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Russia Celebrates Victory Day; Three of Trump's Criminal Cases Postponed; Republicans Fumed over Marjorie Taylor Greene's Failed Move to Oust Speaker Johnson; Michigan Students and Graduates Tackle Joe Biden and his Handling of the Israel-Hamas War; Prince Harry Snubs His Father and Brother in His London Visit. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired May 09, 2024 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MAX FOSTER, CNN LONDON CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to "CNN Newsroom", I'm Max Foster, joining you live from London. Ahead on the show.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: They're not going to get our support if in fact they're going to these population centers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: President Biden sending Israel a warning the U.S. will stop sending weapons if there's a major invasion of Rafah.

Russia is celebrating its most important public holiday, marking Victory Day, as it makes further gains in Ukraine.

And justice is delayed more than once for Donald Trump. We'll break down which of his cases have been postponed.

ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Max Foster.

FOSTER: Beginning this hour with a CNN exclusive, U.S. President Joe Biden for the first time says he would halt some weapons shipments to Israel if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders a major invasion of Rafa in southern Gaza. Despite several days of airstrikes and tank fire into the city and the capture of the Rafah border crossing, Mr. Biden says Israel has not gone into Rafah yet. Here's part of his exclusive interview with CNN's Erin Burnett.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: I know that you have paused, Mr. President, shipments of 2,000 pound U.S. bombs to Israel due to concern that they could be used in any offensive on Rafah. Have those bombs, those powerful 2,000 pound bombs, been used to kill civilians in Gaza? BIDEN: Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence to those

bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers. I've made it clear that if they go into Rafah, they haven't gone to Rafah yet. They go into Rafah. I'm not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, a deal with the city, deal with that problem. We're going to continue to make sure Israel is secure in terms of Iron Dome and their ability to respond to attacks. I came out of the Middle East recently, but it's -- it's just wrong. We're not going to -- we're not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells used -- that have been used as well.

BURNETT: Artillery shells as well

BIDEN: Yeah, artillery shells.

I've made it clear to Bibi in the war cabinet, we're not going to get our support if, in fact, they're going to these population centers. We're not walking away from Israel's security work nor Israel's ability to wage war in those areas.

BURNETT: So it's not over your red line yet?

BIDEN: Not yet, but we've held up the weapons. We've held up the one shipment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: The U.S. and Israel both say the military campaign in Rafah is limited. Those satellite images show what appear to be entire buildings bulldozed and staging areas for Israeli military vehicles. Meanwhile, ceasefire and hostage release talks are ongoing in Cairo, Egypt, with the U.S. CIA Director William Burns joining delegations from Israel and Hamas.

Now, Israeli airstrikes are taking a growing toll on the civilian population in Rafah. The Al-Kuwaiti hospital in the western part of the city reports at least four people were killed, more than two dozen wounded on Wednesday. The U.N. estimates nearly 79,000 people have fled Rafah since Monday.

Meanwhile, the largest hospital in eastern Rafah has relocated to a makeshift facility in the central part of the city. Doctors say they have far less equipment, water, electricity and other vital supplies. And most of the doctors have left the city.

Palestinian medical teams say they've discovered a third mass grave at the Al-Shifa hospital complex in Gaza City. In total, they report finding 520 bodies in seven mass graves at three different Gaza hospitals. Israel denies any involvement in the burials at Al-Shifa and says claims to the country are baseless and unfounded. The IDF says Hamas turned Al-Shifa into a terrorist stronghold, using civilians as human shields.

Humanitarian aid groups are pleading with Israel to reopen border crossings to get vital supplies into Gaza. CNN's Scott McLean is following developments live this hour in Istanbul. Scott, where are you with that?

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Some conflicting information coming in, Max. So follow what we know so far. So yesterday, the Israeli agency responsible for checking the aid before it goes into Gaza said that the Kerem Shalom crossing, the one that goes directly from Israel into southern Gaza, was open. It posted video of eight, at least eight trucks entering that area.

[03:05:07]

What's not clear is when the video was shot or whether they actually got to the other side, because the Palestinian side insists that no trucks got in, at least at that point. And they say that, in fact, some workers were shot at by IDF soldiers when they showed up for their work shifts there.

The IDF confirmed that it said they were looking into it. We also heard from the State Department that confirmed no aid had gotten in, at least as of yesterday afternoon. Because of logistical and security concerns, the U.S. said that it was pushing Israel to not only open Kerem Shalom fully, but also the Rafah crossing because of the importance of getting fuel into the territory. Because even though those trucks backed up in Egypt, even if they do manage to get in, you still need to be able to deliver aid beyond that. And that means having fuel.

