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CNN International: Rescues Ongoing After Taiwan's Strongest Quake In 25 Years; Kremlin: NATO Is In "Direct Confrontation" With Russia; NATO Marking 75th Anniversary In Brussels. Aired 8-9a ET
Aired April 04, 2024 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:00:10]
ERICA HILL, HOST, "CNN NEWSROOM": Hello, and welcome to our viewers all around the world. I'm Erica Hill. This is CNN Newsroom.
Just ahead, searching for signs of life, rescue crews in Taiwan are racing against the clock, hoping to find hundreds still stranded after Wednesday's deadly earthquake. And will Israel's deadly strike on aid workers in Gaza push President Biden to set limits on military aid to Israel? We could find out in a matter of hours following a planned call with Israel's Prime Minister today. Plus, excitement is building for next week's solar eclipse. What is NASA hoping to get out of this celestial experience? We'll take a look.
We begin this hour in Taiwan where rescue teams are working around the clock following that massive 7.4 magnitude quake, the strongest to hit the island in 25 years. Taiwan's National Fire Agency says dozens have been rescued. More than 600 people, though, remain missing or stranded. At least 10 people, we know, have been killed, more than 1,000 injured. Dozens of those still stranded are in hard to reach rocky or mountainous areas. We can show you this aerial footage which, this, shows you miners who are trapped at their base, and some more powerful images to share with you from the moment the quake struck. This is Wednesday morning, local time. You're watching the maternity staff. They're desperately trying to protect newborn babies. This was at a hospital in Taipei.
Ivan Watson is in Hualien, close to the earthquake's epicenter, and joins us now. So, Ivan, could you bring us up to speed on where we stand at this hour when it comes to those rescue efforts?
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. Well, here in the city, so close to the epicenter, the rescue effort is over really. Now, it is in the phase of kind of assessing the structural damage. One of the most stark examples of it is this residential building that was killed over on almost on its side in Wednesday morning's 7.4 magnitude earthquake. Firefighters rescued some of the residents from that building with ladders out of windows.
But, as you drive around this city of around 100,000 residents, you're hard pressed to find other buildings that even have a fraction of the kind of damage that you see over my shoulder. In fact, much of this city appears to be operating as usual with restaurants and shops open. There are shelters that the city government has established. I was just at one, for more than 100 people who are spending the night there, now for a second night and being provided with services. But, by and large, this city managed to escape despite the power, the historic power of this earthquake, escape an enormous death toll.
Yes. There are more than 1,000 people injured, among them the Mayor of Hualien himself who was on crutches. He said that a cupboard fell on him on Wednesday morning. Everybody I've talked to is sharing similar accounts, Erica, where they say, hey, we've grown up in this earthquake-prone city on this earthquake-prone island and we've lived through countless earthquakes. But, Wednesday's earthquake was a different kind of beast. It was more powerful and it lasted longer. And yet, we are seeing a real sign of Taiwan's resilience, how people get over this so quickly, and also how the buildings around here seem to have a structural integrity that's protected them from falling and pancaking like in other countries where I've seen horrific earthquakes with much higher death tolls.
Now, the situation out in the mountains, that's a different story. Erica. As I rode in on a train from Taipei to Hualien, we could see the aftermath of these massive landslides where the entire faces of mountains collapsed, and that's where the rescue effort is so intense right now, to try to reach more than 600 people who are believed to be stranded. Take a listen to what one person said to describe what the deadly falling rocks were like on Wednesday morning.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (Interpreted): There were too many rocks like bullets falling from above. We didn't know where to run. We were all scared.
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WATSON: Now, among 42 people that the authorities are trying to reach who are out of touch are some 30 hotel workers who were traveling to work on one of these kinds of mountainous gallery, like open air tunnels, and they got trapped in there, and we've seen some drone footage of the authorities trying to communicate with them.
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That's an example of the circumstances that some people are in, in these mountains that are so steep with these enormous gorges, which make them a tourist attraction, but tragically, resulted in the deaths of some tourists, including a Taiwanese tourist who was found in the national park, that body, earlier today. Erica.
HILL: I mean, you paint such a picture of how it has impacted different areas. What are you hearing or even feeling when it comes to further tremors? What are authorities saying or warning about that?
WATSON: Right. Well, the Taiwanese government has said there could be powerful aftershocks for the next three to four days, which could have a magnitude of as much as seven, which is just a little bit shy of Wednesday morning's earthquake. And residents here said there were aftershocks overnight that frightened some of them. That said, since I've been here, I really haven't felt anything and that's a good thing, because I'm not as experienced as the residents here are with earthquakes. This is a reality.
