numbers coming up after a short break.
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SOLOMON: Welcome back. And just in, the latest U.S. jobs numbers for February, U.S. employers adding 275,000 jobs last month, surpassing expectations, but still below January's whopping gain of 353,000. That is without the revisions. We'll check in with our correspondent to see if that still holds. Let's take a look and see how Wall Street is trading in less than an hour, Dow, NASDAQ, S&P futures, all up, although I mean, Dow and NASDAQ are up slightly. The S&P futures are up about a quarter of a percent.
Now, in an election year, amid concerns about the potential for a slowing economy, the U.S. jobs report has become increasingly a critical economic barometer.
So, let's bring in CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich to sort of walk us through the headline numbers here. Vanessa.
VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: A strong number, better than expectations, 275,000 jobs added in February. That is robust, but it is not too robust. It is sort of in a spot where people might be comfortable with Americans, economists and the Federal Reserve, and the President, as you mentioned. That puts the unemployment rate at 3.9 percent. So, rising slightly, but we're still below four percent, and that's a track record of below four percent unemployment that we have not seen since President Nixon held office. And traditionally, in these reports, we have seen jobs added in three key sectors, and that's where we're seeing those jobs added in this report from February.
[08:50:00]
So, we're seeing increases in healthcare, 67,000 jobs added, in government, 52,000 jobs added, and food and drinking places, 42,000 jobs added. So, clearly, there are jobs available for those in those industries. But, Rahel, of course, this comes amidst layoffs we've heard about in tech and media. But, in these industries, it seems like the jobs are plentiful for those who may be looking at the moment.
SOLOMON: Yeah. That's an important point. Vanessa, it's always really interesting too when we get these reports sort of to look in the rear view and see the previous months. What did we learn in terms of revisions?
YURKEVICH: If you remember last month, Rahel, we reported from the January jobs report that there were 353,000 jobs added. People's eyeballs were popping out of their sockets. But, if you look at this report, it indicates that in January we actually saw 229,000 jobs added. That is a dramatic difference from what the initial report said. And between January and February of last year, the jobs numbers were revised down 167,000. But, that's nothing to be concerned about, because you still have robust job growth, and it's probably actually more encouraging for the Federal Reserve, in particular, to see a number in January, like 229,000 jobs added, as opposed to the eye- popping 353,000 jobs added, a signal that job growth has actually been steadier than we initially thought.
SOLOMON: Yes. It seems to indicate that the job growth is cooling in a more gradual fashion, which I think most people would argue we probably need. In terms of the Fed and the implications for the Fed and the implications for inflation, there is also a wage growth information that we always learn in this report. What do we learn in terms of where wages are going?
YURKEVICH: We just cooled on an annual basis, 4.3 percent in January on an annual basis. We just were at about 4.5 percent. Of course, as an American, no one wants to see their wages go down. But, the problem is, is that wages right now are outpacing inflation, just a little bit too much for the Fed's comfort. They want to see wages -- wage growth at an annual rate of about 3.5 percent to just help a little bit with the inflation that we're seeing at 3.1 percent.
So, inflation, excuse me, wages cooling, rather. As we're waiting for inflation to cool, this may be a good sign for the Federal Reserve. Everyone wants to know off of these jobs numbers, off CPI, which we're going to see next week, Rahel, what this means for the Federal Reserve and potentially cutting interest rates at some point this year. That will, of course, be encouraging for people who are looking to buy a home, people who have credit cards.
SOLOMON: Yeah.
YURKEVICH: So, a lot, a lot to look at here, but a very strong number. The jobs market still chugging along, Rahel. SOLOMON: Yeah. It's interesting, Vanessa. It's a very strong number,
but not too strong, which is sort of the important context in this environment. All right. Vanessa Yurkevich, thanks so much for breaking that all down for us.
YURKEVICH: Thanks.
SOLOMON: Also, U.S. House Committee has advanced a bill that could lead to a nationwide ban on TikTok. Now, if enacted, the measure would give the social media platform about five months to divest from its parent company ByteDance, which is linked to China. If it doesn't, TikTok would be banned from U.S. App Stores, including Apple and Google. Now, lawmakers say that they're concerned that Americans' personal data collected by TikTok could end up in the hands of the Chinese government. But, TikTok is pushing back, saying that the government is attempting to strip 170 million Americans of their constitutional right to free expression. It also says that the move will damage millions of businesses, deny artists and audience, and destroy the livelihoods of countless creators across the country.
And starting Monday, CNN International will feature a new lineup in the Europe primetime hours. "Amanpour" and "Isa Soares Tonight" remain at their current times. But, at 3 p.m. Eastern, that is 8 p.m. Central Europe, CNN Newsroom with Jim Sciutto will debut, followed by "Quest Means Business" at a new time of 4 p.m. Eastern, 9 p.m. in Europe. It's an all-star lineup there.
And after a chance discovery in southern France, scientists have uncovered more information about a rare and surprisingly intact dinosaur skeleton. So, local media report that the 10-meter-long fossil was found in 2022. An amateur paleontologist spotted it, spotted an exposed bone while walking with his dog in a forest. Museum officials excavated and determined that it was a Titanosaur or a long neck dinosaur connected from its hind skull to its tail. The paleontologist called it "extraordinary".
Well, thank you for spending an hour here with me on CNN Newsroom. I'm Rahel Solomon.
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Connect the World with Becky Anderson is coming up next.
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