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CNN International: Israel Expands Ground Operation Deeper into Rafah; Humanitarian Crisis Worsens with Vital Rafah Crossing Closed; Strong Storms Blast Texas, 4 Killed, 800K Without Power; Defense Undercuts Crucial Parts of Cohen's Testimony; Texas Pardons Man Who Murdered Black Lives Matter Protester. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired May 17, 2024 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): This operation will continue as additional forces will enter the area. The result is that we are wearing Hamas down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're in the restroom and we hear everybody screaming and coming toward the restroom and there's like dust blowing down from the ceiling tiles.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the most intense confrontations of this trial. It was not enough to reverse the evidence corroborating Michael Cohen. I think the proof is still there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Max Foster.
MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and a warm welcome to our viewers joining us from around the world. I'm Max Foster. It is Friday.
It's May the 17th, 9 a.m. here in London. It's 11 a.m. in Gaza where desperately needed humanitarian aid is finally being delivered via the floating pier built by the U.S. Central Command says trucks have started moving ashore carrying the international aid. No U.S. troops set foot on the ground in Gaza. Heavy seas have prevented the U.S. from deploying the floating pier for days holding up the aid deliveries and it comes as Israel expands its ground operations in Rafah and throughout the enclave.
New satellite images show Israeli forces have been conducting bulldozing operations north of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt. Israeli troops have advanced nearly five kilometers since the start of the operation on May the 6th. Entire blocks and many tent camps have been razed and the streets appear empty.
The U.N. estimates nearly 600,000 people have fled the city. Prior to Israel's ground invasion more than a million displaced Palestinians were seeking refuge there. Israel says the operation remains, quote, limited in space and in targets. But the Israeli defense minister says more troops will be deployed in Rafah soon.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
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 Hamas down.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: Well, CNN's Paula Hancocks is following all the developments for us. She joins us now from Abu Dhabi. So a big step this, isn't it, getting the floating pier in?
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Max. It is key and it is something that those certainly inside Gaza and humanitarian aid groups have been waiting for. But we are also hearing at the same time that it doesn't make it any better without those land crossings being open.
So it is a significant development, the fact that there will be trucks. We're hearing from U.S. CENTCOM. They believe there could be something like 90 aid trucks at the beginning being able to be brought in. And then once it is fully operational, they believe it could be something like 150 trucks of humanitarian aid a day.
But still groups are saying you need the Rafah crossing to be open. You need the other two crossings to be open as well as that is the quickest, most cost-effective and most efficient way to be able to try and stem the famine.
Now we are hearing that we believe that the Rafah crossing is still closed. Certainly the operation from Israel in Rafah appears to be extending and expanding. We have seen from satellite imagery from Planet Labs that they have been bulldozing certain areas.
So they're moving from the east to central Rafah. Now we can see entire blocks have been either completely destroyed or severely damaged. As you mentioned, the streets are empty from what we see from these satellite images.
And many of the tents that more than a million people, it is believed, were sheltering in at one point have now moved. They have been disassembled.
[04:05:00]
We believe many of them are now in al-Mawasi on the coast of Gaza, an area I should point out that humanitarian aid groups have said is unsuitable for human habitation. And an updated number as well from the United Nations. They believe at this point some 630,000 people have actually moved from that area -- Max.
FOSTER: OK, Paula Hancocks, live for us in Abu Dhabi. Thank you for the update.
Meanwhile, humanitarian conditions are worsening inside Rafah with the border closed, as Paula mentioned there. It was the only entry and exit point for foreign aid workers into and out of Gaza.
The U.S. State Department says it's in touch with a group of trapped American aid workers and is working to get them out. The volunteer doctors and nurses are operating in hellish conditions and far from their own families. CNN's Jeremy Diamond has that story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. AHLIA KATTAN, ANESTHESIOLOGIST AND ICU MEDIC, FAJR SCIENTIFIC: We were evacuated from that safe house which was supposed to be in a deconflicted zone.
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After more than two weeks in Gaza, Dr. Ahlia Kattan should be back home in California with her three children.
KATTAN: This is where we've been sleeping.
DIAMOND (voice-over): Instead, she's sleeping on the floor of Gaza's European hospital as her five-year-old daughter wonders when her mom will come home.
DAUGHTER OF DR. AHLIA KATTAN: I love you, Mama. You are the best. When will you come back? I want you so much. Happy birthday to Mama. You are the best ever.
