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MSF: Conditions For Survival Are Absent In Rafah; Police Arrest 2,000 Plus Protesters At Universities Nationwide; Stormy Daniels' Ex- Lawyer Offers Key Testimony; Biden on Trump's Comment: "Listen to What He Says"; Biden on Campus Unrest: "Violent Protest is not Protected"; History of Campus Protests in America; Gaza Journalists Risk Their Lives to Cover the War; Devastating Floods in Kenya; Brittney Griner Reveals Darkest Days in Russian Prison. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired May 03, 2024 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[01:00:29]
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome, everyone. I'm Michael Holmes. Appreciate your company. Coming up here on CNN Newsroom, putting pressure on the Israeli government. Protesters call for a hostage deal as Hamas mulled over the latest proposal with a glimmer of hope.
Unrest across college campuses, some turning violent. The U.S. President speaks out for the first time.
And catastrophic flooding in parts of Kenya, the worst might be yet to come.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Atlanta. This is CNN Newsroom with Michael Holmes.
HOLMES: The world is awaiting a response from Hamas to the latest hostage and ceasefire proposal on the war in Gaza. But until that comes, the fighting rages on. Video shows smoke rising from an apparent Israeli strike on Jabalia as a new U.N. report makes some dire predictions for Gaza's future. It says rebuilding the devastated enclave will take until at least 2040 but could potentially drag on for 80 years.
Meanwhile, a Hamas political leader says the group is studying the latest hostage and ceasefire proposal quote with positive spirit. Hamas says it plans to send a delegation to Egypt as soon as possible to continue talks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CROWD: (Speaking in Foreign Language).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking in Foreign Language).
CROWD: (Speaking in Foreign Language). (END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Israeli citizens meanwhile, stepping up the pressure on the Netanyahu government to secure the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza. They protested outside the defense ministry where the Prime Minister was meeting with his war cabinet. Mr. Netanyahu also met with Holocaust survivors in Jerusalem as international opposition to the war grows. He told the group he welcomes but does not expect non- Jewish support.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): If we have to stand alone, we will stand alone. If it is possible to recruit the Gentiles, that's good. But if we don't protect ourselves, no one will protect us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: The U.S. State Department says the first truckload of aid since October to pass through the Arabs Crossing was diverted by Hamas. Israel reopened the route on Wednesday to bring more humanitarian supplies into northern Gaza. The State Department says the U.N. is either in the process of or has now already recovered that aid. The convoy from Jordan was also attacked by Israeli settlers before it even got into Gaza.
Meanwhile, the World Central Kitchen has resumed operations in Gaza after seven of its workers were killed in an Israeli airstrike last month.
And a new report from Medecins Sans Frontieres or Doctors Without Borders is calling attention to the looming crisis in the southern Gaza City of Rafah. The group says the quote necessary conditions for survival there are absent. The report says the fate of more than a million Palestinians is unclear. And it calls the situation a deliberate manmade crisis that could result in tens of thousands more deaths, even with a ceasefire.
Jennifer Tierney is the executive director of Medecins Sans Frontieres in Australia. She joins me now live from Sydney. It's good to see you. We of course know about the number of deaths in the direct war if we can call that nearly 35,000, 12,000 children and so on. But this report talks of silent killings. And briefly what are those deaths?
JENNIFER TIERNEY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES AUSTRALIA: So those are the deaths that we're not seeing in the headlines. Those are the things that are happening behind the traumatic injuries that people are experiencing. So things like diabetes, which in normal circumstance and a healthcare system that's functioning, you'd be able to get your medicine and go on with your day. But in this case, because people are cut off from health care, things like diabetes can kill you. And so people suffering from cancer or complication from pregnancy, the things that they were able to access health care for before they're unable to get.
HOLMES: Yes.
TIERNEY: And this coupled with the living conditions, which are, you know, people living in tents without clean water mean for a health care system that's overwhelmed with disease that typically will not kill in Gaza.
HOLMES: Yes. Because, yes, you've got the dialysis treatments not being available, diabetes, you mentioned there and cancer. What other factors play into the silent killings, presumably malnutrition? There's a lot of unsanitary conditions and diseases. They're just not in the official death toll.
[01:05:10]
TIERNEY: That's right. I mean, you're going to be challenged to capture the official death toll in a health system that's so decimated. But what we're seeing is a big rise in malnutrition, particularly in young children. We treated more than 200 children for malnutrition in the first quarter of 2024. And that didn't exist before the war. And that is because in Gaza, before the conflict, about 90 percent of goods, commercial goods were being brought into the country, but those goods are being cut off at this stage. So people are not able to get access to the food they need. And of course, because of the insecurity, food is unable to be cultivated as well inside Gaza.