We also heard from the Norwegian Refugee Council. They said that no aid had gotten in. And then late last night, we heard from the U.N. as well that said that the situation is getting quite desperate. And again, no trucks had gotten in. Here's the spokesperson for the secretary general.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANE DUJARRIC, SPOKESPERSON FOR THE U.N. SECRETARY GENERAL: We are continuously engaging with all involved with about the resumption of the entry of goods, including fuel, so that we can get again, begin managing incoming supplies. However, the situation remains extremely fluid and we continue to confront a range of challenges, including active military operations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCLEAN: So that's where we're at the moment, Max. It's possible that some trucks have gotten in overnight or early this morning. We just don't have confirmation of that at the moment.

FOSTER: In terms of negotiations on a peace going into the future, some sort of plan being mapped out, it seems, about how there could potentially be a Palestinian authority back in control of Gaza and the West Bank.

MCLEAN: Yeah, so look, you'll remember last month, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken went to Riyadh to meet with regional leaders there. And one of the meetings that he had was with the leaders of five unnamed Arab states that were involved in discussions about what to do the day after this war ends and to try to bring some stability to the region and to try to get some kind of a two state solution or at least on that path.

And that's not the first time that that meeting has taken place. And yesterday in his interview with CNN's Erin Burnett, President Biden seemed to also shed light on what the U.S. is looking for from this group of Middle Eastern countries. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: I've been working with the Arab states, I won't mention because I don't want to get them in trouble, but five leaders in the Arab community were prepared to help rebuild Gaza, prepared to help transition to a two state solution.

BURNETT: To govern it?

BIDEN: Well, to maintain the security and peace while they're working out a Palestinian authority that's real and not corrupt.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCLEAN: So, Max, one of the major diplomatic goals that the U.S. has is for normalization between the Saudi government and the Israeli government. But the Saudis have made abundantly clear that that will not happen unless the war ends and unless there is a very clear, irreversible path to a two state solution, which obviously is difficult in this current climate.

We don't know whether the Saudis are part of that group. Turkey is obviously not an Arab state, so presumably not part of this group working directly with the Americans. But Turkey has pushed an idea that is very similar to the one, it seems, that President Biden is pushing as well. A sort of guarantor system is what Turkey has proposed, which would involve essentially once the dust settles, once there is some kind of an agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians, that effectively you would have Western countries serving as the guarantor of the Israelis to keep them in check, to make sure there are consequences for any violations of the agreement.

And similarly, you would have Turkey and other Middle Eastern countries doing the same with the Palestinians to keep them in check and to make sure that promises are kept.

At the moment, though, obviously, the Israeli plan, the last we heard from them about it in January, looks very, very different and looks a lot like the status quo of full Israeli control, at least over the Gaza Strip, Max.

FOSTER: OK, Scott in Istanbul, thank you for that.

(VIDEO PLAYING)

The apparent lack of progress on a ceasefire deal has sparked more protests from the families of the remaining Israeli hostages. They clashed with police on Wednesday night in Tel Aviv. At least two people were arrested and two officers were slightly injured. Now Israel believes 128 hostages are still being held in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 who are obviously dead.

[03:10:00]

Now, Gideon Levy is a columnist with "Haaretz", a newspaper, obviously in Israel, and a former adviser to Shimon Peres. He joins me now live from Tel Aviv. Thank you so much for joining us. Just talk us through the reaction to, you know, the counter protests effectively to what is the prime minister's strategy right now.

GIDEON LEVY, COLUMNIST, "HAARETZ" NEWSPAPER AND FORMER ADVISER TO SHIMON PERES: The prime minister's strategy is to drive a roller coaster. We go to sleep with one reality, we wake up with another, we go to sleep in one mood and we wake up with another. And meanwhile, the people of Rafah are going through hell.

There are hours in which it seems that the deal is just around the corner and a few hours later you realize that Israel is doing anything possible to avoid it, and mainly Prime Minister Netanyahu.

By the end of the day, I would say it seems that Israel is not interested right now in a deal and is interested in continuing the war, namely including a penetrating Rafah and maybe the last declaration of President Biden, which was really outspoken and unprecedented, that he will not supply Israel with ammunition if Israel does it. Maybe this will stop what the diplomacy didn't stop until now.

FOSTER: First time in decades, isn't it, since America's made a move like this. A big gamble, actually, for President Biden, because if the prime minister carries on with this invasion, it shows the weakness of America's power over Israeli policy.

LEVY: Or the craziness of the Israeli government, one of two or maybe both.

This, I mean, good morning, America. This should have come a long time ago. And I think that this declaration of Biden will show finally how much power does the United States have over Israel. What a leverage they have in their hands, which they never used and didn't use in this war until this very moment. As long as President Biden will stick to his declaration, Israel will not have any other choice. I don't see how Israel goes on with this war without American ammunition, without American support, without American diplomatic support.

So from my point of view, that's really a great challenge and a turning point in the relations between Israel and the United States and not necessarily a negative one.

