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Outrage After Georgia Lawmakers Pass Foreign Agents Bill; Russia Presses Forward Along Front Lines In Ukraine; Protests In Tbilisi After Lawmakers Pass Controversial Bill; In France, Inmate Escapes, Two Officers Killed After Prison Convoy Ambush; Biden Hikes Tariffs on $18 Billion in Imports From China; Deadly Heat Waves in Asia Fueled by Climate Change; in Canada, Crews Battling 130+ Active Fire, 40+ Out of Control; Caitlin Clark Makes Her WNBA Debut; Trailer for Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis Released; Rookie Caitlin Clark Scores 20 in Indiana Fever Debut. Aired 2-2:45a ET
Aired May 15, 2024 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[02:00:34]
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world and everyone streaming us on CNN Max. I'm Rosemary Church. Just ahead.
Riot police and protesters clashed on the streets of Tbilisi after Georgia's parliament approves a deeply divisive Russia style war on foreign influence.
Outmanned and outgunned while Ukrainian troops wait for desperately needed Western aid to arrive. Russia is pressing on finding weak spots along the 1200-kilometer frontline.
And Donald Trump's former fixer Michael Cohen comes under fire on the witness stand.
ANNOUNCER: Live from Atlanta. This is CNN NEWSROOM with Rosemary Church.
CHURCH: Thanks for joining us. Protesters in Georgia of voicing their outrage after the ruling party passed a highly controversial foreign agents bill in parliament on Tuesday. Thousands of demonstrators converged at a major intersection in the capital Tbilisi shutting down traffic. They say they don't want to see their country turning toward Moscow, which has similar laws that used to crack down on dissent.
The bill will require organizations receiving more than 20 percent of funding from abroad to register as foreign agents or face massive fines. Scuffles broke out in Parliament while the bill was debated. Now it goes to the president who says she will veto it. But Parliament can override her objection with a simple majority.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SALOME ZOURABICHVILI, PRESIDENT OF GEORGIA: There are many, many concerns that the way and the place where we can reverse all of these is the elections in October that's very close 26th of October. And we have to use this mobilization of the society and this consolidation of the political parties to go and win those elections because that's the European way. It's not overthrowing governments. It's winning in the elections.
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CHURCH: CNN's Clare Sebastian explains what brought the former Soviet republic to this pivotal moment.
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CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Storming the barricades, protesters in the Georgian capital refusing to accept their weeks long battle could be lost.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They can't scare us. They can't do anything to make us go away. We are going to stay here and fight.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're not Russian, we are not Belarus. We will not allow anyone to bring guys as foreign agents. We will resist.
SEBASTIAN (voice-over): Protesters face down a wall of riot police pushing them back just hours after opposition and government faced off in Parliament.
ANA TSHILIDZI, GEORGIAN MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT, UNITED NATIONAL MOVEMENT (through translator): You are the Russian regime. You are the legitimate Russian regime.
EKA SEPASHVILI, GEORGIAN MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT, GEORGIAN DREAM (through translator): Its' double standards and the hypocrisy of the opposition.
SEBASTIAN (voice-over): Georgia's pro-European majority has tasted success. Scenes like this last year, forced the government to scrap the same so called foreign agent bill. Seen here as a replica of a repressive Russian law and a sign of Moscow's growing influence in this small post- Soviet state.
Then in March barely three months after gaining E.U. candidate status, the Georgian government revived the law. In a rare appearance in late April, the ruling party's honorary leader and most powerful driving force lashing out the West.
BIDZINA IVANISHVILI, HONORARY CHAIRMAN, GEORGIAN DREAM (through translator): Despite the promises of the 2008 Bucharest Summit, Georgia and Ukraine have not been accepted into NATO and have been left out to dry. All those decisions are made by the global party of war.
SEBASTIAN (voice-over): As protesters grew more determined the police response escalated. Violence widely condemned by the European Union. In this shocking attack on May 1st, opposition leader Levan Khabeishvili says he was deliberately targeted, his bruises still visible.
LEVAN KHABEISHVILI, GEORGIAN OPPOSITION LEADER, UNITED NATIONAL MOVEMENT (through translator): Did not get what they wanted from me. They were filming to upload the video afterwards and to show the opposition leader in a state that would discredit me.
SEBASTIAN (voice-over): And violence not the only means of intimidation. Transparency International says these posters of its local Executive Director appeared a few days ago outside its offices and those of other NGOs.
