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IDF Investigates Strike In Rafah; Closing Arguments In Trump Hush Money Trial; French, German Leaders Say Ukraine Allowed To Strike Inside Russia; South Africans Have Begun Voting In An Election Seen As Most Important In 30 Years; Voting Underway in What Could be a Pivotal General Election in South Africa; China's Military Tests Out Rifle- Toting Robot Dogs; Satellite Images Show Scale of Devastation from Landslide; Aerospace Startup Aims to Ensure and Sustain Earth; American Abby Lampe Wins Second Cheese Roll World Title. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired May 29, 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: Hello, everyone, I'm John Vause, Thanks for joining us. Ahead here on CNN Newsroom.
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REAR ADM. DANIEL HAGARI, IDF SPOKESPERSON: They're running repeated. Our ammunition alone could not have ignited a fire of this size.
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VAUSE: A tragic mistake on Monday passing the buck on Tuesday. Israel now says Sunday's airstrike on Rafah may have triggered a secondary explosion which ignited that deadly inferno.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP JR., DONALD TRUMP'S SON: If there was a goat of liars, it is Michael Cohen.
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VAUSE: Irony is not dead, inside and outside of New York City courtroom Team Trump tries to destroy the credibility of their once loyal bagman turn star witness for the prosecution, Michael Cohen, and the last days of bullfighting in Colombia, after lawmakers overwhelmingly vote to ban a cruel, inhumane and barbaric spectacle.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Atlanta. This is CNN Newsroom with John Vause.
VAUSE: In just two days, Israel has gone from admitting to a tragic error in Rafah where 45 people, many of them women and children were burned to death after an Israeli airstrike. Now raising the possibility a secondary blast from an unknown source sparked the inferno at a camp for displaced Palestinians.
And despite global condemnation, Israel's military operation continues in southern Gaza Israeli tanks team for the first time rolling into Rafah city. Israeli forces once again targeting camps for those displaced by war. Two were hit overnight, according to Gaza officials, at least eight people were killed at the Tel al-Sultan camp in western Rafah, that's just 150 meters away from the camp, which was hit by Israel on Sunday.
A second attack Tuesday Gaza itself like 21 people did at the Al- Mawasi cap, an area which Israel has designated a safe zone. The IDF says it did not strike the area. Israel is insisting its carrying out limited operations along the Gaza-Egypt border and says investigations into Sunday's airstrikes and Inferno are ongoing.
But a CNN analysis video from the scene shows to U.S. made GBU 39 precision bombs were used in the attack. And for now U.S. military assistance for Israel will continue.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How does this not violate the red line the President laid out?
JOHN KIRBY, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL SPOKESPERSON: We don't want to see a major ground operation. We haven't seen that at this point. As a result of this strike on Sunday I have no policy changes to speak to. It just happened. The Israelis are going to investigate it.
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VAUISE: More details down from CNN's Jeremy Diamond in Jerusalem and a warning his report contains graphic images.
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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Makeshift shelters housing displaced Palestinians engulfed in flames. The screams of women pierced the smoke filled air as bodies are pulled from the blaze. The Israeli military says it did not expect carnage on this scale when it dropped to small precision guided munitions here targeting to senior Hamas militants.
HAGARI: Our munition alone could not have ignited a fire of this size I run it repeated. Our munition alone could not have ignited a fire of this size.
DIAMOND (voice-over): The Israeli military says it is still investigating what else could have ignited the inferno, floating the possibility of a secondary explosion caused by ammunition stored nearby. It provided no verifiable evidence to back up that theory.
What is clear how close the strike was to container like shelters housing hundreds of displaced Palestinian civilians. These two container like structures were targeted in the attack, according to this Israeli drone footage. At least three people can be seen on the road outside those structures, moments before the strike.
These are the two structures identified as targets by the Israeli military as seen in satellite imagery. Adjacent structures were also destroyed in the explosion or the subsequent fire.
Displaced civilians were living in some or all of these structures. At least 45 people were killed according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Amid growing international outrage and condemnation, the Israeli military isn't slowing down it's Rafah offensive, with tanks spotted in central Rafah for the first time.
[01:05:00]
As the Israeli military investigate one strike, it is carrying out others also in camps for displaced Palestinians. Just 500 feet from Sunday night's strike, Hamza holds a piece of the projectile that killed his sister overnight in the Tel al-Sultan camp. She was sleeping when shrapnel hit her in the face, he says, one of eight people killed in the same strike.
CNN has reached out to the Israeli military for comment. The walls of the U.N. warehouse next door are now scarred with shrapnel assigned to many in this camp, that the area is no longer safe. Hundreds are now packing up what little they can still claim as their own and fleeing once again, desperate for refuge from the violence that surrounds them. Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Jerusalem.
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VAUSE: Joining us now from Sydney, Australia is Malcolm Davis, Senior Analyst of Defense Strategy and Capability, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. Welcome back, Michael. Good to see you.
