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CNN International: Questions Over Israel's Plan for Rafah Ground Offensive; Gaza's Health Care System Hanging on By a Thread; Arizona Court Upholds 1864 Law, Bans Nearly All Abortions; Japanese Prime Minister to Meet with Biden During Official Visit; Parents of Michigan School Shooter Get 10-15 Years in Prison. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired April 10, 2024 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nobody discusses politics here. They just talk about food and water and shelter and they just want the war to end.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It remains astounding to me that the world is almost deftly silent when it comes to Hamas.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As long as I am attorney general of the state of Arizona, no woman or doctor will be prosecuted under this draconian law.
TIGER WOODS, PROFESSIONAL GOLFER: I love golf. I've always loved it. I just love doing the work. I love logging the time in and I love preparing, I love competing. If everything comes together, I think I can get one more.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Max Foster.
MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and a warm welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I'm Max Foster. It's Wednesday April the 10th, 9 a.m. here in London, 10 a.m. in Gaza, where the Israeli military assault is facing growing international criticism and mounting questions about the next phase.
The planned ground offensive in the border city of Rafah, Israel's prime minister, who's under pressure from his ultra-conservative government allies, has told military recruits that Israeli troops will enter Rafah to eliminate Hamas.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): We will complete the elimination of the Hamas battalions, including in Rafah. There is no force in the world that will stop us.
(END VIDEO CLIP) FOSTER: That, according to senior White House officials, is nothing but bravado. And Israel's claims that the date has been set for the Rafah offensive mere bluster. The U.S. president, meanwhile, issued one of his sharpest rebukes yet of the Israeli leader and his handling of the war.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think what he's doing is a mistake. I don't agree with his approach. I think it's outrageous. So what I'm calling for is for the Israelis to just call for a ceasefire, allow for the next six, eight weeks total access to all food and medicine going into the country. And I think there's no excuse to not provide for the medical and the food needs of those people. They should be done now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: Well, while U.S. officials expressed frustration with Prime Minister Netanyahu, they haven't forgotten the horror inflicted by Hamas that started this war.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: So much of the understandable passion, outrage and anger directed at Israel for the plight of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, but some of that might also be reserved and directed for Hamas. It remains astounding to me that the world is almost deftly silent when it comes to Hamas.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: Meanwhile, a dire situation is unfolding in and around Gaza's hospitals, where there are drastic shortages of medicine, doctors and electricity. Paula Hancocks is in Abu Dhabi with more on that for us -- Paula.
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Max, we often do focus on the death toll in Gaza. It's more than 33,000 now, according to health officials there. But what we don't look at quite so closely is the number of injured, more than 75,000. And they are struggling to get better with a decimated medical system in Gaza.
Now, the following report does contain some distressing images, which you may find very uncomfortable to watch. But it is important and it shows a small snapshot of what one hospital in northern Gaza is struggling with.
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HANCOCKS (voice-over): A nine-year-old girl cries out, it hurts, it hurts. The doctor holds her hand as she lies on the floor and tells her it's going to be OK. There's no pain medication for her burns and shrapnel wounds.
He tells her to pray. Nearby, another doctor tries to save one of his own, performing CPR on
a paramedic who was injured by Israeli artillery fire. His heart eventually restarts.
[04:05:00]
One life saved amid so much loss. His longer-term chances of survival in a decimated medical system are unclear.
These doctors are American, volunteers on a World Health Organization- coordinated mission to the north of Gaza, desperate to help in an ever more helpless crisis.
DR. FARHAN ABDELAZIZ, EMERGENCY MEDICINE PHYSICIAN: The situation here is intense, it's catastrophic. I realize words are hard to describe what we're seeing. I mean, you're talking about mass casualty events where people are coming in with limited staff, limited overworked staff, hungry staff, all working, who've been displaced from homes, and they're sitting here and they are trying to do the best they can.
HANCOCKS (voice-over): This is Kamal Adwan Hospital in the north, one of the few hospitals still open, although barely functional.