[02:05:08]
The text reads, traitor and grant guzzler.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You are under the attack all the time so the governmental officials and even the prime minister would organize the press conference where they would single you out.
SEBASTIAN (voice-over): Still the drumbeat of opposition in Georgia grows louder. This is a country at a crossroads. You making it clear? This bill becomes law future membership. Is it serious risk? Clare Sebastian, CNN, London.
CHURCH: Emil Avdaliani is a professor of international relations at the European University in Georgia. He joins me now from the capital Tbilisi. Appreciate you being with us.
EMIL AVDALIANI, PROFESSOR OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY IN GEORGIA: Thank you for having me.
CHURCH: So, Georgia's Parliament a4dopted this controversial foreign agent law, the critics say mirrors similar legislation in Russia defying protesters and putting the country's E.U. bid in jeopardy. So, what's in this bill and how will it be policed?
AVDALIANI: Thank you once again. Well, when you read the bill, you barely could find anything, which is so problematic for the moment. But what the opposition fears or protesters fears and generally what the European Union or the U.S. fear is that this bill might be sort of a roadmap for future laws and then changes which could essentially make -- create serious problems for the -- for the opposition, generally, for NGOs, and so on, and so on.
And that's why the opposition now often compares the bill to what happened to Russia, Belarus or what might happen already is happening in Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia. So, they bill, essentially, as I say, could create a sort of a certain sort of basis for future problems for the opposition NGOs. And essentially, it's also a geopolitical issue. How do you -- could essentially, approach this bill in the future when it comes to the judging?
CHURCH: So, why did the government push through this unpopular foreign agent law at this time? And what will it mean, ultimately, for Georgia's bid to join the E.U.?
AVDALIANI: Well, I think there is a range of issues here. Well, we -- what scholars of international relations, we usually pay attention to why the geopolitical processes which is not to say that those are not important, but I think the ruling party has its own agency, and it sort of plays its own game or tries to play its own game. And it's about the remaining empower of concentrating resources. So that it's could prolong, its role beyond October elections.
And then surely, it's also a sort of wider regional context in here. So, you could say that the decision by Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and other countries to initiate those bills, targeting NGOs and sort of also targeting, in a way indirectly, perhaps, the relations with the collective West, also tells you a lot about the limits of the Western presence, Western influence in the South Caucasus or Central Asia.
So, it's about geopolitics, but also, it's about the internal Georgian political processes.
CHURCH: And could this new foreign agents law signal the end of democracy, perhaps in Georgia and a shift toward Russia?
AVDALIANI: Well, I think -- I think shifts in foreign policy would not really happen in a month or so. So, there is a fear that if you have your relationship with the collectivist failing essentially that might drive you to other geopolitical actors. And there is a fear that relations with Russia could see momentum. But I still think that is a written number in numerous pieces on the issue that Georgia perhaps is trying to build sort of a multi vector foreign policy rate, we try to have several letters, geopolitical vectors, essentially, in its foreign relations.
[02:10:20]
Obviously, the best, but it could also play a certain game with Russia, perhaps even with China. And in that sense, Georgia sort of will try to play one big act against the other. That's sort of an understanding which is emerging in in Georgia. And if you look at what other countries in the region are doing from Armenia to Azerbaijan or even in Central Asia, or even in the Middle East, you clearly see that. That's the pattern that could be a pattern essentially or Georgia (INAUDIBLE) foreign policy.
CHURCH: Emil Avdaliani, thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate it.
AVDALIANI: Thank you.
CHURCH: Turning now to Ukraine where the U.S. Secretary of State is expected to meet with the country's foreign minister in Kyiv in the coming hours. Antony Blinken is in the Ukrainian Capitol looking to reaffirm Washington's support after the U.S. took months to approve $68 billion in critical military aid. He says the overwhelming bipartisan support behind that aid package shows that Ukraine can count on the U.S.
He also sat down with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday to discuss the war and the new aid package.
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ANTONY BLINKEN, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF STATE: We're going to help you hold off Russia's attacks, make it harder for them to strike you and keep the Black Sea open. So you can keep growing your economy and keep helping to feed the world.
We know that time is of the essence. That's why just one minute after Congress approved our massive aid package, President Biden said ammunition armored vehicles, missiles and air defenses to Ukraine.
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CHURCH: Blinken says some U.S. military aid has already arrived in Ukraine and more is on the way. He visited this memorial for Ukraine's fallen soldiers in Kyiv's Maidan Square.