DIAMOND (voice-over): Dr. Kattan and her husband are among at least 22 American physicians now trapped in Gaza after an Israeli military offensive in Rafah shuttered the critical border crossing to Egypt.
KATTAN: The Rafah borders are now closed and that was our safe entry and exit. The WHO is trying to negotiate a safe exit for us and it's not happening.
DIAMOND (voice-over): As Israeli and Egyptian officials trade blame for the crossing's closure --
KATTAN: I am just on my way to the operating room.
DIAMOND (voice-over): Dr. Kattan and her colleagues are doing what they can to keep this overwhelmed and under-resourced hospital running.
LAURA SWOBODA, NURSE PRACTITIONER, FAJR SCIENTIFIC: We were not aware of how dire the situation is here. There wasn't soap to wash our hands between infected wounds with maggots. There wasn't sanitizer wipes to wipe down the tables after each patient.
DIAMOND (voice-over): Israel is now threatening to widen its offensive in Rafah.
SWOBODA: Always we can hear the drones in the background.
DIAMOND (voice-over): A move that the U.S. and international aid groups warn will have dire humanitarian consequences, one that will put even more strain on Gaza's already overwhelmed hospitals.
KATTAN: All of us don't want to leave unless we're replaced by physicians and medics and nurses and all the people that are keeping this hospital going. My message to the U.S. government is however they can help to maintain a safe corridor for medics to come in and out to bring supplies and themselves to support the innocent civilians and women and children, to please do that.
DIAMOND (voice-over): But until that happens, Dr. Kattan is stuck, unsure when and how she will make it home.
DIAMOND: What's the most difficult part of that uncertainty right now?
KATTAN: Missing my kids and waking up in the morning and realizing they're not next to me. But the harder part is knowing that I get to leave eventually and I get to go home and be safe. I've developed a lot of friends here who are the same age as me and have kids my age and they don't have those securities and those basic necessities.
DIAMOND (voice-over): Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Jerusalem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: Israel is set to defend itself against accusations of genocide in Gaza before the International Court of Justice, that's this hour. Israel accuses South Africa of acting as the legal arm of Hamas by requesting the emergency hearing. The court in The Hague on Thursday, South Africa condemned Israel's growing military operation in Rafah saying the alleged genocide has reached a, quote, new and horrific stage.
It accused Israel of willfully breaching the court's binding orders issued last week. Lawyers for South Africa said there's an imminent prospect of death and suffering on a massive scale 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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[04:10:00] FOSTER: Well, Israel's foreign ministry responded to those remarks with the ministry spokesperson writing, quote: It's an upside down world, the terrorists of Hamas are using South Africa in their attempt to exploit the ICJ.
Severe storms, powerful winds and a possible tornado blasted through parts of the U.S. state of Texas on Thursday. At least four people were killed in Houston. This was a scene in downtown or the downtown area with debris swirling around a bank building. The National Weather Service says the winds were equivalent to a category one hurricane at times.
Well, the storms knocked down trees and power lines and blew out windows in some skyscrapers. More than 800,000 homes and businesses are still without electricity across the state, according to poweroutage.us. Thousands more are without power in Louisiana and Missouri -- and Mississippi, rather, as the system moves east. Houston schools are closed today and the mayor is urging people to stay home and stay off the roads.
Here's how two residents describe the chaos.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So we all took cover in the bathroom windows blowing out trees flying everywhere. It was crazy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All of a sudden we're in the restroom and we hear everybody screaming and coming toward the restroom. And we -- there's like dust blowing down from the ceiling tiles.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: And a developing story out of France for you, police have shot and killed a man who tried to set fire at a synagogue this morning. That's according to the French interior ministry, which says the incident happened in the northern city of Rouen. The interior minister says the man was armed and he congratulated the officers for stopping him. Rouen is located about 110 kilometers northwest of Paris.
Ahead, a blockbuster day in the Donald Trump hush money trial with the most intense cross-examination so far.
Plus, Ukrainian officials try to flee a town that's under Russian military assault. But to get to safety, they have to dodge artillery strikes and military drones flying over their heads.
And Russia's president is currently in China on a visit intended to strengthen his partnership with the Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Coming up, how the U.S. and Western allies view that united front.