DR. SAMER ATTAR, ORTHOPEDIC SURGEON: This morning we woke up and found out that four patients died in the ICU. One of them was about 10 years old and the mom just refused to leave the child's bedside, refused to believe that the child was dead, refused to let the staff cover her up. The child died of malnutrition and dehydration.
HANCOCKS (voice-over): Patients here lie on the floor in their own blood. Electricity relies on solar panels. The fuel ran out some time ago.
The hospital's director says volunteer specialists traveling into Gaza are a massive help amid a shrinking medical staff. Close to 500 medical personnel have been killed since October 7th. Nearly 300 others have been detained by the Israeli military, according to Gaza health authorities.
A U.N.-backed report had warned famine could hit northern Gaza any time between now and May. Under U.S. pressure, the Israeli government announced last week it would reopen the Erez Crossing to allow humanitarian goods to reach the area. Those plans have since been delayed, according to an Israeli official, shattering what was a small but needed glimmer of hope.
ATTAR: These people, they just need help. They just want this to stop. Nobody talks. Nobody discusses politics here. They just talk about food and water and shelter, and they just want the war to end.
HANCOCKS (voice-over): As the war enters its seventh month, the injured must be wondering if anyone is hearing their cries for help.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HANCOCKS (on camera): And also looking at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, this is where the Israeli military carried out a two-week operation. Now, we've heard from officials there that some 381 bodies have been found at this point in and around the hospital.
They say some were buried, some left in the open, and they are having to exhume some as well so that they can be identified, so that those who have lost loved ones in that area can have some closure.
Now, we've heard from the IDF saying that they killed what they call 200 terrorists. They say that they have arrested 500 more that they believe to be affiliated with terrorist organizations.
But that particular area, we hear from those on the ground, from eyewitnesses, has been absolutely devastated. It is not a hospital that is functioning at this point -- Max.
FOSTER: OK. Paula in Abu Dhabi, thank you for that update.
Now, Israel says the number of aid trucks that entered Gaza on Tuesday marked the highest daily count since the start of the war. Israel's agency that controls access to the enclave says nearly 470 trucks carrying humanitarian assistance were inspected and finally let into Gaza.
But the U.N. spokesperson says challenges remain once the trucks get through that crossing.
Meanwhile, the U.K. joined eight other nations to carry out a large- scale airdrop of aid into Gaza on Tuesday to coincide with the end of Ramadan. The U.S. was amongst those taking part. The U.S. Central Command says to date U.S. forces have dropped nearly 800 tons of humanitarian assistance into northern Gaza.
As Israel faces mounting international criticism over its war in Gaza, Britain's top diplomat says the U.K. will not suspend arms sales to Israel. British Foreign Secretary David Cameron's comments came during a visit to Washington.
The British government is under pressure to suspend arms exports over charges of humanitarian violations in Gaza.
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DAVID CAMERON, BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY: Let me be clear though, we continue to have grave concerns around the humanitarian access issue in Gaza, both for the period that was assessed and subsequently. We've seen a welcome increase in trucks with, as Tony said, perhaps as many as 400 going in yesterday, the highest since October the 7th, and of course public commitments from Israel to flood Gaza with aid. These now need to be turned into reality.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: Well, Cameron also says he had a, quote, good meeting with former U.S. President Donald Trump and discussed a range of international issues, including the war in Gaza and Ukraine.
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Now, in the coming hours, Cameron is expected to meet U.S. congressional leaders to urge them to approve additional assistance for Ukraine as an aid bill remains stalled in Congress.
Now, Donald Trump's hush money trial is expected to begin on Monday after a New York appeals court judge denied his request to delay the trial so he can challenge the gag order in the case. The judge overseeing Trump's case put the order in place to keep the former U.S. president from publicly commenting on witnesses and staff of the court.
The ruling came just a day after another appellate judge denied Trump's request to move the trial to a new venue. His legal team says the New York jury pool is more likely to be liberal. A former federal prosecutor explains why this isn't a valid argument.