Well, meanwhile, Russian forces continue their cross-border attacks in Ukraine's northeast. Authorities in her Kharkiv, the second largest city say a Russian attack from so called glide bombs wounded at least 21 people including three children. Apartment blocks a school a shopping center and other buildings were damaged in the strikes. Ukraine's air defenses don't have the ability to intercept glide bombs which are launched from Russian air space and use wings to glide to long distances.
And Ukraine can't use us anti-aircraft weapons due to restrictions imposed by the White House. Well, nearly 8000 people have been evacuated from Kharkiv in recent days amid these cross-border attacks, as Russian forces seize towns and villages near the northern front lines. Farther to the east, residents were evacuated from the village of Vovchansk. Ukrainian forces repelled a rational assault on the town.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): What I feel we had to leave our livestock behind. Our house is gone. Our livestock is now roaming the streets, my feelings. My heart is broken. Where are we going? And where will we stay? They kicked us out of our family house.
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CHURCH: With all eyes on Ukraine's out of key region, there are concerns Russia could take advantage of the moment to mount a new push along Ukraine's eastern front lines. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh on the ground in central Ukraine with more.
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: What we're seeing actually in the north in Kharkiv is a bid to try and draw Ukraine's limited resources away from the Donetsk front lines and enable Russia to get gains in that Donetsk are where it's been moving pretty fast forward over the past month or so. Now, they took Avdiivka, a key town there back in February and they've since been edging forwards and they've got some key parts of Ukraine's military infrastructure in that region in their sights.
Towns like Kramatorsk, Slavyansk, Pokrovsk, these are all essential to Ukraine's military operations there. And now, the unthinkable is happening where the Russians are taking field after field small, tiny villages, you wouldn't know of, frankly. Well, maybe hundreds of people live before the war broke out. They're taking one after another after another, Ukrainians are struggling to hold their lines there.
And that's really leaving this significant Eastern Front fought over since 2014. Deeply vulnerable to Russian strategic advances. The summer's ahead of them, yes, Western weapons will start coming in in the next month or so. But the Russians have momentum here and they spot a window of acute Ukrainian weakness and they're exploiting that.
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But the key thing to remember here because this was essentially avoidable, they've ended up getting that $61 billion. The five or six months delay in it has caused damage, to morale damage to manpower damage, the capacity on the front lines and they've lost a lot of territories. They're going to go into the summer, hugely on the backfoot. With territory, they could have kept taken back and given to Russia and Putin feeling that his war after the narrative for well over a year being they were faltering and just expending endless amounts of manpower and resources to take tiny amounts of territory.
Now Moscow can point to key and at times even strident success because the West frankly hasn't been looking so hard, and they've taken advantage of that.
CHURCH: Aside from fighting a war against Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin appointed new government ministers and a brand new cabinet, including new defense minister Andrey Belousov. He will take over Russia's military leadership more than two years into the conflict with Ukraine. Belousov says there are no current plans to mobilize additional troops, instead noting the importance of getting weapons and ammunition to soldiers.
He also emphasized the importance of limiting loss of life on the battlefield.
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ANDREY BELOUSOV, RUSSIAN DEFENSE MINISTER NOMINEE: Within the framework of special military operation, the key task of course remains achieving victory, ensuring the achievement of the military and political goals of the special military operation outlined by the president. At the same time I want to specifically emphasize this with minimal human losses.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Despite threats from U.S. President Joe Biden to withhold offensive weapons to Israel. Sources tell CNN, a new $1 billion arms deal for Israel is now in the works, which would include the sale of tank ammunition, tactical vehicles and mortar rounds. The talks are in the very early stages. There's no timeline for when lawmakers will be officially notified and the sale would need congressional approval which could take years.
Now to the Middle East where the Israeli military says its continuing operations across Gaza from Jabalia in the north to Rafah in the South. They say they struck more than 100 terror targets throughout the enclave on Monday and expanded an operation In Jabalia now in its fourth day. The IDF claims it also eliminated several armed terrorist cells on the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing.
The U.N. chief is expressing deep concern over the escalation of Israeli military activity in and around Rafah calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. Here is more now from his spokesperson.
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FARHAN HAQ, DEPUTY SPOKESPERSON FOR U.N. SECRETARY GENERAL: The Secretary General is appalled by the escalation of military activity in and around Rafah by the Israeli Defense Forces. These developments are further impeding humanitarian access and worsening an already dire situation. At the same time, Hamas goes on firing rockets indiscriminately. Civilians must be respected and protected at all times in Rafah and elsewhere in Gaza. For people in Gaza nowhere is safe now.