MALCOLM DAVIS, SENIOR ANALYST, Australian Strategic Policy Institute: Good to see you too.
VAUSE: OK, so it's ready investigation into that weekend airstrike on Rafah and the deadly fire which followed. Now passing some data over what may have sparked that fire the chief spokesperson for the IDF suggested something in the area unknown to the Israeli military had exploded, and that secondary exposure ignited the inferno. Here's more listen to this.
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HAGARI: The fire that broke out was unexpected and unintended. The strike was conducted using two munitions with small warheads suited for this targeted strike. This is the smallest munition that our jets can use.
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VAUSE: They say an investigation is ongoing. But be it Israel, the U.S., Britain, Australia, any internal investigation into a military mishap in the middle of a war is questionable at best. So even if this assessment about the small munitions that was a secondary explosion turns out to be true. Does it simply reinforce the reality that there is no way to find a major offensive in a place like Rafah without killing a lot of people?
DAVIS: Or you may have the technical ability using these small precision munitions, the GBU-39s to strike with high precision on a specific target even an individual. But if there are civilians in the area, you have to follow the laws of armed conflict, which is includes necessity, proportionality and discrimination.
And I think that yes, the Israelis may not have expected ammunition to be there. And it's quite possible that when they struck those targets, the ammunition then exploded, creating the fires which have killed all these people. But I think that under the laws of armed conflict, that necessity, proportionality and discrimination aspect, Israelis would have been, I think, hesitant about using even these small bombs, to strike at those targets.
So I do think that the investigation needs to happen. But really, this strike should never have happened in the first place given the proximity of the civilians.
VAUSE: Let's talk about the munitions which were used because the Israelis have gone to great lengths to say that these were the smallest bombs which their jets can actually carry. And a CNN analysis of video from the scene as found the tale of the U.S. made GBU-39 small diameter bomb and SDB was visible at the scene. It's been affected by Boeing and as you say, it's a high precision munition.
That means it doesn't come without any risk when you use it in an area like Rafah. But how does this end impact what the White House is saying with regards to Israel not crossing a line and the ongoing supply of US weapons to the Israelis?
DAVIS: Well, I think the simple fact is that if the Israelis are determined to carry out this offensive, and I do think that the Israelis do need to defeat decisively Hamas, they can't afford to allow Hamas to emerge victorious or even prevail in this conflict, then the risks are that there'll be doing this in a highly populated urbanized environment full of civilians.
And what they need to do is adjust their tactics so that those civilians are less at risk. And I think that if they do that, then the U.S. supply of weapons and intelligence and various different other services should continue.
If they don't adjust their tactics, if they continue to use bombs, essentially, even these precision bombs in a manner that basically puts civilians at close proximity at risk, then I think you could see the White House start to second guess, the wisdom of continuing to support Israel. But of course that would then have serious implications in domestic political terms for the Biden administration.
VAUSE: With regards to the Israeli military operation, which is ongoing, not just in Rafah but across Gaza. There are Israeli tanks right now in downtown Rafah, one of the main roundabouts looking into the city there. It's the first time teams have rolled into the city. And yet you know, the Americans also saying this is not a major ground offensive it hasn't crossed any kind of red lines.
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But the other problem that we're having for the Israelis is that they're now having to rocket fire come from parts of Gaza, which were meant to have been cleared earlier in this form once again, being used by Hamas, which tends to suggest that even if you have this offensive on Rafah, and it goes ahead, and despite this huge loss of life, this military operation will continue against Hamas, because once they clear an area, they leave, and then Hamas take it back. This just seems to be sort of a game of Whack-a-Mole with no end in sight.
DAVIS: It is. Yes, it is. And unfortunately, they're dealing with an adversary that is elusive, that can blend into the local civilian population that can use civilians as human shields and can move their weapons, including these rocket launchers around fairly quickly. Hamas will continue to fire rockets at Israel. Hamas are not going to give up so the Israelis do have to defeat them and defeat them decisively. That means routing them.
The problem is how do you route Hamas without firstly causing a large number of civilian casualties in the process? And secondly, how do you do that without actually generating some future threat because of the remnants of Hamas re regenerating at some future point?
VAUSE: Malcolm, thank you so much for being with us. Malcolm Davis there in Sydney. We appreciate your time as always, sir. Thank you.
DAVIS: Thank you.
VAUSE: A rift among NATO allies over how Ukraine is allowed to use Western supplied weapons and the White House policy Ukraine is prevented from using U.S. weapons to strike targets inside Russia, but the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the French president Emmanuel Macron. Both say under international law, Ukraine has every right to strike military targets on Russian soil.
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EMMANUEL MACRON, FRENCH PRESIDENT (through translator): Ukrainian soil is being attacked from bases in Russia. So how do we explain to the Ukrainians that we're going to have to protect these towns, and basically everything we're seeing around Kharkiv at the moment, if we tell them you are not allowed to hit the point from which the missiles are fired.
