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CNN International: Russia Prepares for Election After Oil Refinery Strikes; TikTok App Users San Ban Would Harm Businesses, Creativity; More Aid Needed in Gaza; UC Berkeley Grapples with Response to Antisemitism. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired March 14, 2024 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Kremlin's strongman is already looking beyond the Russian election to the U.S. presidential race.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nothing will change because of the elections. I mean, Vladimir Putin will continue to be in power in Russia for essentially as long as he wants to be.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: TikTok changed my life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: TikTok has allowed my dreams that I used to have as a child to come true.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will continue to do all we can, including exercising our legal rights, to protect this amazing platform that we have built with you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Another round of humanitarian airdrops from international donors.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Israel still needs to open as many access points as possible and keep them open.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Live from Atlanta, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Paula Newton.

PAULA NEWTON, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and a very warm welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I'm Paula Newton, Max Foster and Bianca Nobilo have the day off.

It's Thursday, March 14th and people across Russia will be headed to the polls tomorrow to start voting in a presidential election whose outcome is really considered a done deal.

But Ukraine appears to be sending Moscow a message, striking Russian oil refineries for the second straight day. Ukrainian defense sources say four refineries were hit overnight, Tuesday into Wednesday.

They included this oil facility southeast of Moscow, which caught fire as you can see there. Ukrainian sources say the goal was to limit the flow of oil money into Russia's war machine. But Kyiv may also be trying to bring the war home to Russians ahead of that election, which President Putin is of course expected to win.

Meantime, Moscow is reportedly also under pressure on the ground from Russian volunteer groups fighting for Ukraine. Now, they claim they're pushing ahead with their cross-border raids into Russia, taking control of one village and destroying a local command center. CNN's Matthew Chance has more now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They call themselves the Siberian Battalion, one of several Ukraine- based Russian paramilitaries now striking across the Russian border. We can't verify their video, but the group says it shows their latest assault on Russian soil ahead of a presidential vote that Vladimir Putin is certain to win.

Never mind voting at the ballot box, says this fighter taking cover. Join us and vote with the gun, he says.

More dramatic video from another group. The Freedom of Russia Legion say they assaulted Russia's Belgorod and Kursk regions. Two Russian villages, they say, were captured.

Russian officials say all the attacks were pushed back with dozens of invaders killed, as well as several tanks destroyed. It is Ukrainian election interference, according to the Russian president, who set regardless to secure a fifth term in the Kremlin.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): The main goal, I have no doubt about it, is to, if not disrupt the presidential elections in Russia, then at least somehow interfere with the normal processes of expressing the will of citizens.

CHANCE (voice-over): Human rights groups say that normal process has already been distorted in a Kremlin crackdown on dissent, including hundreds of detentions at memorials for opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died suddenly last month in an Arctic penal colony.

Just this week, his former chief of staff in exile, Leonid Volkov, said he was brutally attacked by a man with a hammer outside his home in neighboring Lithuania, left with painful wounds and a broken arm.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin strongman is already looking beyond the Russian election to the U.S. presidential race, insisting he will work with whoever, in his words, is trusted by the American people. But he warned U.S. forces to stay out of the war in Ukraine.

PUTIN (voice-over): The U.S. has said it's not sending troops to Ukraine.

[15:35:00]

But we know what American troops would be on Russian territory. Interventionists. This is how we would treat them. Even if they appear on the territory of Ukraine, they understand this.

CHANCE (voice-over): But for now, it is Ukraine doing the fighting, unleashing a barrage of drone attacks across Russia, like this one in Belgorod.

These images show a drone flying near a Russian oil facility in the city of Ryazan. Russian authorities say at least 25 Ukrainian drone attacks have been thwarted. But as Russia's presidential election nears, the impact of its war next door is being increasingly felt.

