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Over 100 Feared Dead After Papua New Guinea Landslide; Bodies Of Three More Hostages Recovered From Gaza; Gangs Wreak Havoc In Haiti, Force Out Prime Minister; Diddy Combs Faces Eighth Sexual Assault Lawsuit; Atlanta Breaks Records For Passengers Screened. Aired 3-3:30a ET
Aired May 25, 2024 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Welcome to all of you watching us around the world, I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.
Hundreds are still missing feared dead in a massive landslide in Papua New Guinea. I'll speak to an aid worker for the latest.
The U.N.'s top court orders Israel to immediately halt its operation in Rafah. We'll have Israel's response to that decision.
And later, scientists discover a new potentially habitable planet. It could be the most similar one to Earth we've found so far.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Kim Brunhuber.
BRUNHUBER: Well, it's a deadly and chaotic scene in a remote area of Papua New Guinea. More than 100 people are feared dead after a landslide, buried people while they slept in the middle of the night. The community has been scrambling to reach victims and survivors.
Debris is said to be six to eight meters deep and covers an area the size of three to four football fields. One official says around 60 homes have been destroyed. Search and rescue teams are working to secure the area but the village's remoteness and debris blocking the area's main highway or hampering those efforts.
Joining us now is the national director for World Vision Papua New Guinea, Chris Jensen.
Thank you so much for being here with us.
So first off, what more are we learning about how many may have been killed, missing, affected?
CHRIS JENSEN, NATIONAL DIRECTOR, WORLD VISION PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Yes, hi, Kim.
Yes. It's quite a challenge. The information coming in is that where there's approximately 60 households that have been impacted by a significant landslide. This happened 3:00 in the morning only two nights ago.
And I struggle to consider what that would be like just in the middle of the night, literally a mountain coming down upon your home. Just tragic and devastating events.
BRUNHUBER: Yes.
The fact that what happened when so many people were sleeping must contribute to the fact that it could potentially be so deadly. Listen, you're about 600 kilometers away but you're in touch with people in the area, I assume?
What are they telling you?
JENSEN: Yes. And what were hearing is there's a quite a lot of search and rescue operations ongoing. The local people are doing whatever they can, obviously, to access those who might still be trapped.
But at this stage, with such large amount of debris, I think it's obviously they're looking at the worst-case scenario. We've got large amounts of teams from the provincial authorities as well as national government authorities doing assessments, carrying out analysis on what exactly is required as we then look at responding.
Just to give you an idea that this is area is right up in the center of the Highlands. As you've said, it's a long way from here and Port Moresby and even access in normal circumstances is challenging, quite, quite a long, lengthy drive or flight or to somewhere nearby.
So with the landslide taking out the main highway, extremely challenging circumstances to give assistance.
BRUNHUBER: (INAUDIBLE) remote and you speak of this large debris. Obviously that would necessitate heavy equipment, bulldozers, lifters and so on. And given the state of the roads, that's going to be difficult, I imagine, to get in.
And we know, with this type of disaster, time is such a huge factor for those who are trapped. Time's running out.
JENSEN: Yes, that's right.
It's, you see some of the footage and the pictures that are coming in. And it is really quite a significant event. This is an area that the typography in that area is a lot of steep mountains.
We've had a lot of rain lately. There's been earthquakes that caused landslides in similar provinces in the last couple of years. So it's a really tragic event. And my heart goes out to those who are impacted.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, absolutely. And you speak of earthquakes that have happened. I guess there are possibilities of more earthquakes, maybe more landslides.
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Even rain would be catastrophic, not just those for the -- who have survived, who don't have shelter but hampering the recovery efforts as well.
JENSEN: Absolutely. I mean, I think what were saying is, with some of the climate change impacts are that the typical seasons are changing and shifting. We're getting massive amounts of flooding.
If you look across this beautiful country here of Papua New Guinea right now, we have various sort of localized responses and flooding and impacts right across the country. So we are seeing weather patterns shift and change.