HOLMES: Yes. I guess, you know, how ongoing could these unnecessary death be? I mean, the report says the current situation could result in, quote, tens of thousands of non-trauma related deaths in the next six months, even if there is a ceasefire.
TIERNEY: I mean, we are going to have to rebuild the entire health system for Gaza after this conflict is over, after the siege is over. We MSF have had to move on from nine medical facilities which have been damaged or threatened during the conflict. You know, right now, we are seeing facilities that have been razed to the ground by Israeli strikes. We also are having difficulty getting clean water and sanitation inside the hospitals and the clinics where we're working. Because there's a lack of fuel that's able to get the desalination plants running and get that clean water, keep the lights on, make sure that the machines that we need to make sure that everything is appropriate for surgery, those aren't able to run there are many, many aspects that are impacting negatively health care.
HOLMES: Now that this MSF report comes as the World Health Organization, I was reading their recent report, they say since October 7th, they've documented 443 attacks on health care in the Gaza Strip, resulting in more than 700 deaths, nearly 1,000 injuries, damage to more than 100 facilities and 100 ambulances. Again, even once this conflict stopped, what's going to be left for Gazans in terms of health care, not to mention, of course, mental health resources?
TIERNEY: I mean, the teams and people within hospitals have been attacked and threatened and killed since the beginning of this conflict. So we have seen huge violations on humanitarian assets inside Gaza. The mental health toll that that's taking on the people of Gaza is extraordinary. They are seeing extraordinary and continuing levels of violence. You know, we have one particular story of a woman who left North Gaza with her three children, when it came under siege. She's now moved to Rafah along the way, you know, her child who is as young as six years old, had to see dead bodies on the road, you know, pieces of people's bodies that they were unable to pick up along the way.
They now live in crowded conditions in a tent, you know, without the community that they're used to, without access to the things they need. So of course the mental health situation is going to be is now and will continue to be a generations long trauma that is going to have to be dealt with.
HOLMES: Yes, I heard you say in another interview children as young as five talking about suicide. I mean, it just beggars belief. We've got to leave it there, unfortunately. Jennifer Tierney in Sydney with MSF, thank you so much.
TIERNEY: Thank you.
HOLMES: While tensions over the war in Gaza boiling over at a growing number of U.S. universities.
Clashes erupting at Portland State University on Thursday. We're told that situation remains active. Police called in to clear pro- Palestinian protesters from a campus library that they'd taken over at least 30 people were told were arrested. More than 70 of the hundreds of demonstrators detained at Columbia University and City College earlier this week have now been arraigned in New York. Many were arrested at one of Columbia's main campus buildings after they barricaded themselves inside, forcing police to enter through a second floor window.
And more than 2,000 pro-Palestinian demonstrators have been arrested across the U.S. over the past few weeks. At least 40 campuses are involved in at least two dozen states. U.S. President acknowledging the right to free speech and peaceful protest while stressing in his words, we are not a lawless country and order must prevail.
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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: -- fashion, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduations, none of this as a peaceful protest. Dissent is essential to democracy but dissent must never lead to disorder.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Have the protests forced you to reconsider any of the policies with regard to the region?
BIDEN: No.
(END VIDEO CLIP) HOLMES: Meanwhile, the pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of California Los Angeles has been demolished after a predawn operation by police. There were hundreds of arrests. CNN's Stephanie Elam with those details.
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STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Uncertainty at UCLA after police cleared a pro-Palestinian encampment in the wake of a standoff with hundreds of demonstrators Wednesday night. Police breaking down barricades, shooting rubber bullets, launching smoke bombs and flashbangs and arresting more than 200 protesters.
The protest site dismantled after a clash erupted Tuesday night when counter protesters, some of whom were pro-Israel threw objects at tents, paroled fireworks and pulled down barriers set up by the pro- Palestinian encampment. UCLA's chancellor calling the attack, a quote, a dark chapter in the university's history. And the morning light, only trash, graffiti and discarded tents remained of the encampment. The camp is now swiftly being cleaned up.
Nationwide, more than 2,000 people have been arrested on college and university campuses in the last two weeks, including at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. And Portland State University in Oregon, police officers in riot gear cleared barricades.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are now under arrest for -- trespass.
ELAM (voice-over): Pushing out more than two dozen protesters hold up in the college library. But many of the protests in recent weeks have been peaceful, including this one at George Washington University with dueling demonstrators. Some universities like Columbia initially sought to negotiate with protesters, while others called in law enforcement from the start to manage emotional protests focused on a highly charged international crisis.
ALEC PEREYDA, CALIFORNIA HIGHWAY PATROL: But no objects were being thrown at officers during the night.