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VAUSE: But Vladimir Putin is warning of a possible global conflict if Western supplied weapons are used by Ukraine to strike inside Russia.
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VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Just represented representatives of NATO countries, especially in Europe, especially in small countries, they should be aware of what they're playing with. They should remember that as countries with small densely populated territories, and this is a factor that they should keep in mind before talking about striking Russian territory. In general, this constant escalation can lead to serious consequences.
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VAUSE: Faster delivery of F-16 fighter jets, as well as training for Ukrainian pilots top of Volodymyr Zelenskyy's list during his trip to Belgium Tuesday, where the Ukrainian president signed a new security agreement for 30 F-16s to be delivered over the next four years. The first expected to arrive in the coming months, but the fighter jets come with a catch. They cannot be used to strike inside Russia as well.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We can see the places of arms, even from reconnaissance, you get maps, satellite images, you see, you see where they stand, but you cannot respond. I think it's unfair, but we cannot. And this is a fact risk the support of partners. And that is why we do not use the weapons of our partners on the territory of the Russian Federation. Please give us the opportunity to retaliate against their military.
KIRBY: Well aware of the interest that President Zelenskyy has expressed in this regard, I would tell you that there's no change to our policy at this point. We don't encourage or enable the use of U.S. supplied weapons to strike inside Russia. I would note that that the Ukrainians have in the past defeated imminent air attacks, such as some of the ones that have occurred in the last few days on their own since the war began.
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VAUSE: Georgia's controversial foreign agents bill is now set to be signed into law after parliament voted to override the President's veto. The bill requires organizations receiving more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad to register as foreign agents or face punitive fines.
Critics say the law is based on a similar law in Russia which has been used to stifle democratic rights and freedoms. The E.U. and the U.S. are both condemned the bill in Georgia.
After 21 long days in court testimony from nearly two dozen mostly prosecution witnesses, lurid details of an alleged sexual encounter between Donald Trump and former adult film star Stormy Daniels, 10 counts of contempt of court by Trump for violating a gag order. The never ending baseless whining by Trump about witch hunts and the courts bias.
A New York jury will soon begin deliberations in the first ever criminal trial of a former U.S. president. Did Donald Trump knowingly take part in a scheme to cover up hush money payments to Daniels with the intention of trying to mislead voters before the 2016 election. CNN's [01:15:03]
CNN's Kara Scannell Has details reporting in from New York.
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KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This case is not about Michael Cohen. It's about Mr. Trump. The prosecution with the final word to the jury in the Trump hush money trial, the first criminal case ever brought against a former president.
Cleaning up some a star witness Michael Cohen's testimony after Trump's defense repeatedly painted him as a liar and thief to the jury could not trust.
The defendant chose Michael Cohen as his fixer because he's willing to lie and cheat on his behalf. lead prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said. Mr. Trump chose Mr. Cohen for the same qualities that his attorneys now urge you to reject his testimony because of it.
The Manhattan district attorney accuses Trump of conspiring to undermine the 2016 election by illegally falsifying business records to conceal a payment Cohen made to porn star Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet about an alleged affair.
Her story is messy. It makes people uncomfortable to hear. But that's kind of the point. That's what the defendant did not want the American people to see, Steinglass said referring to Stormy Daniels. It turned out to be one of the most valuable contributions anyone ever made to the Trump campaign. Steinglass told the jury while ticking through evidence of another catch and kill deal involving former Playboy model Karen McDougal, when Cohen recorded a conversation with Trump.
MICHAEL COHEN, FORMER TRUMP ATTORNEY: About how to set the whole thing up with --
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: So, what are we going to pay #150?
COHEN: -- funding. Yes.
SCANNELL (voice-over): Steinglass called the recording jaw dropping and said of the catch and kill deals. This game cooked up by these men at this time could very well be what got President Trump elected.
TRUMP: This is a very dangerous day for Americans, a very sad day.
SCANNELL (voice-over): Trump's defense speaking first something Sources tell CNN the former president only recently realized and has been angry about.
TRUMP: Not the federal law. I did nothing wrong.
SCANNELL (voice-over): Trump attorney Todd Blanche reminding the jury that at one time Stormy Daniels denied the affair she now says she had with Trump. ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: So you signed and released a statement
that said I'm not denying this affair because I was paid in hush money. I'm denying it because it never happened. That's a lie.
STORMY DANIELS, FORMER ADULT FILM STAR: Yes.
TRUMP: Automatically attracted to beautiful I just start kissing them.
SCANNELL (voice-over): Blanche claiming Daniels took advantage of Trump while he was running for president after the infamous Access Hollywood tape. Miss Daniels seized an opportunity. Now's the time to strike Blanche said she thought after ticking through many of the characters in this case trying to dent their credibility. Blanche became laser focused on Michael Cohen. He lied to you repeatedly. He lied many times before you even met him, Blanche told the jury. Michael Cohen is the gloat the greatest liar of all time.