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CHURCH: The IDF also says it struck a Hamas war room embedded in an UNRWA-operated School in Central Gaza. They claim it was being used by Hamas commanders but UNRWA says it's unable to confirm the IDF's claims.
Meantime, two Israeli airstrikes hit a refugee camp in the area killing at least 40 people including nine children. CNN's Paula Hancocks has more. But a warning the images you're about to see are disturbing.
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PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dazed and bloodied, a young boy is pulled from the rubble of a four-storey building. Others remain trapped under slabs of concrete, after an Israeli airstrike hit this residential building in the early hours of Tuesday while people were sleeping.
This mother finds her son being carried away by rescue crews. She throws herself at his lifeless body.
More than 100 displaced people were believed to be sheltering here in Nuseirat in central Gaza. Entire family's now in tune to beneath the concrete debris.
This man says, my children, girls and boys are under the rubble. My wife, my father, we were targeted while they slept. He continues his desperate search for his family.
Another man calls out his brother's name. He says he was sheltering here with his wife and four children displaced for a fourth time, this time from Rafah.
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This woman says my brother arrived from Rafah three days ago after being forcibly displaced. We don't know where he is. His wife, his five children, they didn't have any connections to anyone.
This is how Gazans are forced to search for their loved ones, little equipment using their bare hands against the constant backdrop of Israeli drones overhead.
Another Israeli strike at a nearby UNRWA school caused a fire which engulf the buildings there to the displaced became the victims. U.N. staff collect human remains from the schoolyard.
The daily search for a safety that does not exist continues as hundreds of thousands leave Rafah moved on yet again by the Israeli military. Some setting up tents in cleared areas, others returning to what's left of their homes. We're returning to our destroyed homes in Khan Younis this man says, where there's no shelter or basic necessities. No water or electricity or even a house to shelter in.
For the residents of Gaza, it is a constant battle to find the next meal, clean water and a place to sleep and a desperate hope to survive the night.
Paula Hancocks, CNN Abu Dhabi.
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CHURCH: And we'll be right back.
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CHURCH: Cheeto dusted and a boorish cartoon misogynist. Two of the colorful phrases key witness Michael Cohen is used to describe Donald Trump. Trump's defense attorneys tried to use Cohen's words against him on day 17 of the hush money trial. They got their first crack at Trump's former lawyer and fixer portraying him as full of hate, obsessed with his former boss and hell bent on revenge.
Before that the prosecution walked current through his decision to stop being loyal to Trump six years ago and "tell the truth." More now from CNN's Paula Reid
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PAULA REID, CNN SENIOR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Michael Cohen back on the witness stand facing tough questions from prosecutors and defense attorneys.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you have to say to Trump, Cohen? REID (voiceover): Trump attorney Todd Blanche came out swinging his first question to Cohen. You went on TikTok and called me a crying little expletive just before the trial began. Nodding in agreement, Cohen said sounds like something I would say. Trying to frame the witness as motivated by revenge. Blanche question Cohen about something he said on his podcast in October 2020. I truly expletive hope Donald Trump ends up in prison.
Blanche press Cohen on how he continues to defy prosecutor's request to stop talking about the case.
[02:25:03]
Is it fair to say prosecutors have repeatedly asked you to stop publicly commenting on this case? Yes. Cohen replied. Blanche noted that Cohen profits from his relentless attacks on Trump and on his podcast wore a shirt showing Trump behind bars. And you were encouraging people to buy it. Blanch asked. Yes. It's part of the merch store said Cohen. Blanche asked if on his podcast Cohen called Trump a Boris cartoon misogynist and a Cheeto dusted cartoon villain.
That also sounds like something I said, Cohen admitted. He was then asked if he was obsessed with Trump. I wouldn't say obsessed. I admired him tremendously before he faced off with Trump's attorneys, prosecutors walked Cohen through the documents at the heart of the criminal case. 11 checks he says he received totaling $420,000 after submitting 11 falsified invoices marked for legal services or any of those checks in fact for work during the months described in those check stubs, prosecutor asked, no ma'am. He responded.
All part of the alleged conspiracy to pay Cohen back the $130,000 in hush money be personally paid to Stormy Daniels. He also described how his relationship with Trump unraveled as he came under federal criminal investigation and ultimately decided to break with Trump and plead guilty to multiple charges in 2018. Cohen recalled how he felt after the FBI searched his home office and hotel room in 2018.