Matthew Chance, CNN Moscow.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEWTON: Now, in the last hour, I spoke with Steve Hall, a CNN national security analyst and a former CIA chief of Russia operations. I asked him if the upcoming election could change the way Vladimir Putin operates. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEVE HALL, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: It's going to change absolutely nothing -- because nothing will change because of the elections. I mean, Vladimir Putin will continue to be in power in Russia for essentially as long as he wants to be, unless, you know, members of his inner circle or others might think about ousting him. And I don't think that that's likely right now.

So, no, the election isn't going to change anything. Putin continues to be very aggressive vis-a-vis the West. But I think that that doesn't come from an increased sense of strength on the part of Russia. As a matter of fact, I think it's a deep-set insecurity inside of Putin.

And I think that that's about the only thing that he feels that he has left, is bluster, push, not try for any type of, you know, agreements or, you know, conciliatory gestures to the West. That just doesn't make any sense in his playbook at this point.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEWTON: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is showing off his military muscles. State media reports he guided a training exercise Wednesday.

Now, if you look closely here, you can see him there. He's in the driver's hatch of what KCNA claims is a new type of main battle tank. It also says Kim expressed great satisfaction and the training fully demonstrated the perfect capability for actual war.

U.S. lawmakers in the House of Representatives have voted overwhelmingly to pass a bill that could lead to a nationwide ban against TikTok, one of the world's most popular social media apps. Now, the bill passed with bipartisan support, 352 to 65, in fact, and it faces its next test in the Senate, where its future, though, is less clear. Some lawmakers told CNN why they did or did not want to vote for this legislation. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REP. MADELEINE DEAN (D-PA): I know we're getting plenty of phone calls that young people really love TikTok, and I lift that up. I think that's terrific, but I want to protect them from a foreign adversary collecting their data and manipulating it.

REP. RO KHANNA (D-CA): I don't know why you want to upset young people and 170 million people on a platform when there's least restrictive ways, less restrictive ways of achieving the goal.

REP. DAN BISHOP (R-NC): The answer is not to go selectively banning the flow of information from a particular nation. The way we defeat China is being more American, not less.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEWTON: Now, if the bill becomes law, TikTok's Chinese parent company, ByteDance, will have roughly five months to sell it. If it doesn't, companies such as Google and Apple will need to remove TikTok from the app stores or face massive fines.

Now, for TikTok's roughly 170 million users in the United States, you can see there this isn't exactly a popular move. Many are protesting, saying the platform helped them build their businesses or improve their lives in other ways.

TikTok's CEO is encouraging them to fight on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHOU ZI CHEW, CEO, TIKTOK: We will continue to do all we can, including exercising our legal rights, to protect this amazing platform that we have built with you. We believe we can overcome this together.

I encourage you to keep sharing your stories. Share them with your friends. Share them with your family. Share them with your senators. Protect your constitutional rights. Make your voices heard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: Brian Todd shows us what's at stake for TikTok's creators and users.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A horse bopping its head to heavy metal, teenage stunts and skits, the popular perceptions of TikTok. But a ban of the app in the U.S. wouldn't just curtail digital adolescent expression. Think of businesses like Summer Lucille's. Look at all this clearance we have.

SUMMER LUCILLE, FOUNDER AND OWNER, JUICY BODY GODDESS BOUTIQUE: Look at all this clearance we have. Look at all this clearance we have. And this stuff is good stuff, y'all. TODD (voice-over): Lucille runs the Juicy Body Goddess Boutique in

Charlotte, North Carolina. She says when she started promoting her business on TikTok in 2022, it changed her life, allowing her to expand her floor space to a 15,000 square foot warehouse and get her into a mall location.

She says this to the lawmakers voting to ban TikTok in the U.S.

LUCILLE: You are voting against my small business. You are voting against me getting a slice of my American pie.

TODD (voice-over): TikTok last year said nearly five million businesses had accounts on the platform.

