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Israel Says It Will Proceed with Rafah Operation; Dangerous Storms Sweep Parts of U.S.; China's Xi Jinping Travels to Europe for the First Time in Five Years; Putin Orders Tactical Nuclear Weapons Drill. Trump Organization Insiders Testify about Reimbursements for Cohen; White House 'Does Not Support' Al Jazeera Shutdown by Israel. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired May 07, 2024 - 00:00   ET

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

[00:00:37]

JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM. For the first time live from our new home, Studio H in Atlanta. I'm John Vause.

Coming up this hour --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KIRBY, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COMMUNICATIONS ADVISER: We are at a critical stage right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: The last best chance for peace in Gaza is slipping away with Rafah under increased air attack with Israeli officials saying a Hamas counteroffer to a ceasefire deal came up short.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LORD DAVID CAMERON, BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY: In our view, it is their decision about how to use these weapons.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Upping the ante. Putin orders military exercises for deployment of tactical nuclear weapons after Britain and other NATO members appear willing to cross so-called red lines in their support of Ukraine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The Constitution is much more important than jail. It's not even close.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Yes, it is, but that has nothing to do with Donald Trump and possible prison time for repeated violations of a gag order in his New York trial. ANNOUNCER: Live from Atlanta this is CNN NEWSROOM with John Vause.

VAUSE: We begin with breaking news this hour from Gaza where explosions have rocked the border city of Rafah for the past few hours. Israel says it's targeting Hamas infrastructure but according to Palestinian officials, residential homes have been hit. There are casualties, but precise numbers at this stage are not known.

These images are from Egyptian state TV, from the Egyptian side of the border. These strikes come after the Israeli prime minister's office said the IDF operation in Rafah would go ahead and major offensive as planned but this may not be at this stage. It's meant to put pressure on Hamas. Palestinian Civil Defense says earlier strikes in Rafah on Sunday killed at least 26 people. This comes after a very different scene in Rafah on Monday.

Celebrations on the streets after Hamas announced it agreed to a ceasefire and hostage release proposal. But later word came that Hamas agreed to was not the framework negotiated by Israel and Egypt. An IDF spokesperson says the war in Gaza continues for now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REAR ADM. DANIEL HAGARI, ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES SPOKESPERSON (through translator): We examine every response in the most serious manner and are exhausting every possibility regarding negotiations and returning the hostages to their homes as soon as possible. In parallel we are still operating in the Gaza Strip, and will continue to do so.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: CNN's senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman has spent decades covering Gaza. He joins us now live from Rome with the very latest.

So, Ben, this appears to be ratcheting up of that Israeli offensive on Rafah but not the full out, all assault that Benjamin Netanyahu has been talking about. So do we know a timeline here? When does it go from Israeli airstrikes to ground incursion?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No, we don't know. We do understand from Barak Ravid, CNN's global affairs analyst, that the Israelis plan to take over the Rafah crossing within the next several hours. Keeping in mind that the Rafah crossing is the main entry point for humanitarian supplies into Gaza and therefore that is going to have a direct impact if that becomes a war zone on the flow of these desperately needed humanitarian supplies.

Now the Israelis have said that their operation in Rafah is going to be limited. The Americans, we've heard the Biden administration say repeatedly that they do not believe that Israel should conduct a major military operation in Rafah, given the number of people, well over a million, who have taken refuge in that area.

Now, yesterday, or rather Monday, the Israelis ordered about 100,000 people out of that southeastern corner of Rafah, of Gaza, to the Malachi area, which is on the Mediterranean, in preparation for this operation. So it is not a major operation that has been much talked about in Israel, but certainly it represents perhaps the beginning of such an operation that of course Israel has been warned time and time again by the United States, by the European Union, by the United Nations, that this sort of operation could cause massive disruption to the already disrupted lives of hundreds of thousands, indeed over a million people who've sought refuge by fleeing to Rafah -- John.

