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Palestinian Gunman Fired on Civilians Waiting for Aid; Irish PM Say U.S. Weapons in Gaza Not Used in Self-Defense; Some Russian Voters Stage Defiant Acts of Protest; Chaos in Haiti. Aired 3-3:30a ET
Aired March 16, 2024 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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LYNDA KINKADE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome to have you as joining us here in the United States and all around the world. I'm Lynda Kinkade. This is CNN NEWSROOM.
Coming up, Israel negotiators will attend the next round of ceasefire talks. Despite calling the proposal from Hamas ridiculous.
Voting is underway in Russia's presidential contests. The U.S. says the election is not democratic.
And CNN is the first major news organization on the ground in Port-au- Prince since the gang uprisings began in Haiti. We'll have the latest on the violence there.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Lynda Kinkade.
KINKADE: Israel claims it did not open fire on civilians waiting for aid in Gaza. Israel has released a video that it says shows Palestinian gunmen shooting at civilians. The IDF aerial video does not show any clear details and whether people in the video were carrying guns or shooting at civilians.
And we're not showing it because we can't independently verify the video's content, location or time. We do have video from Gaza's city Al Shifa Hospital showing the wounded. A warning that this video does include some disturbing images.
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KINKADE (voice-over): The hospital says it received more than 60 injured people about an hour after that incident. One witness says the victims were waiting for aid to arrive when they were bombarded with shells.
Gaza's health ministry says at least 20 people were killed. More than 150 wounded. CNN's Jeremy Diamond is in Jerusalem with more on the aid situation in Gaza and the ceasefire talks.
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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, just days ago, it seemed like those negotiations between Israel and Hamas were at an impasse. But now those talks appear to be back on track or at least moving forward.
Hamas has submitted its latest counterproposal demanding the release of some 700 to 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, 100 of whom are currently serving life sentences in Israeli prisons.
That would be in exchange for some 40 Israeli hostages, women, children, the elderly and sick hostages in a first phase of this agreement. That ratio though, is still much higher than what Israel put on the table and what so far they've been willing to accept.
In fact, an Israeli government official calling this latest proposal from Hamas still absurd and extreme. And a U.S. official indicating that it will be very hard to get Israel to agree to this latest proposal.
But there is still some cautious optimism in the air, perhaps even a sense of momentum. The Israeli government did review this latest proposal on Friday in a meeting of the war cabinet.
And next week, the Israeli government intends to send a negotiating team to Doha, Qatar, to seek to advance at these latest negotiations.
And there's no question that a ceasefire in Gaza at this moment, humanitarian aid agencies, the United Nations, many countries in the world, saying that it is essential at this point because of how dire that humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza has now become.
About 0.5 million people in Gaza now on the brink of famine. Cases of malnutrition rapidly rising, particularly in northern Gaza. And that's where on Friday we saw this latest humanitarian aid convoy, this time arriving by sea, and an aid ship being carried out by the World Central Kitchen, arriving in northern Gaza.
It's set to provide some 0.5 million meals. Questions now about how exactly they will distribute that aid and how they will do so safely. As we've seen, crowds of desperate Palestinians have surrounded these convoys in the past, creating some very dangerous situations.
And so this remains a question. We also know, of course, that land convoys getting that aid in by land is the most effective way. And so still a lot of pressure on Israel to open up more land routes into northern Gaza. -- Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Jerusalem.
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KINKADE: Well, Ireland's prime minister has raised his concerns about U.S. weapons being used in Gaza. Ireland's prime minister taoiseach met Friday in Washington with President Joe Biden. He again restated calls for a ceasefire in Gaza. And after the meeting, the Irish leader spoke to about the U.S. supplying weapons to Israel.
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LEO VARADKAR, IRISH PRIME MINISTER: The president was very clear that the U.S. would continue to support Israel, to assist Israel to defend itself. So I don't think that's going to change. What I think, none of us like to see American weapons being used in the way they are, the way they're being used at the moment is not self-defense.
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KINKADE: Well, the U.S. president is praising a speech that called for new elections in Israel. On Thursday, U.S. Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, who is Jewish, slammed Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
He said, many Israelis have lost their confidence in the vision and direction of their government. Top Republicans as well as Israel's ruling party spoke out against that speech.
But Mr. Biden gave his full support.
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JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He made a good speech and I think he expressed serious concern. Sure is not only by him but by many Americans.
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KINKADE: Ukraine says a Russian missile strike on Odessa Friday was the deadliest attack on the city since the war began. It killed at least 20 people and wounded more than 70.
