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Protesters Occupied Georgia's Major Intersection After the Passage of Foreign Agents Bill in Parliament; Michael Cohen Faced a Tense Cross-Examination with the Defense on Day 17 of Trump's Hush Money Trial; Scorching Heat Affects In-Person Classes in Southeast Asia; Biden Increases Tariffs on Chinese Imports; Mothers of Former Miss USA and Miss Teen USA Winners Accuse the Organization for Mistreatment; Blinken Shares a Light Moment at an Underground Bar in Kyiv. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired May 15, 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)
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN 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, Russia launches a fresh attack on civilian targets in Kharkiv as the U.S. Secretary of State meets with top Ukrainian officials in a show of support.
Protesters in Georgia shut down a major intersection in the capital after Parliament passed a controversial Russia-style foreign agents bill.
And a manhunt is underway in France after a brazen ambush on a prisoner transport freed an inmate and left two guards dead.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Rosemary Church.
CHURCH: Thanks for joining us. Protesters in Georgia are 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 are 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, GEORGIAN PRESIDENT: So there are many, many concerns, but the way and the place where we can reverse all of this 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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: CNN's Clare Sebastian explains what brought the former Soviet Republic to this pivotal moment.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Storming the barricades. Protesters in the Georgian capital refusing to accept their weeks-long battle could be lost.
UNKNOWN: They can scare us, they can do anything to make us go away. We are going to stay here and fight.
UNKNOWN: We are not Russian, we are not Belarus, we will not allow anyone to bring us as foreign agents. We will resist.
SEBASTIAN (voice-over): Protesters faced down a wall of riot police pushing them back just hours after opposition and government faced off in Parliament.
ANA TSITLIDZE, GEORGIAN MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT, UNITED NATIONAL MOVEMENT (through translator): You are the Russian regime. You are the illegitimate Russian regime.
EKA SEPASHVILI, GEORGIAN MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT, GEORGIAN DREAM (through translator): It's 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 at 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): They 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. The text reads Traitor and Grant Guzzler.
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EKA GIGAURI, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL GEORGIA: 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 at serious risk.
Clare Sebastian, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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, EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY, GEORGIA: Thank you for having me.
CHURCH: So Georgia's parliament adopted 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, say, problematic for the moment. But what the opposition fears, what protesters fear, and generally what the European Union or the U.S. fear is that this bill might be sort of a road map for future laws and changes which could essentially make or create serious problems for the opposition generally, for NGOs and so on.
And that's why the opposition often compares the bill to what happened to Russia, Belarus, or what might happen or already is happening in Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia.
So the bill essentially, as they say, could create a certain sort of basis for future problems for the opposition, NGOs. And essentially, it's also a geopolitical issue. How the E.U. could essentially approach this bill in the future when it comes to the relations with Georgia.
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's a range of issues here. Well, scholars of international relations, we usually pay attention to wider 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 in power, concentrating resources so that it could prolong its rule beyond October elections. And then surely, it's also a 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 shifts in foreign policy would not really happen in a month or so.
So there is a fear that if you have your relations with the collective West failing, essentially, that might drive you to other geopolitical actors. And there is a fear that relations with Russia could see a certain momentum.
[03:09:54]
But I still think that, and as I've written in numerous pieces on the issue, that Georgia perhaps is trying to build sort of a multi-vector foreign policy where it would try to have several actors, geopolitical vectors, essentially, in its foreign relations.
Obviously, the West, 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 actor against the other. That's sort of an understanding which is emerging 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, of Georgia trying to build a multi-vector foreign policy.
CHURCH: Emil Avdaliani, thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate it.
AVDALIANI: My pleasure.
CHURCH: Now to Ukraine, where authorities in 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 airspace and use wings to glide to long distances.
And Ukraine cannot use American anti-aircraft weapons due to restrictions imposed by the White House. Nearly 8,000 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.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Secretary of State is set to meet with Ukraine's foreign minister in the coming hours. Antony Blinken is in the Ukrainian capital looking to reaffirm Washington's support after the U.S. took months to approve $60 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.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I have come to Ukraine with a message. You are not alone. The United States has been by your side from day one. We are with you today. And we will stay by your side until Ukraine's security, its sovereignty, its ability to choose its own path is guaranteed.