In a closing line that drew an objection from prosecutors and it didn't management from the judge, Blanche exclaimed you cannot send someone to prison. You cannot convict somebody based upon the words of Michael Cohen.
SCANNNELL: Steinglass finish his closing arguments after four hours and 41 minutes, telling the jury that the name of the game of concealment all roads lead inescapably to the man that benefitted the most the defendant former president Donald Trump urging the jury to find him guilty.
Now the judge sent the jury home at about eight o'clock Eastern time in New York on Tuesday night. They will be back in court on Wednesday morning. The judge will instruct them on the law that should take about an hour and then jury deliberations will get underway. Kara Scannell, CNN, New York.
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VAUSE: Live down to Los Angeles and CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein. Good to see you, Ron.
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Hey, John.
VAUSE: OK. We'll start with a recent poll of polls between both Biden and Trump at 48 percent. It doesn't get any closer than that, which is why when voters are asked if Trump is convicted of a crime, you would support him regardless. 76 percent said yes. Might reconsider supporting him 24 percent.
And they're mostly independents who are the ones who might be reconsidering their vote. So could this jury was already a verdict in this trial, also unintentionally decide the outcome of November's election?
BROWNSTEIN: You know, we are so dug in as a country and the line of division, the line of advantage between the two parties is so narrow that you really you can point to anything as potentially decisive. I don't think we will see right away how this jury verdict impacts the election.
I think it's going to be something of a slow burn either way, if there is a hung jury, obviously, it will give a lot of energy to Trump of whether it will move voters who are dubious of him on other grounds. I don't know.
On the other hand, if he is convicted, I think that you will be the fact of the conviction of a felony more than the specifics in this case that matter. I mean, we know from polling and Americans tend to view this as less of a serious offense than the other cases involving him on which Republican judges mostly have prevented from going to trial but crossing the threshold John have electing someone who is a convicted felon to the nation's chief law enforcement office, I think is something that's going to weigh on voters over time.
[01:20:06]
And we're really not going to know right away what the ultimate impact will be.
VAUSE: OK, so there's two options here. Well, there's a number of options. But yes, there's guilty or not guilty. And if there is a not guilty verdict, CNN is reporting this past behavior also suggests Trump would use any acquittal or mistrial caused by a hung jury to claim vindication in all his criminal cases.
Yet, this was to advance his personal campaign or political vengeance around which he's promised to build a second presidency. We've got the second part.
But, you know, this is a strategy, which is sort of working credit effectively for Trump during the Republican primaries, he's used his court appearances, and any of these grievances around at all to wipe out the field that was before him.
How does it change? So in a general election, when he's up against a Democrat, what's it what's the difference here?
BROWNSTEIN: If he actually got a not guilty verdict, I think that would be, you know, very powerful for him. Obviously, a hung jury is a very different thing than that. And obviously, a conviction is, you know, further on the continuum.
I don't think General Election, the majority of Americans are as willing as Republican voters to see this in all of this as inherently illegitimate as some vast conspiracy, a conspiracy so vast, as Joe McCarthy said, in the 50s, involving the grand juries and prosecutors, and juries themselves in multiple states.
I do think that if he is not convicted here, it will, you know, really just set off this avalanche of arguments from his supporters that all of this, as you say, is illegitimate, but I'm not sure that voters are going to see it that way.
And of course, you know, the other lesson of this trial is what could have been. I mean, if the Supreme Court had not had -- chosen not to hold up the trial on the allegations of trying to overturn the 2020 elections, is still you can do this, you know, in an expeditious timeframe, even involving a former president.
So it really to me just underscores the enormity of the Supreme Court intervention in this election, and all likelihood denying voters an answer about whether Trump will be judged guilty by a jury of his peers on the most serious challenges -- serious charges he faces of the four cases against him.
VAUSE: Yes, the hush money payments is still like the least important out of all the four trials. So if we were in a situation, that we were actually at, you know, closing arguments for that 2020 Federal interference election interference case, or maybe you have a very by now, would that change those port numbers in any significant way? Do you think?
BROWNSTEIN: I think it has more potential than this. I mean, look, I think, you know, as I've said to you before, I think it is highly likely that whatever happens between now and November, that on election day, more people will say they trust Trump and Biden to handle the economy. And that means the only way Biden wins, is if he convinces some voters within Trump is better for their bottom line to vote against him anyway, on other grounds, the other grounds that are the most likely to move voters in that way are rights values and democracy itself.
And I do think a trial reminding Americans of all the Trump did after the 2020 election to subvert the result, and thus, you know, opening a window into the degree to which he is willing to run over the constitution to maintain power would have an impact in this in this campaign, probably even more, certainly, even more than than this trial has done.
So I don't think you're going to overestimate how significant it is that the Supreme Court, the Republican appointed justices, on the Supreme Court, to be precise, has made it extremely unlikely that that case will go to trial before November.