How to describe your life being turned upside down? Concerned despondent, angry. Cohen described a conversation he had with Trump after the FBI search. The last time he says they ever spoke. He said to me, don't worry. I'm the President of the United States. There's nothing here. Everything's going to be OK. Stay tough. You're going to be OK. Cohen said I was scared. I wanted some reassurance that Mr. Trump had my back, especially as this dealt with issues that related to him.
He credited a conversation with his family which he says convinced him to finally turn on Trump and begin telling the truth. My wife, my daughter, my son all said to me, why are you holding on to this loyalty? What are you doing? We're supposed to be your first loyalty. Cohen said, I made a decision based again on the conversation I had with my family that I would not lie for President Trump anymore.
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REID: Cohen will be back on the stand Thursday, the last day of Court this week. The next week, the defense is expected to punt on a few witnesses and their client is going to need to decide does he want to take the stand. But at this point, it looks unlikely that the jury will get the case before Memorial Day.
Paula Reid, CNN, New York.
CHURCH: In Germany, a far-right politician has been fined $14,000 for using banned Nazi slogans. That according to CNN affiliate NTV. Original court says a leader in the alternative for Germany party or AFD use the slogans at a rally in May 2021. Prosecutors claim he repeated the slogans in December 2023, despite already facing criminal charges for the first offense. The chord penalty came one day after another court in Western Germany ruled that the AFD party is officially suspected of extremism. This decision allows the German intelligence service to put the AFD party under surveillance.
President Biden hiked tariffs on a range of Chinese goods. How this could impact American consumers and workers? A live report from Beijing just ahead.
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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWSROOM": A manhunt is underway in France for at least two gunmen who ambushed a prison convoy, freeing an inmate and killing two guards in the process. After finding two burnt-out vehicles used in the attack, investigators are now looking for any clues as to where they might have headed. CNN's Saskya Vandoorne has more.
SASKYA VANDOORNE, CNN SENIOR PRODUCER: This kind of incident is extremely rare in France. Now, it happened shortly after 11 a.m. To gunmen ambushed a police van that was transporting an inmate from court to a nearby prison in Normandy. Now, authorities say that gunmen killed two guards and wounded three others, while helping the prisoner escape. Both the gunmen and prisoner are now at large and there is an ongoing man hunt for them.
Now, this happened at a motorway toll booth where many cars had stopped, so there are several videos of the scene. One quite dramatic video shows two hooded individuals who look like they are carrying long rifles. Now, the justice minister has said that everything will be done to find the perpetrators. But what do we know about the prisoner?
Well, he is 30 years old and he was in prison because he had been convicted of burglary. He is also being investigated for a kidnapping that resulted in a death, according to the national prosecutor. Now, there are currently several hundred police officers that have been deployed in the manhunt and authorities on the scene have set up roadblocks. President Macron also weighed in saying that every effort is being made to find the perpetrators of this crime, so that justice can be done in the name of the French people.
Saskya Vandoorne, CNN, Paris. CHURCH: U.S. President Joe Biden is increasing tariffs on $18 billion of imports from China to counter what the White House calls unfair trade practices by Beijing. The new tariffs apply to a range of products like such as steel and aluminum, electric vehicles, battery components, solar cells, cranes, and medical products. Electric vehicles will see the biggest hike, going from about 27 percent to 100 percent. It is meant to challenge Beijing's practice of encouraging very low pricing by domestic EV makers, while charging a 40 percent tariff on U.S. car imports. Here's President Biden.
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JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Price is unfairly low because Chinese companies don't need to worry about a profit because the Chinese government subsidizes them, and subsidizes them heavily. And Chinese relies on other anti-competitive tactics as well. Like forcing American companies to transfer the technology in order to do business in China, sometimes they just outright steal through cyber- espionage and other means. And it has been well-documented and internationally recognized. When you make tactics like these, you are not competing. It is not competition; it is cheating.
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CHURCH: CNN Steven Jiang joins us now from Beijing. Good to see you, Steven. So, how is China reacting to this? And can we expect to Beijing to retaliate?
STEVEN JIANG, CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF: Yeah, Rosemary, the rhetoric so far very much predictable, strong protest, firm opposition, accusing Washington of politicizing trade and economic issues, and of course, promising to take countermeasures to protect Chinese interests. But, the Chinese officials and others (ph) I talked to, they are also keenly aware of U.S. domestic politics at play here with many saying this is Biden's posturing to send a message to keep voters in swing states, especially union workers in the rust belt.
