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Israel Says More Troops To Enter Rafah In Southern Gaza; Kyiv Partially Halts Russian Offensive In Kharkiv; South Africa Calls On ICJ To Order Israel To End Rafah Offensive; Trump's Lawyer Charges Michael Cohen Lied To Jury; House Panels Vote To Hold Garland In Contempt; Slovak PM Still in Serious Condition, Suspected Gunman Charged; Russia's Kharkiv Offensive; Law Enforcement Clearing Encampments, Arresting Protesters; Texas Pardons Man Who Murdered Black Lives Matter Protester; Canada Wildfires Force Evacuations and Threaten Neighborhoods; Chile's Record Cold Bump; Opossum Playing Dead Goes Viral online. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired May 17, 2024 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead here on CNN Newsroom.
A surprised Russian advanced these towns and villages in northern Ukraine falling one after the other, and the next could be Vovchansk and CNN is there as civilians and soldiers flee under Russian fire.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Well as of the delay, this activity will intensify. Hamas is not an organization that can reorganize.
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VAUSE: As it is ready grant offensive on refer looms closer hundreds of thousands have fled the border city, while lawyers at the U.S. top court argue for emergency order to help the operation.
Also this.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
MICHAEL COHEN, FORMER TRUMP ATTORNEY: I truly hope that this man ends up in prison.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
VAUSE: Michael Cohen, bag man and former lawyer Donald Trump has made no secret of his anger towards his former boss. And yet, Trump's legal team struggled to damage his credibility despite one blow on the second day of cross-examination and his New York criminal trial.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Atlanta. This is CNN Newsroom with John Vause.
VAUSE: We begin though with first images of damaged from Ukrainian strikes on a Russian airbase in Crimea. The Belbek base was hit twice over 48 hours this week. Satellite images obtained exclusively by CNN show at least three Russian fighter jets destroyed along with an adjacent building.
Russia claims a large scale Ukrainian assault was prevented Tuesday. Ukraine though is not prepared to release any details saying only this. We're also getting word of Ukrainian drone strikes, sorry, in Russia's Belgorod region. No word there.
The local government says the drone hit a family vehicle on Thursday killing a woman and his four-year old child.
Ukrainian officials say the Russian advanced and the northern Kharkiv region has been stopped in some parts. But Ukrainian troops are still trying to push Russians out of the town of Vovchansk, where fighting is ongoing in the streets.
President Zelenskyy says the situation is under control but remains extremely difficult. Russia launched a cross border offensive into Kharkiv last week, opening a new front on the wall. As soon as Nick Paton Walsh reports civilians are desperately trying to flee.
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NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR (voice-over): When nightmares recur, they're often the same. Here, they get worse. The border town of Vovchansk bearing the blunt horror of Moscow's race to take as much as they can In the weeks before Ukraine starts feeling American military help again.
Every street of flame Russians deeper inside the town. Policeman Maxim (ph) is answering one of 35 calls from locals on Thursday to evacuate the day before three colleagues were injured. The shelling never stops.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Quiet. Everyone get down.
WALSH: Three people still coming out. And you have to imagine quite how desperate these final people situation must be to leave.
WALSH (voice-over): Nicola and his wife hiding in their basement. But despite staying through the first Russian occupation and then liberation two years ago, they found the airstrikes last night just too much. They're joined by Maria, their mother, who can't hear the shelling or anything to well. Thousands evacuated since Russia invaded again around here five days ago.
Why everyone has to leave. It's clear again, as we drive out, as it is with almost every part of Ukraine, Russia covered just utter destruction. Little left to rule over. This is their first moment of calm in many days. The entire lives and plastic bags.
WALSH: Saying it wasn't like last night was scary and everyone else was talking about significant bombardment more than it was just better to get out of there. 85.
WALSH (voice-over): An armored ride to a new world, knowing they may never get back to their homes, tormented for days by shelling.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Aerial bombs everything.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And mortars.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you see the Russian soldiers?
UNIDENIFIED FEMALE: No. They are over there. On the other side of the river. And we were on the side.
[01:05:02]
They were shooting close to us. Firing machine guns and everything.
WALSH (voice-over): We head back in with another police unit who soon learn two of the houses they must rescue from are impossible to reach. As we wait they hear a buzzing noise.
WALSH: They think they can hear a drone here, so hard to tell with the wind in the trees and the artillery. But that's a constant threat call now.
WALSH (voice-over): Then our security adviser spotted. They raised their weapons, but will firing make them more of a target. Three drones, one large one that hovers and two small ones whizzing about. Exposed, powerless. If we run for cover, they might come for us. All we can do is hide in the trees and hope that if we're seen, the Russians instead have a better target in mind, to become right overhead but noise. Either the sound of death or someone deciding you're not worth that payload.
We decided to leave. But again, we cannot travel fast enough to escape the drones only expose ourselves and pray they lose interest. Perhaps they did, we'll never know. But behind us Ukraine as a flame again, because however, the West's interest in this war wanes, Putin's burns brighter than ever. Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Vovchansk, Ukraine.