ELAM (voice-over): The unrest closing campuses and even canceling some graduation ceremonies. UCLA students forced into remote classes for the remainder of this week. Rutgers University postponing or relocating some final exams. The challenge now for college administrators where protests were held, and where arrests were made at more than 40 campuses nationwide to move away from confrontation and focus back again on free speech, safety and education.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ELAM: And UCLA's chancellor in a statement said that while the vast majority of protesters were non-violent, the encampment itself became too much of a focal point for violence. And that was one of the reasons that they decided that the encampment had to go. Also worth noting that he said in his statement, that of the students and people who were here in the encampment, 300 of them decided to leave before law enforcement officers pushed their way in. Back to you. HOLMES: Nora Milanich is a professor of history at Barnard College and joins me now. It's great to get your thoughts on. I wanted to start by asking if you think the narrative around these protests has been distorted bad actors, if you like, outsiders getting the attention when it comes to the actual student narrative.
NARA MILANICH, HISTORY PROFESSOR, BARNARD COLLEGE: Right. So we keep hearing these really alarming narratives right about pro-Hamas mobs that are, you know, running around campus, terrorizing students. And I can't emphasize enough how much that is a false narrative based on my own experience, walking around campus, as a Jewish professor, I might add, in the last two weeks.
We had a pro-Palestinian encampment on the Columbia campus up until just a couple of days ago when the police came in, of course, and dismantled that encampment. But the encampment itself was entirely peaceful. It was a joyous at many times. The students were holding teachings on anti-Semitism. They were blowing bubbles. They were zooming into class. I had students in my own class who were in the encampment and would show up on Zoom. So you know, the encampment itself was entirely peaceful.
HOLMES: Yes. I wanted us to ask because despite the vast majority of the protesters not engaging in anti-Semitism, and in fact many Jewish students are taking part in the protest within the encampments. You know, with all the criticism from the outside, is there a responsibility for organizers to, I don't know, head off any anti- Semitism that has been occurring?
[01:14:59]
MILANICH: So we know that anti-Semitism is on the rise, right? It is a scourge like many forms of bigotry, it exists on college campuses, it exists in the city of New York and in the world, right, along with other forms of bigotry, Islamophobia, et cetera. But I want to emphasize the fact that sending hundreds of riot police onto a college campus is not going to solve the problem of anti-Semitism or any other form of bigotry.
Sending riot police onto a college campus is not going to make Jewish students or any other students safer. On the contrary, right, it does exactly the opposite. And so far as it brings particularly to the periphery of campus, all kinds of folks who are kind of inflamed by the repression and the violence, and we've seen precisely that happened in recent weeks at Columbia.
HOLMES: Yes, absolutely. It's interesting. I wanted to ask you this, too, because it's a fascinating conversation. And when I think is important, we've heard President Biden, of course, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu say the protests are anti-Semitic. I mean, you're Jewish. I'm curious if you feel the term has been on some levels, used as a tool to silence criticism of Israeli policy, government, how the war has been prosecuted things, which of course, are not anti-Semitic. And does that devalue the meaning of the word which because it is a very real and dangerous thing? MILANICH: Absolutely, I think there has been a conflation of anti- Zionism and anti-Semitism. And I think there's been a weaponization, frankly, of anti-Semitism, and now increasingly of student protest by people who are not particularly interested either in the wellbeing of Jews or the millennial scourge of anti-Semitism, or for that matter about politics in the Middle East, which is why we're seeing campus being visited by a whole parade of right wing politicians, ranging from the Speaker of the House Mike Johnson to Virginia Foxx, et cetera, et cetera, and Proud Boys founder, Gavin McInnes.
All of whom who upgraded onto campus they have suddenly discovered the, you know, the problem of Jewish safety. Well, I'd like to suggest that that's not actually what is going on. What's going on is that anti-Semitism is being weaponized by people who are hostile to the university, hostile to students, hostile to faculty, hostile to the values of inquiry, research, teaching, learning that are at the heart of the university. So I really see this as a Trojan horse. This is not just about the Middle East.
This is about attacks on universities, not just, you know, in the last few weeks, but that have been going on actually for years attacks on how we teach the history of slavery, for example, attacks on climate science, on vaccine safety, right? So I think it's really academic freedom that at the end of the day is at stake in this whole controversy. It's not just about the Middle East.
HOLMES: Fascinating analysis. I wish we had more time. Professor Nara Milanich, thank you so much.
MILANICH: Thank you.
HOLMES: After the break, the lawyer behind Donald Trump's hush money deal with an adult film star takes the stand in day 10 of the former president's criminal trial. We'll be right back.