[15:40:00]

CHRIS STOKEL-WALKER, AUTHOR, "TIKTOK BOOM": You see everybody from mom and pop bake shops who choose to share how they make cakes and cookies on TikTok, getting people through the door because of the videos that they post there, to independent businesses who tout their wares using the app. All of them rely on that personal connection that TikTok provides.

TODD (voice-over): A ban on TikTok would touch more than half the American population. TikTok says it's got more than 170 million users in the U.S.

SARA FISCHER, SENIOR MEDIA REPORTER, AXIOS: It's replaced television for a lot of young people. This is where most people are getting, young people especially, are getting their video. It's where they're socializing with friends. It's where they're getting inspiration for new ideas. It's where they're putting themselves out there as creators.

TODD (voice-over): As for the demographics of TikTok, it's predominantly used by people between the ages of 18 and 34. Experts say a ban inside the U.S. could definitely affect how millions of Americans spend their leisure time.

STOKEL-WALKER: The average American spends something like a feature film length on TikTok every single day.

TODD (voice-over): Its influence on American culture, observers say, has been enormous.

MAX KLYMENKO, ENTREPRENEUR AND CONTENT CREATOR ON TIKTOK: This is where entertainment happens. This is where the commentary and analysis of the entertainment world happens. This is where education happens.

STOKEL-WALKER: You can get educational videos, you can get news reports. Many major organizations as well as politicians, including President Biden, have taken to the app.

TODD (voice-over): But a ban could also conceivably prevent the Chinese Communist Party from using TikTok to spy on Americans or influence the upcoming election, something the Director of National Intelligence warned about when testifying on Capitol Hill.

AVRIL HAINES, DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: We cannot rule out that the CCP could use it, correct.

TODD: TikTok has argued that a ban in the U.S. would have a huge impact on small and medium-sized businesses, creators, influencers and advertisers. But analyst Sara Fischer says maybe not.

She points out that there are plenty of TikTok's competitors like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube and Pinterest, where people and businesses can go to place their content and their ads.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEWTON: We want to go straight now to our Steven Jiang, who's in Beijing, for the Chinese reaction to this. And there's been more of it just in the last hour.

STEVEN JIANG, CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF: That's right, Paula. The Chinese Foreign Ministry, as well as the Commerce Ministry, now have responded to the passage of this bill in the U.S. House of Representatives. It's basically echoing their previous statements, blasting this move and saying the U.S. is now resorting to theft, to stealing other people's stuff to keep and gain competitive advantages.

And of course, also vowing to take all necessary measures to protect legitimate Chinese interests and the rights.

Interestingly, the Foreign Ministry spokesman was asked about the difference between TikTok being banned in the U.S. versus almost all of the American and Western social platforms being banned here in China for a long time. And he insisted this is a totally separate issue, because he claims as long as these American companies are willing to comply with Chinese laws, they're welcome to have a presence here.

And of course, these laws, though, ironically, are the very laws that worries and concerns American politicians and officials, because they say under the leadership of strongman leader Xi Jinping, China has been passing these increasingly sweeping national security legislature that has given broad powers to its security apparatus to obtain, seize, or inspect any data from companies operating here in this country -- Paula.

NEWTON: Yes, and to be clear, a lot of those laws in China obviously have to do with a great deal of censorship. I want to ask you, though, TikTok proved its own point and weaponized the app by asking users, as we saw in that report, to lobby their representatives.

We also saw that U.S. intelligence said, now look, they could not rule out that China would weaponize the app or the data from the app to launch its influence operations in the U.S. You know, I wanted to ask you, is there any sense of the Chinese

leaders pushing back on this or do they actually believe it is in their strategic interest to hold on to the ownership of TikTok?

JIANG: I think from their perspective, the answer is definitely yes. And as you were saying, they have not been helping themselves with these recent strategic shifts, especially in recent years, by reasserting the ruling Communist Party's absolute control over every aspect of society. And of course, one of their top priorities and goals in recent years has been to push out this so-called China narrative, to have their values and perspectives heard around the world.