Ukraine's president says, Russia used two missiles in what's known as a double tap attack, firing one missile to cause the initial casualties and destruction. And then when the first responders rushed into the scene, they struck again.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy called it a despicable act of cowardice.
There are fresh warnings about how urgently Ukraine needs more weapons and ammunition to fight Russia. A senior U.S. defense official said Friday, that Kyiv is quote "heavily outgunned on the battlefield."
The official says, even with other Western allies sending military aid, nothing can make up for the U.S. support. And that has been languishing in Congress for months as Republicans have blocked additional funding.
U.S. President Biden on Friday, again, called on lawmakers to approve the supplemental aid package. Well, the White House is making it clear it's not buying the idea that
ongoing presidential elections in Russia are free and fair. His statement Friday.
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ADM. JOHN KIRBY (RET.), COORDINATOR FOR STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: We'll, watch this and just monitor, see how it comes out. I mean, the idea, idea of free and fair elections in Russia is a misnomer but we'll see what happens this weekend.
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KINKADE: But some voters are trying to deny the Kremlin even an appearance of a pitch perfect election. On Friday, videos on social media showed people pouring what appears to be dye in to ballot boxes to spoil the votes inside.
A woman in Moscow instead a voting booth on fire before police arrested her. Another woman in St. Petersburg threw a Molotov cocktail into a polling station. Officials say the flames were quickly put out and that no one was injured.
The elections will be going on until Sunday with president Vladimir Putin essentially guaranteed to win. And that's partly because many opposition leaders are dead, jailed, exiled or banned from running.
For more Sebastian Shukla joins us now, live from London.
Good to have you, Seb, so this is the second full day of polling but given how many opponents would deny the chance to enter the race, how many people are turning out to vote?
SEBASTIAN SHUKLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, as you said, polling has been going on now since Friday evening, Russia time in Russia's far eastern regions of Kamchatka, which is that peninsula even beyond Japan. It's sort of mind-bending 16 hours from America Eastern time.
And up until now, we won't really understand what the outcome of the voting will be until we reach the hours of Sunday evening in the western regions of Russia, which obviously encapsulates Moscow too, where we will then find out who has, who will be announced as the new Russian leader.
But as you noted, Lynda, this is not a particularly competitive election. There is a front-runner, a very clear one, in the shape of Russian president, current Russian president Vladimir Putin.
And he has been running this country now since 2000 with a small hiatus in the middle, where he took a step back as the Russian prime minister. And should he win, he would actually make him one of Russia's longest-serving leaders since the Russian revolution in 1917.
So one of the things that we're seeing is --we've seen people coming out to protest in small ways, small acts of defiance, those Molotov cocktails that you mentioned and pouring dye into ballot papers to try and spoil any particular votes that have already been cast. But the thing that we will keep an eye out for is President Putin.
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And if he eventually becomes reappointed as the Russian leader. But the thing to note as well is that there is no real opposition. Candidates who are standing against him come from the parties which are almost approved by the Kremlin.
And President Putin himself doesn't stand for a party. He stands individually as himself, backed by a party, his former party, which is United Russia. But the other candidates who are, are not particularly anti-Putin and they are certainly as well not anti-war.
Those parties include the Communist Party, which still holds some particular nostalgia amongst some Russians for harking back to the years since the Cold War. But we won't really have an idea about what the outcome will be until Sunday evening.
But the crucial thing to look out for here is, given Russia, how much Russia has changed since it invaded its neighbor in February 2022 will be the turnout.
KINKADE: Right.
And, of course, you mentioned that Putin is on track to have the longest reign since dictator Joseph Stalin, another six-year term. This comes at a time where his country is at war in Ukraine and he sent hundreds of thousands of Russians to have died on the battlefield.
Are people having to vote in occupied territory?
SHUKLA: Yes, they are. In short, they are. And Russia's central election committee, which is essentially the body which controls the elections and stipulates what can happen and what can't.
It sets the rules ultimately, have said that Ukrainians in the occupied Russian-occupied territory that is Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhya and Kherson regions, which were all illegally annexed, are able to vote in these elections.
It's the central election committee, counts them up to be some 4.5 million people. And although the Russian state has been on a regime of trying to coerce Ukrainians in these territories to take Russian passports, they have changed the rules slightly to allow Ukrainians who still have Ukrainian passports to be able to vote in these elections.