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[01:20:24]
HOLMES: The latest now on Donald Trump's hush money trial, adult film star Stormy Daniels' former lawyer, the man who brokered the hush money deal, returned to the stand on Thursday. Trump's defense seeking to paint the key witness as someone untrustworthy with a history of getting money out of celebrities, CNN's Paula Reid has the story from New York.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We had a long day in court as always. But I'm very happy about the way things are going.
PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): And he should be. Keith Davidson, a Los Angeles lawyer who formally represented Stormy Daniels was back on the witness stand. Trump's lawyers trying to paint him as a lawyer with a history of extracting big money from high profile figures and directly asked if he was engaging in extortion. The defense pointed to a $2 million deal he secured for one of his clients from actor, Charlie Sheen. But Davidson refused to answer questions about the agreement, citing attorney client-privilege.
Davidson was then grilled about his representation of a client who tried to sell Hulk Hogan his own sex tape. I did everything I could to make sure my activities are lawful, Davidson said. He acknowledged that his dealings with Hogan's representatives were under scrutiny from the FBI. They had an investigation. Yes, Davidson testified. Davidson repeatedly answered that he could not recall when asked about other deals which resulted in a testy exchange with a defense attorney who said we're both lawyers. I'm not here to play lawyer games with you.
Defense Lawyers tried to tie Davidson's other deals to his monetary settlement for Daniels, suggesting that he was trying to avoid being accused of extortion Trump's attorney asked, one of the issues you had to be sensitive about was not to threaten that the payment needed to be made prior to the election. I don't recall that, Davidson responded.
Trump paid close attention to his legal team as they cross examined Davidson, even turning his chair towards the witness stand at one point. Under questioning from prosecutors, Davidson admitted that he told Michael Cohen that Daniels would lose her leverage if Trump lost the 2016 election. He also testified to Cohen's chaotic state of mind in December 2016. Recalling a phone call with Cohen, Davidson said that he was very upset that he had not been chosen for a role in the Trump administration. I thought he was going to kill himself, Davidson testified.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
REID (on camera): The District Attorney Alvin Bragg who brought this case has kept a pretty low profile during the course of this trial. But on Thursday, he made a rare appearance inside the courtroom. A source familiar with his management style said he was there to support one of his employees who had to testify. Douglas Daus testified about devices and other evidence that had to be introduced. And of course, he had to testify because the Trump team refuses to stipulate to anything.
Paula Reid, CNN, New York.
HOLMES: While Donald Trump has again refused to unconditionally accept the results of this year's presidential election. He said in an interview with "The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel" that, quote, if everything's honest, I'll gladly accept the results. If it's not, you have to fight for the right of your country. Now these remarks come as Trump's allies look to model a potential second term in the White House after Hungary's authoritarian leader Viktor Orban. CNN's Kyung Lah is in Hungary with our report.
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KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Enter with me into the right wing's utopia, where the slogans are American and unapologetic. This is America's Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC. But exported to Budapest, Hungary, a country led by authoritarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Since 2010 Orban has crushed dissent politically and socially consolidating power around his office, severely restricting immigration. He's taking control of the judiciary and major media and limited rights especially for gay people. This is the leader held up by CPAC as a conservative hero in a war against the left. And praised by another charismatic leader who shared a greeting via video.
TRUMP: I'm honored to address so many patriots in Hungary, who are proudly fighting on the front lines of the battle to rescue Western civilization.
LAH (voice-over): Familiar Trump allies joined in.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You guys are an inspiration to the world.
LAH (voice-over): From video messages.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you for standing strong.
LAH (voice-over): To appearing in person, saying hungry should be a real roadmap for a Trump second term.
[01:25:01]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hungary's immigration policies just serve as a model to the United States.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that confirms that I am in good company here in Hungary.
REP. ANDY HARRIS (R-MD): Hungary has become one of the most successful models as a leader for conservative principles and governance in Europe.
LAH (voice-over): Not that they want outsiders to see any of this firsthand.
LAH: Everything has a mesh around it, mesh fencing. We got an email back from CPAC when we applied for credentials, and it said that we're getting denied access, because CPAC is a no woke zone.
LAH (voice-over): That was the standard response sent to most independent media. We got tossed out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No photo.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No photo.
LAH: Why not? Why?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Closed zone, closed zone, closed zone.
LAH (voice-over): Back inside Orban is clear about who he supports and the U.S. election.
VIKTOR ORBAN, PRIME MINISTER OF HUNGARY: Make America Great Again, make Europe Great Again. (Speaking in Foreign Language).
LAH: Why did the Prime Minister, your Prime Minister, invoked the name of Donald Trump and use the words Make America Great Again?
PETER SZIJJARTO, HUNGARIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: Because we would like to see great America. We are good friends of America. And do we want U.S.-Hungary relationship to be improved? Yes, obviously we do. Do we have a better chance for that with President Trump in office or Democrats in office? Of course, we have a better chance with President Trump in office.