[00:05:14]

VAUSE: Ben, thank you. Ben Wedeman with the very latest there, reporting live from Rome. Appreciate that. Thank you.

Gregg Carlstrom is the Middle East correspondent for "The Economist" and author of "How Long Will Israel Survive: The Threat from Within." He's with us this hour from Dubai.

Gregg, thank you for taking the time to speak with us.

GREGG CARLSTROM, MIDDLE EAST CORRESPONDENT, THE ECONOMIST: Hi. Good morning.

VAUSE: So Hamas officials initially said they accepted this hostage- ceasefire deal. A member of Israel's war cabinet, Benny Gantz, says the response from the last quote does not correspond to the dialogue that has taken place so far with the mediators and has significant gaps. So not so much an acceptance, but more I guess a counteroffer. And if that's the case, do we know where the significant gaps are and what the details of those gaps might be?

CARLSTROM: We don't yet, and this is being very closely guarded, this information, by the American and Arab officials who have been trying to negotiate this deal for several weeks now. But I think the focus for the Israelis, as they send a delegation to Cairo this week and negotiate there, perhaps their counteroffer, the focus is going to be on I think the sequencing of the stages of this deal and then the question of whether or not this is meant to turn into a permanent ceasefire, a permanent end to the war.

That's something Hamas has been demanding for months in these negotiations. It's something of course Israel has refused to do. They see this just as a temporary truce to facilitate a hostage release. And so the mediators have tried to come up with this formula whereby there would be a first six-week truce and a hostage release during those six weeks. Then there will be a second six-week period, more hostages would be released, and the two sides were meant to talk about what they call this sustainable calm in Gaza.

That was the term that they were using. And that was something that the Israelis said they could live with because it was vague enough that it wasn't necessarily a guaranteed end to the war. And so I think they're going to be looking at whether or not Hamas has changed that language in a way that might put more pressure on them, more obligations on them not to resume fighting once the initial period of the truce is over. VAUSE: It's hard to see how a ceasefire can fit in with Israel's

immediate plans in Gaza. On Monday, Israel's war cabinet unanimously decided that its offensive on Rafah will still go ahead. This is to exert military pressure on Hamas. So with that in mind, there's also this belief that these limited strikes which will continue for some time, sort of ramping up of that all-out offensive on Gaza. What we're being told as a source familiar with the Israeli plans described the current military action in Rafah as a limited incursion to keep pressure on Hamas.

So could this essentially ramp up very quickly to a full-scale offensive like many within Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition, many right- wing extremists have been demanding? Just in terms of logistics, is the Israeli military ready for that sort of escalation?

CARLSTROM: I don't think it's going to ramp up as quickly as Netanyahu's allies have demanded. The Israeli military does have thousands of troops, I think between 8,000 and 10,000 troops that have been deployed recently near Rafah, on the Israeli side near Rafah. So it does have some units that are ready to go in on the ground, and it does seem like in the past few hours, a column of Israeli tanks has entered, as Ben was saying, near the Rafah crossing in the very far south.

But talking to Israeli officials over the past few weeks, they all said this is going to be a piecemeal effort. It's not going to be like in the first weeks of the war when you had tens of thousands of troops going into northern Gaza in this sort of pincer movement going in from three different sides. The plan for Rafah was always going to be more gradual. I think partly that's because the army just doesn't have that many reservists called up right now.

It doesn't have that many troops positioned and then ready for an offensive, but it's also because they are trying to allow some time for these negotiations about a ceasefire deal to continue. And I think as long as that is going on, they are going to move a bit more, a bit more slowly in Rafah.