It's a way of increasing that voter turnout. And actually in the regions themselves, voting opened ahead of the regular polling in the Russian Federation, so to speak, mainland, mainland Russia.
And we will see, we will see, we will have to see what the outcome will be. But we were relying very heavily on state media for what happens there because there are no individual election observers.
And even the Ukrainian government has called what is going to go on in the occupied, what they see as their land, essentially, as being a bit of a sham.
But interestingly, Lynda, on the day of the Sunday evening into Monday, when we will find out who will win this election, it's also the 10th anniversary of the illegal annexation of Crimea. And when President Putin was reelected in 2018, that was where he went and made his first post election victory speech.
KINKADE: Interesting to see if he heads back there.
Good to have you with us, Sebastian Shukla. Thanks so much.
Former U.S. vice president Mike Pence says he won't endorse Donald Trump in the upcoming presidential election. He didn't say who he would vote for now that Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee. And he made it clear that he wouldn't vote for Joe Biden and suggested he wouldn't even back a third-party candidate.
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MIKE PENCE, FORMER VICE PRESDIENT: Donald Trump is pursuing and articulating an agenda that is at odds with the conservative agenda that we governed on during our four years. And that's why I cannot in good conscience endorse Donald Trump in this campaign.
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KINKADE: After Pence ended his own presidential bid in October, Trump accused him of being disloyal for not then endorsing him in the primaries.
In Donald Trump's Georgia election subversion case, Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis has accepted her lead prosecutor's resignation while praising his courage for accepting the case.
Nathan Wade's departure comes after the presiding judge ruled that either Willis or Wade must exit the trial for it to overcome, quote, "a cloud of impropriety" created by their romantic relationship.
Wade says he's stepping down, quote, "in the interest of democracy, in dedication to the American public and to move the case forward as quickly as possible."
And in New York, the judge in Mr. Trump's hush money criminal case is delaying that trial. A new date is yet to be determined but it's not likely to occur before mid April. A hearing will be held March 25th. It's expected to address events around documents turned over this month, as well as the former president's motions to dismiss the case.
A spike in violence in Haiti as police search for a powerful gang leader. The U.N. warns of a hunger crisis.
[03:15:00] CNN is on the ground in Haiti, we will have a report from Port-au- Prince
Plus after a United flight from California landed in Oregon, someone on the ground noticed a panel missing from the plane. That's next.
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KINKADE: Welcome back.
There's a major police operation underway in Haiti to find a gang leader known as Barbecue (ph). He's the most prominent figure behind the violence that has pushed Haiti into a political and humanitarian crisis.
On Friday, the U.N. World Food Programme says that more than 4 million people, about a third of Haitians, are suffering from acute hunger. The U.N. is calling for urgent action to save the children there. CNN is the first major news network in Port-au-Prince since the recent gang uprising began. Here is CNN's David Culver.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to be flying to Haiti. It's going to take us one hour to get there.
DAVID CULVER, CNN SENIOR U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The logistics of this trip alone have been incredibly challenging, to say the least.
They're confirming with us something that we've been working on the entire day and that is the landing zone, trying to figure out where we'll touch down amidst a very dire situation in Port-au-Prince.
Gunshots.
Do you hear that?
There it is.
Already hearing gunshots just a few seconds into stepping out of the car after arriving here at Port-au-Prince.
Our pilot said they had been shot at at previous trips and yet they still intend to continue to make these missions as often as they can, not just to bring people in, who like us want to cover this and bring this story to the world, but more importantly, to bring those who are desperate to get out.
It's been a lot of diplomats in particular that have left. But others are on the list. In fact, some of the pilots that we've spoken with say they have lists that are hundreds of people desperate to get out. Of course that is a luxury. The Haitians don't have that opportunity,
nor can they even consider it. So for them, it's about having to deal with what is a worsening situation with each passing day and hoping that the U.N. or other foreign forces that might be able to bring aid can do that as strategically and quickly as possible -- David Culver, CNN, Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
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KINKADE: A United Airlines flight with 145 people on board landed safely in Oregon Friday, even though the plane was missing, an external panel. The airline said the missing part was on the bottom of the fuselage under the wing.
United says it discovered that only after the plane landed. The crew never declared an emergency and there was no indication of damage during the flight. An investigation is underway.
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United has had a string of recent incidents, including one flight that was forced to return to Sydney, Australia, after a maintenance issue. And in another, an engine caught fire midair after it ingested bubble wrap while on a different flight lost a tire during take-off.