LAH (voice-over): Hungary's Foreign Minister agreed to a short interview with CNN telling us Orban and Trump share much of the same vision, including like governments should be run by strong men.
LAH: How is that a democracy?
SZIJJARTO: You know, it's really annoying to me that there's no common understanding in the world now about what democracy means. We are a truly right wing party, a truly right wing political movement, with the approach that the Prime Minister represents, and the approach represented by President Trump are very similar to each other.
LAH: Hosting CPAC isn't the beginning of the relationship between Hungary and the U.S. right wing. We reviewed disclosures with the Department of Justice and found that since 2010, when Orban came into power, his government has paid U.S. lobbyists, at least $4.5 million, the goal to build ties with the American conservative movement.
GLADDEN PAPPIN, PRESIDENT, HUNGARIAN INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS: When American conservatives look to Hungary they see a prime minister and a government that actually delivered on the slogans that they that they promised.
LAH (voice-over): An open door by Hungary for American conservatives led Gladden Pappin here. He leads a think tank attached to Orban's office, a Trump supporter who would like to U.S. to be more like Hungary.
PAPPIN: When Trump came into office in 2017. It was a very rude awakening. He realized the importance of having a strong team of people who are aligned and willing to carry out the same mission. Prime Minister Orban has built that in Hungary and so I think that's the mentality that Trump is bringing into the 2024 campaign.
LAH (voice-over): The relationship between the two men is close. The former president heaping praise on Orban during a recent visit to Mar- a-Lago.
TRUMP: The Prime Minister of Hungary. And does a great job. He's a non-controversial figure because he said this is the way it's going to be and that's the end of it. But he's the boss. Marton Gulyas says a left leaning political commentator. He's the host of partisan, a popular YouTube channel in Hungary. And says critics of Orban had been taken mostly off the air.
MARTON GULYAS, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, PARTIZAN: Most of the channels are financially economically tied to the government.
LAH: So would you say that the media landscape isn't controlled by Orban?
GULYAS: A large part of the media landscape is controlled by Orban or impacted by Orban. If you want to do independent free and trustworthy journalism, you have to go to the online sphere because that kind of freedom doesn't exist on cable.
ZSUZSANNA SZELENYL, PROGRAM DIRECTOR, CEU DEMOCRACY INSTITUTE: This is an autocratic state by definition.
LAH (voice-over): Zsuzsanna Szelenyl was once or bonds political ally, but witness Orban's right wing shift, she has a warning about what's happened to her country being glorified by Trump world.
SZELENYL: Basically all the state institutions, including the President, everyone is Orban's nominee. So he has a very, very big institutional control. Orban is selling his model as a sample for radical rights all around in the western world.
LAH (voice-over): At CPAC Hungary, the conservative movement claims victory. In an election year, U.S. Republicans attending are hoping to find the same success back home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Both your capital and your government are more conservative than mine in America. But we're looking to change that.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAH (on camera): This right wing gathering here in Hungary is happening at a critical time for democracy around the world. Elections are happening right now in India. In June, European Parliamentary elections will be taking place. And in November, of course, the U.S. elections where conservatives around the world are cheering on a Donald Trump victory.
HOLMES: Kyung Lah reporting there.
[01:30:00]
Meanwhile, U.S. President Joe Biden is offering a brief response to Trump's controversial comments. In North Carolina on Thursday, Biden was asked if he was worried after Donald Trump told a newspaper that he would refuse to unconditionally accept the 2024 election results.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you worried that Trump says he won't accept the election results? JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Just listen to what he says.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Listen to what he says.
BIDEN: Listen to what he says.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Still to come here on the program, the recent unrests at American universities is nothing new.
When we come back, we'll examine the history of political dissent and social change movements on U.S. college campuses.
And journalists in Gaza experience the traumas of war while risking their lives to tell the truth about the horrors.
We'll meet some of them after the break.
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HOLMES: The U.S. president warning university students across the country that quote, "Violent protest is not protected." Joe Biden's first extensive remarks about the campus unrest come as young voters sour on his ongoing support for Israel and after Republicans condemned his relative silence about the growing pro-Palestinian encampments.
CNN's Kayla Tausche reports from the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: After weeks of speaking through written statements and spokespeople and amid mounting pressure as protests on campuses nationwide reached a fever pitch, President Biden delivering a forceful condemnation of anything resembling violence or anti-Semitism.
There's the right to protest, but not the right to cause chaos. There is no place for hate speech or violence of any kind, whether its anti- Semitism, Islamophobia, or discrimination against Arab-Americans or Palestinian-Americans.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Have the protests forced to reconsider any of the policies with regard to the region?