This city lies close to a very active fault line, and that's part of why it is so vulnerable to these earthquakes in the past and perhaps part of why it has been codified to have very strong construction regulations to protect the kind of awful scenes that we've seen in other countries when they're hit by very powerful earthquakes. It does feel, amid the tragic loss of life here, Erica, that this area has dodged a bullet for how awful the destruction and loss of life could have been.
HILL: Yeah. Absolutely. It is such an important point and important to underscore as well. Ivan, appreciate it. Thank you.
Turning now to the growing fallout from the Israeli air strike that killed seven aid workers in Gaza, in just hours, President Joe Biden is set to speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This will mark their first conversation since that deadly strike. The White House says Biden is heartbroken and outraged. Officials add, though, that U.S. support for Israel's current military operation remains unchanged. This call also comes as Palestinians mark another sober milestone. Gaza's Health Ministry saying more than 33,000 people have now been killed in the enclave since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October.
CNN's Jeremy Diamond is live at this hour in Jerusalem. So, this call, there is a lot of focus, a lot of attention on the call, not only for the content, but also because it will be such a moment given how dicey the relationship has been between these two leaders, especially over the last few months.
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. No doubt about it. This is once again a moment of tension in that relationship between the Israeli Prime Minister and President Biden. And as we understand that President Biden is set to make known his frustrations, his growing impatience with the way that Israel is conducting this war in Gaza with the Israeli Prime Minister when he reaches him on the phone. We know that in the past they have expressed frustrations with each other. During the last call, Prime Minister Netanyahu was the one to express frustrations about reports in the American press about this criticism of Israel's war effort. That also came as Netanyahu's top political rival Benny Gantz had recently traveled to Washington.
So, we have seen points of tension in this relationship before. What is different now is that, of course, it comes just days after the Israeli military carried out these airstrikes that killed seven World Central Kitchen workers, six of them foreign nationals, including one dual American-Canadian citizen. The Israeli military acknowledging its responsibility for these strikes, acknowledging that a grave mistake was made, and apologizing for these strikes.
But, the question is now, as President Biden expresses these frustrations, will he actually do anything to change U.S. policy towards Israel? And so far, the indications are that he will not. We have watched, as despite the rising criticism from the White House directed at the Israeli Prime Minister, the White House has continued to support Israel's war in Gaza, has continued to send weapons and approved new weapons sales, including recently sales of F-18s to the Israeli government. So, frustrations to be expressed, yes, but no overwhelming shift in U.S. policy expected.
HILL: Not surprisingly, I think for most people. World Central Kitchen founder Jose Andres has been incredibly vocal in this moment. He is accusing Israel of systematically targeting those seven aid workers. When we look at what has happened overall, he is also using this moment to highlight the number of aid workers in total who've been killed in Gaza. That is a substantial number, Jeremy.
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DIAMOND: Yeah. No doubt about it, 198 workers aid who have been killed since the beginning of this conflict, the largest number killed in a single conflict annually over the course of the last 20 years. And so, this strike really just served to highlight the dangers that these aid workers face, a danger that they face only because of the desperate humanitarian situation inside the Gaza Strip.
Jose Andres accusing the Israeli military of systematically targeting the aid workers in this convoy, saying that the response from the Israeli military, the explanations about misidentifying the target are simply insufficient. And today, the World Central Kitchen is also now calling for an independent investigation into this, as the Australian Prime Minister, for his part, also says that he believes the explanations from the Israeli military of how this strike occurred are still insufficient.
And indeed, we still are missing many key pieces to this puzzle. The Israeli military has said that they misidentified this convoy, that it should not have been struck, but they haven't explained how it could have been misidentified, in particular after the World Central Kitchen shared information about this convoy with the Israeli military prior to it leaving. The logos of the World Central Kitchen were on these vehicles. So, many more questions for the military to explain, as we expect an investigation to take place.
HILL: Yeah. Absolutely. Jeremy Diamond in Tel Aviv for us. Thank you.
NATO marking 75 years of the alliance today in Brussels, honoring its past and reportedly looking for ways to safeguard its future aid to Ukraine.
Top diplomat -- America's top diplomat is on hand there, meeting with Ukraine's Foreign Minister just a day after NATO's Chief Jens Stoltenberg urged the alliance to rely less on voluntary contributions to help Ukraine. An angry Kremlin, meantime, is warning that NATO is, in its view, quote "in direct confrontation with Russia."
CNN's Fred Pleitgen is tracking all of this for us. So, Fred, at this point, given those comments from Stoltenberg, what can NATO do for Ukraine?
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think NATO believes that they can still do a lot. But, I think you've already mentioned some of the really important things and the challenges that NATO has in front of it right now. And really, the 75th anniversary of the founding of NATO is a very important one, because right now it appears as though NATO is probably a lot more relevant than it has been at least over the past maybe two decades or so since the collapse of the Soviet Union, but at the same time, of course, also facing some of the big challenges that it has since the end of the Cold War as well.