In the past, they had to rely on Western U.S. platforms. And then, of course, for the first time, they now have TikTok, a China-owned, China-developed platform to let them do so. So it's very difficult to see how they are going to give that up.

And of course, as many experts have also pointed out, it really goes beyond just one app and its very secretive but effective algorithms. It's really about the control over technologies between two competing superpowers -- Paula.

NEWTON: Steven Chang for us live in Beijing. And we will continue to watch this space.

[15:45:00]

There'll be plenty of developments. Appreciate it.

Now, the Boeing plane, which went into a sudden deep dive on Monday during a flight from Australia to New Zealand is on its way to Chile right now. The South American country sent aviation officials to look at the plane Thursday morning in New Zealand. And that investigation is set to continue once they return home. Chile is taking the lead on this investigation since the plane is registered there.

Now, you'll remember, dozens of people were injured in what officials are calling a technical event during that LATAM Airlines flight. They're set to look at the plane's cockpit voice recorder and its flight data recorder to try and find the cause of that problem.

To Nigeria now, where gunmen are threatening to kill nearly 300 school children they kidnapped if a ransom is not paid. And they're demanding nearly $622,000. Now, the children were taken from this school building by armed men on motorbikes last week. While Nigeria's president says the kidnappers will be brought to justice, his government is refusing to pay the ransom.

According to one resident who lives close to the school, the kidnapping is revenge for the killing of gang members by government security services.

More than 65 million people are under some kind of severe storm threat from Texas all the way to Michigan. A second round of storms is expected today after there were more than 85 storm reports across the Central U.S. Wednesday. The main threats are very large hail, damaging winds, and tornadoes. CNN's Chad Myers has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Another day of severe weather today across parts of Arkansas, Missouri, parts of Oklahoma, maybe even toward Texas and northern Louisiana, and then tonight all the way through Memphis and into Tennessee.

The snow continuing now into Colorado, really just getting going in the overnight hours, but winter storm warnings have been posted for a couple of days now it seems. It'll be a day at least of worth of snow here in parts of Colorado, and some spots east of Denver will pick up four to six. West of the Denver suburbs could be 24 to 26 inches, and the mountains could pick up more than that. Travel will be nearly impossible anywhere to the west of I-25.

Here are the storms for later on tonight across parts of Missouri, Arkansas, and all the way even into Tennessee for later on tonight. Some of these storms will contain large hail, gusty winds, and yes, even the potential again for more tornadoes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEWTON: Still to come for us, calls for accountability from one U.N. relief agency after a strike hit a food distribution center in southern Gaza.

Plus, anti-Semitic incidents on campus have put UC Berkeley in a tough spotlight. Why the campus known for free speech is grappling with how to protect Jewish students.

And later, a Hail Mary VP pick? Robert Kennedy Jr. says NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers is on that short list to be his running mate. See what unites the two, and who else is on the list. That's ahead.

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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NEWTON: The head of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency is calling for accountability and an investigation into Israeli strikes on U.N. facilities. That coming after the agency says an Israeli strike hit an UNRWA food distribution center in Rafah.

A hospital director says five Palestinians were killed, and UNRWA says at least one of its staff is among the dead. CNN has reached out to the IDF for comment.

Meantime, an aid ship carrying 200 tons of desperately needed food is moving closer to Gaza, with an arrival expected on Thursday night. The World Central Kitchen says a temporary jetty being built ahead of the vessel's arrival is now almost 60 meters long and will be used for the ship to dock and to transport pallets of food. This will mark the first maritime shipment of humanitarian aid to Gaza. Assistance is also arriving from the air. The U.S. military conducted

a ninth airdrop of humanitarian aid into northern Gaza Wednesday. And now Germany says it will begin its own airdrops possibly by week's end. This coming amid international calls for Israel to open additional land crossings so more aid can reach Gaza, especially in the north where fears of famine are growing.