BIDEN: No.
TAUSCHE: Official say the president was motivated in no small part by imagery from UCLA where hundreds of students were apprehended and law enforcement had to repeatedly move in to clear an encampment that had been growing and where violence had been breaking out.
Senior officials here at the White House had been monitoring channels of communication with law enforcement and local government while younger staffers were alerting them about first-hand accounts from their friends on campuses about what they were actually seeing happening behind the scenes.
[01:34:55]
TAUSCHE: President Biden has said he has no plans to change his policy as it relates to the Middle East. The White House has said that it has high hopes that Secretary Blinken can secure a deal in the region to usher in a ceasefire and free dozens of hostages.
Of course, that is something that has been in the works for quite some time. And the White House says, both the us government and the protesters want the same thing. And that is to end the war.
Kayla Tausche, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: U.S. college campuses are no strangers to student-led movements from marching against the Vietnam War to fighting South Africa's racist apartheid system. But observers are asking if the current campus protests will affect what's happening in Gaza.
CNN's Brian Todd takes a closer look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: 1968, student protesters at New Yorks Columbia University take over several buildings and briefly even take the dean hostage. One of the buildings they seized Hamilton Hall, which students occupied during recent protests at Columbia.
TIM NAFTALI, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: 1968, the first time it was occupied, Hamilton Hall was the scene of a dramatic police action that resulted in the arrest of 700 people.
TODD: Those protests against the Vietnam War had been taking place for years on college campuses across America and would continue for a few more years from Columbia to Cal Berkeley, to Kent State.
In 1969, student protesters at Harvard took over and occupied University Hall marching school officials out of the building.
IMANI CHEERS, PROFESSOR, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: What we're seeing right now is students really engaging and not only using their voices, but using their bodies. And that's the way that we saw students in the 60s doing it.
TODD: The primary difference between then and now, the scale of the violence. While skirmishes have broken out at UCLA and some other campuses during the current demonstrations, these protests have been for the most part, peaceful.
In the Vietnam era, violence broke out routinely and on many campuses. Students often brawling with police.
JULIE REUBEN, PROFESSOR, HARVARD UNIVERSITY: (INAUDIBLE) students calling in the police having protests removed that tended to increase the sympathy for protesters, build the size of protests, and also increase the voice of more extreme activists.
TODD: In two horrific episodes, the Vietnam era violence turned deadly. In May, 1970 on the campus of Kent State University, Ohio National Guard troops opened fire on student protesters, killing four of them and injuring several others.
Days later, during racial injustice protests at Jackson State College in Mississippi, police fired at a dormitory killing two students and injuring a dozen others.
Possibly a closer comparison to what's going on now took place in the 1980s when students across America protested against apartheid in South Africa. They called on schools to divest themselves from companies and groups that supported the apartheid regime in South Africa. Much like students are now calling on colleges to divest themselves from Israeli-linked companies.
CHEERS: Really, we talk about boycott, divestment and sanctions, that's what it was. We were going to use nonviolent, peaceful resistance.
TODD: Another dynamic that hasn't changed across these eras of protests --
LAUREN DUNCAN, PROFESSOR, SMITH COLLEGE: They've got a lot of energy and they're idealistic and they like to protest when things feel unjust, that seem unjust for them.
TODD: But the actual results could be different this time around. The protests of the Vietnam era prompted colleges and much of the country to change their collective view of the Vietnam War.
The protests of the 80s led colleges to divest themselves from doing business with South Africa and the U.S. government later followed suit.
Right now, it's not clear if the current protests will change anything regarding the Israel-Hamas war or the U.S. government's handling of it.
Brian Todd, CNN -- Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: As the U.N. marks World Press Freedom Day on Friday, Gaza is a stark example of how deadly the profession is there.
Since the Israel-Hamas war started last October, 97 journalists and media workers have been confirmed dead, 45 others reported wounded, missing, or arrested.
CNN's Nada Bashir introduces us to one of the journalists in Gaza putting his life on the line to document this war.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What should be a moment of reflection, reduced to a hurried memory recorded on an iPhone.
A young girl, now an orphan pays her last respect.
A drop in a sea of tragedy mocking its witnesses and victims alike.
But this is the story of the person behind the camera, one of many, risking their lives for the truth.
[01:39:48]
KHADER AL-ZANOUN, JOURNALIST IN GAZA: One scene I'll always remember was in al-Shifa Hospital in November last year. It was during a siege.
BASHIR: Khader al-Zanoun has been documenting the assault on Gaza since the war began. Sending material to CNN, our gateway into a war zone sealed off by Israeli authorities.
AL-ZANOUN: They were taking this woman to be buried in a mass grave. And I saw this little girl following the crowd. She told me her mother was a victim and she wants to say goodbye to her.