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CNN's Nic Robertson joins me now live from London. Good morning to you, Nic. So, what can we expect to come out of Secretary Blinken's second day in Ukraine? And what's the latest on Russia's continued attacks on Kharkiv?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Well, we can expect to double down on that message of United States support. He's going to be visiting a logistical facility this morning, a bionics factory expected as well, and possibly a UAV production facility. All of these very, very important tools to fight the war that Ukraine has really initiated a huge amount of development in.
And of course, the shipment facility important for Ukraine to get its goods, because it can't always use the Black Sea the way it wants to, to international markets. So, the message will be along those lines. Another part of the message yesterday by Secretary Blinken for the Ukrainians was about fighting corruption and making sure that the country gets rid of corruption to see inward economic investment and as well to see their path towards full E.U. membership and continue strengthening ties to NATO to develop.
And to that point, he spoke about the 32 different countries that are negotiating these independent security arrangements with Ukraine, of which he said, nine were now signed. And of course, the most significant for Ukraine is this big arms commitment from the United States. And Secretary Blinken saying, look, some of that equipment is already arriving now, despite the delays. But President Zelenskyy was very, very clear. He wants more of it. He
wants it now. He wants it specifically in that area of Kharkiv in the northeast of the country that's taking a big pounding from Russia.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: The decision on the package was crucial for us. It's very important to get it as quick as possible. And the second one point is air defense, the biggest deficit for us. I think that the biggest problem, yes. And we need really we need today two patrols for Kharkiv, for Kharkiv region, because the people are under attack, civilians and warriors, everybody there under Russian missiles.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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ROBERTSON: So he's talking there about the U.S. Patriot missile defense system. And the numbers you were talking about are the people injured by glide bombs in Kharkiv has gone up again this morning, 24 now injured, four of them children. But it's those villages northeast of Kharkiv close to the border with Russia that are taking the biggest pounding under heavy military pressure, 11 attacks in villages close to the border overnight.
Three of those, we understand at least a few hours ago was still ongoing. And the language that the Ukrainian military officials are using to describe the situation, they're saying that they have to save troops' lives, move them to more advantageous positions.
In some people's military playbook, that might sound like a little bit of a tactical retreat or withdrawal. But it does indicate the level of military pressure Russia is putting on Ukraine in that northeast corner of the country.
CHURCH: All right. Our thanks to Nic Robertson bringing us that analysis.
Now to the Middle East, where the Israeli military says it's continuing operations across Gaza from Jabalia in the north to Rafah in the south. They say they struck more than 100 terror targets across the enclave Monday and expanded an operation in Jabalia. 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's more 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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: The IDF also says it struck a Hamas war room embedded in an UNRWA-operated school in central Gaza. For more, let's go to CNN's Scott McLean, live in Istanbul, Turkey. Good morning to you, Scott.
SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Rosemary. Yeah, so this was a -- sorry, go ahead.
CHURCH: So, I just wanted to ask what more you're learning about IDF movements and strikes in Gaza?
MCLEAN: Yeah, so there were two big ones yesterday. One was the UNRWA school that you mentioned that the Israelis say was a war room being used by Hamas. The other one was what the Israelis are calling a terrorist infrastructure. But on that UNRWA school, the Israelis say that this was a place that was being used by Hamas members to plot attacks against the IDF. It says that 10 Hamas members were killed in the strike. The local hospital says that 11 bodies were brought in from that strike.
Now, CNN is not in a position to confirm the Israeli version of events. Either is UNRWA, who only said that, look, neither side should be using any kind of U.N. infrastructure for military purposes, whether that's plotting or whether that's bombing those infrastructure either.
Now, when it comes to that terrorist infrastructure that I mentioned, it turns out that was actually a four-story building that had children inside. We know that from video of the scene where people, family members, presumably showed up hoping that someone was pulled out of the rubble. What they saw instead, though, were several children's bodies being pulled out. All told, the latest numbers that we have from the local hospital is that 36 bodies from that site, which was absolutely obliterated, were taken to the hospital.
Half of those bodies that showed up were children. And there may yet still be more, Rosemary, because we know that witnesses on site say that there were plenty more people who were taking shelter in that spot. There were even people taking shelter outside of the building, in the yard. Some of them had come from Rafah, hoping to find some measure of safety and security.