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VAUSE: Israel continues to scale up and offensive on the border city of Rafah in southern Gaza, which military officials now describe as limited in space and in targets. The same time in The Hague, the legal team from South Africa urged the International Court of Justice to issue an emergency order for a halt in the military operation arguing Israeli actions amount to ongoing genocide.
More on that in a moment, but new satellite images now show over the past 10 days. Israeli forces have advanced about five kilometers into the city of Rafah. Tire blocks have been cleared, tent encampments bulldozed, streets also appear to be empty.
The U.N. (INAUDIBLE) 600,000 people have fled the area in just the past two days of 350,000 in just the past few days, 600,000 all up. More than a million Palestinians had fled to Rafah the last seven months of war, seeking safety and relative shelter there as well. But now the Israeli Defense Minister is wanting more troops will soon be deployed as the military offensive intensifies.
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YOAV GALLANT, ISRAELI DEFENSE MINISTER (through translator): This operation will continue as additional forces will enter the area. Several tunnels in the area have been destroyed by our troops and additional tunnels will be destroyed soon. This activity will intensify.
Hamas is not an organization that can reorganize. It does not have reserve troops. It has no supply stocks and no ability to treat the terrorists that we target. The result is that we are wearing a mask down.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: IDF operations continue in northern and central Gaza in areas that the Israelis once said had been cleared and we're operating -- under their operational control. But Hamas fighters have now regrouped. Israeli military spokesman says fighting in the Jabalya refugee camp not far from Gaza City is especially complicated. CNN's Jeremy Diamond has the very latest now reporting in from Jerusalem.
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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Israeli military is continuing to expand its military operations in the Gaza Strip both in southern as well as in northern Gaza. In Northern Gaza, heavy explosions witnessed in the Jabalya refugee camp where the Israeli military has been mounting a new offensive over the course of the last several days. That area, of course, is where the Israeli military fought some of the most intense battles of this war in the early months of the war, then withdrawing and then Hamas fighters returning to the area forcing the Israeli military, they say to return to that area once again.
In the southern part of the Gaza Strip, the defense minister, Yoav Gallant visiting a troops in eastern Rafah carrying out a situational assessment and saying that the Israeli military intends to send more troops into Rafah to assist with those ongoing military operations.
Already, a commando brigade has been sent in to join the troops that are already there, where they say they are conducting targeted attacks on Hamas militants in the area, as well as searching and destroying a tunnels that they are discovering in eastern Rafah.
As all of this is happening, we've been witnessing mass displacement of Palestinians from Rafah, more than a half a million Palestinians have already been displaced from the Rafah fleeing to areas further north that humanitarian aid groups say are simply not suitable for the hundreds of thousands of people that are arriving in that coastal Al Mawasi humanitarian zone.
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The Israeli military is saying now that they have allowed more humanitarian aid into Gaza, saying that 365 aid trucks made it in on Thursday alone, including 38 trucks of flour 76,000 liters of fuel. The United States, meanwhile, also ramping up its efforts to bring more humanitarian aid into Gaza via this new maritime route. They have been working to construct this floating pier off the Gaza coastline for weeks now and early Thursday morning, the U.S. military announcing that they have actually anchored that pier to the Gaza shoreline.
Once it is fully up and running this pier could bring in as many as 150 aid trucks per day. Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Jerusalem.
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VAUSE: At the International Court of Justice lawyers from South Africa have accused Israel of an ongoing genocide, which has reached a quote you and rigged (ph) stage and Israel willfully breached the court's binding orders which were issued last week. Warning if nothing is done, suffering on a massive scale will take place in Rafah.
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VAUGHAN LOWE, LAWYER FOR SOUTH AFRICA: It has become increasingly clear that Israel's actions in Rafah are part of the end game in which Gaza is utterly destroyed as an area capable of human habitation. This is the last step in the destruction of Gaza and its Palestinian people.
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VAUSE: Israel accused South Africa of acting as the legal arm for Hamas. Foreign ministry spokesperson writing this, it's an upside down world. The terrorists of the Hamas using South Africa and their attempt to exploit the ICJ. Israel will have the opportunity to respond formally in court on Friday.
Well, it took more than six hours of cross-examination after a terrible first day start, but Donald Trump's legal team may find landed a blow to the credibility of the prosecution's star witness in the hush money payment to a porn star trial.
At one point, Trump's lead attorney raised his voice and yelled at Michael Cohen that's a lie and failed his arms around during that one exchange with Michael Cohen who was Trump's lawyer. More often CNN's Kara Scannell.
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KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Trump's ex lawyer Michael Cohen in a dramatic moment on the stand grilled over his memory of a key phone conversation that directly implicates former President Donald Trump in his criminal trial.