VAUSE: And Republicans have used this trial. The court appearances as sort of campaign moment is by Trump or other high profile members of Congress. And on Tuesday, Democrats will turn to actor Robert De Niro to turn the tables a bit. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT DE NIRO, ACTOR AND FILM PRODUCER: I love this city. I don't want to destroy it. Donald Trump wants to destroy not only the city, but the country. And eventually he could destroy the world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: You can hear the protests chances in the background there. But does this sort of thing actually influence any voters? It was more for the party faithful?
BROWNSTEIN: Yes, I think it's more about showing that you know, the Biden is fighting. I'm not sure it was a great idea to do that around the trial. I mean, you know, Trump -- Biden has been so cautious about avoiding any, anything that could fuel Trump's argument that all of this is, as I said, a conspiracy so vast orchestrated against him.
And if anything, you know, I think after this election, there's going to be a lot of questioning about why it took Merrick Garland so long to really get these investigations going on the January 6 issue, which, you know, could contribute to -- if there's not a trial before the election.
But I'm not sure if that If it's Biden to kind of get into this kind of, you know, back and forth with Trump and his supporters.
[01:25:07]
I mean, really ominous thing. I think from the from the whatever happens in this case is the argument from so many of the Trump supporters that not only are the prosecutors and the judges in New York and capable of treating unfairly so are ordinary citizens.
I mean, in effect, the argument is that juries and blue jurisdictions cannot render a fair verdict on a Republican politician, sort of similar to what we saw in Texas when the governor pardoned someone convicted by a jury in Travis County, a blue county of killing of Black Lives Matter protester.
It's a form of soft secession to argue that, you know, blue jurisdictions, the only people who can render justice on Republicans are red, or red voters. And that really is the core of the argument that we've heard from so many Republicans who've troop their way to the Manhattan courthouse over the last few weeks.
VAUSE: Yes, it's a good point to finish on. Ron, thank you so much for being with us. Ron Brownstein there in Los Angeles. Good to see you.
BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me.
VAUSE: Always a pleasure, sir. Well, after 30 years of power, it's never a good sign when your campaign slogan is, we'll do better by South Africa's ruling ANC is now facing its first real challenge in decades. More on that as voters head to the polls.
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[01:28:37]
VAUSE: Welcome back, everyone. These are live images coming to us now from Johannesburg. 7:28 in the morning there as voters go to the polls in the general election. And the party of Nelson Mandela, the ANC has been overwhelmingly reelected there for 30 years. But now as voters do head to the polls for a general election, the ruling party could actually lose its grip on power, that's after years of corruption stuck at a quality of violent crime. And the best the ANC can now promise during its campaign is to do better.
David McKenzie live at a polling station for us in Johannesburg this hour. It's pretty telling me that your campaign slogan after three decades in office.
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is telling and it's something I've heard from ANC leaders in the last few weeks that they are going to write the ship that they're going to improve their governance, but many say and also independent judges say that they have been the cause of a lot of the issues gripping this country, including rampant corruption, allegations of corruption, and unemployment.
So there's also a stark inequality that remains in South Africa 30 years after the dawn of democracy. John, I'm here with Sidney Cadabby (ph). Who's came here early, didn't you? Why did you want to come so early to vote today?
SIDNEY CADABBY (ph), SOUTH AFRICAN VOTER. I came early because I'm going to put my mic (ph). And yes, I want to see things happening.
MCKENZIE: Why do you think this election in particular is a very important one since 1994?
[01:30:00]
CADABBY (ph): There's a big competition now. It's tight and when it's tight we are definitely saw that we are going to see what we want to see the change, you know. Because nothing has been happening. You know, these guys are relaxing. You know, they are not doing anything for us.
But I'm sure now they will recap (ph) everybody who will be, of course, the best one will take over the country, you know. And they'll do some changes, of course, if they took office now. I think time to play or let me say MK has taken everybody out.
MCKENZIE: And that's a party from the former president Jacob Zuma, who has been really causing problems for the ruling ANC.
But what has disappointed you in the last 20, 30 years of democracy in South Africa.
HABEBE: A lot. As a South African, I want to see change. I want to see this country -- this is a rich country. We've got everything, but people don't have enough anything (ph).
It still looks like we are still in the apartheid era, you know, whereby when you talk freedom, when you say you are free what do you own? You don't have land, you don't have property, you don't have anything. What do you own, you own nothing, you know.
What is supposed to happen people must have, if I don't own anything, then people must have jobs. People must -- you know, must own their land. We must own the land. You know, you cannot own nothing and say you're free.
MCKENZIE: Thank you very much.
You know John, that's something I've heard from a lot of people over the past few years being based here in South Africa. The frustration with the freedom, yes, but not access to economic power.
I think this is going to be a very interesting election. The ANC might drop below its 50 percent majority, could be forced to form a coalition.