Now that sentiment was echoed by the EU's top diplomat in Washington as he thanked U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken for his personal efforts to get aid into Gaza.

CNN's Paula Hancocks joins us now live from Abu Dhabi. And Paula, you know Gaza very, very well. Can you explain how significant it is that they are able to get aid into northern Gaza directly from Israel?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Paula, this is really the area that is the hardest hit, as we've been saying for weeks now. It's an area where some have barely received any aid. Now we heard that just 24 hours ago, just over that, there was a food, a World Food Program, six aid trucks with them that was able to get through to northern Gaza.

And it went through a pilot program, we understand, the Israeli military saying that they could open part of the security fence between Gaza and Israel and they were able to get the food and goods into northern Gaza that way, which is really key. It is exactly what many countries have been asking for, including the U.S. President Joe Biden, pushing for more land crossings to be opened by Israel.

There are two at the bottom of Israel, at the southern parts, and the restrictions are significant going into Gaza through those land crossings. So there has been a push for more access.

Now, as you mentioned, there's also access coming from the air and from the sea, showing the desperation trying to get food in and showing the frustrations of many countries wanting to donate food and seeing parts of northern Gaza on the brink of famine.

The airdrops, for example, have been -- it's been widely reported by many aid groups, by the U.N., that they are insufficient, that they are not the most economical or safe way to be able to get aid to northern Gaza, certainly considering you don't know what happens to it once it hits the ground.

But also this first potential maritime corridor opening up. We've heard from World Central Kitchen saying that if this works, they have many countries that have inquired how they can use them in the future. So they are expecting this to be the first of many -- Paula.

NEWTON: And Paula, I want to ask you, there is controversy, obviously, with that strike, that Israeli strike on the U.N. facility. What more are we learning, not just from what the U.N. has said, but also the IDF?

HANCOCKS: So we've heard from the UNRWA director, Philippe Lazzarini, and he has called for an investigation, not just into this strike, but into a number of strikes on UNRWA facilities, on food distribution centers, of which this was one of the very few that was still functioning, and also schools.

Now, he did give some sobering figures in the statement. He said that at least 165 UNRWA members have been killed, more than 150 UNRWA facilities hit, this all since October 7th and the war in Gaza, and more than 400 killed whilst seeking shelter in the areas. Many displaced have actually been camping close to UNRWA areas, believing they would be safer.

Now, we have heard from Israel. They have said that in the past that they have found tunnels underneath UNRWA facilities. They have accused some members, 12, in fact, of UNRWA, of being part of Hamas and involved in the October 7th attacks, which the U.N. says they are doing an independent investigation into.

[15:55:00]

But we also heard from the IDF saying that they did target and kill a key Hamas operative in the area of Rafah, saying that this particular individual was responsible for taking humanitarian aid and distributing it among Hamas terrorists, also saying that he was working in the intel operation room, so sharing information on where IDF troops are at this point -- Paula.

NEWTON: Paula Hancocks for us. Appreciate the update.

Now, Delta Air Lines says it's set to resume flights to Israel with daily nonstop service from New York to Tel Aviv scheduled to begin on June 7th. That route had been temporarily suspended last October following the Hamas attacks. Delta says it decided to resume the flights after an extensive security assessment. The airline says it will continue to closely monitor the situation in Israel.

More than five months after the war broke out between Israel and Hamas, tensions are coming to a head between students at UC Berkeley. Jewish students invited an Israeli speaker to campus, which resulted in more than 200 pro-Palestinian protesters vowing to shut down the event.

Now, police and U.S. Education Department are investigating. CNN's Nick Watt visited the campus.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Berkeley, California, is proud home of the free speech movement.

ILANA PEARLMAN, PROTESTER SUPPORTING JEWISH STUDENTS: Progressive and inclusive safe place for everybody except Jews.

WATT: You really mean that?