To what extent this impacts this event, time will tell once the assessments have been done. But certainly one of the main challenges is, once authorities getting there and have a look around and look assessments, there's the possibility that the land slip will continue.
So we have to be very careful around how we provide assistance so that we don't further challenge the situation. But yes, incredibly challenging circumstances what is such a beautiful and amazing landscape.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, we certainly wish the best to all those affected and to those who are out there trying to help them. Chris Jensen in Papua New Guinea, thank you so much. Appreciate it.
JENSEN: Thank you.
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BRUNHUBER: The United Nations' top court is ordering Israel to immediately halt its Rafah offensive. It's part of the growing pressure on Israel to end the operation.
On Friday, The International Court of Justice said it considers the humanitarian situation in Rafah to be disastrous and that it's expected to get even worse. Israel started a limited ground offensive in Rafah on May 7th.
Before then, more than 1 million Palestinians were taking shelter there. But now around 800,000 have been displaced. There's strong global reaction to the court's order. Listen to this.
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ZANE DANGOR, DIRECTOR-GENERAL, DEPARTMENT OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND COOPERATION, SOUTH AFRICA: This order is groundbreaking as it is the first time that explicit mention is made for Israel to halt its military action in any area of Gaza; this time, specifically in Rafah.
RIYAD MANSOUR, PALESTINIAN AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: It is, as I said, party to the convention. And the convention is crystal clear on this issue. So Israel has to abide by the decisions and the demands from the ICJ.
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BRUNHUBER: And despite the court's decision, Israel stepped up military strikes on Gaza Friday, including what you see here in Rafah. Israeli officials say they will continue operations there. CNN's Jeremy Diamond has more.
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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The United Nations top court intervening to try and stop Israel's military offensive in Rafah.
NAWAF SALAM, PRESIDENT, INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE: The state of Israel shall, in conformity with its obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, immediately halt its military offensive and any other action in the Rafah governorate.
Which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza, conditions of life that would bring about its physical destruction.
DIAMOND: The ruling comes nearly three weeks after Israeli tanks first rolled into Rafah, seizing the border crossing with Egypt, slowing aid deliveries to Gaza.
More than 800,000 people have now been forced to flee the city, many camping out in areas with insufficient food, water and sanitation, as humanitarian aid officials warn of looming catastrophe.
Benny Gantz, a member of Israel's war cabinet, says Israel must continue fighting to return its abductees and ensure the safety of its citizens at anytime and anywhere, including in Rafah.
The ruling cements a month of extraordinary international condemnation of Israel's conduct in Gaza when it saw President Biden threaten Israel over concerns about Rafah.
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If they go into Rafa, I'm not supplying the weapons.
DIAMOND: And just this week, the International Criminal Court's top prosecutor seeking an arrest warrant for Israel's prime minister.
For the second time in two weeks, Israelis also learning of the deaths of more hostages.
REAR ADM. DANIEL HAGARI, IDF SPOKESPERSON: It is with a heavy heart that I share that last night, Israeli Special Forces in Gaza rescued the bodies of our hostages.
DIAMOND: The Israeli military recovering the bodies of three hostages in Northern Gaza, 59-year-old Michel Nisenbaum, 30-year-old Orion Hernandez Radoux and 42-year-old Hanan Yablonka. The news crushing their family's hopes that their loved ones were still alive. SHAY ABADY, BROTHER-IN-LAW OF HANAN YABLONKA: Eight months, we were hoping that we will find them. But until now, until today, this morning, we didn't know nothing if he was alive or he was dead.
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DIAMOND (voice-over): His brother-in-law, Hanan Yablonka, was killed after making a last minute decision to attend the Nova festival.
ABADY: He always had a smile on his face, always smiling. No matter what happened, he smiled.
DIAMOND (voice-over): As his family mourns, top American, Israeli and Qatari officials meeting in Paris to reignite stalled ceasefire talks, the fate of 121 hostages resting on their results -- Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Jerusalem.