But of course it's all about the people here and all across the country, more than 27 million people registered to vote. And they'll be the deciders of whether the ANC stays in power four more years after 30 years, remaining so, John.
VAUSE: it certainly has changed since the days of Nelson Mandela, the ANC that is.
David McKenzie in Johannesburg with the very latest on the election. We look forward to hearing from you throughout the day. Thank you.
Well, despite days of protest and heated debate, lawmakers in Taiwan had passed a controversial bill which increases oversight of the new president and his administration, say it's necessary to improve government accountability.
But on the floor of the legislature, tempers flared in those arguing during the debate. Opponents of the bill call it anti-democratic and say it will increase the mainland's influence over Taiwan.
China's military has been testing out one of its latest weapons of war, a four-legged gun-toting robot, which Beijing believes could replace human soldiers in some situations on the battlefield.
CNN's Mike Valerio has details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, during recent military drills with Cambodia, China's military showed off a robot dog with an automatic rifle on its back.
And well, this is what happens. It is a two-minute video made during the China-Cambodian military training exercise known as Golden Dragon 2024. In one drill, the rifle-firing robot leads an infantry unit into a training building.
And a soldier says in the video that is released by state broadcaster CCTV, quote, "It can serve as a new member in our urban combat operations, replacing our human members, to conduct reconnaissance and identify the enemy and strike the target."
Now, a CCTV video from last year also highlighted China's rifle-armed electronic canines in a joint exercise with the Chinese, Cambodian, Laos, Malaysian, Thai and Vietnamese militaries.
The dogs have been popping up on China's heavily regulated social media and this is the latest instance of that happening.
Mike Valerio, CNN -- Hong Kong.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: The last working hospital in Rafah may soon be forced to close. And when we come back the very latest on the dire state of Gaza's healthcare system. That's in a moment.
Also winds powerful enough to move a 737 airplane. We'll show you the damage in Texas from severe storms and explain what's on the way.
[01:34:20]
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VAUSE: Welcome back, everyone. I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
Protests broke out in major cities across Europe on Tuesday as anger mounts over the deadly Israeli strike on a camp housing displaced people in Rafah.
In London, a large crowd gathered outside Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's house, calling on his government to stop arming Israel. And in Italy, at least a thousand protesters gathered at a train station in the city of Bologna, causing delays across the region. These demonstrations also held in Paris.
After almost eight months of war in Gaza, 20 hospitals there have been forced to close down completely while the remaining 16 are now only partially functioning. That's including the British charity Medical Aid for Palestine.
CNN's Paula Hancocks has more details and a warning, her story contains graphic images.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Another residential building reduced to rubble by an Israeli air strike. This time from Gaza's Jabalya neighborhood, killing at least four people on Sunday according to medics on the scene adding to the more than 36,000 Palestinians killed since the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7.
But even the survivors may not stand a chance. The U.N.'s humanitarian agency says there are no functioning hospitals in the area after the two remaining facilities in northern Gaza came under siege last week. Prompting this panic to escape.
Kamal Adwan hospital's director claiming the Israeli military deliberately targeted the emergency room and reception area forcing doctors out onto the streets with their most vulnerable patients.
"This was deliberate," Dr. Abu Safiya says, "those here on medical staff providing medical and humanitarian services, they targeted us with the first missile then the second, then the third. They want to force us out of this hospital.
CNN has reached out to the Israeli military for comment but in a statement to Reuters, it said the IDF is looking into the source of the hit and is reviewing the possibility that it was IDF stray fire that was not directed at the hospital.
It was a similar scene outside the nearby Al-Awda hospital the next day. The director of the World Health Organization says the Israeli military forced most of the staff and patients to evacuate.
"We were shocked to date says Dr. Abu Jasa (ph) after four days of suffocating siege on Al-Awda that the military has reached us with their tanks positioned outside the hospital gates.
Airstrikes, power outages, and supply shortages have pushed dozens of health facilities in the Strip out of service. The Israeli military has accused Hamas of using hospitals to launch attacks from making them legitimate targets. The U.N. says they are protected under international law.
[01:39:52]
HANCOCKS: On Monday, yet another health center forced to close Rafah's Kuwaiti Hospital after a drone strike killed two members of staff and just outside the gates, according to the ministry of health.
The devastating result of a health system under attack means injuries sustained by innocent Palestinians, or even childbirth or dialysis can quickly become a death sentence.
Paula Hancocks, CNN -- Abu Dhabi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Pope Francis is asking for forgiveness after apologizing for allegedly using a gay slur while meeting with Italian bishops. Two Italian newspapers report the remark was made behind closed doors last week. The Vatican says the Pope never intended to offend anyone and has extended his apologies.
And the statement reads in part, "As he said on several occasions in the church, there is room for everyone, everyone. No one is useless, known is superfluous. There is room for everyone just as we are. Everyone.
Colombia's congress has approved a nationwide ban on bullfighting, a significant victory for animal rights activists. The bill will now be sent to the Colombian president Gustavo Petro to be signed into law.