MICHAEL COHEN, FORMER ATTORNEY FOR DONALD TRUMP: Nobody wants to do this. This isn't fun. They get personal they get nasty. SCANNELL (voice-over): Trump's lawyer Todd Blanche confronted Cohen on
his testimony about the deal at the center of the case that he paid off adult film star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election to kill her story of an alleged affair with Trump, which Trump denies.
Cohen who is the prosecution's key witness testified earlier this week that on October 24, 2016, he made a phone call to Trump's bodyguard Keith Schiller, he said to use Schiller as a conduit to speak with Trump to say the Daniels deal was resolved and he was moving forward but an intense exchange inside the courtroom that could undermine his testimony. Blanche showed records that moments before the brief one minute and 32nd call, Cohen sent a text to Schiller for help with prank calls he was receiving from a 14 year old. There was no mention of Daniels in the text.
Blanche showed the text messages. Cohen said, Who can I speak to regarding harassing calls to my cell in office that dope forgot to block his number. Schiller responded, call me. Cohen told the defense attorney today he didn't remember the harassing phone calls. But after confronted with them, maintain he spoke to Schiller and also Trump.
Blanche pacing the courtroom, his arms flailing and his voice rising, said to Cohen, that was a lie. You did not talk to President Trump on that night. You talk to Keith Schiller about what we just went through, admitted. Cohen calmly replied, No, sir. I don't know that it's accurate.
Blanche move to show the jury text between Cohen and the team. Cohen writing, this number has just been sent to Secret Service for your ongoing and continuous harassing calls over the past three days. If you are a minor, I suggest you notify your parent or guardian. The prankster replied I didn't do it. I'm 14. Please don't. Cohen responded, please have your parents or guardian contact me before Secret Service reaches out to them.
Before getting to the phone call, Blanche spent the morning trying to paint Cohen as a vengeful lair. Cohen confirmed he has insulted Trump countless times including on his Mea Culpa podcast. Blanche played clips for the jury.
COHEN: I truly fucking hope that this man ends up in prison. But revenge is a dish best served cold and you better believe I want this man to go down and rot inside for what he did to me and my family
SCANNELL (voice-over): Blanche also press Cohen repeatedly about lying to Congress in 2017 about the Trump Organization's Moscow project.
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There were a couple of different lies Blanche asked. That's correct. Cohen replied. Cohen later apologized to Congress during his on camera testimony in 2019.
COHEN: I am sorry for my lies, and for lying to Congress. I have done some real soul searching. And I see now that my ambition and the intoxication of Trump power had much to do with the bad decisions in part that I made.
SCANNELL (voice-over): Kara Scannell, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Well, two Republican led House committees in Washington are pushing ahead with contempt proceedings against U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, because he refused to release audio recordings of the President's interview with special counsel Robert Hur, during the classified documents investigation, and it's up to Joe Biden asserted executive privilege over those recordings.
Hur's final report called Biden a well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory, a description of the White House disputes. The Justice Department raise concerns over whether House Republicans were seeking the audio files solely for political purposes. Republican House lawyers say they're crucial to their impeachment inquiry that's still ongoing for President Biden.
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MIKE JOHNSON, U.S. HOUSE SPEAKER: President Biden is apparently afraid for the citizens of this country and everyone to hear those tapes. They obviously confirm what the special counsel has found, and would likely cause I suppose, in his estimation, such alarm with the American people that the President is using all of his power to suppress their release.
MERRICK GARLAND, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: We have gone to extraordinary lengths to ensure that the committee's get responses to their legitimate requests. But this is not one. To the contrary, this is one that would harm our ability in the future to successfully pursue sensitive investigations.
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VAUSE: A big moment on Wall Street Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrials briefly cracking 40,000 for the first time ever. I remember it broke 10,000. It did finally settle out, they closed the trade around 39,000. And some change there is over 40,000. And that's back down again.
The two other major industries also fell by the end of trading. U.S. markets had rallied earlier in the week after an inflation report showed a cooldown for the first time in months that report along with a drop in April, retail sales has raised hopes the Federal Reserve could start cutting interest rates, maybe as soon as September.
Well, when Google is asked, who is the guy who predicts elections? The answer is Alan Lichtman, presidential historian and distinguished professor of history at American University and author of the case for impeachment. And this was Allan Lichtman has picked every presidential winner for the past 40 years except Al Gore and George W. Bush in 2001. You can see like either toss.
Allan, thank you for being with us. We really appreciate your time. ALLAN LICHMAN, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: My pleasure.
VAUSE: So for those who are yet to be familiar with your 13 keys, the 13 keys to winning the White House. We'll just put those up on screen right now. Let everyone read them as we talk. But just from the echo here, you believe at this point, a lot still needs to go wrong for Biden to actually lose this election. So explain your position.
LICHTMAN: That's correct. Right now Biden, on my system is down to keys. It takes six keys to count out the candidate of the White House Party. Right now, Biden has lost the party mandate key, my first key based on House losses in the 2022 midterm elections. And my key number 12, because he's not one of those once in a generation, inspirational candidates like Franklin Roosevelt, or John F. Kennedy.