VAUSE: I want you to listen to the White House National Security spokesmen John Kirby, who's speaking Monday, on who's to blame at least for the confusion and possibly for derailing any kind of ceasefire deal. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIRBY: You know who has an answer to the single question about his intentions and what games he might be playing or where he intends to take this? Mr. Sinwar, the head of Hamas. And I think it's high time that he answer some of these questions and he come clean about what his intentions are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Hamas officials have gone on the record, whether they're being entirely honest about it, we don't know, but, you know, at some point, I mean, the same could be said about the Israelis and the Americans. They've had spokespeople speak about these ceasefire deal as well in the past. So that just seems to be sort of disingenuous at times, that statement by Kirby.

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CARLSTROM: It does. I mean, I think it is fair to say that Sinwar has not been clear about what he wants. Hamas officials outside of Gaza have at various points over the past few months, been willing to accept different permutations of this ceasefire deal. But every time it goes to Gaza to get the approval of Yahya Sinwar and the officials there, their response has been negative and since they're the ones who actually have to implement the ceasefire deal, if they don't agree to it, then effectively it's not going anywhere.

So that is a fair criticism, but I think at the same time it's absolutely right, as you say, it's a bit disingenuous just to blame one side here. And Netanyahu for months has been of two minds about whether or not he actually wants to make a deal. He's tried to leave these negotiations open, but at the same time, he's very, very worried about what making a deal might do to his right-wing coalition partners, might cause them to bolt the coalition.

And we saw even over the weekends when we were waiting for a response from Hamas about this latest Egyptian ceasefire proposal, Netanyahu came out and made a number of statements, both in public and privately to Israeli media about how even if there was a ceasefire agreement, the Rafah operation was still going to go forward. That was widely seen as an effort to sabotage the talks by a prime minister who again has spent months not wanting to decide whether he wants to move ahead with the offensive in Rafah or make a hostage deal.

VAUSE: Gregg, great for you to be with us. We really appreciate it. Gregg Carlstrom there in Dubai. Thank you, sir.

Well, across the United States, new tornado warnings and watches are now in effect for the next few hours in at least eight states, including parts of Iowa, northern Texas, Nebraska, and South Dakota. At least 10 tornadoes have been spotted most in Oklahoma. No reports of injury or damage despite damaging winds and large hail. An emergency has also been issued for the northeastern town of Barnsdall, after destructive tornado ripped through the area.

A rare high risk level five watch remains in place, officially called a particularly dangerous situation because of possible explosive thunderstorm development, multiple long-lived and strong tornadoes. Forecasters urged anyone in the storm zone to take shelter. An early warning of possible known -- as known as a particularly those situations also covered Kansas and Texas, that has been lifted.

Melissa Beat is an emergency response specialist with the U.S. National Weather Service. She joins me now from Fort Worth in Texas.

Thank you for taking the time to be with us.

MELISSA BEAT, EMERGENCY RESPONSE SPECIALIST, U.S. NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE: Hi. Thank you for having me tonight. VAUSE: I guess what's the latest here? We know that the number and the

intensity of the storms around the region and possible injuries and damage to property, what are we hearing? What do you know?

BEAT: Well, we have seen several issues of tornadoes causing some damage around the area. The initial report so far are about 10 tornadoes, but that is going to be changing overnight as we're still experiencing several storms that could produce more tornadoes this evening and in the overnight hours. So we'll have to really be very careful about what we're doing and make sure that people are staying in their shelters overnight and being prepared for any issues of warnings so that they can maintain that shelter posture.

VAUSE: Explain this term particularly dangerous situation. I don't think I've ever heard that being issued before. How often is it used? Have you heard this before? What does it actually mean?

BEAT: Yes, so particularly dangerous situation is kind of a more rare term that we use. And what it means is that we're expecting long-lived and strong tornadoes to be possible in that situation. And so because we're looking at the possibilities of EF-2, EF-3, EF-4, EF-5 tornadoes, those are particularly dangerous in the ability to cause destruction. And so we tend to take those very much more seriously.

And so we try to, you know, give the public an extra kind of heads up on those types of situations when they're going to be expected.

VAUSE: And just in terms of these latest warnings and watches, how long do you think it will be before there's an all clear given and these warnings can be lifted?