PEARLMAN: I really mean that.

WATT: Why? PEARLMAN: Because Jews are being collectively blamed for a conflict 7,000 miles away.

WATT (voice-over): This is what happened at UC Berkeley when largely Jewish student groups invited an Israeli speaker onto campus.

SARAH, BEARS FOR PALESTINE: The speaker who had come on campus was a soldier who was actively participating in the horrendous Gaza attacks. He had posted some very crude things online.

WATT (voice-over): About 200 pro-Palestinian protesters vowed to shut it down, violating campus policies on free speech and safety.

DAN MOGULOF, UC BERKELEY OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS: We were outnumbered. Police, by and large, don't like to make arrests unless they have numerical superiority.

WATT (voice-over): There's now an internal investigation, a criminal investigation, and a Department of Education civil rights investigation.

SARAH: Things did kind of get out of control a little bit. This is a very sensitive and very emotional topic for us. I personally have had over 20 family members killed in Gaza.

MOGULOF: I was there that night. What happened was shocking, without any recent precedent.

CROWD: We charge you with genocide.

WATT (voice-over): But they were chants that we've heard on many college campuses these past months.

CROWD: Shame on you. Shame on you.

DANIEL CONWAY, BEARS FOR ISRAEL: There's been very minimal action taken to prevent these aggressive slogans and chants. They're meant to intimidate Jewish students.

MOGULOF: It's not fine. It's protected by the law. We can't censor it. We can't repress it, but we can, and we must, and we are cognizant of the fact that its impacting our students negatively. And so, we must offer them support.

WATT (voice-over): Students, mostly Jewish, were evacuated that night, had to move their event off-campus.

VIDA KEYVANFAR, CO-PRESIDENT, BERKELEY TIKVAH: The next morning, wake up and meet with administrators and have them telling me, you have to move our next -- you have to move your next event, you know, off of main campus.

WATT (voice-over): A talk on antisemitism.

MOGULOF: We want speakers invited by Jewish students to say whatever it is they want to say safely and successfully. And if it means asking students to move to a safer venue, gosh, darn, we're going to ask them.

WATT: Hi. I'm Nick. Hi.

RON HASSNER, CHAIR OF ISRAEL STUDIES, UC BERKELEY: Hi, Nick. Welcome.

WATT (voice-over): This Berkeley professor is now protesting, kind of a sit-in, sleeping in his office.

HASSNER: The university is reluctant to clamp down on this behavior because it is reluctant to arrest students. So far they've gotten away with it because the Jewish students said we will tolerate, we will undergo this humiliation. Their patience is over.

WATT (voice-over): He believes the administration has good intentions. He just wants them to do more about all of this.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: After the riot, they're still allowing the organization Bears for Palestine. They call apartheid week, where are they wanted, be on campus, block the gate, and they don't do anything about it.

WATT (voice-over): The main entrance to campus has been blocked by pro-Palestinian protesters for some time, Jewish students say they'd been jeered at.

(BEEP)

MOGULOF: It's five, ten students today, we go in and U.S. law enforcement. We'll have 20, 30, 40, 50, 200.

WATT (voice-over): This week, Jewish student groups and their allies march silently towards that gate.

Are they going to try to come through asked, one counter protester, not from Bears for Palestine.

Zionists kill babies, came the reply. They could do anything.

The marchers went around.

[04:30:00]

WATT: Bottom line, a lot of hate speech is protected by the First Amendment and Berkeley doesn't have enough police officers. There is some hope. There have been a number of events on campus this week and earlier that went off without a hitch. That march you just saw, that was also peaceful.

Now, the controversial speaker whose appearance kind of kicked all this off, he's been invited back to campus. That'll be next week.

Bears for Palestine right now tell me they are not planning to protest that. We'll keep an eye. Now, that college official said, listen, we are taking that event as a wake up call and perhaps the rest of the country should do the same.

Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)