Therefore, he'd have to lose four more keys to predict his defeat. I haven't made a call yet. But a lot would have to go wrong. Right now there are only four other shaky keys, third party, social unrest, and foreign policy success and failure. He'd have to lose all four of those keys to predict his defeat.
So forget the pundits, forget the polls. The pundits just talk off the top of their heads. They don't have a theory of how election works. And polls are snapshots. They're not predictors, they're abused as predictors.
VAUSE: Yes, they indicate a moment in time, I guess it's always the trend of the polls, which is more important than any actual one individual polls. But I just want to make the economy more because this is a tough one for Biden, as we just reported, the Dow flirting with a record high of 40,000. And Biden made this point while Speaking to CNN last week, here he is.
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JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: Look at the Michigan survey. For 65 American people think they're in good shape economically. They think the nation is not in good shape. They're personally in good shape. The polling data has been wrong all along.
When I started this administration, people were saying are going to be a collapsing economy. We have the strongest economy in the world. Let me say it again. In the world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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VAUSE: Yes, and look, inflation remains high but it's not 9 percent. There's a whole lot of factors here. What I want to know is can you explain why Trump, the guy blew out the national debt is polling higher when voters are asked the question who would do a better job managing the economy?
LICHTMAN: The economy is only one factor. It is not the determining factor in elections. That's why I have 13 keys to the White House. Based on the economy, Hillary Clinton should have won overwhelming -- an overwhelming landslide in 2016, because the economy was doing so extremely well. The Democrats should have won overwhelmingly in 1968 when Richard Nixon was elected, because the 1960s economy was one of the most booming economies we have ever had.
So again, don't trick yourself into thinking that this election is going to turn on the economy alone.
VAUSE: OK, so when it comes to Donald Trump, and your final prediction, which will come in August, I believe. So what does he need to do? Which keys does he need to sort of win over? And what will you be watching for between now and then?
LICHTMAN: Here's the secret, there is nothing Donald Trump could do. The basic thesis behind the keys to the White House is that elections are essentially votes up or down on the strength and performance of the White House Party. And it really doesn't matter who the opposition candidate might be, unless they're Ronald Reagan or Franklin Roosevelt, the once in a generational, inspirational kind of candidate.
Conventional campaigning, fundraising, speeches, debates, the tricks and turns of the campaign count for little or nothing in the end. So it's not that Donald Trump wins or loses keys, it's that the White House Party wins or loses keys. And I'm often asked, what can Joe Biden do to help himself? And my answer is always govern well.
VAUSE: Are you saying it's all about good governance?
LICHTMAN: The economy aren't even kill -- deal with, excuse me, with the events in Ukraine and Gaza, keep out of any kind of scandal.
VAUSE: So it's all about how you govern in the past of the previous four years, there's very little by the time he comes down to this point in the election cycle that can be done.
LICHTMAN: That's wrong. There's a lot going on. As I said, a lot would have to go wrong for Biden to lose, and how Biden manages, for example, his policy towards the two wars that are raging, how he deals with student protests and possible social unrest has everything to do with whether he is going to win or lose.
Obviously, his record over the past three plus years is also important. But that doesn't mean that governance doesn't count in the election year, Donald Trump lost in 2020, because he blew his governing in the election year instead of dealing substantively with the pandemic. He tried to talk his way out of it. Of course, that didn't work that cost him two extra keys.
He was only down four keys going into 2020, Bbut his failure to deal with the pandemic cost him two more keys, just enough to predict his defeat, as I did in 2020 just as I predicted his victory in 2016.
VAUSE: Yes, you're one of the few who did. And it's great to have you with us. Presidential historian Allan Lichtman, thank you for staying up late as well, so we appreciate your time. LICHTMAN: Thank you.
VAUSE: Super storms, powerful winds and a tornado in parts of the state of Texas to say these four people were killed in Houston. This was a scene in the downtown area with debris swirling outside a bank building. National Weather Service's, the winds were the equivalent to a category one hurricane at times. Power was knocked out, trees were brought down. windows in skyscrapers were blown out.
More than 900,000 homes and businesses are still without electricity across Texas. That's according to poweroutage.us. Houston schools will be closed on Friday. Congratulations kids. And the mayor is urging people to stay at home and stay off the roads.
Weather officials say the storms are pushing south and east prompting a new two letter warning for more than 2 million people in parts of Southeastern Louisiana, which includes the cities of New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
Well, coming iup, Russia's president currently in China to visit his good pal, intended to strengthen partnerships with Xi Jinping. How the U.S. and West allies now view their united front that's after the break.
Also, pro-Palestinian protesters in Michigan target University regions at their private homes. We'll hear how from one impacted official.
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VAUSE: Russian President Vladimir Putin traveled to Beijing and on Thursday met with his good friend and close partner, Xi Jinping. Both men pledging to deepen their already strategic partnership, even as friction grows with the United States and other Western nations. But more now on Putin's visit to China from CNN's Ivan Watson.