And the equipment that they are using to dig through that rubble is not heavy equipment. They have very little to efficiently sort of get those slabs of concrete out of the way to potentially find any survivor. So, potentially, the death toll could rise here.
I should also mention, Rosemary, as well, that the U.N. has also launched an investigation into its aid worker that was killed on Monday. The initial version of events is that they were killed by tank fire. The Israelis so far have said that that U.N. vehicle clearly marked
was in an active combat zone and did not inform the IDF of its movements.
[03:19:59]
CHURCH: And, Scott, the Biden administration is working on a $1 billion arms deal for Israel, despite previously pausing 3,500 bombs. What changed?
MCLEAN: Yeah. So, the Biden administration, as you mentioned, has put on hold 2,000-pound bombs and 500-pound bombs because they don't want them to be used in Rafah, a very tightly packed area of civilians. They don't think that there are appropriate weapons to be used. They don't want to have any part in the offensive use of those weapons in a place like Rafah. But the difference between offensive weapons and defensive weapons, which the U.S. says that it will continue to supply to Israel, is often pretty blurry.
Case in point, the State Department has now given informal notice, they say, to two congressional committees of their intention to sell more than $1 billion of weapons to Israel. This would include $700 million worth of tank ammunition, 500 million worth of tactical vehicles, and 60 million of mortar rounds. Now, these weapons won't be arriving in Israel anytime soon. It's also not clear when or how long it would take for Congress to ultimately sign off on this, given that there could be, there's likely to be some objections from some members of Congress.
What's interesting here, especially, Rosemary, though, is the timing, because, of course, this comes just as the U.S. has determined that, or assessed, I should say, that there are enough IDF troops now on the edge of the city of Rafah to be able to launch a full-scale incursion in the coming days.
And so, this is despite the U.S. making very clear that the Israelis have not done nearly enough to get people out of the way. There could still be 1 million people sheltering in Rafah. And even of the almost half a million people it's estimated have left the city, many of them do not have access to the kind of adequate shelter, food, or assistance that they need to be safe and to survive. Rosemary?
CHURCH: Scott McLean, joining us live from Istanbul, many thanks.
Well, plenty of fireworks in the Hush Money trial, as Donald Trump's defense attorneys take on former fixer Michael Cohen. His explosive testimony next.
Plus, more communities in Canada ordered to evacuate, with dozens of wildfires burning out of control. Back with that and more in just a moment.
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CHURCH: Defense attorneys came out swinging as they began cross- examining Michael Cohen, the star witness in the Donald Trump Hush Money trial. Trump's legal team tried to portray his former lawyer and fixer as a man who hated his former boss and was fixated on revenge. While the prosecution had Cohen describe the money trial linking the former U.S. president to the payoff of a former porn star.
CNN's Kara Scannell explains.
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(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Trump's ex-lawyer Michael Cohen back on the stand, this time facing an aggressive cross- examination by former President Donald Trump's attorney, as his criminal trial continued on Tuesday.
Trump's attorney Todd Blanche, in rapid-fire questioning that jumped around from year to year, tried to paint Cohen as an unreliable witness, attacking his testimony and showcasing his hatred for Trump.
MICHAEL COHEN, FORMER LAWYER FOR DONALD TRUMP: My credibility should not be in question.
SCANNELL (voice-over): Blanche asked Cohen, do you want to see President Trump convicted in this case? Cohen responded, sure.
Blanche also highlighted disparaging remarks Cohen has made about Trump on his TikTok page during the trial, like calling Trump a dictator D-bag. Even though Cohen confirmed prosecutors asked him to stop publicly talking about the case.
COHEN: I should have done something, but I didn't.
SCANNELL (voice-over): Blanche pointed to merchandise Cohen sells on his TikTok and podcast websites, including a mug that says send him to the big house, not the White House, and a t-shirt depicting Trump in an orange jumpsuit.
Blanche questioned Cohen if he talked to the media, including CNN, last year about the case, despite the district attorney's office asking him not to.
COHEN: Most recently, they asked for my cell phones because they want to be able to extract from it the voice recordings that I had had with Keith Davidson, a former attorney to Stormy Daniels.