The royal photo controversy doesn't seem to be going away. How the issues seems to be overshadowing efforts by the British royals to get on with duties and new opportunities.
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KINKADE: Some great news for prospective homebuyers and sellers in the U.S. The 6 percent commission, a standard in home purchase transactions, is no more. The National Association of Realtors announced Friday that it had agreed to eliminate rules on commissions.
It's part of a $480 million settlement with groups of home sellers. The move is expected to dramatically reduce the cost of buying and selling a home in the U.S. Some analysts say real estate commissions could fall 25 percent to 50 percent.
Encouraging news. Engineers at NASA are attempting to communicate with the Voyager I spacecraft, which took flight nearly 50 years ago. There's an aging probe, a so-called poke to get its flight data system to run some tests. We'll find out why the spacecraft is not been sending any usable information since November.
The Voyager I and its twin, Voyager II, launched back in 1977 to provide insights about the solar system. Voyager I recently sent back data that engineers may be able to use to figure out what's causing the communication issue. Public scrutiny is not dying down after an edited photo of the
Princess of Wales and her three children was released last week. The royal family is trying to get back to business but the issue keeps grabbing the headlines. CNN's Isa Soares is in London with more.
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ISA SOARES, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A new business venture and a social media comeback for the Duchess of Sussex.
After a six-year absence from Instagram, Meghan has launched American Riviera Orchard. Little is known about the brand but the timing of the announcement is raising eyebrows here in the U.K.
Across the Atlantic, on the very same day, Prince William honored the legacy of his mother, Princess Diana, at an awards ceremony. His brother and Meghan's husband, Prince Harry, joined live via video link and thanked those working for keeping her memory alive.
Despite the warm messages, the event was overshadowed by the relentless saga surrounding the Princess of Wales.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's the question that has taken over the internet. Where is Kate Middleton?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everyone is still talking about this picture.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wherever you stand on Katespiracy, there's no doubting its impact on the reputation of the British royal family.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They really, really messed up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They really have messed up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They have messed up, yes.
SOARES (voice-over): Which has been swirling in the media and amid the public for nearly a week. It all started with this photo to mark Mother's Day in the U.K. meant to calm fevered speculation over her health but in the end, only made things worse.
The image, put out by Kensington Palace, is the first glimpse of Princess Catherine since her last public appearance on Christmas Day.
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The only problem, it had been edited.
By the end of the day, major international news agencies had withdrawn the image, citing manipulation concerns, including the French-based AFP, where Eric Baradat is a photo director.
ERIC BARADAT, AFP PHOTO DIRECTOR: Everybody started at, you know, enlarging, zooming in the picture and noticing straight away that something was wrong. And after a few hours, all agencies in London decided to pull the pictures together.
SOARES (voice-over): With the palace in damage control, the princess issued an apology on social media saying, "Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing. I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused."
She was spotted briefly on Monday alongside her husband, William, in the car leaving Windsor for a private appointment. But AFP's photo director, says her doctor photo raises serious questions about trust and transparency.
SOARES: You thought you were tricked. Did you feel you were tricked?
BARADAT: Yes. Our position now will be that every image still image coming out of Kensington Palace will clearly be scrutinized very thoroughly before we decide to put it out to our subscribers around the world.
SOARES: It's often said that the royal family has to be seen to be believed. But when you don't believe what you see, then a whole host of conspiracy theories start swirling online.
I did a search for Kate Middleton photos you can see here and there are so many just circling right now on social media from the insensitive to the outright outlandish.
SOARES (voice-over): Still, some in the British public believe Kate has a right to privacy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a lot bigger issues to worry about in the world, really but people just leave her alone.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's blown out of all proportion. She did a little couple of tweaks at home. End of story.
SOARES (voice-over): Blown out of proportion or not, one thing is clear. With King Charles' ongoing cancer treatment and the mystery around Kate's health, the royal family is dealing with a PR battle on several fronts -- Isa Soares, CNN, London.
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KINKADE: Well, not since the corona craze has a French pastry chef's creation caught the world by storm. That is until now. The chef's so- called diving opera cake is an ode to the sport he loves. He planned his confection during the Paris games this summer.
This chocolatey cake is already a gold medal winner and won in a sports category of a Grand Prix pastry contest in Paris in November. The chef says that the cake's coffee soaked components are unique to his sport, featuring an airy aspect and a crunch like when you hit the water.
I need to taste test that. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Lynda Kinkade. "LIVING GOLF" is up next. I'll be back with much more CNN NEWSROOM. Stay with us.