FOSTER: We're only talking about one shipment, though. Israel will still have enough weaponry to go into Rafah if it wants to, without this shipment.

LEVY: And then what happens after and what happens in the U.N. and what happens with other aid and what happens with Israel turning into a pariah state if the United States will not support it and stand next to it. Israel can find itself within weeks in a much worse condition than even now.

FOSTER: But, you know, a strong lobby for Israel within the United States, if he, you know, completely cuts off military aid, that's going to be very difficult for him politically, isn't it? So how much further can he go? In withholding weapons to Israel?

LEVY: Yeah, that's the question, and it's an election year and we all know it, but the Democratic Party seems to support his steps, at least the progressive ones, but even more than them. And you see that until now, President Biden just paid the price for supporting Israel. But in any case, it's about the interest of the United States and the interest of peace and the interest of the world.

And the interest of all those is to put an end to this war. And whatever President Biden will do, if he will be tough enough, might only help to reach this goal. It's in the hands of him. It's the hands of the American administration if this war continues, if there will be another bloodbath in Rafah or this war will come to its end.

FOSTER: How does President Biden actually define, you know, an invasion of Rafah? Because there are plenty of people arguing that it's already happened or started.

LEVY: It happened in the outskirts, the Rafah passage is not part of the city, it's outside the city. And Israel is not really inside. But tens of thousands of refugees already left Rafah. People who were already uprooted once and twice in this war had to leave the third and the second and the third time.

[03:15:06]

And this stream is just getting stronger and stronger. And there are also casualties. I saw yesterday the terrible images from Rafah of injured children and everything. And it leads to nowhere, obviously.

It started, but it has a very clear limit right now, the operation. And now it's about Israel to decide, do they continue it as they say, or do they put an end to it as the Americans are asking them? It's really a very dramatic moment.

FOSTER: It really is. Gideon Levy, thank you for your insights today.

LEVY: Thank you.

FOSTER: President Vladimir Putin now addressing Russia as the nation marks victory day over Nazi Germany and what it calls the Great Patriotic War. Let's listen in.

(LIVE VIDEO FEED)

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): -- fight against Russia. They're crossing out the memory of the valor of the soldiers, liberators, the revanchism, the desire to justify the present day followers of the fascism, just fires up new regional conflicts, interracial and inter-confessional animosity.

We reject every step in that direction. We know what those ambitions are leading towards. Russia will do everything in order not to let the global clash begin. But we will not let anyone threaten us. Our strategic forces are always ready. They -- in the West, they want to forget the lessons of the Second World War. But we remember that the fate of humanity was decided in a massive fight outside Moscow, Leningrad, Kursk and Kharkiv, Minsk, Smolensk and Kyiv in hard and bloody battles from Caucasus to the West.

Three first years of the Great Patriotic War. The Soviet Union, all the republics of the former Soviet Union as one on one, were fighting the Nazis, whereas the whole Europe was working for the German Wehrmacht.

And I want to emphasize that Russia never diminished the second front and the support of our allies. We respect all the members of the anti- Hitler coalition, the resistance, the bravery of China who fought the militarist Japan. And we will always remember.

Never, we will never forget our common fight and our traditions of being allies. Dear friends, Russia is going through a difficult period. Fate of our motherland depends on every one of us today on the Victory Day. We realize this even more so. And we also look back to the generations of the victors. Clever, brave generation.

They could --

(LIVE VIDEO FEED ENDS)

FOSTER: President Putin there addressing Russia for Victory Day. Clare Sebastian joins us. She's been listening and we're just going to dip out for a moment. But he talked about the West wanting Russia to forget the lessons of second -- of the Second World War, comparing what's currently going on in Ukraine to the Second World War, which is obviously the narrative within Russia. But it's, you know, it's not the accurate narrative, is it, because it was Russia that invaded Ukraine.

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. I mean, I think this all plays into the rhetoric that we consistently see from President Putin that this is a war not against Ukraine, but against the collective West as a whole.

And certainly that is something that we're going to see throughout these Victory Day celebrations. He accused the West or certain elites in the West of revanchism when it comes to World War II history, talked about how the Soviet, all the sort of Soviet republics were fighting together as one against Nazi Germany. It's worth noting that he consistently, by the way, uses the rhetoric when referring to Ukraine, saying that Russia is denazifying Ukraine. So in this way, conflating the two. So that is a comparison that plays in his favor.

[03:20:05]

And I think worth noting as well, Max, that he said that the -- that Russia will not allow itself to be threatened, that its strategic forces are always on alert.

That stood out in particular to me because this comes off the back of an uptick in sort of nuclear saber rattling that we've seen from Russia in response to what it sees as statements coming out of the West that suggest that their role in supporting Ukraine might be increasing.