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IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They call it the partnership with no limits. China's President warmly welcoming his good friend, Vladimir Putin. The Russian leaders celebrated in Beijing at a ceremony complete with a military salute and rapturous schoolchildren. Two leaders who shared deep distrust of the U.S. agreeing to strengthen their comprehensive strategic partnership. A move that worries current and former U.S. officials.
KURT VOLKER, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO NATO: This alignment of authoritarians is a -- it's important of challenges ahead, unless we in the West, really double down and make sure that we are reinforcing democracy, reinforcing this global liberal order.
WATSON (voice-over): Hanging over this summit, Russia's grinding war in Ukraine. After Putin's full scale invasion in 2022, the U.S. and Europe imposed sanctions isolating Moscow. But China gave Russia an economic lifeline. Trade between the two countries hit a record high last year. China buys up Russian oil and gas while flooding the Russian market with Chinese goods like cars and trucks.
ALEXANDRA PROKOPENKO, FELLOW, CARNEGIE RUSSIA EURASLA CENTER: I think Chinese leadership are very smart playing on Putin's ego massaging it and having for a cheap Russian energy resources and Russia become a very important market for Chinese second row and third row companies on banks.
WATSON (voice-over): Putin and Xi Jinping both talk of creating a new non-U.S. centric world order. But so far, China has held back from providing the Russian military with bombs and bullets to use on the Ukrainian battlefield. That's because directly arming Russia with threaten China's much more valuable trade with the European Union, a close ally of Ukraine. In fact, there are limits to China's support for Putin's war machine.
XI JINPING, CHINESE PRESIDENT (through translator): The Chinese side looks forward to the early restoration of peace and stability on the European continent and will continue to play a constructive role to that end.
WATSON (voice-over): The Russian president's close Chinese friend knows a never ending war is not good for business. Ivan Watson CNN, Hong Kong.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Slovak police have charged a suspect in the attempted assassination of the prime minister. On Thursday they said a lone wolf with legal motors, a 71-year old man is now the main suspect facing those charges. The prime minister underwent surgery and remains in hospital in a serious but stable conditions. We have more now from CNN's Fred Pleitgen.
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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): After getting shot five times in broad daylight, Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico's conditions remains difficult officials say even though the wounds are no longer life threatening.
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This is exactly the place where Robert Fico was shot and you can see on that tree over there that there is a hole where the forensic team appear to have carved something like a projectile out of the bark.
Now he suffered several gunshot wounds and had to be air med-evacked into a hospital nearby.
The hospital says two surgical teams had to operate more than five hours to save the prime minister's life. Slovakia's president elect confirming Fico is now conscious.
PETER PELLEGRINI, SLOVAK PRESIDENT-ELECT: He is able to speak, but only few sentences and then he's really, really tired because he's under some medication. So of course it is very difficult for him. PLEITGEN: Slovakian authorities claiming the attack was politically motivated.
The 71-year-old suspect they say unhappy, among other things, with the Russia-friendly Fico government's decision to cut off military aid to Ukraine.
The country's interior minister stressing though the assailant was not part of a wider network.
MATUSS SUTAJ ESTOK, SLOVAK INTERIOR MINISTER (through translator): He is a lone wolf whose disappointment with the government accelerated after the presidential election when he decided to act.
PLEITGEN: Dismay and disbelief in the suspect's neighborhood.
"I was very surprised by what he did," this neighbor says. "I don't understand how it happened. Something must have clicked."
Robert Fico is often viewed as pro-Russian and critical of the European Union. Slovakia society deeply divided.
But now that the prime minister remains in intensive care trying to recover, politicians from both sides are urging unity and stability.
Fred Pleitgen, CNN - Banska Bystrica, Slovakia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Well, Russia's surprise attack making significant gains around the northern Kharkiv region. But when we come back, NATO'S Supreme Commander says Russian troops will not make a significant breakthrough. He'll explain why in a moment.
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VAUSE: Welcome back.
The Ukrainian president met with senior military commanders in Kharkiv Thursday. Ukraine's second biggest city is under a renewed Russian offensive with Russia making its biggest territorial gains in 18 months.
President Zelenskyy says Ukrainian units in the northeast are being reinforced, while the regional governor says Russian advances have been stopped in some parts as Ukraine works to stabilize the front line.
[01:34:50]
VAUSE: Some of the most intense battles have been around the small town of Vovchansk, about 60 kilometers from Kharkiv.