More details now from Stefano Pozzebon reporting in from Bogota.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN JOURNALIST: Colombia has become the latest country in the world to effectively ban bullfights, marking a significant victory for animal rights activists and progressives in the Andean nation.
The bill was passed by the Colombian Chamber of Representatives on Tuesday evening with 93 votes in favor and two against.
According to its text, bullfights will still be allowed until 2027 as a transition period for the bullfighting industry. Nevertheless there were supporters of the ban celebrating the results, which came after years of failed votes in congress.
ALEJANDRO GARCIA, COLOMBIA CONGRESSMAN: To the country who say we are prioritizing the protection and welfare of animals, and to the world that Colombia is going through a cultural transformation where all beings are treated with dignity.
POZZEBON: Until now, Colombia was one of only eight countries around the world to still allow the practice of bullfights which is known as corridas in Spanish. Spain and Mexico are the countries that see most of corridas or bullfights around the world these days.
The bill will now pass to the Colombian President Gustavo Petro to be signed into law. And Petro himself has long been a supporter of the ban. He took on X, formerly known as Twitter, to celebrate the result in congress on Tuesday saying that congratulations to those who managed that death will no longer be a show.
For CNN, this is Stefano Pozzebon -- Bogota.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Well, after lashing at coastal India and parts of Bangladesh, the death toll from Cyclone Remal has now risen to 51.
The storm brought widespread damage in both countries, flooding roads and leaving millions without electricity. But it has now weakened to a tropical depression.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This cyclone is more dangerous than the previous ones. There was rain and the wind speed was 120 to 130 kilometers per hour. We struggled to even go to the shelter center with my family. I've never seen something like this cyclone before.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: The storm also caused landslides in parts of India.
New satellite images reveal the magnitude landside in Papua New Guinea, which has left as many as 2,000 people buried under rubble. These before and after images released Tuesday show a vast section of the landscape just torn away.
The landslide hit a remote village on Friday sending tons of rock and mud into people's homes as they slept.
CNN's Anna Coren has details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Last week's deadly landslide in the highlands of Papua New Guinea that is feared to have buried alive more than 2,000 people is still active and growing according to government officials, triggering mass evacuations in the area.
The PNG defense forces have told more than 7,000 people to leave as the threat to life continues. It comes as villagers and emergency crews tried to dig through the debris, which officials say stretches over nine hectares, more than nine football fields, and is six to eight meters deep in earth, rubble and boulders some as large as shipping containers.
Heavy earth-moving equipment has reached the area but is unable to be used on the site due to the instability. The densely-populated village that was hit on Friday at 3:00 a.m. while people slept was located on a highway, the lifeline of the region, which locals say had more than 100 homes, shops, the school, church, gas station and a lodge. All of it is now buried.
The people who lived there were mainly subsistence farmers. A handful of bodies have been recovered so far and funeral processions have begun. U.N. officials who visited the site said the community is grieving and still in total shock.
MATE BAGOSSY, UNDP HUMANITARIAN COORDINATION SPECIALIST: They are mourning their dead and they are looking forward to receive some assistance, which is already coming.
[01:44:51]
BAGOSSY: But I think the main question is right now, the population is caught between the trauma of what just happened and the uncertainty about the longer-term future.
COREN: Basic aid, food and clean water has reached the area, but more humanitarian assistance and medical supplies from the U.N., NGOs, Australia and New Zealand should be arriving in the coming days, along with engineering specialists to provide technical support over what has tragically become a mass grave.
Anna Coren, CNN -- Hong Kong.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: At least two dozen people have died in the U.S. from severe storms and powerful tornadoes since the weekend and the threat is not over. Then latest fatality was reported in Texas Tuesday when a house under construction collapsed on what was called a juvenile male, according to first responders.
The winds were so powerful they moved this 737 jet as it sat on a tarmac at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
Those high winds along with rain have battered cities across Texas. More than a million customers lost power Tuesday according to power outage.us. And those outages could actually last for days. Those without electricity are at risk of heat-related illness and scorching summer temperatures. The National Weather Service says parts of Texas still other under severe thunderstorm watches and warnings which will delay clean up as well as repairs.
Still to come, tuck and roll, tuck and roll -- England's annual cheese chase full of tumbles and triumph. Hear form the woman who rolled better than all the rest. The best roller of them all, there she goes.
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VAUSE: A former prime minister of Haiti has been chosen to try and end months of chaos and violence brought on by criminal gangs. The transitional council tapped Garry Conille. He will be stepping down from his current role as a UNICEF regional director. Conille and the council will now select a cabinet and try and look ahead to fresh elections.
Since February, gangs have taken over the capital Port-au-Prince. Violence shutdown the airport, seaport, which disrupted vital supplies of food and humanitarian aid. Nearly 5 million Haitians are suffering from food insecurity.