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BRUNHUBER: Aid shipments into Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing could resume at any time.
The White House says U.S. president Joe Biden spoke Friday with Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. The two agree to facilitate aid delivery through the crossing temporarily until the Rafah border crossing can be reopened.
Meanwhile, an Israeli official tells CNN that Israel says it will soon send a delegation to new ceasefire talks in Paris. A U.S. official says CIA director William Burns met with Qatar's prime minister on Friday.
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BRUNHUBER: Ukraine's president says his troops are making progress in pushing back against Russia's offensive in the Kharkiv region. This is Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaking about that Friday night.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Now our soldiers have managed to take combat control of the border area where the Russian occupiers entered.
And I thank every unit that ensures the necessary results in destroying the occupiers.
BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Russia launched a surprise cross-border incursion earlier this month, initially seizing about a dozen villages in the region. But Ukraine said this week that it stalled the Russian advance.
On Friday, Zelenskyy also took a first-hand look at the aftermath of Russia's latest barrage on the city of Kharkiv. He went there a day after missile attacks killed at least seven people and wounded more than 20 others. (END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: In Washington, the U.S. is sending more military aid to help Ukraine's pushback near Kharkiv. The new aid package, worth $275 million, includes ammunition, tactical vehicles and other weapons.
But in Italy, G7 countries are debating how to use Russian money to help Ukraine. Their finance ministers, on the final day of their meeting today, they want to cut a deal on using some $300 billion in Russian assets that have been frozen in the Western financial institutions since the war began.
And in Belarus, Russian president Vladimir Putin appears to be trying to play the peacemaker. That's after Reuters reported that he's ready for a ceasefire along the existing front lines.
Ukraine shot down the idea as an attempt to derail an upcoming peace summit in Switzerland. The Russian leader also appeared to question the legitimacy of President Zelenskyy, whose term has expired, although Ukraine's constitution doesn't allow for elections in wartime.
But international watchdogs said Putin's recent reelection was anything but fair.
A Missouri state representative is remembering his 21 year-old daughter, Natalie Lloyd, as loving and determined after she her husband, Davy, and coworker Jude Montis were killed in gang violence in Port-au-Prince on Thursday. CNN's David Culver has more.
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DAVID CULVER, CNN SENIOR U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An outpouring of grief for two young missionaries brutally killed in Haiti's capital. They went to heaven together. Missouri State Representative Ben Baker posted his daughter, Natalie and her husband, Davy Lloyd, attacked by gangs Thursday night in Port-au- Prince.
The couple, in their early 20s, served as part of missions in Haiti, a Christian non-profit organization run for more than two decades by Lloyd's parents. The organization, posting Friday, "They were ambushed by a gang of three trucks full of guys. Davy was taken to the house, tied up and beat. The gang then took our trucks and loaded everything up they wanted and left."
At some point, as the attacks unfolded, Davy Lloyd called his father.
DAVID LLOYD, DAVY LLOYD'S FATHER: He was injured, so he was hurt. And he was very nervous and very scared. Because I asked him why they tied him up. And he's like, well, because you're the only one that's got strength that we have to worry about. And so they wanted to make sure he couldn't put up a fight back.
And then he was begging me to find somebody to get in there to help him. And I did all I could but I couldn't locate anybody. CULVER (voice-over): Three hours later, the group posted that the couple was shot and killed by the gang. Missions in Haiti says a third person, a Haitian staffer named Jude, was also killed in the attack. We're told he'd been with the organization for 20 years. The violent incident started as the missionaries were leaving church and lasted for several hours.
Davy Lloyd's father says the three died barricaded in the Lloyd family's living quarters on the mission's compound. Haiti has been spiraling into gang fueled chaos, which forced the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry in April. The U.N. estimates some 80 percent of the capital city is under gang control.