[02:35:00]
JIANG: So, the question now is whether or not they will take that into consideration when they do make their next move and are their retaliation -- retaliatory measures going to be largely symbolic? But it is worth noting that the $18 billion figure and the tripling, quadrupling of tariff rates may be very eye-catching. But in a bigger scheme of things, this is only some 4 percent of all of Chinese imports into the U.S.
So, we may not likely to see immediate major impact on bilateral trade. The deeper concern from Beijing is whether other western economies, especially fellow G7 members would follows suit and impose something similar, and that may potentially have a bigger impact given, for example, the Chinese EV industry's much bigger footprint in the European market. Now, the G7 Summit, of course, is coming up in early June. So, a lot of interest in seeing what they do.
But from the Chinese perspective, they are also not viewing these tariffs in a vacuum. They are -- they seem to be seeing a pattern ever since Biden met with Xi last November, adding more Chinese companies on the entity list, sanctioning them for their alleged ties with the Russian defense industrial base, and of course, more export controls targeting China, and now these tariffs. So, that is why there are some worries, this latest and move could jeopardize the just stabilized U.S.-China relationship, especially if Chinese leader Xi Jinping decides he doesn't want his country to be viewed as a punching bag by the U.S. Rosemary?
CHURCH: All right. Thanks to Steven Jiang, joining us live from Beijing.
A series of deadly heat waves last month stretching from Gaza to the Philippines was made more intense and more likely by climate change. That is according to a report from World Weather Attribution, which found temperatures spiked above 40-degrees Celsius in much of West Asia during the world's hottest April on record. The impact was especially stark in Gaza, where more than a million people are displaced by war and already lacking access to shelter, clean water, and adequate health care.
Crews in Canada are now battling more than 130 active wildfires, over 40 of which are out of control. Most are burning in the western provinces of Alberta and British Columbia, where tens of thousands of hectares have been scorched. One of the fires driven by strong winds is approaching the town of Fort McMurray where several neighborhoods were ordered to evacuate. Crews had to be pulled from the fire line due to safety concerns, forcing them to battle it from the air.
Just ahead, college basketball sensation, Caitlin Clark makes her professional debut as the 2024 WNBA Season tips off with excitement surrounding the sport at an all-time high.
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CHURCH: The world knows him as the top U.S. diplomat, but in another lifetime, he might have been lead guitar in a rock band. Yes, that is indeed the U.S. Secretary of State covering Neil Young's Soviet-era anthem "Rockin' in the Free World." Antony Blinken jammed with a local Ukrainian banned during his visit to an underground bar in Kyiv, popular with war veterans and soldiers. And he pledged steadfast support from the U.S. as Russia ramps up its attacks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTONY BLINKED, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Your soldiers, your citizens, particularly in the northeast, in Kharkiv, are suffering tremendously. But, they need to know, you need to know, the United States is with you. So much of the world is with you. And they are fighting not just for a few Ukraine, but for the free world. And the free world is with you too.
(END VIDEO CLIP) CHURCH: The famed director of the "Godfather" films, Francis Ford Coppola, has released the official trailer for his new movie, " Megalopolis."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE, MEGALOPOLIS TEASER: When does an empire die? Does it collapse in one terrible moment? No. No.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: According to the official synopsis, the film is a Roman epic fable set in a re-imagined modern America. Adam Driver leads the cast playing an artist looking to rebuild the city of New Rome into a utopia. The film has been years in the making, Coppola first started writing the screenplay in the 1980s and reportedly used $120 million of his own money on the project. Megalopolis is set to debut later this week at the Cannes Film Festival.
The excitement surrounding the 2024 WNBA Season is through the roof, largely due to a crop of talented young players headlined by Rookie Sensation, Caitlin Clark. The number one pick in last month's draft made her season debut Tuesday for the Indiana Fever. Clark scored 20 points, which tied for the game high. But the Fever fell to the Connecticut Sun, 92 to 71. Still expectations are sky high for Clark after her historic season at the University of Iowa. Ticket prices for the Fever more than doubled even before Clark was drafted and her Number-22 Fever jersey sold out within hours of going on sale. How about that?
Thanks so much for joining us. I am Rosemary Church. "World Sport" is coming up next. Then, I'll be back in about 15 minutes with more "CNN Newsroom." Do stick around.
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