Still, NATO Supreme Allied Commander U.S. General Christopher Cavoli believes Ukrainian defenses will hold.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTOPHER CAVOLI, NATO SUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER, EUROPE: No, the Russians don't have the numbers necessary to do a strategic breakthrough, we don't believe, more to the point they don't have the skill and the capability to do it, to operate at the scale necessary to exploit any breakthrough to strategic advantage.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: A short time ago, I spoke with Malcolm Davis, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, I asked him if Ukrainian troops being sent north is now creating problems in the south.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MALCOLM DAVIS, AUSTRALIAN STRATEGIC POLICY INSTITUTE: I think that the risk is that whilst the general is right, they don't have the ability or the capabilities to break through in the north. They do have the ability to force Ukrainians to redeploy from the south to the north, and from the east to the north weakening those (AUDIO GAP).
And essentially, that could then allow the Russians to make further advances in the east and the south. So yes, there's no strategic breakthrough per se at this point in time, but lots of potential tactical breakthroughs.
VAUSE: And much of the destruction around Kharkiv is being caused by Russian glide bombs, which are modified old Soviet era dumb bombs which "The Economist" reports last year, the Russian started adding simple, cheap conversion kits, wings that pop out when the bomb is released. Satellite guidance system. And there's now a slightly more sophisticated and accurate version which has the wings integrated into the body of the weapon, laser guidance, and an anti-jamming antenna.
These bombs can carry 5,000-pound payload. They're called building destroyers. And they're precise to a point and they're not expensive. And right now Ukrainian air defenses are incapable of stopping them.
So what can they do here?
DAVIS: Well, I think the simple solution is firstly to build up the air defenses. So there has to be a priority for military aid going into Ukraine to stop the glide bombs.
Secondly, I think that the U.S. in providing those air defenses need to essentially remove any constraints on shooting down Russia aircraft inside Russian airspace because what the Russians are doing is launching these glide bombs from inside Russian airspace to attack targets in Ukraine.
So they have a sanctuary there, which they're able to operate with relative invulnerability. If you take away that invulnerability and start shooting down Russian aircraft inside Russian airspace, the glide bombs threat goes away.
VAUSE: And this has been sort of a pattern all along that the west, in particular the White House, is forcing Ukraine to fight with one arm tied behind their back. And time is running out because there's a very real likelihood that come November, There'll be a different president in the White House, there'll be no more military aid for Ukraine.
They have about what 177 days to make some significant gains here. And it doesn't look like it's going to happen.
DAVIS: It is a worry in the sense that, you know, that $60 billion aid package was passed through Congress and signed by President Biden but the aide itself is still moving very slowly.
But in terms of ammunition for the ground forces and the air defense capabilities so I do think that there needs to be an acceleration of aid.
And secondly, the Biden administration in particular needs to, as I said, remove the shackles and allow the Ukrainians to start striking deep inside Russia.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: For many foreign aid workers who've spent time in Gaza, being able to leave often sparks feelings of immense guilt as they return to home and families and some kind of normality while leaving behind Palestinian colleagues and so many people in need.
A moment here, the images you're about to see are disturbing.
Monica Johnston is a burn specialist who traveled from the U.S. state of Oregon and volunteered with the Palestine American Medical Association.
She says she's now worried about the Palestinian friends she's left behind as well as fellow health care workers because they're now facing such intensified Israeli bombings and other military operations.
She goes on to say the humanitarian crisis in the enclave heartbreaking.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MONICA JOHNSTON, AID WORKER: The situation here is anything other than you can imagine. The injuries we're getting are (INAUDIBLE) to the knees with patients. Large burns and all these large injuries.
These patients just are not making it. They're their passing away after two, three, four days. This is in part due to the lack of medications for them. The infections due to a lack of infection control here. So anything large coming to us is just not surviving.
So as a burn nurse, I'm treated in my job anyways with how to hold the dressing together and what to put on it.
[01:39:51] JOHNSTON: So some dressings that I do and I use six different items, six different types of dressings, just because that's all I have in my bag. So I -- we're scraping the bottom of our bags that we brought in.
We brought in about 300 bags of supplies and we just had two kids this morning a one and a three-year-old with the large burns. And I used almost all the Silvadene that I had in my bag.
So it's devastating.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Well, as the U.S. academic year comes to a close, universities are ramping up efforts to clear pro-Palestinian encampment and contain on-campus protests.
On Sunday, though much focus will be on Morehouse College, where U.S. President Joe Biden will deliver the class of 2024's commencement address.
The head of Morehouse College told CNN his school will and won't be doing if graduates disrupts Mr. Bidens remarks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID THOMAS, PRESIDENT, MOREHOUSE COLLEGE: we will allow silent, non- disruptive protests. So you know, I had students ask me about it.
What if we, you know, turned our backs on the president or turned our chairs? And I said to them I'll be embarrassed, but that's not your problem.
I have also made a decision that we will also not ask police to take individuals out of commencement in zip ties. If faced with the choice, I will cease the ceremonies on the spot if we were to reach that position.
But this will not be a place where there will be a national photo-op of individuals being taken out of the Morehouse campus in zip ties.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: And at the University of Michigan, protesters placed a fake corpse wrapped in bloody sheets in front of the home of a school official. Happened in the middle of the night Wednesday. Pro-Palestine activists appeared to target a number of members of the University's board of regents with what the school calls a quote, "significant and dangerous escalation".