Well over 11,000 private business owners in Cuba will now be allowed to use U.S.-based online payment systems. It's all part of a policy change announced by the Biden administration two years ago.
U.S. officials say the move will allow Cuban entrepreneurs to import food, equipment and other goods, make it easier to send money from the U.S. to the island and possibly reduce the flow of illegal immigration to Florida.
This comes less than six months before the U.S. presidential election, and it may have political implications to Joe Biden, who lost Florida, as well as some Cuban-American voters to Donald Trump in 2020.
Well, since the dawn of the space age, South Africa has played an active role in space exploration. This month, "Africa Insider" meets Dragonfly Aerospace, a South African startup which provides imaging systems for satellites used in agricultural and environmental monitoring.
[01:49:53]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN DEAN, CEO, DRAGONFLY AEROSPACE: Flying 500 kilometers up in space or 11 million kilometers away in space is just an amazing feeling.
My name is Brian Dean. I'm the CEO of Dragonfly Aerospace.
So an imaging system some is something that captures an image, capturing information that can be useful to other people to share ideas and share knowledge. We build space imaging solutions. These are satellites and payloads or cameras that fly in space. They
orbit the earth and they look down at the earth, imaging crops, oceans, cities in order to better manage the earth.
So in some ways this is used for improving agriculture. In other ways, it's used for improving urban environments.
We've launched a number of cameras already since we started the company. We've launched one satellite on Falcon 9 rocket from SpaceX. It was Transporter 6 is the name of the mission.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dragonfly Aerospace, EUS Sat 1, separation confirmed.
DEAN: This is quite a large satellite, 180-kilograms satellite, very high performance. In fact, it's unprecedented performance. There's nothing that has beaten it.
This satellites has the capability to do a million square kilometers of imagery per day and downlink that per day in 11 spectral bands. It's a huge amounts of data. We're taking thousands of images per week at the moment.
So it's a big step for South Africa, and obviously massive step for Dragonfly Aerospace and everyone in the team that's been part of that and part of that journey as well.
We're thinking beyond cameras, you know. So we've got cameras flying in space. Our next step is to put radars in space. It's called a Synthetic Aperture Radar or SAR.
This is another way of imaging from space using radio waves instead of using the light from the sun.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: With that we'll take a short pause here on CNN. I'll see you right back.
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VAUSE: A lost Caravaggio painting which was almost mistakenly auctioned at a bargain price is now on display at the museum in Madrid after first being rescued and then restored.
The "Ecce Homo" painted by the Italian master in the early 17th century, is one of about 60 known Caravaggio works in existence. That's going to the museum.
The work was once part of King Philip IV's art collection. Changed hands over the years and went unnoticed until it surface at an auction house as the work of an unknown painter with a starting price of just $1,600.
Experts caught the mistake and prevented it from being sold at that price. Well, those who competed in England annual cheese chase may still be feeling a little bit sore.
Competitors from around the world pursued a wheel of Double Gloucester down a very steep hill. That's the perfect cheese.
Abby Lampe from North Carolina was first to the bottom in the women's race for the second time in three years. Roll on (ph), Abby.
And she spoke to CNN's Don Riddell about a successful roll.
[01:54:47]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DON RIDDELL, CNN WORLD SPORT ANCHOR: What on earth draws you to want to compete in something like this?
ABBY LAMPE, WINNER, WOMEN'S DOWNHILL RACE: Well, after my win two years ago, I didn't want to just cling on to that victory because it's getting aged just like the cheese. But I wanted to renew that win and bring the title back to the U.S.
RIDDELL: The video footage of these races, it just looks absolutely insane. Can you give me an idea of what it looks and feels like when you're on the start line looking down the hill.
LAMPE: Yes. So this is a two-one grade, 45 degrees, one of the steepest hills in England. It's about 200 yards. It's a very steep hill.
When you're looking down, you can see the bottom, but it's definitely a long ways down. So at the starting line you're basically grabbing on the grass so you don't fall down.
RIDDELL: What is the secret of your success? How do you approach it? Because I guess there's a number of ways you could try to get down the hill and finishing first place.
LAMPE: So my strategy is to basically run from the get and then start rolling and two years ago that strategy worked really well for me. I just tumbled my way down to the bottom.
This year, I did a similar strategy. My face took a lot of hits down the hill. So did my body, but that's the cost that it takes to win the cheese rolling.
RIDDELL: People get seriously hurt during this, don't they. I mean, have you seen people being injured --
LAMPE: Yes. The hill was really soft because there's been a lot of rainfall throughout the coming months. But two years ago, someone broke their leg. So it's definitely not for the faint of heart. People break their collarbones, people break their ankles, their arms.
It's definitely a risky endeavor. (END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: A local man, two others from Australia and Germany won the individual men's races.
Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause.
Please stay with us. My friend and colleague Rosemary Church is up next after a very short break.
Hope to see you right back here tomorrow.
[01:56:53]
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