And I think that's something that Jens Stoltenberg, in one of his speeches also, paid tribute to as well, where he said that NATO countries needed to make sure that aid for Ukraine does not depend on donations from countries but that there is a more systematic approach to all of this. There are some who read into that, that perhaps the NATO Secretary General is trying to make sure that NATO supplies to Ukraine continue even if there is a different administration in the United States that might not hold up some of the commitments that we've seen so far from the U.S. or some of the things that the U.S. has done for Ukraine.
On the whole, though, Jens Stoltenberg seemed very confident when he said he believes that right now NATO is in a very strong position, especially in light of the fact that it now has new members, like for instance, Finland and Sweden. Let's listen in to what Jens Stoltenberg had to say.
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JENS STOLTENBERG, NATO SECRETARY-GENERAL: In the beginning, we had 12 members. Today, we are 32. So, we must be doing something right. We are helped to spread peace, democracy and prosperity throughout Europe.
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PLEITGEN: So, those were the celebrations. Now, of course, this is a meeting of the NATO foreign ministers. The foreign ministers of the NATO countries were there as was the Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba of Ukraine. And one of the things that is a big challenge, of course, for NATO right now is the fact that the Ukrainians are having big difficulties on the battlefield, and that NATO so far has not met all of its commitments, especially as far as ammunition for Ukraine is concerned.
And one of the things that the Ukrainian Foreign Minister said, when he was actually on stage with Jens Stoltenberg, the NATO Secretary General, is he said, look, he didn't want to spoil the party that was going on, but that Ukraine seriously needs more air defense systems. One of the things that he specifically spoke about were those Patriot air defense systems, especially over the past couple of days. Of course, we've seen pretty sustained missile and drone attacks by the Russians. In fact, just in the overnight hours of tonight, there was a huge attack on the city of Kharkiv that killed several people, using some of those Iranian-made drones that the Russians so often use to attack Ukrainian cities and critical infrastructure, Erica.
HILL: Fred, appreciate it. Thank you.
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Still to come this hour, the judge in Donald Trump's hush money case appears to be getting a little frustrated with the former President's attorneys. What he had to say in terms of that latest motion to delay the trial? Plus, as the parents of a Michigan school shooter wait to hear how long they will spend in prison for their son's deadly rampage, we look at why this case is being called precedent setting.
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HILL: Donald Trump's latest effort to have his hush money case tossed, denied. The judge overseeing that case tossing a motion to delay the trial, and he seems somewhat frustrated with the Trump legal team for even asking for that delay. Trump's attorney say the trial should be paused while the Supreme Court considers Trump's claim of presidential immunity. Judge Juan Merchan, for his part, said that is a request that Trump team could have made months ago, not at the last minute, effectively noting the motion looks like a delay tactic for the trial which is due to start now in less than 10 weeks.
Our Senior Crime and Justice Reporter Katelyn Polantz has been following this story for us. Judge Merchan seems a little annoyed at this point, Katelyn.
KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, Erica, he has a lot of requests from Donald Trump to delay this trial and Trump is not coming out successful in them. There have been eight times, by prosecutor's count, that Trump has gone to the judge and asked to push back the trial date. It is April 15, 11 days from now. And this latest request, Judge Merchan told Trump's lawyers this week that it's too late for them to be trying what they're trying now. What they asked for was a delay because of presidential immunity. They said the Supreme Court is looking at this issue in his unrelated January 6 case in federal court.
And his team doesn't want the District Attorney's Office of New York to be able to use anything Trump said while he was President in this hush money trial in New York, not even tweets. The jury shouldn't be able to see any of that, they argued. And Judge Merchan said this is not a reason for delay at this point. We're going forward with jury selection in 11 days. And you can bring it up one by one if the prosecutors try and introduce evidence of something Trump said while he was serving as President. We can talk about it then during the trial.
So, there is some table setting about how this will work when the jury comes into play. But, right now, Trump is not being very successful in any of these attempts to delay. We still have one request from his team on the table that Judge Merchan hasn't ruled on. That is a request to delay because of pretrial publicity. They say there is too much publicity around Donald Trump for this to be a fair trial. He is also running for President. Judge Merchan has denied that request in the past from Trump's team. He has to rule on it again before trial. The District Attorney's Office, they say this is a perverse request. That's the word they used because the cause of all of the publicity around this trial is often coming from Donald Trump himself. Erica.
HILL: Katelyn Polantz, appreciate it, my friend. Thank you.
Prosecutors are seeking up to 15 years in prison for the parents of Ethan Crumbley.
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He is a Michigan teen who killed four fellow students in 2021 on the same day his mother and father were warned by a counselor about his behavior. In newly filed court documents, prosecutors allege James and Jennifer Crumbley have shown a quote "chilling lack of remorse." They were convicted in separate trials of involuntary manslaughter over their son's mass shooting. Sentencing is set for next Tuesday.