Students taped list of demands on the doors of some regents' homes according to an official university statement.
Jordan Acker one of the targeted officials recounted the incident to CNN's Jake Tapper.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JORDAN ACKER, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, BOARD OF REGENTS: I learned about 6:00 a.m. that this had happened when several of my other colleagues were woken up to people engaging in some protest activity. There' been some masked people coming by themselves.
I learned that about 4:40 a.m. someone had come to my home alone, completely covering their face took some pictures, place some things on my door of my home as my children were inside sleeping.
This is not about peaceful protests. There was nothing peaceful about showing up at someone's private home in the middle of the night with a mask on. It is extremely dangerous, both to the homeowner, to my family, and to the students who would do something like this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Well, on campuses across the U.S. the momentum is now building to graduation and university officials have been calling in law enforcement to removing encampments and to try and quell demonstrations.
CNN's Emily Smith has details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
EMILY SMITH, CNN SENIOR ASSIGNMENT EDITOR: At DePaul University Thursday, the view from the air showed a shifting ground strategy. Police in riot gear cleared a pro-Palestinian encampment at the Chicago School after DePaul's president said, good faith efforts to negotiate with protesters over the past 17 days failed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As we approach all the subjects voluntarily left the area.
SMITH: A university spokesperson says there were no arrests on the university's quad but two people who were obstructing traffic on a nearby roadway were arrested. It was a different picture Wednesday at the University of California, Irvine, when police clearing an encampment arrested at least a dozen pro-Palestinian protestors.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They are destroying the campus if I'm doing a democratic, peaceful protests.
The university is holding Thursday classes remotely. On Friday, the union representing 40,000 university of California academic workers will announce a decision on striking over the handling of the protests.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Congratulations, class of 2024.
SMITH: At NYU, a few dozen students walked out of commencement to demonstrate their support for Palestine.
As other students expressed, how much they cherished, the ceremony.
TALIA MALEKAN, NYU DENTAL SCHOOL GRADUATE: As a Jewish student, it really means a lot to be here today, especially cause with what the protests going on, like the safety of a lot of me and my friends has been in question.
SMITH: The University of Washington's president is calling on protesters to dismantle their encampment as the school cleans up graffiti, some of it violent and anti-Semitic, discovered on multiple campus buildings. The president calls the situation untenable, unlikely simple to manage as cleaning up graffiti.
I'm Emily Smith reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[01:44:54]
VAUSE: In Texas the Republican state's governor has pardoned a former army sergeant who shot and killed a Black Lives protester in 2020 -- Black Lives Matter protester.
The demonstration took place two months after the murder of George Floyd in Minnesota as well as similar protests nationwide.
Details now from CNN's Ed Lavandera.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Attorneys for former army sergeant Daniel Perry say that he is thrilled and elated to be out of prison. This comes after Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued a full pardon after the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted unanimously to recommend a pardon for the former army sergeant.
Perry was convicted last year in Austin and sentenced to 25 years in prison for the murder of Garrett Foster, an Air Force veteran himself. This happened during a 2020 Black Lives Matter protest in downtown Austin.
Attorneys for Daniel Perry say he was acting in self-defense, but prosecutors say it was Perry who drove his car into a crowd of protesters and initiated the altercation with Foster.
Foster was legally carrying an assault-style rifle that night during the protest and attorneys for Perry say that Foster pointed the gun at him and that's what caused him to shoot several times killing Foster that night.
But prosecutors also say -- pointed to social media attacks that Perry had gone into the crowd that night looking for an altercation saying at one point he had written to someone "Might kill a few people on my way to work tonight". And that Black Lives Matter protesters were -- compared them to a quote, "zoo full of monkeys".
The reaction to this pardon, has been intense. Governor Abbott says that the stand your ground laws in Texas are the strongest in the country and it cannot be nullified by a jury or a progressive district attorney. That D.A. in Austin criticized the governor today. He's saying he should be ashamed and that he's put politics over justice and made a mockery of the legal system.
Garrett Foster's family and girlfriend have also been quick to condemn the governor's pardon saying that -- the girlfriend saying that the governor has declared that citizens can be killed with impunity as long as they hold political views that are different from those in power.
And Garrett Foster's mother's attorney says, she is shocked by this pardon, as well. But attorneys for Daniel Perry say he is thrilled and elated to be out prison. He was released from a Texas prison this afternoon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Chileans feeling the chill as the country faces its worth cold snap in decades.
Coming up here in a moment what they had to say about the winter weather in the middle of autumn.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:49:45]
VAUSE: Wildfires burning across parts of Canada had forced thousands to evacuate their homes with no word when they can return. But some relief could be in the forecast.
Here's CNN's Meredith Wood.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The fire looked like it was getting real close real fast. The wind was changing direction.