SCANNELL (voice-over): Blanche went through positive statements Cohen made about Trump during his decade working for him. He asked Cohen if he was obsessed with Trump. Cohen replied, I don't know if I would characterize the word obsessed. I admired him tremendously.
Cohen added that at that time, I was knee deep into the cult of Donald Trump. Blanche suggesting Cohen changed his view on Trump to help his own legal problems.
TODD BLANCHE, LAWYER FOR DONALD TRUMP: He needs to be held accountable. SCANNELL (voice-over): Earlier Tuesday, during the end of direct
examination, prosecutors zeroed in on the repayments at the crux of the criminal charges against Trump.
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: This is the old case. Are you allowed to call the legal expense a legal expense?
SCANNELL (voice-over): Cohen testified it began with the 2017 Oval Office meeting with Trump, where he said they discussed how he would be reimbursed for the $130,000 he paid out of pocket to Stormy Daniels.
Despite Cohen saying he did minimal work for Trump in 2017, going month by month, he outlined sending made up invoices and receiving checks totaling $420,000, which he said included the hush money reimbursement, other fees and a bonus. Prosecutors showed one of the $35,000 checks signed by Trump and asked, were any of those checks in fact for work during the months described in those check stubs? No, ma'am, Cohen replied.
Cohen testified to this in front of Congress in 2019.
COHEN: This $35,000 check was one of 11 check installments that was paid throughout the year while he was president. The president of the United States thus wrote a personal check for the payment of hush money as part of a criminal scheme to violate campaign finance laws.
SCANNELL: During cross-examination, the jurors' heads were bobbing back and forth between Todd Blanche, Trump's lawyer, and Michael Cohen, who was answering those questions. There is no court on Wednesday, but Blanch said that his cross-examination of Cohen will continue and is likely to last all day on Thursday. Prosecutors said that Cohen is the last witness they will call, so the question is, does Donald Trump put on a defense?
Kara Scannell, CNN, New York
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: In Germany, a far-right politician has been fined $14,000 for using banned Nazi slogans, according to CNN affiliate NTV. Original Court says a leader in the Alternative for Germany or AfD used 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 court 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.
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 burned-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. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SASKYA VANDOORNE, CNN SR. PRODUCER: This kind of incident is extremely rare in France. Now, it happened shortly after 11 a.m. Two gunmen ambushed a police van that was transporting an inmate from court to a nearby prison in Normandy.
[03:30:00]
Now, authorities say the gunman killed two guards and wounded three others while helping the prisoner escape. Both the gunman and prisoner are now at large, and there's an ongoing manhunt for them.
Now, this happened at a motorway tollbooth 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're 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's 30 years old, and he was in prison because he had been convicted of burglary. He's 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.
Saskia Van Dorn, CNN, Paris.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Still to come, sweltering heat is affecting millions of schoolchildren across Southeast Asia. I'll speak with a teacher in the Philippines about how schools are coping with this impact of the climate crisis.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHURCH: 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. Crews had to be pulled from the fire line due to safety concerns, forcing them to battle it from the air. And several neighborhoods were ordered to evacuate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNKNOWN: We got an alert yesterday, so we're just being really proactive and just, I asked my kids, so I have four, and I asked them to just pack a bag overnight so that's ready to go in case we have to evacuate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: 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's 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.
[03:35:06]
Joining me now is Benjo Basas, a national chairperson of the Teachers' Dignity Coalition in the Philippines and a social studies teacher in Manila. Thank you so much for being with us.
BENJO BASAS, SOCIAL STUDIES TEACHER AND NATIONAL CHAIRPERSON, TEACHERS' DIGNITY COALITION: Thank you and good afternoon, Ms. Rosemary.
CHURCH: So deadly heat waves are affecting large parts of Asia and forcing millions of children out of schools that are being forced to close due to this oppressive heat. So, how has this heat been impacting you and your classes in Manila?
BASAS: Well, right now, according to the data from the government, it has impacted around seven million learners in the Philippines alone since April of this year, since last month. That's the official data of the Department of Education, our education ministry.