CNN's Jean Casarez has been covering this very closely, and she joins us now. So, Jean, in terms of these newly filed court documents, that is a pretty stunning statement there. What else have you found in the documents?
JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they are lengthy. They're 40 and 52 pages long from prosecutors, and there was also a pre- sentencing report done separately from this. But, they are really, really blunt in what they're saying, first of all, that this is a very serious case, and 15 years is the maximum. They're asking 10 to 15. You know they're going to argue 15, but have that allowance for a 10- year sentence, because they're saying this is for homicide convictions per parent. Involuntary manslaughter is homicide, that you, James and Jennifer Crumbley, you caused the deaths of those students at the school because of what you did not recognizing the mental issues that your son had, and then going to buy him a gun about four days before that mass shooting.
They are also saying that James Crumbley has no remorse at all. In fact, during the trial, they're saying that he made his middle finger very apparent toward the prosecutor in the courtroom. They include pictures of that in their sentencing memorandum. But, James Crumbley believes that he should be sentenced to time served. And there is a statement from him that prosecutors have included. Let's show part of that.
He says, "I am wrongly accused, and now wrongly convicted of Involuntary Manslaughter. My actions were that of any other parent. Ethan was a great kid. He never got into trouble at school, had decent grades, and very rarely gotten to trouble at home. And when he did get in minor trouble, it was just about grades or assignments he needed to complete. Ethan always appeared to be a very stable individual. Never did he voice anything to me that anything was bothering him."
And what he says right there for the most part is exactly true. That was the outward appearance. Ethan even did a lot of things in his room, door closed, through the night. The parents never knew about it. Now Jennifer Crumbley, also in her statement, because there is one that they've included with Jennifer, she said that she is devastated at what happened. She said that she knew her son to be a quiet kid, a good kid, never any major problems with him at all, that she is behind bars for 23 hours a day. It's over two years now. And she is asking to serve any sentence outside of the jail. And her defense attorney, she writes, has invited her to live in a guest house behind her house as she would serve out the remainder of that term.
HILL: Wow.
CASAREZ: And we're waiting for the defense sentencing memorandums. They have not been filed yet, but there will be another side to all of this. They will be asking for far less than the 10 to 15 years.
HILL: Yeah. Absolutely, live in the guesthouse. Jean, really appreciate it. Thank you.
CASAREZ: Thank you.
HILL: A construction company that lost six workers in last week's bridge collapse in Baltimore has set up a fund to help their families. Brawner Builders says it created the GoFundMe account for outside donations to go to family members. The company also notes it is providing them with financial and emotional support and counseling. The city, for its part, has said it is setting aside a million dollars in wage subsidies for workers whose jobs could be on the line because of that bridge collapse which, of course, shut down the Port of Baltimore, impacting some 8,000 local jobs. The city hopes that money will help companies be able to keep their workers on the payroll.
A CNN investigation, meantime, has found there are a number of other U.S. bridges that could be at risk of collapse if they are hit in a similar fashion by a large cargo ship. That's, of course, what caused the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore to crumble last week.
As CNN's Pete Muntean reports, one of those vulnerable bridges, it's actually just downstream from that one.
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PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the center of the shipping channel that would have been used by the MV Dali, and soaring above is the four-mile long Chesapeake Bay Bridge between Annapolis and Kent Island. A CNN investigation finds that it too could be vulnerable to the same kind of disaster that took down Baltimore's Key Bridge.
FRANK CARVER, BOAT CAPTAIN: That's the symbol of the Chesapeake Bay.
MUNTEAN (voice-over): Captain Frank Carver showed me the Bay Bridge at close range, its oldest span now more than 70-years-old. Multiple experts warned to CNN that the suspension bridge's concrete pilings and aging piers are too exposed to possible collision on this busy shipping route. State figures show that each year cargo ships carry a total of 11 million tons of cargo underneath.
CARVER: Sometimes we're doing these four times a day, if not sometimes 10 times a day.
[08:25:00] MUNTEAN: This is the older span of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, finished in 1953. The newer span, the westbound span finished in 1972. Both of these combined are critical for the area. About 27 million vehicles pass over these two bridges each year.
MUNTEAN (voice-over): Engineering Professor Adel ElSafty of the University of North Florida says the design could be at risk of collapse if the wrong piling was hit.
ADEL ELSAFTY, CIVIL ENGINEERING PROFESSOR, UNIV. OF NORTH FLORIDA: If one support goes down, then the whole superstructure will go down as well and it will pull the other parts as well. It's going to have that kind of catastrophic failure.
MUNTEAN (voice-over): The tower piers that support the main spans of the Bay Bridge have protective fenders. But, ElSafty points out that is where protections end. There are none of the barriers, known as dolphins, used to blunt the force of an errant ship.