BEAT: Well, there are still warnings ongoing right now, and the watches are up for several portions of Iowa all the way down to Texas for the next several hours. The PDS tornado watch was extended in time until 1:00 this morning at Central Daylight Time. And so it's still ongoing for another couple hours yet. And these watches will probably persist in time for several more hours yet this morning until things kind of calm down. So it could be several more hours before those watches are out, and then we get the all clear.

VAUSE: Melissa, thank you. Melissa Beat there with the very latest from the National Weather Service. Thank you.

BEAT: Thank you very much.

VAUSE: We'll take a short break. When we come back, China's president goes to Paris. High in the agenda trade disputes, the war in Ukraine, a bit of pomp and ceremony as well. A live report in a moment. Also, White House responds to what it calls Vladimir Putin's reckless saber- rattling after the Russian president orders his military to begin tactical nuclear weapons drills.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:17:14] VAUSE: In India, the world's largest democracy, a third round of voting is now underway. Prime Minister Narendra Modi cast his ballot a short time ago in his home state of Gujarat. The hugely popular but deeply polarizing leader is seeking his third consecutive term. The election started on April 19th, expected to last until June 1st, with nearly a billion people eligible to vote.

Well, Ukraine, Gaza, electric vehicles, cognac, all of it on the agenda during China's president's first visit to Europe in five years. His first stop was France. Xi Jinping met with the French president and the European Commission president on Monday. Trade frictions, pretty much on full display. But along with that, there was some signs of cooperation with the new deals signed at state dinner, even a rainbow.

President Xi called on President Emmanuel Macron to work together to prevent what he called a new Cold War.

CNN's Kristie Lu Stout following all these developments live from Hong Kong.

It is good to see you. So Xi wraps up this visit to France. Next location is Serbia and some celebrations for an anniversary. So what's he doing there? What's next? What's the latest?

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it is the 25th anniversary of the NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade and on this sensitive day Xi Jinping is wrapping up his visit to France. He's heading next to Serbia and later today it'll be around 5:00 a.m. Eastern Time Xi will be with the French president Emmanuel Macron in a place near and dear to Macron's heart, the Pyrenees Mountains in southern France. And they'll have some personal one-on-one time after the more formal talks that took place in Paris on Monday.

And it was in Paris when the Chinese leader was challenged on trade, as well as the war in Ukraine and as expected, the EC president Ursula von der Leyen, she took a very tough line and she urged Xi to ensure more fair trade and balanced trade with Europe because trade tension has been rising, you know, across Europe over unfair market access for products like French cognac as well as subsidized, cheaper Chinese exports that are flooding the European market, like EVs.

And in the end, Xi agreed that trade friction needed to be addressed through talks, but, you know, and this is what we continue to hear from China, he dismissed over-capacity is a problem. Now, on the issue of Ukraine, she reassured Macron that China won't sell weapons or military parts to Russia, and Xi -- and this was interesting. He backed Macron's call for a global Olympic truce during the Paris Games this summer. Take a listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

XI JINPING, CHINESE PRESIDENT (through translator): The world today is far from being calm. As a member of the United Nations Security Council and as a responsible country, China urges with France for a truce in the world during the Paris Olympic Games. (END VIDEO CLIP)

STOUT: Now the details of this Olympic truce are yet to be hashed out.

[00:20:01]

French officials hope that this is a sign that China will use its leverage over Russia to reach a truce in Ukraine, and also keep in mind that the Russian president Vladimir Putin, he is going to be very soon visiting China. That visit due to take place later this month.

As for what's next immediately for Xi Jinping, he will have probably a red carpet welcome at his next destination. He's going to Serbia next. Serbia, pro-Russia. Serbia is also a big target of Chinese investment. Xi Jinping is scheduled to touch down in the early evening or around 12:00 Eastern Time. And he will be there just in time again for the 25th anniversary of the NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade -- John.