In recent months, CNN's made multiple trips to Port-au-Prince. We've met victims of the gang's brutality.
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including rape, kidnappings and murder. Hundreds of thousands now refugees in their own cities, as gangs have torched their homes and forced them to flee.
We've also met with the leader of one prominent gang, he and others demanding a say in Haiti's future. A future that may again be shaped by foreign forces. President Biden hosted Kenya's President William Ruto for a state dinner in Washington Thursday, around the same time that the deadly attack on Davy and Natalie Lloyd was taking place.
Top of the two leaders' agenda, Haiti.
WILLIAM RUTO, PRESIDENT OF KENYA: We are going to take up that responsibility alongside the Haitian police.
CULVER (voice-over): Kenya plans to lead a U.N.-backed multinational support mission to Haiti with at least 1,000 Kenyan police officers set to deploy. President Biden stating Thursday the U.S. will not send troops but is providing equipment and intel.
The White House reacting to the killings in a statement on Friday. "Our hearts go out to the families of those killed as they experience unimaginable grief." Missions in Haiti, among many others, has been warning Haiti is on the brink of collapse.
A group posting last month, "It seems the world has turned their backs on Haiti and it's going to be left in complete gang control." Now three of their members just the latest victims of that unrelenting gang violence -- David Culver, CNN, New York.
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BRUNHUBER: Now there have been conflicting reports about how the missionaries were killed. The mission in Haiti group on Thursday described the victims as being shot and killed. On Friday a source close to the investigation told CNN that, at this point, the bodies of the American missionaries do not appear to have gunshot wounds.
An investigation into the incident is continuing.
The U.N. says a fire destroyed dozens of shelters in Bangladesh Rohingya refugee camp on Friday. Community members and refugee firefighters fought to bring the blaze under control. Officials are appealing for urgent support to help hundreds of displaced Rohingyas before the heavy rains and storm reach the region in a day or two.
The large camp is housing nearly 1 million refugees from Myanmar, who've been plagued by recent fires. In March of last year, 12,000 people were left homeless when a massive fire ripped through one of the camps.
Meanwhile, the European Union, the U.S. and several other countries have issued a joint statement expressing concern over the worsening humanitarian crisis sparked by the ongoing civil war in Myanmar.
According to the statement, since February 2021, the humanitarian crisis has grown from 1 million to over 18 million people in need of aid. The statement condemns the military regime for limiting access to food, water and medicine.
And it also says there are credible reports of abuses against civilians, including airstrikes, torture and sexual violence against women and children, which has made the crisis worse.
A U.N. human rights office warns of there is a risk of serious rise in violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state, where there have been -- what officials described as frightening and disturbing reports of Rohingya being killed and their properties burned.
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ELIZABETH THROSSELL, SPOKESPERSON, U.N. OFFICE OF THE UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS: In this appalling situation, civilians are once more victimized, killed; their properties destroyed and looted; their demands for safety and security ignored. And they are again forced to flee their homes in a recurring nightmare of suffering.
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BRUNHUBER: Another person comes forward to accuse rapper Sean Diddy Combs of sexual assault. After the break, we'll have details on the latest lawsuit filed against the music mogul.
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BRUNHUBER: Rapper Sean Diddy Combs is facing yet another sexual assault allegation, this time by a woman who claims he assaulted her four times from the mid 1990s to the early 2000s. Now this is the eighth lawsuit filed against the rapper since November CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister has the story.
And we just want to warn you, this report does contain some graphic details that some viewers may find disturbing.
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ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The legal fallout continues for Sean "Diddy" Combs, just a week after CNN uncovered this disturbing video of the music mogul, throwing then girlfriend Cassie Ventura to the ground, then kicking and dragging her.
On Thursday, April Lampros filed a civil law lawsuit accusing Combs of sexual assault when she was a fashion student in New York in the '90s and shared with him her dreams of working in the fashion industry.
Then Mr. Combs love-bombed her, the suit alleges, using flowers and cards like this one and inviting her to his first Father's Day celebration.