So Russia, on the one hand, I think projecting confidence, projecting power, trying to conflate the idea of victory in World War II with what they would like the people to think is, you know, potential victory in Ukraine.

But on the other hand, I think Russia does have the sense of feeling under threat from the outside. Of course, as these parades are happening, we have seen cross-border attacks on this very day, a fire having to be put out at an oil depot in southern Russia, shelling in the Belgorod region. So that is part of the backdrop here as well, Max.

FOSTER: Just remind us what they're marking today, because, you know, the level of casualty they had during Second World War is often underestimated. But so was Russia's role in, you know, defending Europe against the Nazis.

SEBASTIAN: Yeah, Russia lost by some calculations some 27 million people, that's soldiers and civilians in World War II, accounting for an estimated third of all World War II casualties. So by far the biggest in terms of an individual country. Obviously, it was invaded by Nazi Germany. Certain cities, Leningrad, Stalingrad, Kursk, suffered immensely during sieges. President Putin's own family affected by the siege of Leningrad. His two-year-old brother died in that siege.

This is something that he talks about a lot. So the immense suffering of the Russian people is something that is not in historical dispute. And it is a huge part of the culture. This is not some kind of false fostering of patriotism that you see here. This matters a huge amount to the Russian people to hold these celebrations.

But of course, for Putin, it is something that he has ramped up during his time as president. It's a critical part of his desire to project power, to project a sort of global relevance. Because, of course, when Russia played such a critical role in the Soviet Union as it was back then in defeating Nazi Germany and pushing out German forces all the way back to Berlin, it was seen as, you know, taking its place among the allies, among the victors in this war.

And he is at this point with his attempts to conquer Ukraine again, trying to assume that same kind of global prominence. So we see another parallel there. But of course, again, worth emphasizing, 27 million casualties in World War II still, even though there are very few, if any, veterans surviving from that conflict, a huge part of the Russian culture and psyche, Max.

FOSTER: Yeah. So what does this day mean to regular Russians? What will they be doing today? SEBASTIAN: Yeah, I mean, look, I've been there for multiple Victory

Days. There are enormous amounts of celebrations. People have days off work and school. A lot of young people will dress up in military uniform and take part in smaller parades. In fact, there have been parades in multiple cities. We've seen wall-to-wall coverage on state TV tracking the 11 time zones as they -- as they hold their parade.

So, look, it's really big. Everyone probably will be doing something to celebrate it. No one, as I say, disputes the role that the Soviet Union played in World War II. But I think there's another part of this this year, which is that Russia has suffered enormous casualties in Ukraine, by some estimates more than all of its post-war military campaigns combined.

And this is why we see, for example, they are not holding a traditional march called the Immortal Regiment, where people would process holding photographs of relatives killed in World War Two, perhaps because of the unfavorable comparison with what's happening in Ukraine. Of course, security concerns is the official reason. And secondly, Max, I want to point out that some border regions with Ukraine in Russia have canceled their parades also because of security concerns. We consistently see these cross-border attacks, of course.

FOSTER: OK, Claire, thank you very much indeed. A big day unfolding in Russia today.

Now ahead, another delay in Donald Trump's criminal case. Why the Georgia election subversion trial isn't likely to start any time soon.

Plus, a "New York Times" report suggests that Robert F. Kennedy contracted a parasitic worm or contracted a parasitic worm in his brain years ago. The independent candidate for president responds to that, next.

[03:25:03]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: Almost 100 million people in the U.S. from Texas to New Jersey are under threat of severe weather today.

Parts of the southeast are in the bullseye again after several states were hit by strong storms on Wednesday, including Tennessee. The National Weather Service says there were four tornado reports in the state. At least two people were killed. In total, there were more than 270 storm reports across the eastern U.S. on Wednesday.

Powerful storms also swept through Michigan on Tuesday night. This video shows trees being toppled over by the fierce winds in one front yard. At least one tornado hit the town of Portage. Other parts of Michigan also saw damage during the severe weather outbreak.

Now, in the past week, record rainfall has triggered deadly floods in southern Brazil. At least 95 people have died and more than 150,000 people have been forced to leave their homes. The scale of the flooding is immense. The government has responded with mass rescues. More than 46,000 people have been saved from rising waters.

Brazilian officials say storms have affected more than a million people and countless animals, including this horse stranded on a roof. The heavy rains have been linked to human-caused global warming and El Nino, which warms parts of the Pacific Ocean.

In the coming day, former adult film star Stormy Daniels will return to the stand in Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial, and we're told she'll face a longer cross-examination than originally planned. That's after she divulged specific, sometimes explicit, details about her alleged affair with the former U.S. president during her first day of testimony.

Sources say the defense wasn't planning on an extensive interrogation, but they will now ask additional questions to help protect Trump's reputation after Daniels raised the possibility that the sexual encounter wasn't consensual.