ELSAFTY: I think that is what we really need to do is to design and protect, design better and protect our infrastructure.
MUNTEAN (voice-over): The Chesapeake Bay Bridge is operated and maintained by the same agency that oversees the Key Bridge. In a new statement to CNN, the Maryland Transportation Authority says, after the Key Bridge collapse, it is quote "Looking at options with the U.S. Coast Guard on the feasibility of increased pier protections for the Bay Bridge and what's possible in the navigation channel." Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said no bridge is designed for a direct hit from a ship.
PETE BUTTIGIEG, U.S. TRENSPORTATION SECRETARY: This is a unique circumstance. I do not know of a bridge that has been constructed to withstand a direct impact from a vessel of this size.
CARVER: I think everybody will definitely be on long guard now. That's for sure.
MUNTEAN (voice-over): Just south of the Bay Bridge are the container ships waiting to get into Baltimore, still blocked by the Key Bridge disaster, one, Frank Carver, says cannot be repeated.
CARVER: Don't hold the light. Sometimes (inaudible) realize whatever happened all that that happened. Now you can see it has opened up so many more vulnerabilities all around.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HILL: And our thanks to Pete Muntean for that reporting.
Still to come here, harsh words from the top U.S. military man as he tells his Israeli counterpart answers are needed following that tragic attack on an aid convoy. Plus, a CNN exclusive, what some senior State Department officials are saying about the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan. Stay with us.
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HILL: For more now on the deadly Israeli strike that killed seven aid workers in Gaza on Monday, we're hearing more from the founder of World Central Kitchen, Chef Jose Andres, now accusing Israel of systematically targeting those seven aid workers, and he is also calling for an independent investigation.
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CNN's Melissa Bell has more on this now from Jerusalem. I do want to warn you, some of the images in this report are disturbing.
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MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Systematically targeted car by car, that's how the World Central Kitchen is describing the Israeli military attack that killed seven of its aid workers in Gaza. In an interview with Reuters, the charity's founder and celebrity chef, Jose Andres, insistent that WCK had coordinated the convoy's movements with the Israeli military.
JOSE ANDRES, FOUNDER, WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN: We were targeted deliberately. This looks like it is not a war against terrorism regime anymore. It seems this is a war against humanity itself.
BELL (voice-over): The attack has sparked international outrage, prompting several humanitarian organizations, including World Central Kitchen, to pause their operations in Gaza at a time when civilians are starving. Israel's Prime minister acknowledged the strike, saying that his forces unintentionally struck innocent people. But, according to CNN's analysis of aftermath videos, the attack appears to have consisted of multiple precision strikes in what was the deconflicted zone on two armored cars and one unarmored vehicle. CNN has geo located video imagery of all the destroyed vehicles, at least one of which was clearly marked with the WCK logo on its roof. And this is just the latest in a string of Israeli attacks on aid convoys.
Last month, more than 100 people were killed in northern Gaza as Israeli troops opened fire near civilians gathering around food aid trucks, with some run over by feeding vehicles in the chaos. In what's become known chillingly as the flour massacre, Israel denied targeting the aid trucks, saying the Israeli Defense Forces fired at quote "suspects nearby". And less than a week later, witnesses said at least 20 people were killed by Israeli shelling as they waited for desperately needed food in Gaza City. Israel denied it was responsible for the deaths, blaming them instead on Palestinian militants. Even Israel's closest ally, the United States, has strongly condemned the WCK attack, but said it would not affect their efforts to deliver aid to Gaza by sea.
MATTHEW MILLER, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON: That effort is ongoing. The Pentagon is working hard on that, and I know they brief on that on a regular occasion. We want to get that stood up as soon as possible. Of course, this strike does reveal the very difficult situation that aid workers on the ground inside Gaza face when it comes to not just receiving aid in Gaza, but then actually delivering it.
BELL (voice-over): With every day that passes in Gaza, hunger becomes more evident. And despite Israel facing increased scrutiny over its conduct in the war, Palestinians continue to face deadly violence in their desperate efforts to survive.
Melissa Bell, CNN, Jerusalem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HILL: In a call with his Israeli counterpart, the U.S. Defense Secretary expressing outrage over the attack that killed those aid workers. According to the Pentagon, Lloyd Austin also urged Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to carry out a swift inquiry into the attack and to hold those responsible to account. Austin stressed the need for a rapid increase in aid to Gaza through all crossings, particularly to communities in the north at risk of famine.
CNN's Natasha Bertrand joins us now live from the Pentagon this morning with more. Natasha, good morning.
NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Erica. Yeah. This was a very direct call, a very candid call, we're told, between Secretary Austin and the Israeli Defense Minister where Secretary Austin largely echoed what President Biden had said earlier this week in a statement about being outraged over this WCK strike and emphasizing along with other senior administration officials in recent days that there needs to be a transparent and thorough investigation, and importantly, that the outcomes of that investigation need to be made public and someone needs to be held accountable for what happened.
But, of course, the big question here is, while we have seen a significant shift in rhetoric from the administration, will that come also with a shift in policy? It does not seem at this point like anything is going to change in terms of how the administration is engaging with the Israelis in terms of arm sales and defense sales, which are ongoing. We just earlier this week reported that the administration is preparing to approve a $18 billion F-15 fighter jets sailed to the Israelis, and the U.S. has continued to send bombs as well as other military equipment to the Israelis that they are using in Gaza and have been using over the last several months.
And so, the calls for the administration to kind of match their actions to what they're saying publicly are growing louder, including from some of President Biden's allies and members of his own party. And so, the question now is, given the readouts that we are seeing, given the call that is planned today between President Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is something concretely going to change?
[08:35:00]
Because the Israelis so far have not necessarily been heading the United States' words and advice on policy. But, will the U.S. be using any kind of leverage with the Israelis that is concrete? That is what everyone is waiting to see, Erica. HILL: Yeah. Absolutely. And we're hearing more and more about that, of course, here in the U.S., the pushback, specifically from members of President Biden's own party, as we see this growing rift between the Biden administration and the Netanyahu government. Is there any sense this morning of the impact that that call with Secretary Austin and Yoav Gallant may have on this relationship?
BERTRAND: Well, their relationship has always been very direct, is the word that the Pentagon repeatedly tells us when we ask about these calls. Secretary Austin always raises the issue of civilian casualties, the need to get more humanitarian aid into Gaza. They are not best friends. They are not people who have a very close relationship. And Secretary Austin has been disappointed, we're told, in what he has seen the Israelis do in Gaza.
But, it doesn't seem at this point like the Israelis are going to necessarily change their behavior based on what the Secretary is saying. In fact, the Secretary had a meeting last week with the Israeli Defense Minister, and the Israeli Defense Minister brought a wish list of weapons that the Israelis want, and we're told that it was received rather well by the Pentagon, and they acknowledged that they are going to be working on that along with conversations with other administration officials. So, it does not seem at this point like anything concrete is going to change. But, of course, we have to wait and see what the President says in his call with Netanyahu.
HILL: Absolutely. Natasha Bertrand at the Pentagon this morning, thank you.
A member of Israel's war cabinet is now calling for early elections in September. Benny Gantz is a vocal critic, of course, of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but joined his emergency government after the Hamas attacks in October. He says elections are crucial to renew trust in the government. Mr. Netanyahu's Likud Party says Gantz should stop engaging in what it calls petty politics, claiming that early elections would fatally damage the chances of a hostage deal.
Paula Hancocks is following these developments for us from Abu Dhabi this morning. There is pressure building here clearly on Netanyahu and his government to have Benny Gantz now calling for these early elections. How much of an impact is that having?
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you're right, Erica. I mean, these calls are increasing and they are becoming louder, calling for early elections and also for the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to step down. We've been seeing on the streets recently as well, thousands of protesters are calling for him to leave his position. And now, we have his main critic, his main rival, Benny Gantz, saying that there do have to be early elections, and he wants to make sure that they are by September. Let's listen to what he said.
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BENNY GANTZ, ISRAELI WAR CABINET MINISTER (Interpreted): In order for us to remain united and succeed in the tasks were facing, the public must know that we will soon ask once again for them to demonstrate their trust that we won't ignore the October 7 catastrophe and what occurred prior to it. Therefore, we must agree upon a date to hold elections in September, as we approach the one-year anniversary.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANCOCKS: Yair Lapid, who is an opposition leader, also adding his voice, saying that Netanyahu should resign, in fact, the government should resign as soon as possible, saying Israel can't wait six more months until this government leaves. Now, it's really echoing what we heard from the Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer just last month, saying that he believed this was in the best interests of Israel. He came under vocal attack when it came to the Republicans for suggesting that there should be a change in leadership. But, he has since doubled down, saying that even those in Israel, many, are feeling the same way.
Now, there has been pushback from Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister, and his Likud Party, accusing Benny Gantz of playing petty politics, saying that you simply can't have elections at a time of war, also pointing out that the elections would lead to paralysis, division and damage, also claiming that it could create damage for a potential hostage deal. What we're hearing from Benny Gantz and others is that there hasn't been a hostage deal because of leadership and that needs to change.
So, it just shows the increasing domestic pressure that Benjamin Netanyahu is under in Israel, and as I say, we are seeing that reflected on the streets as well as thousands have been protesting, calling for the release of hostages taken on October 7, and many of them calling for Benjamin Netanyahu to step down. Erica.