VAUSE: Kristie, thank you. Kristie Lu Stout live for us there in Hong Kong. Thank you.

STOUT: Thank you.

VAUSE: Well, until now, tough talk on possible nuclear war from Putin and his cronies has been just that. Talk. But now for the first time, Moscow has ordered military drills involving tactical nuclear weapons. Potentially dangerous escalation by Vladimir Putin, who's often threatened to put nukes on the battlefield, but could now be putting Moscow on a path to actually using them.

Putin says the drills were ordered in response to what it calls provocative statements and threats from Western officials. Just last week, French president Emmanuel Macron again said he would not rule out deploying Western troops to Ukraine, warning European security is at stake if Russia should win the war. And on a visit to Kyiv, the U.K. Foreign Secretary, Lord David Cameron, says Ukraine could be using British supplied weapons however they want, including strikes on targets inside Russia.

The U.S. has previously downplayed Putin's veiled nuclear threats, and now it seems it's no different.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIRBY: It's just reckless and irresponsible for the leader of a major nuclear armed power to be saber-rattling the way that he is with respect to potential use for nuclear weapons. I can tell you, we've seen nothing even despite the reckless rhetoric that would cause us to change our strategic deterrent posture.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Joining me now from Los Angeles is Robert English, director of Central European Studies at the University of southern California and a former Pentagon policy analyst. It's good to see you. It's been a while.

ROBERT ENGLISH, DIRECTOR OF CENTRAL EUROPEAN STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: Thank you.

VAUSE: So with regards to these upcoming drills, here's part of a statement from Russia's defense minister. "During the exercises a set of measures will be carried out to practice the issues of preparation and use of non-strategic nuclear weapons."

Usually talk of nuclear annihilation for Putin and his cronies is sort of dismissed as just talk, as we've been told there's no obvious change in Russia's nuclear readiness. But CNN reporting a few months ago, U.S. officials were not certain if they would know if Russia was moving tactical nuclear weapons into place. Unlike strategic nuclear weapons capable of destroying entire cities, tactical or battlefield nuclear weapons are small enough to be moved quietly and could be fired from conventional systems already deployed to the Ukrainian battlefield.

So for context here, Little Boy, the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima with a yield -- or Hiroshima with a yield of 26 million pounds of high explosives. That would be considered a tactical nuclear weapon today, right? So in theory, it's entirely possible those weapons could have been or soon will be deployed to Russian forces.

ENGLISH: Yes, Russia has tactical nuclear warheads that range from under one kiloton to 100 kilotons, right? So it's a wide range. Most of them are on the smaller side, but that still is in the range of the Hiroshima-Nagasaki sized blast. So it's not a small weapon. It would do massive destruction including to Russia.

VAUSE: So last week on a visit to Kyiv, U.K. Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron gave Ukraine a green light essentially to fire British supplied missiles into Russian territory. Here he is. Oh, sorry, we do not have that. Apparently it was basically David said that it's up to Ukraine to decide how they use these British missiles. We also heard from the French President Macron, who was again talking about a deployment of Western troops to Ukraine. He told "The Economists," I'm not ruling anything out because we are facing someone who's not really anything either.

Both are escalations in how NATO has dealt with Moscow so far. And Russia's response has been to, you know, call these Russian tactical nuclear drills, which in itself is basically an escalation from Moscow.

ENGLISH: Yes. You know, it's interesting to compare the two, that both seemed equally provocative to Moscow. In fact, Macron's threat is really not credible, right? Other NATO members immediately contradicted Macron, which undercut the force of his -- you know, the threat that we could escalate by sending troops. However, Cameron's permission for the U.K. supplied missiles to be used by Ukraine on targets inside Russia is already operational.

And I think what Putin is worried about is that those weapons which have a range of nearly 500 kilometers could be used to strike refineries and oil and gas storage facilities. Ukraine has been doing that already with their homegrown weapons. And this inflicted some significant economic damage on Russia. You know, exports have gone down 10 percent, 12 percent, which is starting to hurt Russia's budget.