Trump's strategy across his many legal entanglements has been delay, delay, delay, and it's showing strong signs of success as well. Three of his four -- of his four criminal cases have been postponed. The latest setback for prosecutors came Wednesday in the Georgia election subversion case, as CNN's Brian Todd reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There's not much mystery to Donald Trump's long standing legal strategy.

NORM EISEN, FORMER HOUSE JUDICIARY SPECIAL COUNSEL IN TRUMP'S FIRST IMPEACHMENT TRIAL: Delay, delay, delay. Donald Trump has never seen a delay that he doesn't like in a court case against him.

TODD (voice-over): In all four criminal cases against him, cases in which he's pleaded not guilty, the former president and his legal teams have filed motion after motion to bob, weave, and flat out slow down all the trials.

Just this week in the Georgia case, where he's accused of attempting to subvert the 2020 election results, the state's court of appeals said it will consider Trump's continued efforts to disqualify district attorney Fani Willis from the proceedings because of the controversy surrounding her past romantic relationship with fellow prosecutor Nathan Wade.

[03:30:00]

Willis has said she wants that trial to begin in August.

EISEN: That is looking doubtful at the moment, to say the least.

TODD (voice-over): In the so-called Mar-a-Lago case, where Trump's accused of mishandling classified documents and hindering the government's efforts to recover them, Judge Eileen Cannon, who was appointed by Trump, has just postponed the trial indefinitely. Judge Cannon had originally scheduled that trial to start this month. But right now, there are nearly a dozen issues before her that she has yet to rule on.

TY COBB, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE LAWYER: She has sat in her office, apparently paralyzed from ruling on easily resolvable motions.

TODD (voice-over): Cannon has scheduled two hearings for June on what had been considered long shot motions from Trump, one on Trump's request for records from the Biden administration, the other on Trump's claims that special counsel Jack Smith, the lead prosecutor in the Mar-a-Lago case, was appointed unlawfully.

I seriously doubt this one is going to win. But once again, it's an example of an opportunity to slow things down.

TODD (voice-over): Then there's the January 6th election subversion case against Trump, also brought by Jack Smith. Trump claims he has presidential immunity in that case, an argument the Supreme Court is now deciding the validity of, but one that the high court may take its time to rule on.

ALAN MORRISON, PROF., GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL: That could last till the end of June. And I think it's going to be very difficult to get this case to trial, even if they decided it tomorrow. It's just not likely to get this. Too many other things that could happen. And Trump is a master of delay and delay is on his side.

TODD: So why the delay tactics by Trump? Analysts say if Trump gets elected again, he'd have the power as president to order the Justice Department to drop the January 6th case and the Mar-a-Lago case because those are both federal cases. The most likely case to survive against Trump if he's elected is the Georgia case because that is a state proceeding. But it's open to debate whether that case could survive.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Some U.S. House Republicans are fuming over Marjorie Taylor Greene's effort to outspeak Michael, Mike Johnson. Greene's motion was defeated in a bipartisan landslide. One GOP lawmaker called the Georgia congresswoman's behavior embarrassing. Another warned she's sowing dissent and discord.

CNN's Melanie Zanona has the latest from Capitol Hill.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELANIE ZANONA, CNN CAPITOL HILL REPORTER: Well, the showdown between Marjorie Taylor Greene and Speaker Johnson finally came to a head on Wednesday with Marjorie Taylor Greene moving ahead and forcing a floor vote to oust the sitting speaker. But that motion was easily defeated.

The second she called up that vote, Johnson scheduled it and they made a procedural move to table or kill the motion. And it was defeated with the help of Democrats and just 11 Republicans siding with Marjorie Taylor Greene. But even though this was easily defeated, Republicans were furious with Greene for following through with this move, especially since Donald Trump had personally called her, I'm told, and urged her to back down. And now some Republicans are calling for consequences for Greene. Take a listen.

REP. STEPHANIE BICE (R-OK): Right now, we're all focused on making sure that this institution continues to function. And I think today we showed that we're tired of the chaos and the nonsense.

REP. MARC MOLINARO (R-NY): This pathetic rerun of an awful syndicated TV series needs to come to a close. I think that there needs to be ultimately there needs to be accountability. I don't think people should be. Some people here think they're more important than everyone else. They are not. And there needs to be accountability for that.

REP. MIKE LAWLER (R-NY): Look, I think it's idiotic. You know, Moscow Marjorie has lost her mind, clearly the result of the space laser. There needs to be consequences, including the loss of committee assignments. Chip Roy and Thomas Massey, who serve on the rules committee, should both be removed immediately.