[04:15:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
FOSTER: Donald Trump's hush money trial is on hold today. The court granted the former U.S. president permission to attend his son Barron's high school graduation, which is today in Florida. But come Monday, the defense will resume their increasingly intense cross- examination of key witness Michael Cohen.
Trump's lawyers tried to tear apart his former fixer's credibility on Thursday during hours of fierce interrogation.
[04:15:00]
CNN's Paula Reid has the detail.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Michael Cohen, the only witness being called by the prosecution, who can directly implicate Donald Trump in an alleged hush money scheme, has crucial parts of his testimony undercut. Returning to the stand for a second day of cross-examination, Trump defense attorney Todd Blanche grilling Cohen about all the times he has lied. Painting him as unreliable and out for revenge after not being given a job in the Trump White House.
You were disappointed that after all the work that you had done for President Trump for nine and a half years, nobody, including President Trump, offered you a position in the White House.
Blanche asked Cohen after showing him text messages he sent to his daughter about potentially working in the Trump administration.
That's not accurate, Cohen insisted.
And he began to grow agitated as Trump leaned forward in his chair behind the defense table, at times staring intently at his former fixer.
The Trump defense then reached a crescendo, turning to a key moment of Cohen's testimony. A 2016 phone call he says he had with former Trump body man Keith Schiller, who says he then passed the phone to Trump.
Cohen says he told Trump on that call how he planned to pay Stormy Daniels to keep their alleged affair quiet. But referencing phone records, Blanche asked:
This is the call that you testified about on Tuesday. It was to talk to President Trump about the Stormy deal and to move forward.
Cohen was then shown a text message he sent to Schiller the same night about a 14 year old prank caller who had been harassing him.
Cohen texted Schiller: Who can I speak to regarding harassing calls to my cell and office? The dope forgot to block his number.
Schiller texted back soon after: Call me.
Blanche then raised his voice, asking Cohen to confirm the call was not actually a conversation with Trump about Stormy Daniels, but about the 14 year old prankster.
Cohen defended himself saying: Part of it was the 14 year old, but I know that Keith was with Mr. Trump at the time and there was more potentially than this.
Blanche shot back: That was a lie. You did not talk to President Trump. You talked to Keith Schiller. You can admit it.
Cohen calmly responded. No, sir. I don't know that it's accurate.
Blanch responded. A one minute and 36 second phone call. And you had enough time to update Schiller about all the problems you were having and also update President Trump about the status of the Stormy Daniels situation because you had to keep him informed.
I always ran everything by the boss immediately and in this case, it would have been saying everything had been taken care of. It's been resolved.
Cohen answered. He maintained his composure: I believe I also spoke to Mr. Trump and told him everything regarding the Stormy Daniels matter.
We are not asking for your belief. This story does not want to hear what you think happened. Blanche retorted.
The prosecution then objected, the judge sustained and Michael Cohen shook his head.
REID: Every day we try to update people on when we could see a potential verdict in this case. Now, next week, there is court on Monday, Tuesday. Court's always off on Wednesday. But it's unclear if they're going to meet on Thursday because a juror has an appointment that conflicts with court.
Then there is a four day weekend that they're giving the jury for the Memorial Day holiday. So at this point, it appears unlikely there will be a verdict with everything they still have left to do until after the holiday.
Paula Reid, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: So the defense may have landed a key blow during that bruising cross-examination of Cohen. But was it enough to move the needle and create reasonable doubt with the jury? CNN legal analyst Norm Eisen doesn't think so. He explained his reasoning to CNN's John Vause.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NORM EISEN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: While it was a good moment, a strong, dramatic moment, one of the most intense confrontations of this trial, it was not enough to reverse the evidence corroborating Michael Cohen. Going back to the first witness, David Pecker, Keith Davidson, Hope Hicks, the documents, the records. And I thought the prosecution had established proof beyond a reasonable doubt before they came in today. This exchange might have shaved a couple of points off, but I think the proof is still there, John. Juries are not going to disregard a witness, particularly one who I thought they appreciated, like Michael Cohen, based on one error. If it had been two or three or four moments like that in sequence, that might have rocked him. I don't think this was enough.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: Cohen has served as the prosecution's lynchpin, but he's not the only major personality to take to the stand. CNN's Brian Todd explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Donald Trump's first criminal trial featured a succession of critical and colorful witnesses, each providing key insight that could make or break this case, potentially the most crucial witness up to this moment, Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's former lawyer, fixer, bully for hire, thought to be the only witness in this case who could directly tie Trump to the alleged crimes he's accused of. 34 counts of fraud related to the hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels.