[00:25:02]

If they were to use the Storm Shadow long-range cruise missiles, for example, that could double the economic impact and that may be what's really scaring Putin into this counter threat of using tactical nuclear weapons.

VAUSE: And in the past when they've held these drills, it's always been on the quiet side, doesn't it? They've never publicized it, right?

ENGLISH: That's correct. They have practiced before and this time they're doing it openly, you know, to saber-rattle, you know, as we say. However it still doesn't make sense to use them. It's not so much just that we don't think Putin is crazy, irrational, that this could spark a Third World War, it could. It's also that we can't see how they have any utility, right?

John, you started out correctly pointing to the massive damage that a Hiroshima-sized warhead would do on the battlefield. It would blow fallout, all over the place, including on Russian troops, onto Russian soil. And what would it achieve, right? The war we're watching there is very dispersed. No concentration of armor, no concentration of troops that would be wiped out in one blow.

You know, it would do minimal military good and massive economic and political destruction to deploy a tactical nuclear weapon. It just doesn't make sense, except as a saber-rattling tactic.

VAUSE: Although in a few short hours, Putin will be sworn into office for another six years. How does that play into all of this, you know, when you're playing nuclear chicken with a man who's about to be, you know, sworn in for another six years in power?

ENGLISH: Well, I think the U.S. administration is correctly, as you're lead-in segment showed, is not taking this seriously, is staying calm and cool, dismissing the threats as irresponsible, but that doesn't mean they're not taking them seriously and exercising restraint. Notice that the U.S., right, is not involved in this ratcheting up rhetoric that we're seeing from the British or the French, or even the Poles for that matter.

Another important threat came from the Polish president who said Poland would be happy to house American nuclear missiles right there along the border with Russia. Biden and U.S. administration did not take the Poles up on that offer because they probably saw that as too provocative. So they're being careful, but they'll watch Putin's inauguration. They'll watch, you know, his consolidation of power at home and his celebration of the small gains he's been making at enormous cost, and go on about trying to resupply the Ukrainians. What really matters is helping them hold the line with this new $60

billion worth of weapons. And so the tactical nuclear threats and the saber-rattling are kind of a sideshow. No one is going to use them on the battlefield. They don't make sense to be used unless in some extreme crisis which we're not near. And what really matters is bolstering the weaknesses on the Ukrainian side with Western help.

VAUSE: It is a good point to finish on and that helped me get there sooner rather than later. It does seem to be taking some time, much longer than expected.

Robert, good to have you with us, sir. Thank you.

ENGLISH: You're welcome.

VAUSE: We'll take a short break. When we come back, Donald Trump already the first former U.S. president to face a criminal trial. Could he also be the first to be put behind bars? Likely a jailtime well before a verdict in his hush money payment to a porn star trial.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Welcome back, everyone. I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

[00:30:50]

Day 12 of Donald Trump's hush money payment to a porn star trial began with a tenth contempt of court account for violation of a gag order. Then came a stark warning. The judge saying the former U.S. president, if he violates the gag order one more time, he's going to jail.

After that, the big focus on the paper trail -- trial was how the fixer, Michael Cohen, was reimbursed after paying off porn star Stormy Daniels.

CNN's Kara Scannell has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Insiders at the Trump Organization on the stand walked through key payments at the center of the case against former President Donald Trump as the first criminal trial of a former president begins its fourth week.

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's a ridiculous case. I did nothing wrong.

SCANNELL (voice-over): Jeffrey McConney, a former executive at the company, testified Trump used his personal account to reimburse his former attorney, Michael Cohen. Prosecutors alleged the payments were reimbursement for a hush money payment Cohen made just before the 2016 election to adult film star Stormy Daniels to quiet her story of an alleged affair with Trump.

Trump denies the affair. McConney said the reimbursements came in $35,000 monthly increments through 2017.