ZANONA: Now, Johnson himself has not advocated for any repercussions for his colleagues that voted against him. But he has said that they need to change their House rules next year in order to ensure that the chamber can function properly. And he also said that he hopes after this vote, they can finally put this messy infighting that has defined the 118th Congress behind them. But Greene has not ruled out forcing additional votes on the motion to vacate. So we'll have to wait and see.

For now, though, Johnson's job is safe.

Melanie Zanona, CNN Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is downplaying a "New York Times" report that suggested a worm got into his brain, ate part of it and died. The report quoted a deposition from 2012 in which Kennedy testified that a doctor told him his memory loss and mental fog could be caused by the parasite. The independent candidate for U.S. president posted this quote. I offer to eat five more brain worms and still be President Trump and President Biden in the debate.

Now, Kennedy's campaign said he contracted a parasite while traveling and is in, quote, "robust physical and mental health". He's not released his health records publicly.

[03:35:03]

There's still plenty ahead. Antiwar protesters block the streets of Chicago to show their anger as President Biden campaigns there.

Plus, college students in the battleground state of Michigan tell CNN how they really feel about Biden's handling of the war in Gaza.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's going to hurt the president.

JADE GRAY, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN CLASS OF 2024: However much he decides.

ANUSHKA JALISATGI, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN CLASS OF 2024: Yes.

SUMMER MATKIN, MICHIGAN VOTER, WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY STUDENT: He has handled everything with Israel and Palestine terribly.

IBRAHIM GHAZAL, MICHIGAN VOTER, WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY STUDENT: If you're going to conduct war, conduct it within the rule of law.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: Welcome back to "CNN Newsroom". I'm Max Foster, live in London.

Pro-Palestinian protests continue in Europe. At the University of Amsterdam on Wednesday, hundreds of protesters chanted as police surrounded and dragged some of them away.

(VIDEO PLAYING)

Protesters vowing to continue until the school severs all ties with Israel. In the U.S., dozens of students and local activists gathered at Morehouse College in Atlanta. They're calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and demanding the school rescind its invitation to President Joe Biden to deliver the commencement address at graduation later this month.

And as the president campaigned in Chicago, police or people rather gathered to protest his handling of the ongoing war in Gaza. In an exclusive interview with CNN, the president spoke about the college protests and the anger over his support for Israel.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Mr. President, you had signs at college campuses, some say Genocide Joe. Any of us that have gone to those campuses, sometimes we hear that chant. Do you hear the message of those young Americans?

BIDEN: Absolutely. I hear the message. Look, two things.

First of all, there's a legitimate right to free speech and protest. There's a legitimate right to do that. They have a right to do that. There's not a legitimate right to use hate speech. There's not a legitimate right to threaten Jewish students. There's not a legitimate right to block people access to class. That's against the law. That's against the law. (END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Demonstrations have been especially intense in Michigan, a state that Joe Biden narrowly won in 2020. It's also a state with a large number of Arab American voters. CNN's John King returned to Michigan recently to speak with young voters about the war and how they believe President Biden is handling the conflict.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KING (voice-over): Protests amid the commencement celebration. A time honored tradition on campus. But this one is complicated.

Jade Gray and Anushka Jalisatgi are now University of Michigan graduates and now former co-presidents of the College Democrats. Proud their school is part of a global statement.

[03:40:08]

GRAY: It was in my application letter that this was a campus of like a history of protests, a rich history of social justice movements.

KING (voice-over): Worried, though, about months of war and death, months of student anger at a president who can't afford to lose Michigan.

KING: How much is it going to hurt the president?

GRAY: However much he decides.

JALISATGI: Yes. That starts with calling for a ceasefire for listening to his student voters across the country.

KING (voice-over): This is from our first visit five months ago. Protests against Biden's handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict were just beginning.

KING: Is it fair to say you're glad the election is not tomorrow?

JALISATGI: Yes.

KING (voice-over): The election was nearly a year away then, six months away now.

GRAY: Michigan is up for grabs. And I did not think I'd be saying this right now. And I wish I wasn't saying this right now. But I am -- I am genuinely concerned about which way Michigan will go.

KING (voice-over): Both hope a summer away from campus protests helps younger voters see a bigger picture.

GRAY: I'm certainly not voting for the guy who is in court right now and who incited an insurrection and put three extremists on the Supreme Court, who therefore took away rights for the first time in history, who's demonized the LGBTQ community, of which I'm a part of.

KING (voice-over): But right now, things are raw. Some friends talk about staying home or voting third party.

JALISATGI: Hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza and across Palestine have been displaced, have been starved, have been killed. So I think it really does come down to people's own judgments on the motivations of the president.

MATKIN: Oh, what a cute boy.

KING (voice-over): Summer Matkin is home in suburban Detroit, processing freshman year at Wayne State.

MATKIN: Can you talk about politics for me?

KING (voice-over): Back in November, big reservations about the president's age, but zero doubt if the choice was Biden or Trump.