She really affected me a lot. Tears were falling when I saw her running after her mother.
BASHIR: Living with his wife and children in Gaza City in the north, one of Gaza's worst affected regions, he shows us his home largely destroyed in an onslaught. Part residence, part (INAUDIBLE).
Everything is a challenge from the search for signal to transmit the day's footage to the search for food.
AL-ZANOUN: There have been days when we've eaten donkey and horse food, corn and fodder, as well as barley, just to stay alive.
BASHIR: For journalists in Gaza, the biggest challenges are the most basic ones.
Sami Shehadah (ph) is a photo journalist for Turkish-based broadcaster TRT. He was filming at a refugee camp in central Gaza.
SAMI SHEHADAH, TRT JOURNALIST: We went to cover the movement of displaced people, and as soon as we arrived at the place, we were targeted.
BASHIR: Sami had to have his leg amputated above the knee and is now awaiting medical evacuation to Turkey.
At least 97 members of the press have been killed in what the Committee to Protect Journalist has termed the deadliest period for media workers since its records began. But that figure, according to the CPJ is likely to be much higher.
And yet despite the risks, Palestinian journalists in Gaza keep doing their jobs, working in groups for protection, covering stories, even if it means getting there on a donkey and cart. AL-ZANOUN: Every day we wake up, we thank God that we are still alive and that we are still able to continue documenting the events in the Gaza Strip.
BASHIR: In the belief that one day, his work and the work of Palestinian journalists like him won't have been in vain.
AL-ZANOUN: our hope is that this war will end god willing, and that we will be able to save and protect our children after these targeted attacks and this continuing war because they want to live like the rest of the world's children, in security and peace.
BASHIR: Nada Bashir, CNN -- London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: In Gaza on Thursday, a small reason to celebrate. According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, a baby was born at the al-Amal hospital.
The Red Crescent posting a picture of the baby on social media on Thursday saying it is the first birth since the maternity ward reopened.
The hospital is located in the city of Khan Younis closed on March 25th. As the Israel Defense Forces launched a military operation there.
PRCS says medical teams and patients were forced to evacuate at the time. The IDF said, they were, quote, "dismantling terrorist infrastructure and eliminating officers", unquote.
The death toll in a Russian attack on Odessa on Tuesday rose to six after one of the wounded victims died in hospital. That's according to Ukrainian authorities who said the attack left an educational institution engulfed in flames.
Officials said Russian forces attacked Odessa with ballistic missiles again on Wednesday wounding at least 14 people. It was part of a relentless barrage of Russian assaults this week. Ukraine's national police said on Thursday, Russia carried out nearly 2,000 rocket artillery and air strikes in a single day in the eastern Donetsk region.
as a result, four civilians were killed, eight were wounded.
Protests against the controversial Foreign Influence Bill continue in Georgia's capital. Hours ago, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of T'bilisi once again. Local news reporting that they blocked roadways around Heroes Square, a monument to those who have fought for Georgian independence.
Clashes erupted outside parliament Wednesday night, damaging the building and prompting parliament to suspend Thursday's events.
The bill has been called the Russian law by critics due to its similarities with a measure used by the Kremlin to crack down on dissent.
[01:44:47]
HOLMES: People in low-lying areas are being told to evacuate as heavy rain and flooding cause devastation in Kenya. We'll have that and what to expect from the forecast after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HOLMES: At least 29 people have died in heavy rains and flooding in southern Brazil. Officials declaring a state of calamity in the affected areas. They say close to 10,000 people are now displaced, 60 are missing. This area of Brazil has been increasingly hit by extreme weather in recent years, partly due to climate change. 31 people died there in September following heavy rains and floods.
And Kenya grappling with weeks of heavy rain and catastrophic flooding that has left nearly 200 people dead. Now the government is warning people in flood prone areas to evacuate or be moved by force.
CNN's Larry Madowo is in Nairobi with our report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The March, April, and May months in Kenya are called the long rains season. But this time the extent of the rainfall and the flooding has been unprecedented.
And now another warning, the Kenya Met Department predicting that even more rainfall is expected in the next two days, and that's already coming true.
As we speak, it's raining here in Nairobi. There's already been some reports of flooding on some major highways and some residential neighborhoods and that is why the Kenyan government now warning that people that live within 178 different filled up or nearly filled up dams or water reservoirs needs to evacuate within 24 hours. And if they do not do so, the government is warning that they will be forcibly evacuated for their own safety.
That is just the latest warning as the country grapples with the extent of the damage from the heavy rainfall that Kenya has been receiving since the beginning of March.
More than 180 people have died in this flash flooding. There has been almost 200,000 people affected in what the Kenya Met Department considers enhanced rainfall due to the El Nino weather phenomenon.