But Combs' kind gestures became more aggressive, the suit alleges, leading to a total of four separate sexual assaults, the first an alleged rape in 1995, leaving Lampros nude, sore and confused. She claims that Combs used his power in the industry to regain her trust.
But then in a New York City parking garage, forced Lampros to perform oral sex.
"As Ms. Lampros' eyes filled with tears, she could see the parking garage attendant witnessing this horrific assault," the suit claims.
Lampros says she was caught in an abusive relationship and tried to end it after several years. But after running into Combs at an event, he pursued her. And in late 2000 at her apartment, Combs violently grabbed her and forced himself onto her, kissing and touching her against her will.
This came, the suit notes, while Combs was in a public relationship with Jennifer Lopez.
Combs developed this mobster persona, the suit claims, at one point violently yanking her down to her knees and pulling her hair. The alleged abuse similar to this, when Combs was caught on hotel surveillance in 2016, kicking and dragging Cassie Ventura, then throwing a vase at her.
SEAN "DIDDY" COOMBS," MUSIC MOGUL: I mean, I hit rock bottom.
WAGMEISTER (voice-over): The latest suit filed by Lampros is the seventh civil lawsuit against Combs alleging sexual assault. Many of the cases once fell outside the statute of limitations.
But in the case of that shocking video from Los Angeles, the district attorney's office says criminal charges won't be filed.
The video shows assault, not rape. But with those federal raids on diddy's homes in March, legal analysts say the civil claims, much like in a case against Harvey Weinstein, pertain to criminal charges in the future.
JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: And so, just because it's a civil lawsuit now doesn't mean that prosecutors and looking and evaluating it may not find something that they feel that they can prosecute that makes it fair came for prosecution.
And I think it's a falty asmpn to presume that he's out of the woods.
WAGMEISTER: Now I reached out to April Lampros and she says that the reason she came forward is so that no other woman has to endure what she did. She says that she does believe that justice will ultimately prevail.
We also reached out to Diddy's team; no word back yet on this lawsuit and also no comment from them on another suit that was also filed earlier this week. Both of those complaints coming after that surveillance video of Cassie that we released here at CNN -- back to you.
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BRUNHUBER: Scientists discover that the Earth may have a close relative. After the break, researchers find a theoretically habitable, Earth-sized planet in our cosmic neighborhood. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: U.S. stocks ended the week on a high note after the Dow Jones industrial average had its worst day this year on Thursday. The Nasdaq closed at a record high on Friday, getting 184 points.
The S&P rose 36 points and the Dow rose 4 points but fell overall for the week.
The world's busiest airport set a U.S. travel record on Thursday only to break it again one day later. Here in Atlanta, Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport set a record for passengers screened between midnight and 8 am on Thursday and again on Friday.
That's according to the U.S. Transportation Security Administration. (INAUDIBLE) also said they expect Friday's single-day numbers to surpass Thursday's record total of 111,000 passengers screened.
Now this is, of course, the Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start of the summer in the U.S.
A new study is giving a whole new meaning to the term "birdbrain." Research found that crows can vocally count up to the number four. They can also match the number of calls they make when shown a numeral.
Researchers were even able to tell how many calls the birds plan to make by the way their first call sounded. Now that study's lead author said the research was partly inspired by toddlers learning to count.
It was published Thursday in the journal, "Science."
And scientists have discovered a potentially habitable planet about 40 light years away. A study published Thursday says it's smaller than Earth but larger than Venus. It falls within the habitable zone, where liquid water and possibly life, as we know it, can exist.
The planet orbits a small star in the constellation Pisces. Researchers calculated surface temperature to be a steamy 42 degrees Celsius. And getting there will take 225,000 years on the fastest spacecraft we have.
All right, I'm Kim Brunhuber. I'll be back in 30 minutes with more CNN NEWSROOM. "BOLD PURSUITS" is next.