Well, extreme heat, it has seriously disrupted the operation of our schools, specifically public schools in the Philippines. In addition, this extreme heat or intense heat has caused discomfort and health issues among our teachers and, of course, learners. Health concerns, that's basically the primary reason and the primary challenge we face in the Philippines.
CHURCH: And of course, some of your students are able to continue their classes at home through the internet. You've been teaching long distance for the moment, but not all of these kids have access to electricity or the internet. So what happens to those children in terms of the widening learning gap and, of course, increasing poverty rates in the Philippines?
BASAS: You have mentioned it, Ma'am Rosemary. We actually now are suffering these learning gaps brought about by the pandemic. If you remember, the Philippines is one of the longest or one of the countries in the world that implemented this lockdown, longest in terms of days or months, even years. We had two years in 2020 and 2021, we had two years of distance learning.
But of course, as you did mention, not all of our students or I would say the majority of our students do not have access to internet or online platforms or gadgets or even the impact, even worse, because some of our parents cannot actually guide their children in terms of modular learning. That's the alternative, modular learning if a family doesn't have an access to internet or doesn't own gadgets.
So, well, all in all, this resulted to a heavy burden in terms of learning. And right now, we have just returned to face-to-face, to in- person classes last year, for three school years now. But then, because of this extreme heat, the entire month of April, almost the entire month of April, we have declared suspension of face-to-face classes in many parts of the country, not just in Metro Manila, but even in provinces.
CHURCH: So what are you proposing as a solution to this problem, given climate change is here to stay and making the planet increasingly hotter? What's the answer?
BASAS: Well, we advocate for the return to the old school calendar, which designates the April -- or months of April and May as school breaks, primarily to avoid the extreme heat exposure that we have experienced in year 2023 last year and right now. By the way, Ma'am Rosemary, we only have two weeks to go to our end of classes, end of school year in the Philippines.
But as we have advocated and we have engaged the Philippine legislature to at least guide the education department, the education ministry. And I think the education ministry right now, as per the official announcement earlier this week or last week, they have now approved the revert to old school calendar.
[03:40:07]
So by next year, 2025 and for academic year 2025-2026, we're going to have classes held in June to March. That's our traditional school calendar, prior to the pandemic.
CHURCH: Right, and avoiding those really hot months of April and May. Thank you so much Benjo Basas for joining us. I Appreciate it.
In Indonesia, more than 50 people have died after torrential rain in Indonesia triggered flash floods over the weekend. The floods have brought with it cold lava from a nearby volcano, forcing nearly 3,400 residents to evacuate. Cold lava is flow down a volcano slopes during wet weather. CNN's Lynda Kinkade has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LYNDA KINKADE, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Roza Yolanda sits on a hospital bed. She's covered in cuts and bruises head to toe. The recent college graduate tells Reuters she was at home Saturday, texting her sister about the heavy rain outside. Moments later, she heard a thundering noise.
ROZA YOLANDA, FLOOD SURVIVOR (through translator): Suddenly, the lights went out and the water rushed in. I didn't have time to stand up and I no longer had time to run and was just washed away by the flood. KINKADE (through translator): Flash floods triggered by torrential
rains in Indonesia's West Sumatra province have left dozens dead and missing. Mudslides and cold lava flow from volcanic eruptions, a mixture of rock, sand, water, and volcanic ash, adding to the level of devastation, inundating roads and sweeping away homes, trapping victims or sending them into nearby rivers.
YOLANDA (through translator): I got stuck on the road that was full of wooden materials and debris from the houses that were washed away. I got trapped by the pile of debris and the water was not flowing anymore. And I hit the rubble and then tried to get my head out of the water because I could feel the water flow was receding.
KINKADE (through translator): Thousands of people have been evacuated from their flooded homes as rescuers recover bodies and dig through the damage. While Roza Yolanda recovers in hospital, others remain lost in the rubble.
YOLANDA (through translator): Mom, thank God, is safe while they are still searching for my dad.
KINKADE (through translator): With heavy rains forecast throughout the week, the dire search for survivors continues. This, the latest flood catastrophe as unprecedented rainfall triggers flash floods around the world.
Lynda Kinkade, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: President Biden hikes tariffs on a range of Chinese goods. How this could impact American consumers and workers. A live report from Beijing. That's next.