MATKIN: I'd go Biden.

KING (voice-over): Now, not so sure.

MATKIN: No matter how many Taylor Swift references you make, you'll never understand us. My thing is, I think he has handled everything with Israel and Palestine terribly.

KING (voice-over): Still leaning Biden, but part of a consequential debate with friends.

MATKIN: A lot of our generation is also considering going third party, but I kind of fear it's going to split up the votes and end up having it fall back on Trump, which I wouldn't want to happen.

KING (voice-over): Maya Siegmann began the school year likely Biden, ends it definitely Biden. Happy with her grades, even more happy it is over.

MAYA SIEGMANN, MICHIGAN VOTER, WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY STUDENT: It was terrifying. It was terrifying. The escalation of other campuses has made me fear for my campus.

KING (voice-over): Siegman offers nuance often missing when politicians discuss the campus protests. No problem with calls to end the killing or to speed up humanitarian aid. But fear when she sees banners like this. The Intifada was a violent armed uprising targeting Jews.

KING: You're wearing your star, David. You ever think of taking it off?

SIEGMANN: I did. I took it off actually for about a week or two, and then I put it on four or five months ago and never took it off.

KING (voice-over): A fierce supporter of Israel, but a fierce critic of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

SIEGMANN: I personally don't agree with how he is operating. I think that he is trying to prolong the war. KING (voice-over): Ibrahim Ghazal also speaks with nuance. He is no

fan of Hamas and acknowledges Israel's right to respond to terrorism.

GHAZAL: We don't want human rights violations. If you're going to conduct war, conduct it within the rule of law, international law. That's all people are asking for. Nothing more.

KING (voice-over): Ghazal is in two groups critical to Biden's Michigan math, a younger voter and an Arab American. He just wrapped his first year at Wayne State Law School.

GHAZAL: It's been stressful just seeing people that look like me and just human beings, seeing human beings on my on my phone screen being killed day in, day out. And what's worse is as an American, I have to see my government funding. So stressful.

KING (voice-over): A Biden voter in 2020 who says the president is in deep trouble in Detroit, Dearborn and other Michigan communities where Arab and Muslim Americans number in the tens of thousands.

GHAZAL: With older people, I would definitely say they're not voting for Biden. For younger voters, we're stuck in the sense that, you know, it's Biden or Trump. The only reason I haven't closed the door is because I think he still has an ability to change course and set a precedent for the future.

KING (voice-over): Ghazal's summer goals? Take a break, then study the third party candidates and watch to see if the president truly does change course or if the encampments are still a thing when classes resume in the fall.

John King, CNN, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: A quick programming note for you. You can see Erin Burnett's full interview with President Biden next hour here on CNN. In addition to the war in Israel and the campus protests, he'll also share his thoughts on the U.S. economy.

Still ahead, Moscow celebrating its most important public holiday. We'll have the latest on Vladimir Putin's Victory Day celebrations ahead. And what he said is Russia's attacks on Ukraine intensify.

[03:45:00]

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FOSTER: You are looking live pictures out of Moscow as Russia marks the anniversary of its victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. Right now, a military parade underway. It was preceded by a speech from President Vladimir Putin.

Mr. Putin praised those who fought in the Second World War. And in his speech, he said the present day followers of fascism are firing up new regional conflicts. Russia celebrates Victory Day on May the 9th, the day after Europe.

Clare Sebastian's been following that. And what stood out for you about this speech today, Clare?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Max, there were a couple of things that I think really sum it up. One was the immediate launching into this anti-Western rhetoric, accusing the West of essentially ignoring the heroism of the Soviet soldiers in World War II, saying that it doesn't fit with their colonial policy and their, quote, "desire to justify present day followers of fashion", which I think is clearly a reference to Western support for Ukraine. Don't forget, Russia continually claims that it is, quote, denazifying Ukraine without evidence. We did expect that anti-Western rhetoric. We then got into thinly veiled, I would say, nuclear threats, which fits with a recent pattern from Russia. Take a listen to what he had to say on that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Russia will do everything in order not to let the global clash begin. But we will not let anyone threaten us. Our strategic forces are always ready.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN: We do actually see some of those strategic forces on display, as well as this aerial display. At the moment, the intercontinental ballistic missile system, the Yars, has been paraded through Red Square. That is fairly typical for Victory Day. But he then went on, President Putin, to really do again what we expected, an appeal to the patriotism and resilience of the Russian people.

He said Russia is going through a difficult period. The fate of our motherland depends on every one of us. And on Victory Day, we realize this even more so. I think an effort to sort of build the sense of nobility, of the sacred fight that exists in Russia around World War II and that victory and conflate that with what's happening in Ukraine. And of course, we know the Russian people do need a lot of resilience because we are seeing Russia suffer significant losses on the battlefield in Ukraine, which is why this year, Victory Day is again slimmed down.