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TEMIDAYO AGANGA-WILLIAMS, FORMER SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE COUNSEL, JANUARY 6TH COMMITTEE: You get to have a jury of your peers and, you know, the president is famously from New York. And what the jury process is about is about gleaning who is going to be fair and impartial in the process. It's not about getting the jurors that you only want.
It's about having the opportunity to ask them questions, to really inquire whether they can be fair and impartial to both parties. Both the government and the defendant have a right to a fair trial. He's going to have the opportunity here.
The judge will ask questions. Counsel, too, will have the opportunity to ask questions. And these very issues about political affiliation, preconceptions about the former president, all that is going to have an opportunity to come out.
And then he'll have the opportunity to do what people do in every trial, which is to strike jurors. I mean, every lawyer who's been to trial before is engaged in that process. You're trying to understand what are people's preconceived notions about your positions, and then you test those, and if you don't feel confident they're going to support you in your ultimate arguments, you have those jurors struck.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: Now, in another Trump legal case, a federal judge in Florida says the names of potential witnesses in the classified documents case against Trump will remain secret. The witness list reportedly includes a number of workers from Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate. Trump's lawyers had argued they should be able to name the potential witnesses, as it is typical in criminal cases.
But the judge ruled that releasing names and other identifying information about witnesses against the former president could put them at risk.
The Arizona Supreme Court dealt another major setback to abortion advocates on Tuesday. The court ruled that Arizona must now follow a 160-year-old law that bans all abortions except to save the mother's life. Arizona's attorney general says she has no plans to enforce the law.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KRIS MAYES, ARIZONA ATTORNEY GENERAL: Arizonans want us to fight back against this extreme, draconian, Civil War-era abortion ban that was passed at a time when Arizona wasn't a state, the Civil War was still raging, and women couldn't even vote.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: Well, CNN's Brian Todd has more on this historic ruling.
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GOV. KATIE HOBBS (D-AZ): It is a dark day in Arizona.
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Arizona's Supreme Court ruling that the state must enforce a near-total ban on all abortions, the controversial law which dates back to the Civil War, before Arizona even became a state.
The court saying, quote: Physicians are now on notice that all abortions, except those necessary to save a woman's life, are illegal.
Abortion providers could face a prison sentence of two to five years.
HOBBS: The near-total Civil War-era ban that continues to hang over our heads only serves to create more chaos for women and doctors in our state.
TODD (voice-over): The Arizona law is on hold for two weeks, while a lower court hears arguments on its constitutionality.
And Arizona's attorney general, Kris Mays, a Democrat, says that at least while she's in office, no woman or doctor will be prosecuted under this law by the state.
President Biden calls the new ban cruel, and Vice President Kamala Harris said this on X.
KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: To stop bans like this, we need a United States Congress that will restore the protections of Roe v. Wade. And when they do, President Joe Biden will sign it into law.
And let's always remember, it does not have to be this way.
TODD (voice-over): Opponents of abortion are applauding the Arizona ruling.
The group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America in a statement saying, quote: We celebrate this enormous victory for unborn children and their mothers, and claiming the ruling, quote, will protect more than 11,000 babies annually. This comes just one day after former President Donald Trump announced his campaign position on abortion, declining to support a federal nationwide ban on abortions, saying it should be left up to states.
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: At the end of the day, this is all about the will of the people.
TODD (voice-over): And it all comes on the heels of a controversial ruling in Florida's Supreme Court last week that allowed a ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy to take effect next month.
Florida's high court did allow a proposed constitutional amendment that would establish the right to an abortion to go on the ballot this November, to the delight of abortion rights activists who pushed for that.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What it does is remove politicians' ability to interfere with her private medical decisions.
TODD (voice-over): Florida's one of several states where abortion will or may be on the ballot in November, when voters will decide whether to guarantee the right to an abortion in their state's constitutions.
AYESHA RASCOE, NPR HOST, "WEEKEND EDITION SUNDAY" AND "UP FIRST" PODCAST: You're seeing all of this turmoil where people don't know from day to day what is going to be the law in their state, what happens if they get pregnant and they want to terminate their pregnancy?