HILL: Paula, appreciate the reporting. Thank you.
The chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, it was thrown together from scratch at the last minute.
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That's according to transcripts were -- which were obtained exclusively by CNN, those transcripts of testimony given by State Department officials to a congressional panel which is investigating the withdrawal. The official said they were flown into Kabul just hours after the Taliban overran the city in August of 2021, and noted there was no working emergency evacuation plan in place.
CNN's Kylie Atwood broke this story and is joining us now from the State Department. The details are disturbing, and they are frankly a bit confounding too to hear this level of detail and the lack of planning, Kylie.
KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN U.S. SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. That's right, Erica. These State Department officials described to investigators on the Hill that they were really scrambling when they were sent to Afghanistan. One of them had been working on Arctic affairs. Another was at a posting in Turkey. Another was asked by the Deputy Secretary of State to go to Kabul and left eight to 10 hours later. These were not folks who were prepared and briefed and ready to go into this crisis situation. Although they had worked on Afghanistan at points throughout their career, this was a really ad hoc operation that they were sent into.
And of course, we saw those images of just how tragic it was around the Kabul airport, as the State Department officials work to try and get out those Americans that were still in the country and also those Afghans that had worked alongside the U.S. as Kabul was falling to the Taliban.
These State Department officials also say that when they got on the ground, as you said there, there was no really effective plan that they were falling. One of the State Department officials said they created from scratch tactical plans. Another one talked about the situation on the ground changing minute by minute. So, they really had to be adapting their plans on the go. It was a really challenging situation, but they weren't able to draw from an overall plan that had been drafted for them, which is a really contrasting detail to the fact that the State Department had said that they had prepared for this for so long.
The other thing that I want to note, Erica, is that the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Mike McCaul, who is carrying out this investigation, his investigators say that they're going to create an overall report on all of the transcribed interviews that they have. We were able to view, of course, exclusively, three of those interviews, but there are many more that they have done. And once they're done with that report, they'll put it out in public eye.
When you talk to Biden administration officials, they are very clear eyed about the fact that they believe that there is a political motive here for the Republicans on the Hill. They want this to become an issue leading into November when there is the general election between Biden and Trump, and they know that this is an issue for Biden because it's a very dark mark on his foreign policy legacy.
HILL: Kylie, really appreciate the reporting, as always. Thank you.
Still to come here, a new study says cancer cases are skyrocketing across the world. We'll take a look at why and how you can avoid some cancer risks, next.
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HILL: A new health study predicts a major spike in cancer cases across the world over the next two decades. The American Cancer Society cases, it expects, will jump some 77 percent by the year 2050. But, you can minimize those cancer risks.
CNN's Jacqueline Howard is following the findings, and also those perhaps helpful hints. So, first of all, Jacqueline, let's take a look at what is actually driving this expected rise here. That's a massive increase.
JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: It is massive, but we do know there are two key drivers here, just as a society we are ere aging and as a society we are growing. So, in the year 2022, there were about eight billion people around the world. That number is projected to rise to 9.7 billion by 2050. So, as we see more people as a global population and more older ages, we can expect to see more cancer. And in this report, it did show that lung cancer was the leading cause of cancer deaths and disease in recent years, in 2022.
But, when you look at data by country and by men versus women, you do see some interesting trends. Here is a map of cancer incidents among the men around the world. That green color is prostate cancer. You see how it's very prevalent in North America and South America. The blue is lung cancer, which we see more prevalent in Asia. And then, when you look at cancer incidents among women around the world, breast cancer is the most prevalent globally. On a map of cancer incidents among women, you see breast cancer there in pink. But, it's also interesting, cervical cancer is shown in orange, and you see that prevalent in parts of Africa, and lung cancer is shown in blue, which, again, you see in parts of Asia.
So, these trends really help give us a global picture of where we are currently with cancer as a public health concern. And it's estimated, Erica, that one in five people will develop cancer in a lifetime. So, these numbers are very important to watch, especially as we think about what the future could look like.
HILL: So, in terms of that future, what are some ways that we could reduce cancer risk?
HOWARD: Right. The new report that was released today does point out, as a society, we can do more when we think about tobacco control and screening for cancer. But, individually, each can make changes in our own lives to reduce our risk, like eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly, limiting how much alcohol we drink, and not smoking. These are all things we can do, not just to reduce our cancer risk, but really to just live healthier and happier lives. Erica.
HILL: All right. I will take that to heart. Jacqueline, thank you.
Still to come here, NASA is going to be conducting some studies on Monday's eclipse. We will take a look at what they hope to discover. That's next.
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HILL: Well, we're on a bit of an eclipse countdown here at CNN. Millions of people across North America set to look up on Monday to witness that solar eclipse. NASA is also keeping a close watch on it, launching rockets and high-altitude planes directly into its path at three different times. The space agency says the goal there is for the rockets to collect data and how the Sun's disappearance could impact or even potentially interfere with our communications.