MICHAEL COHEN, FORMER DONALD TRUMP ATTORNEY: It was actually 11 checks because one of the checks, January and February, were combined.

SCANNELL (voice-over): Prosecutors aim to prove Trump's business records of the payments were falsified, and the money was not for a retainer agreement as stated on Cohen's invoices, but instead, payback for the hush money to Daniels.

Prosecutors asked McConney if this was all happening above his head.

"Yes," he replied. McConney testifies former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg was the one who told him they had to reimburse Cohen.

Weisselberg, who is currently serving five months in jail on perjury charges in Trump's civil fraud case, had sketched out the payment to Cohen on a bank statement that showed Cohen transferred the $130,000 payment to Daniels' attorney.

The total paid to Cohen, $420,000, allegedly included reimbursing Cohen for the money he paid to Daniels attorney to kill her story, cash owed for other expenses, and a hefty bonus for Cohen. It was marked on the books as a legal expense.

McConney suggested Trump kept a tight reign over his account, but Trump attorney Emil Bove, in rapid-fire questioning, tried to show Trump was not involved in accounting at the company in 2017 when these payments were made.

Bove asked McConney whether he talked to Trump about these payments. "I did not," McConney testified. Bove pressed him further, if Trump ever asked him to do any of the things he described. "He did not," McConney testified.

Also testifying on Monday, Deborah Tarasoff, a Trump Organization accounts employee who cut the checks to Cohen. Tarasoff said that Trump was the only one who signed the checks for his personal account. "Only Mr. Trump," she testified, adding, "If he didn't want to sign it, he didn't sign it."

COHEN: It certainly goes well past the Stormy Daniels hush money payments Monday morning before the witnesses took the stand, the judge found Trumped in contempt for again, violating a gag order preventing him from discussing witnesses or jurors in the case, this time criticizing the makeup of the jury in an interview with the outlet Real America's Voice.

TRUMP (via phone): That jury was picked so fast, 95 percent Democrats. The area's mostly all Democrat. You think of it as a -- just a purely Democrat area. It's a very unfair situation that I can tell you.

SCANNELL (voice-over): Judge Juan Merchan said, "The magnitude of this decision is not lost on me, but at the end of the day, I have a job to do. So as much as I don't want to impose a jail sanction, I want you to understand that I will, if necessary and appropriate." TRUMP: This judge is giving me a gag order, and so you'll go to jail

if you violate it.

SCANNELL: Now, it's because Trump has violated the gag order in this case that prosecutors say they won't publicly identify the next witness that they will call, but one prosecutor said in court that they have about two weeks left of this case. That's about eight days based on the court schedule. And among the witnesses yet that they have not called, Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen.

Kara Scannell, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Palestinian authorities are reporting multiple casualties from Israeli airstrikes on the Southern Gaza city of Rafah. For months, Israel has been threatening a major military offensive on Rafah to destroy the last of Hamas infrastructure and fighting brigades.

[00:35:09]

On Monday, a hundred thousand Palestinians in the Eastern part of the city received evacuation orders from Israel. Israel also expected to join hostage and ceasefire talks in Cairo in the day ahead after rejecting a proposal agreed to by Hamas.

News of a deal, though, prompted celebrations in Rafah. But a senior U.S. and Israeli officials say the Hamas-approved deal is more of a counteroffer, not the same one that Israel helped craft with Egypt.

Meantime, in Tel Aviv, police arrested protesters blocking a major highway. Demonstrators are demanding the Netanyahu government agree to a ceasefire and secure the release of the last remaining hostages in Gaza.

The White House says it doesn't support Israel's decision to shut down Al Jazeera's operations in Israel. The Israeli government says the network has violated state security.

More details now from CNN's Jomana Karadsheh.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A dark day for democracy. That's what the Foreign Press Association has called the Israeli decision to shutter the local offices of Qatari news network Al Jazeera.