MEREDITH WOOD, CNN COPY EDITOR: F1: Firefighters could get a helping hand from Mother Nature later this week as a slow-moving storm moves in with cooler weather and some humidity.
While that reprieve won't last, it will be welcome news for those battling and running from the fires. The Canadian Interagency Fire Center says around 130 wildfires are burning in Canada, dozens of which are considered out of control.
Thousands have been forced to evacuate in the province of Alberta as flames move closer and communities are blanketed with thick smoke.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: everything was covered in burndown burs and whatnot so it's time to get out.
WOOD: That same area experienced a catastrophic wildfire back in 2016, dubbed "the beast".
DANIELLE SMITH, ALBERTA, CANADA PREMIER: As residents rush to leave their homes, I know that this will bring back difficult memories.
This evacuation is a stark reminder that our province lives alongside the threat of wildfires and other national disasters.
WOOD: Tens of thousands of acres are scorched from a fire in Manitoba and a massive wildfire in British Columbia has forced thousands there to evacuate. Smoke from all of those fires has moved south with large swaths of the U.S. under air quality alert Wednesday.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's like a fog, its cloudy.
WOOD: And experts say, the U.S. can expect air quality to continue to be affected this summer as fire season ramps up.
QUINN BARBER, FIRE SCIENCE ANALYST, CANADIAN FOREST SERVICES: The days of long summers with hot temperatures and no smoke, those may not be very common anymore.
WOOD: I'm Meredith Wood, reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Apparently is quite chilly in Chile. Or is it Chilean chilly right now? With record-breaking low temperatures, even snow in some parts.
One coastal city recorded its longest cold snap in more than 50 years. Another city ended an eight-day freezing period on Tuesday. The city of Santiago was expected to reach freezing conditions on Thursday.
Hope, you are making notes. People living there are bundling up, just trying to stay warm.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HUMBERTO BURGOS, SANTIAGO RESIDENT: To combat the cold I bundle up more in the morning, and drink more coffee. I used to drink one cup of coffee. Now, I drink three cups.
FRANCISCA VERGARA, STUDENT: May used to be a super autumn month, and now we go from extremely hot to extremely cold.
ENRIQUE TORRES, SANTIAGO RESIDENT: You can feel the cold, you can feel it. We have to cover ourselves with nylon, with whatever we can find.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: When we come back here on CNN, meet the possum playing possum. It's the Internet's latest sensation, and he's bringing joy by faking his death.
More on that in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
Who doesn't love a raccoon, four-legged pitch invader, certainly one at that is the Major League Soccer's newest breakout star. Rogue raccoon, running onto the field during Wednesdays match between the Philadelphia Union and New York City FC, exhibiting the speed and agility and deftness of top price striker. All the while evading capture.
The match was paused for five minutes as crews tried and eventually succeeded in containing the show-stealer dubbed Raquinho the raccoon. Raquinho was put in good hands and was safely released, the Philadelphia Union says.
The NYCFC went on to win the game two to one but it was the raccoon who was the real winner at the end of the day.
[01:54:46]
VAUSE: Well, a few fake deaths and an Internet star is then born. An opossum is lighting -- is that opossum or just possum -- was online and how much he enjoys doing what comes naturally.
Here's CNN's Jeanne Moos.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The phrase playing possum takes on a whole new light when you see Carson, the opossum dying over and over again.
JUNIPER ROSSEAU, FOR FOX'S SAKE WILDLIFE RESCUE: So there he is dead again.
We're just going to well leave our little dead friend right there.
Hey, I know that half the Internet is here right Now just to see Carson die, I can see that he's doing very well other than being dead.
MOOS: This orphaned opossum came to Tennessee's For Fox's Sake Wildlife Rescue, and instantly.
ROSSEAU: This excessive salivation that you see he's about finished dying for me again.
MOOS: Carson began playing dead every time director Juniper Rousseau came near him.
Sure, other opossums play dead out of dread but at least you catch them looking alive sometimes. Not Carson.
So how many times has he died on you?
ROSSEAU: Probably about 150.
MOOS: And the Internet loves it, "RIP Carson, same time tomorrow?"
It's an involuntary defensive reaction. He gets stiff or floppy, stops blinking, tends to drool. Carson is a contradiction.
ROSSEAU: He's dead and he's healthy.
MOOS: Have you ever thought he was actually dead.
ROSSEAU: There was one time I ran and got the stethoscope and listened to his lungs and heart. He was completely fine.
MOOS: Fans like to catch Carson faking, a quivering lip, a telltale blank. Juniper once glimpsed him running on an exercise wheel. But by the time she started recording, he was standing up dead. But what's another nail in the coffin of a possum playing dead.
Jeanne Moos --
ROSSEAU: You enjoy being dead in here, ok? I'll see you tomorrow.
MOOS: -- CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Thank you for watching. I'm John Vause. I will not be back here tomorrow.
But Kim Brunhuber will be up here next on CNN NEWSROOM. See you next week.
[01:56:58]
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