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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 such as steel and aluminum, electric vehicles, battery components, solar cells, cranes and medical products. Electric vehicles will see the biggest hike going from 27 percent to 100 percent. It's meant to challenge Beijing's practice of encouraging very low pricing by domestic E.V. makers while charging a 40 percent tariff on U.S. car imports. Here's President Biden.
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JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: Prices are very low because Chinese companies don't need to worry about the profit. Because the Chinese government subsidizes them and subsidizes them heavily. And Chinese relies on other anti-competitive taxes as well by forcing American companies to transfer their technology in order to do business in China. Sometimes it is not right to do a few cyber espionage in other means. And it's been world documented and internationally recognized. When you make taxes like these, they're not competing, it's not competition it's cheating.
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CHURCH: CNN's Steven Jiang joins us now from Beijing. Good to see you again, Steven. So, how's China reacting to this and is it likely to retaliate?
STEVEN JIANG, CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF: Yeah, Rosemary. So far, the Chinese rhetoric has been quite predictable. Strong protest, firm opposition, accusing Washington of politicizing trade and economic issues, and of course, pledging so far unspecified countermeasures.
But the Chinese officials and analysts I talked to, they're very much aware of U.S. election year politics, with many of them really considering this as Biden's posturing aimed at key voters in swing states, especially union workers in the Rust Belt.
So the question becomes whether or not they will take that into consideration when they make their next move and whether their retaliatory measures will be largely symbolic.
But it's worth noting that these $18 billion figure and the quadrupling of tariff rates may seem very eye-catching, but in the bigger scheme of things, this amounts to only some 4 percent of all of Chinese exports to the U.S., so we may not see any immediate major impact on bilateral trade just yet. The deeper concern here is whether or not other Western economies, especially fellow G7 members, will follow suit and do something similar.
And that potentially could have a bigger impact considering, for example, the Chinese EV's much bigger footprint in the European market. And the G7 summit, of course, is coming up very soon next month.
But from the Chinese perspective, they're also not viewing this in a vacuum. They seem to be seeing a pattern emerging after Biden's meeting with Xi last November. The Biden administration has been adding more Chinese companies to their entity list, sanctioning them for their alleged ties with a Russian defense industrial base, and also more export controls targeting China and now these tariffs.
So that's why there are worries that this latest announcement could jeopardize this just recently stabilized U.S.-China relationship, especially if Chinese leader Xi Jinping decides he doesn't want his country to be seen as a U.S. punching bag. Rosemary?
CHURCH: Alright. Our thanks to Steven Jiang joining us live from Beijing.
Meanwhile, we are getting new details on the Russian President's trip to China later this week. Vladimir Putin says he chose China as the first country to visit since beginning a new term in office due to the unprecedented level of strategic partnership between the two countries. He told Chinese state media that Russia-China relations are at their highest level ever and are only getting stronger.
President Putin's visit, set to take place Thursday and Friday, mirrors President Xi's state visit to Moscow just over a year ago. He too was marking the start of a new term. Both Russia and China have rewritten the rules on how long leaders can serve.
When we come back, following the resignation of Miss USA and Miss Teen USA, their mothers are speaking out, accusing pageant organizers of mistreating their daughters.
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JACKELINE VOIGT, MOTHER OF FORMER MISS USA: Miss Universe organization need to come out and speak to us or apologize or clean this mess.
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CHURCH: The mothers of former Miss USA and Miss Teen USA are speaking out days after their daughters stepped down. They're accusing pageant organizers of abuse and mistreatment.
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BARBARA SRIVASTAVA, MOTHER OF FORMER MISS TEEN USA: We could not continue this charade. The girls decided to step down, give their dream of a lifetime, a crown, a national title. Why would two girls decide to give that up? It's about how they were ill-treated, abused, bullied and cornered.
VOIGT: She was so upset. This is not what she worked so hard for. And then Miss Universe organization need to come out and speak to us or apologize or clean this mess.
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CHURCH: It's the first time a winner in either competition has stepped down. Former Miss Teen USA Uma Sophia Srivastava said her values, quote, "no longer aligned with those of the organization". And former Miss USA Noelia Voigt accused the pageant CEO of a toxic work environment. Neither Miss USA or parent organization Miss Universe have returned CNN's requests for comment.