And President William Ruto has called they are victims of climate change. But in reality, for so many people having to move from their homes at a moment's notice it is a true tragedy because in some cases, they have escaped with nothing but the clothes on their back and they're the lucky ones because there are so many families having to bury loved ones over these past few weeks.
Larry Madowo, CNN -- Nairobi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: And the rain is not letting up in Kenya. Experts predicting a new surge of heavy rainfall across the country in the already flood- weary nation.
CNN's Chad Myers with the forecast.
Oh, we lost Chad's audio there. We'll try to get it back to you in the near future.
[01:49:47]
HOLMES: Meanwhile, a new U.S. government study shows bird flu was likely infecting cows in the U.S. for several months before it was confirmed. Agriculture officials released the analysis on Wednesday ahead of peer review.
The research shows the H1N1 virus might've been circulating in dairy cows for at least four months before it was detected. And that it crossed over from wild birds to cows between mid-November and mid- January. Officials confirmed the presence of bird flu in cows on March 25.
Since then, the study says at least three dozen infected herds have been reported in nine states. The study adds that tests on samples of pasteurized milk confirm the virus was not active and could not make anyone sick.
A remarkable discovery: scientists in Indonesia say they observed an orangutan intentionally treating a wound on his face with a medicinal plant. The first time this apparent behavior has ever been documented.
Rakus (ph), as the Sumatran primate is known, treated a wound on his face by chewing leaves from a plant and repeatedly applying the juice to it. He then covered the wound with the chewed-up leaves, which are typically used by humans in traditional medicine, according to the scientific paper published on Thursday.
Scientists say the observation quote, "provides new insights into the existence of self-medication in our closest relatives. They concede it could have been accidental and they're studying whether other orangutans repeat the behavior.
Basketball star Brittney Griner opens up about her Russian prison ordeal and why she wasn't sure she had the strength to get through it.
That and more after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Australia's prime minister says there is real concern over two Australian brothers missing in western Mexico.
He says the Australian embassy in Mexico is working with local authorities while the Foreign Affairs Department has been in contact with the men's families. The two men along with one American went missing over the weekend. An
official says three Mexican nationals are being questioned in the disappearance, but did not say whether they were suspects or not.
Basketball star Brittney Griner telling the world about her time behind bars in Russia. The two-time Olympic champion was detained in Russia in February 2022 because of cannabis oil in her luggage and sentenced to nine years in prison on drug smuggling charges.
Griner opened up to ABC's Robin Roberts about a letter she was forced to write to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBIN ROBERTS, ABC HOST: Some people may be surprised to learn that you wrote a letter to Putin.
BRITTNEY GRINER, WNBA PLAYER: So they made me write this letter. It was in Russian. I had to basically like ask for forgiveness and thanks From their so-called great leader.
I didn't want to do it, but at the same time, I want to come home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: -- ABC that conditions were so tough, he sometimes wondered if he could go on living.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: You said that there were -- there were times that you felt like let me just end it.
GRINER: Yes. I did. I didn't think I could get through what I needed to get through. I definitely thought about it.
[01:54:47]
GRINER: But you know, I was just like what if they didn't release my body to my family, you know, I was like I can't put them through that. My God, I have to endure this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Griner added that she still feels guilty about her arrest, saying she let herself, her family and her teammates down.
Golfing legend Tiger Woods is getting a taste of what his less talented competitors must sometimes feel. He's accepted a special exemption, essentially a free pass to play in the U.S. Open in June.
Now ranked 789th in the world, the former world number one, didn't qualify for the tournament on his own. He's hardly been playing and his five-year exemption after winning the Masters in 2019 has run out.
One golf official says the decision to let Tiger play was easy. The Open story he said could not be written without Tiger Woods.
A victory for abortion rights activists in the U.S. state of Arizona after a contentious and hours' long debate on Wednesday. State lawmakers narrowly passed the measure repealing Arizona's 160-year-old near-total ban on abortion.
Governor Katie Hobbs signed the bill on Thursday, setting the stage for a 15-week restriction to remain the law. However, the repeal measure will not take effect until 90 days after the state legislature adjourns later this year.
The U.S. state of Maryland is set to collect $350 million in insurance for the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. The payment could come soon instead of after construction of a new bridge begins.
The money, a fraction of the billions needed to cover the cleanup and damages after a cargo ship knocked down parts of the bridge on March 26th. The accident shutting down the port of Baltimore.
U.S. transportation officials are expected to release a preliminary report about the cause of the accident next week.
Thanks for spending part of your day with me.
I'm Michael Holmes. You can follow me on Instagram @HolmesCNN.
Stick around, I'll have more news for you in a moment.
[01:56:56]
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