TODD: Many abortion rights activists still have their sights set on a longer-term strategy to restore federally approved access to abortion. But even they realize it won't happen soon. One leader of Planned Parenthood saying it could take decades.
So for now, their strategy is focused on going state by state to protect and maybe even expand, in some cases, access to abortion.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: U.S. President Joe Biden is again warning about the existential threats to American democracy. He spoke bluntly during an interview with Univision.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What, in your view, constitutes the primary threat to freedom and democracy at home?
BIDEN: Donald Trump. Seriously. Donald Trump talk -- uses phrases like you're going to eviscerate the Constitution. He can be a dictator on day one. The idea that he would sit in the office, and I'll show you before you
leave, off the Oval Office and watch for hours the attack on the Capitol and the destruction and the mayhem and the people who were killed, the police officers who died, and call them political heroes, call them patriots, and saying that if he gets elected he's going to free them all because they're being held illegally.
I mean, it's just, and think of the things he says. Look at the way he talks about minority populations, Hispanics. We're talking about them being -- anyway, it's just, I can't think of any other time in my lifetime, in history, that's occurred that you've had somebody who's had this kind of attitude.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: The U.S. President has repeatedly argued that Trump's return to the White House would amount to a grave threat to democracy, and has used the events on January 6th to make his case to voters.
In the coming hours, the White House will host Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during an official visit. U.S. President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden met with Mr. and Mrs. Kishida on Tuesday, but official talks won't start until later today. CNN's Hanako Montgomery has more from Tokyo.
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HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: On Tuesday, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and U.S. President Joe Biden explored how the two countries could further develop their business relations with a specific focus on critical and emerging technology.
We saw the tech company Microsoft announce it would invest 2.9 billion U.S. dollars over two years, focusing on its cloud and A.I. development in Japan. Making this Microsoft's largest investment in Japan in the 46 years it's been operational in the country. Now, this investment would also help open its first Microsoft Research Asia lab in Tokyo and further cybersecurity collaboration with the Japanese government.
Now, on Wednesday, according to a senior U.S. government official I spoke with, we can expect Kishida and Biden to announce a joint defense council, which would explore further military exports.
We've already seen Japan agree to send U.S.-designed Patriot missiles to the United States that were made in Japan, so this would be an expansion of such efforts.
Now, the government official I spoke with also said we can expect Kishida and Biden to announce a joint operations command in Japan, which is a move that the U.S. government has long pursued.
Right now, joint operations of U.S. personnel in Japan are directed by Indo-PACCOM, which is headquartered in Hawaii. So according to the experts I've spoken with, this would be much easier to coordinate military operations in real time. Hanako Montgomery, CNN, Tokyo.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: More than 30 million Americans in the southern United States are under severe storm threats right now. Potential tornadoes, powerful wind gusts, hail, and thunderstorms are all in the forecast. The storm threat will eventually expand to include much of the eastern U.S., but it's expected to weaken by Thursday.
Now, still ahead, parents are sentenced to prison for their child's deadly attack on a Michigan high school. It's a case that raised questions about who can be held responsible for a mass shooting.
Plus, widespread flooding in southern Russia after a major dam burst. Now tens of thousands of people are out of their homes.
And later, a call of a bad romance, if you will.
[04:20:00]
The new trailer for the Joker movie sequel highlights Lady Gaga as the villain's love interest, Harley Quinn. We'll have a fresh look at the highly anticipated film.
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FOSTER: Now, in a very rare case, the parents of a school shooter in the U.S. state of Michigan have been sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison for their child's deadly crimes.
James and Jennifer Crumbly are the first parents to be held criminally responsible for a mass shooting -- a school shooting committed by their child. The Crumbleys were found guilty of involuntary manslaughter earlier this year. Prosecutors argued they were grossly negligent in allowing their teenage son to have access to the gun and ignoring signs of his spiraling mental health.