The battle of A.I. continues with Google showcasing its newest model called Gemini 1.5 Pro. It comes just a day after the reveal of a new and improved chat GPT from OpenAI. New features from Gemini include the ability to have the A.I. read a textbook and present the information like a regular teacher to answer questions. Users will also be able to search photos on their device with questions like when their daughter learned to swim or what their license plate number may be.
Well, graduates at a nursing school in Philadelphia could barely recognize their own names because the announcer reading them at their commencement mangled pretty much every single one of them. CNN's Jeanne Moos explains.
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JEANNE MOOS, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Never have so many names been so butchered, even easy ones like Victoria Elizabeth Bruce --
UNKNOWN: Victoria Leigh Zubath-Bross.
MOOS (voice-over): -- butchered beyond recognition, be it Megan --
UNKNOWN: Michilu Iyabri.
MOOS (voice-over): -- or Alison, --
UNKNOWN: Alessuna Cole Bishop.
MOOS (voice-over): -- and how can you mangle Molly.
UNKNOWN: Malina Zubath-Kamp.
MOOS (voice-over): The announcer at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia was reading off phonetically spelled names on cards, but how hard is it to pronounce Thomas?
MOOS: For the record, Thomas, can you state your full name for us?
THOMAS CANEVARI JR., THOMAS JEFFERSON UNIVERSITY GRADUATE: Thomas Michael Canaveri Jr.
MOOS (voice-over): Thomas was the first College of Nursing grad to actually correct the mispronunciation.
UNKNOWN: Tah moo may --
CANAVERI JR.: Thomas.
JIMMY FALLON, HOST, THE TONIGHT SHOW: Thomas, the name of our school, Thomas Jefferson University.
MOOS (voice-over): Thomas says at first it felt like a slap in the face.
UNKNOWN: Tah moo may --
CANAVERI JR.: Then she never even said my last name at all.
MOOS (voice-over): But now that the video has gone viral --
CANAVERI JR.: I just cannot stop with thinking of laughing about it. I'll never forget that day for as long as I live.
MOOS (voice-over): Neither will Sarah Virginia Brennan.
UNKNOWN: Saiyeer Uvun Jinju Brennan.
MOOS (voice-over): On her Instagram, Sarah posted a new degree and name. Thanks, I guess.
The announcer apologized. So did Thomas Jefferson University, saying each graduate deserves to have their name honored correctly. But for now, Thomas is aka Tah moo may.
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CANAVERI JR: That's my new nickname all my friends have gave me.
MOOS (voice-over): And when Thomas congratulated his new friend --
UNKNOWN: Saiyeer
MOOS (voice-over): -- she addressed her and signed off with their new names.
UNKNOWN: Tah moo may --
MOOS (voice-over): Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
UNKNOWN: Thomas.
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CHURCH: Yikes.
Well, a live stream portal between New York and Dublin, Ireland, has been temporarily closed due to inappropriate behavior. Social media videos have shown people flashing body parts. The creators are now trying to find a possible solution to the problem. The portal is a 24 hour live stream on a big circular screen installed in both the cities and allows people on both sides to see and interact with each other via video link halfway across the world.
Buckingham Palace has revealed the first official portrait of King Charles since his coronation. The King himself did the honors on Tuesday. Artist Jonathan Year was also present at the unveiling. He was commissioned back in 2020 to complete the portrait as a gift marking Charles' 50 year membership in the Draper's Company. Charles took part in four sittings lasting from 2021 to 2023 for the piece. Year says he wanted to reference the history of royal portraits and the modern monarchy while showing the King's deep humanity.
The world knows him as the top U.S. diplomat, but in another lifetime, he might have been lead guitar in a rock band.
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Yes, that is the U.S. Secretary of State covering Neil Young's Soviet era anthem, Rocking in the Free World. Antony Blinken jammed with a local Ukrainian band 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.
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ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Your soldiers, your citizens, particularly in the northeast and 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're fighting not just for a free Ukraine, but for the free world. And the free world is with you too.
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CHURCH: And I want to thank you for your company. I'm Rosemary Church. Have yourselves a wonderful day. "CNN Newsroom" continues next with Max Foster.
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