Fewer personnel participating, fewer pieces of equipment on Red Square that we have seen taking part in the parade on Red Square. A number of participants in the so-called special military operation wearing their military uniform there, Max.

FOSTER: OK, Clare Sebastian, thank you.

Viktor Orban greeted China's Xi Jinping in Budapest, the last leg of his European tour. The two are set for talks and a signing ceremony in the coming hours.

[03:50:00]

Xi is looking to deepen his ties with Eastern Europe, where Chinese companies have invested billions of dollars as part of Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative. Earlier on, on Wednesday, Xi and Serbia's president agreed on a shared future for their countries. They signed more than two dozen trade and regulation agreements and have vowed to continue their partnership.

Now, Prince Harry returns to London. He was greeted by fans, but not by his father and his brother, King Charles and Prince William. More on that coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: Prince Harry's latest trip to the U.K. is showing the world that the rifts within the British royal family haven't mended. The prince arrived in London to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the Invictus Games, the sporting competition he founded for wounded veterans and military members. Other British royals were nowhere to be seen. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER (voice-over): Arriving at St Paul's Cathedral in London, Prince Harry here to mark 10 years of the Invictus Games.

PRINCE HARRY, DUKE OF SUSSEX: Now, there are varieties of gifts with the same spirit.

FOSTER (voice-over): Notable in their absence from the service, close members of the royal family. Harry's celebrity friends stepping up instead.

Prince William was never expected to meet his brother on this trip, but Harry had reached out to his father. The king wasn't available due to his busy schedule, according to Harry's office. British media called it a snub.

As Harry was taking to the pulpit at St Paul's, the king made his own public appearance. Just a few miles away at Buckingham Palace's first garden party of the summer season. Father and son so close, yet still so far apart.

They haven't seen each other since a brief visit in February after the king announced he was being treated for cancer.

Shortly before Harry arrived in London, an announcement from the palace that underscored the increasingly close working relationship between William and Charles. The Prince of Wales was officially being handed the Colonel-in-Chief title of Harry's former army unit.

Harry has had a strange relationship with the royal family since he and his wife, Meghan, stepped back from royal duties in 2020.

The Duke has since been highly focused on the Invictus Games, an international sporting competition for wounded veterans established in 2014.

PRINCE HARRY: Ten years is a real thing. It's our birthday at the Invictus Games Foundation and we're all very excited and thrilled.

FOSTER (voice-over): Wednesday's event in London will be followed by a trip to Nigeria where Harry will be joined by Meghan. Both of these appearances unusually choreographed with the media, marking a fresh push to highlight the couple's work.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Well, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration investigating an incident at the Orlando International Airport that could have gone very badly wrong. Air traffic control cleared a Frontier Airlines jet to taxi across a runway as an American Airlines passenger plane was accelerating for take-off on the very same runway. The American jet, marked in the top middle of the screen, was ordered to abort the take- off and began decelerating. It's unclear why the Frontier flight at the bottom center of the screen was told to taxi across the runway at that time. The FAA didn't say how close the planes came to one another.

[03:55:02]

Delta investigating after a fire in one of its planes prompted evacuations on Monday. The airline says the crew noticed smoke in the plane's nose area after they arrived at the gate and plugged into ground power. They deployed the emergency slides and evacuated passengers onto the tarmac at Seattle International Airport. Delta says all of the 195 people on board are OK. The flight from Cancun, Mexico, used a two-year-old Airbus A321neo aircraft. An initial report from federal authorities say a spark ignited the fire when the aircraft was plugged into the ground power.

The crew of a FedEx cargo plane walked away unharmed after an emergency landing in Istanbul, where the plane came to a stop on its nose. The pilot radioed the airport control tower, saying the front landing gear just wouldn't deploy. That's when airport crews prepared for what they called a planned fuselage landing with fire and rescue workers stationed on the runway ready to assist. There were no injuries and no disruptions to other flights either.

Now, imagine being sucked into a black hole, and if you can't imagine it, NASA is here to help. They've just come out with a new simulation showing you what it would be like to fly into a supermassive black hole. It's posted as a 360-degree video on YouTube, but here's some of what it looks like here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN (voice-over): This new NASA simulation takes you past the Earth's atmosphere and into a supermassive black hole. The immersive visualization was made on a supercomputer and moves viewers close to the speed of light. NASA created two different scenarios for viewers.

One shows a first-person perspective of an astronaut just missing the event horizon, or point of no return, of the black hole and sling shining back out. And another, where it crosses the boundary and plunges into the event horizon. According to NASA, the black hole is similar to the one at the center of the Milky Way, and its event horizon spans 16 million miles.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Well, thank you for joining us. I'm Max Foster, in London. Stay right here for another hour of "CNN Newsroom".

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