[08:50:00] The solar eclipse is not just a celestial marvel. It's also a real learning opportunity, one that, of course, does not come around all that often.
CNN's Bill Weir joining us now with more of those details. So, what is it that NASA has planned here, Bill?
BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is really exciting, Erica. And just to give a little context about how much we can learn during these events, the most famous of all is Albert Einstein, who back in 1916 floated this theory that gravity is the result of time and space, sort of warping the fabric of the universe, and it wasn't until three years later, the 1919 eclipse, scientists saw that. They saw stars that were in a different place than they should be.
Our perspective changes because of relativity. It proved the theory of relativity. And so, now, everybody is focused on other mysteries of the universe, for example, the corona of the Sun. That's not the virus or the Mexican beer. The corona is the outer ring that looks like a halo during an eclipse, which is millions of degrees hotter than the surface of the Sun. Even as the sun cycles over these 11-year periods of active and less active material, we were right now at solar maximum. The sun is going off.
So, as the eclipse is happening, they're going to send those high- altitude WB-57 planes up to about 60,000 feet, and just to stay in the path of the eclipse, and measure the corona and see how much we can learn about that to figure that out. That affects ultimately the ionosphere, which is the layer of the atmosphere between deep space and livable Earth. And it's supercharged electrically, thanks to the power of the Sun.
And so, the rockets, they will fire one before, one during, one after the eclipse, to try to understand how as the Sun sets and moves across the Earth as the Earth rotates in and out of the Sun's glare, how that energy changes. And that energy ultimately affects terrestrial communications, radio waves. It affects our satellite systems that give us everything from weather forecasting to GPS, and so much connects our lives financially. So, this is one of those things where generations ago, Erica, these eclipses brought fear and fascination and all kinds of myths about the Moon eating the Sun. But now, in the age of science, we can try to unlock these mysteries of the universe, hopefully for the benefit of folks down on Earth.
HILL: Yeah. It's such a massive opportunity. So, when will we know what they found? I mean, what are the plans to release that data?
WEIR: This is an ongoing data set. So, they already learned a bunch from the last couple of eclipses. And now, they're -- they have a chance to add more data to that to see the fluctuations in the ionosphere. And there is also all kinds of different, hot air balloon experiments that will go on, the sounding rockets which will be shot up to send out these, but also citizen scientists who are ham radio enthusiasts, will test their transmission strength and how long it takes for a signal to carry across the terrestrial communication radio waves and how that is affected as the ionosphere cools off and sort of a false dawn and dusk in the middle of the day. And so, a lot of people interested for a lot of different reasons.
HILL: I like this. I am all about this story on Monday and every angle that comes with it. Bill, thank you.
WEIR: You bet.
HILL: And you can, of course, join us on Monday for the total solar eclipse, as it travels from Mexico across the U.S. and into Canada. Our special coverage starts at 12 p.m. Eastern Time in the U.S., 5 p.m. in London.
From space to sports, she scored 41 points Monday night, leading her team to the NCAA Women's Basketball final four, breaking all kinds of records, the all-time Division One scoring record this season with more than 3,900 career points. Now, Caitlin Clark has yet another honor to celebrate after being named the 2024 Naismith Women's College Player of the Year. This is the second consecutive win for the Iowa Hawkeyes superstar. She spoke to the crowd in Ohio last night after receiving the award.
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CAITLIN CLARK, BASKETBALL PLAYER, IOWA HAWKEYES: Like I said, I think it's been a special year for women's basketball. So, to win this award is really special. But, to be back here playing with my team, I couldn't script it any better. I know some of them are here. Some are back there. I'm not really sure. Oh, right there. Thank you for being here. I love you guys. This is just as much or as is it as mine, and my parents are here, and I love you guys to death. And yeah, I'm just very grateful and thankful, and I'll see you on Friday night.
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HILL: We will see her Friday night. It has been quite a year and quite a tournament for women's sports.
All right. Plenty of eyes also on the Powerball lottery jackpot in the United States. And for good reason, no winner last night, which means the jackpot is now up to $1.23 billion, making it the fourth highest jackpot in Powerball history. So, if you are in the states and playing on Saturday, I wish you luck. Feel free to share your winnings.
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Finally, a fifth installment of the Matrix franchise is now in the works, we're learning, 25 years after the now classic film premiered in theaters
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That, of course, the original from 1999, starring Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne. The film's original co-writer and co-director will serve as executive producer of the fifth movie. Details on the plot and the casting, including who may return, have not yet been released. So, stay tuned for those details.
Thanks so much for joining us on CNN Newsroom. I am Erica Hill. Stay tuned. Connect the World with Eleni Giokos is up next.
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