JOSEPH MORENO, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: At the end of the day, he's going to be the make or break witness for either side, right? It's going to be does the jury believe him.
TODD (voice-over): Trump has denied wrongdoing with the payments and denied the affair with Daniels. The adult film star herself spent days on the stand, testifying in sometimes graphic detail about the alleged affair and the money she received.
JEFFREY SWARTZ, FORMER MIAMI-DADE COUNTY COURT JUDGE: She did not bring out all that much except for to disprove the allegations that were made in the opening statement by the defense that the affair between Mr. Trump and Stormy Daniels never occurred.
TODD (voice-over): Another key player on the stand, David Pecker, the powerful former publisher of the "National Enquirer." Pecker provided almost dizzying detail of the so-called catch and kill plans, saying he bought and buried a story on the alleged Trump affair with Playboy model Karen McDougal, an affair Trump also denies and testifying that he refused to buy Stormy Daniels story.
SWARTZ: He set the stage and created the conspiracy itself. He tied Mr. Trump to the conspiracy, at least as far as McDougal was concerned.
TODD (voice-over): There was Keith Davidson, the ex-attorney for both Daniels and McDougal. Davidson testified that he sold the story of Daniels affair to Michael Cohen for $130,000.
Rhona Graff, Trump's assistant of 34 years with the Trump Organization, took the stand for the prosecution, but admitted in court she didn't want to be there. Graff spoke of how she kept Trump's schedule and his list of contacts.
SWARTZ: It showed that there were certain people that were on Mr. Trump's speed dial or on his contacts, which included McDougal and Stormy Daniels, that Pecker was calling all the time and he was talking to Pecker.
TODD (voice-over): Hope Hicks, Trump's former campaign press secretary and White House communications director, cried when on the stand. She recalled the level of panic in the campaign when the Access Hollywood tape was revealed.
But analysts say the most important witness is one who may or may not testify.
MORENO: Putting Donald Trump on the stand, right, huge upside, huge downside, right? Lots of risk there.
TODD: The trial now shifts more toward Trump's lead defense attorney, Todd Blanche, and the witnesses who he may or may not call to the stand. With Blanche in the driver's seat, former prosecutor Joseph Moreno says it will be critical how much Trump behind the scenes pushes Blanche to call certain witnesses and pushes him on how hard to grill them.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is facing questions over "The New York Times" report reporting an upside down American flag flying over his front lawn, which was in 2021. "The Times" obtained this photo of the inverted flag. The image has been adopted as a stop the steal symbol by supporters of former President Donald Trump, who still don't believe Joe Biden is the elected president.
"The Times" reports the flag was seen at Alito's home 11 days after the Capitol Hill riots in 2021 and that some neighbors interpreted it to be a political statement by the Alitos.
CNN hasn't independently verified the flag's use and a Supreme Court spokesperson didn't immediately respond to CNN's request for comment.
In an email to "The Times," Alito said: I had no involvement whatsoever in the flying of the flag. It was briefly placed by Mrs. Alito in response to a neighbor's use of objectionable and personally insulting language on yard signs.
Now, a Texas man convicted of murdering a racial justice protester in 2020 is now free after being granted a pardon by the governor. Ex-Army Sergeant Daniel Perry had been sentenced to 25 years in prison for fatally shooting an Air Force veteran at a Black Lives Matter protest.
The demonstration took place two months after the murder of George Floyd in Minnesota, which set off similar protests across the country and indeed the world. More details now from CNN's Ed Lavandera in Texas. (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 Pardon and Paroles voted unanimously to recommend a pardon for the former Army sergeant.
[04:25:00]
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 texts 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 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's 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 of prison. He was released from a Texas prison this afternoon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: Sounds like positive news for air travelers. U.S. President Joe Biden signed a bipartisan bill on Thursday that aims to improve aviation safety and strengthen passenger protection. Under the new law, an airline must issue an automatic refund to a passenger who either declines a rebooking request or doesn't respond to the request. The law also requires Federal Aviation Administration to hire more air traffic controllers and to install additional runway technology to reduce collisions and close calls on the runways.
After the break, the suspect in the shooting of the Slovak prime minister now faces charges.
Also coming up, the new development officials believe could open the door to new opportunities for trade in Africa.