This video obtained by CNN shows Israeli officials reading and confiscating the channel's equipment in Jerusalem. The network has called it a, quote, "criminal act" and saying it wouldn't affect its coverage of the war.

MOHAMED MOAWAD, MANAGING EDITOR, AL JAZEERA ARABIC: Al Jazeera affirms its right to continue to provide news and information to its global audiences. Israel's direct targeting and killing of journalists, arrests,

intimidation, and the threats will not deter Al Jazeera.

KARADSHEH (voice-over): Israel's move comes one month after it passed a law placing strict restrictions on the channel's operations. Back then, the United States called the move concerning.

KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We believe in the freedom of the press. It is critical. It is critically important, and the United States supports the critically important work journalists around the world do.

And so -- and that includes those who are reporting in, in the conflict in Gaza.

KARADSHEH (voice-over): The network has long been considered a thorn in the side of Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government. He's accused it of being a mouthpiece of Hamas, accusations the network denies.

But the network is also known for its dogged on-the-ground reporting on Israel's war in Gaza and its operations in the West Bank. Now, after a cabinet decision Sunday, it's official.

SHLOMO KARHI, ISRAELI COMMUNICATIONS MINISTER (through translator): The government has now unanimously approved the closure of the incitement mouthpiece of Hamas in Israel, Al Jazeera channel.

The orders have just been signed. We are executing them. Anyone who harms the security of Israel and the soldiers and fighters of the IDF will no longer broadcast here from Israel.

IMRAN KHAN, AL JAZEERA: If you're watching this pre-recorded report, than Al Jazeera has been banned in the territory of Israel.

KARADSHEH (voice-over): In this pre-recorded video, Al Jazeera correspondent Imran Khan gave details of the closure.

KHAN: Al Jazeera, he's now enacted that law. Let me just --

KARADSHEH (voice-over): The ban is initially set to last 45 days. Until then, at least the channel will remain off-air in Israel, a country described as the only democracy in the Middle East.

Jomana Karadsheh, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: We'll take a short break. When we come back, a close call for a pastor in Pennsylvania, face-to-face with a gunman. We'll talk about his brush with death, in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:40:37] VAUSE: A Pennsylvania pastor is lucky to be alive after a frightening encounter during Sunday services. Images from the church's livestream show a man approaching the pulpit raise a gun and pull the trigger.

But when the firearm failed to discharge, the church's cameraman tackled the suspect.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GLENN GERMANY, PASTOR: I'm thankful to God that I'm still here, because he definitely pulled the trigger.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm just grateful that, you know, God seen it that nobody got hurt, especially when a guy had the gun pointed directly at his head.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: The pastor says he's ever seen the 26-year-old suspect. And it's not clear what his motives were.

After the attempted shooting, police went to the suspect's home where they found the body of a relative who had been fatally shot.

Miss USA is giving up her crown. Noelia Voigt announced her resignation Monday, saying it was in her best interests of her mental health.

The former Miss Utah was crowned Miss USA back in November, the first Venezuelan American woman to win the title.

In a statement, Voigt says in part, "My hope is that continue to inspire others to remain steadfast, prioritize mental health and never be afraid of what the future holds, even if it feels uncertain."

The Miss USA organization says it supports Voigt's decision, and her successor will be announced soon.

Why we still have these contests, I do not know.

One of New York City's most exclusive events took place Monday night. The Metropolitan Museum of Art rolled out the red carpet for A-list celebrity is attending the Met Gala.

This year's theme is the Garden of Time, paying homage to 1962's sci- fi story highlighting the connection between nature and technology.

Superstars Jennifer Lopez, Zendaya, and Bad Bunny served as co-chairs alongside others.

Some Met Gala favorites included Rihanna, Beyonce, Taylor Swift, though, skipped the event this year. What a shame.

I'm John Vause, back at the top of the hour with more CNN NEWSROOM. But please stay with us. WORLD SPORT starts after a very short break. I'll be back here in, what, just under 18 minutes. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)