Before they were sentenced, the parents apologized to the families of their son's victims.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JENNIFER CRUMBLEY, MOTHER OF MASS SHOOTER ETHAN CRUMBLEY: To the victims and the families, I stand today not to ask for your forgiveness, as I know it may be beyond reach, but to express my sincerest apologies for the pain that has been caused.
JAMES CRUMBLEY, MOTHER OF MASS SHOOTER ETHAN CRUMBLEY: As a parent, our biggest fear is losing our child. My heart is really broken for everybody involved.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: Their son is serving a life sentence without parole for killing four students, wounding six others, and a teacher when he opened fire at Oxford High School in 2021. He did not testify at his parents' trial.
CNN law enforcement correspondent Whitney Wild has more from Chicago.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JUDGE CHERYL MATTHEWS, OAKLAND COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT: It is the sentence of this court, Ms. Crumbly, that you serve 10 to 15 years.
James Crumbly, it is the sentence of this court that you serve 10 to 15 years with the Michigan Department of Corrections.
WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): 10 to 15 years. That's how long the parents of the teenager who shot and killed four students in 2021 at an Oxford, Michigan, high school using a gun they gifted him were sentenced to spend behind bars.
Both convicted of involuntary manslaughter in separate trials. It's the first time a parent of a mass shooter has been held criminally responsible.
BUCK MYRE, FATHER OF SHOOTING VICTIM TATE MYRE: This tragedy has taken an incredible toll on our family.
WILD (voice-over): Emotions ran high as parents and family members of Tate Muir, Hana St. Juliana, Madisyn Baldwin, and Justin Shilling spoke directly to the Crumbleys about their loved ones who were killed in the November 2021 shooting.
NICOLE BEAUSOLEIL, MOTHER OF SHOOTING VICTIM MADISYN BALDWIN: When you texted, Ethan, don't do it. I was texting Madison, I love you, please call mom.
JILL SOAVE, MOTHER OF SHOOTING VICTIM JUSTIN SHILLING: You have failed your son and you have failed us all. This failure had deadly consequences that can never be undone, that can never be made right.
REINA ST. JULIANA, SISTER OF HANA JULIANA: Your mistakes created our everlasting nightmare. Our 10-year-old little brother had to learn how to write a eulogy for his sister before he even learned how to write essays.
WILD (voice-over): The Crumbley's son pleaded guilty to 24 charges, including first degree murder.
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He was sentenced to life without parole. And while Jennifer Crumbley apologized in court, she continued to place blame on the school.
JENNIFER CRUMBLEY: Not only were we left in the dark about previous concerning behavior, but in the counselor's office that morning, none of those previous issues were brought to our attention.
WILD (voice-over): And James Crumbley, who did not take the stand during his trial, apologizing for the first time. JAMES CRUMBLEY: I am sorry for your loss as a result of what my son
did. I cannot express how much I wish that I had known what was going on with him or what was going to happen.
WILD (voice-over): But the judge said these convictions were not about poor parenting.
MATTHEWS: These convictions confirm repeated acts or lack of acts that could have halted an oncoming runaway train. Opportunity knocked over and over again, louder and louder, and was ignored. No one answered, and these two people should have and sure didn't.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: CNN's Whitney Wild reporting for us there.
Now coming up, new allegations from a Boeing whistleblower warning of dangerous shortcuts and shoddy workmanship whilst building the Dreamliner planes.
Plus, historic talks as China hosts a former president of Taiwan for the first time since the island split from the mainland in 1949. A live report from the region, straight ahead.
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FOSTER: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster. These are our top stories today.
In the U.S., more than 30 million people are under a severe storm threat. That's across the South today. The main concerns are tornadoes, damaging winds, and hail. Already, more than 90,000 customers are without power.
The Irish parliament has sworn in its youngest ever prime minister, 37-year-old Simon Harris, with the country's next Taoiseach. Harris previously held the position of minister for higher education.
The U.S. state of Missouri has executed Brian Dorsey for the 2006 murders of his cousin and her husband. That's after last-minute appeals for clemency to the governor and to the Supreme Court failed. The 52-year-old died by lethal injection on Tuesday night.
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