Return to Transcripts main page
One World with Zain Asher
A Planned Rally Happens In Russia One Day After A Pre-Determined Election; White House, European Union And Others In The West Condemn Putin's Landslide Victory; Security Situation Worsens In Haiti; Trump Attorneys Say They're Unable To Get A Bond To Pay The $464 Million Fraud Judgment; Trump Once Again Raises Eyebrows, Causing A Lot Of Concern By Comments He Made Over The Weekend; YouTube Requires Its Users To Label Parts Of Videos Using A. I.; A Lot Of Volcanic Activity Happens In Iceland. Aired 12-1p ET
Aired March 18, 2024 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:00:27]
ZAIN ASHER, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: Militias with machetes, police stations under siege. One million people, one step away from famine. Right now, CNN
is the first major news network on the ground in the Haitian capital.
BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: "One World" starts right now. Race to safety. The first flight of Americans fleeing Haiti has landed in
Miami. U.S. is urging citizens to leave as soon as possible.
ASHER: Then, Vladimir Putin extends his rule for an unprecedented fifth term. The outcome, of course, was never in doubt.
GOLODRYGA: And later, $464 million. That's how much Donald Trump needs to make bond. And we've just learned that the former president can't find an
insurance company to cover it. Hello, everyone, live from New York, I'm Bianna Golodryga.
ASHER: And I'm Zain Asher. You are indeed watching" One World". I want to begin in Haiti, where the security situation in that country is so bad, it
is so dire, that a top U.N. official is actually comparing the situation on the ground to a post-apocalyptic dystopian film series.
GOLODRYGA: Haiti, of course, no stranger to political turmoil, is descending into further chaos as gangs rule the streets of the capital. The
gangs have been launching a series of coordinated attacks against government institutions for weeks now. The U.N. says they now control 80
percent of the capital of Port-au-Prince.
ASHER: Yeah, they're also choking off critical food supplies. They're choking off water supplies and other essential items, pushing Haitians
deeper into a humanitarian catastrophe. The head of UNICEF calls it a, quote," horrific situation", comparing it to the scenes from the film "Mad
Max". I want you to listen to what was said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CATHERINE RUSSELL, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, UNICEF: It's like a scene out of Mad Max, honestly. That's what it seems like. Gangs, vigilantes responding to
the gangs. I mean, somehow we need to get more control over that situation so that we can get the humanitarian response in and so that this, you know,
population that has suffered kind of one thing after another over the years, earthquakes, cholera, COVID, I mean, it's literally one thing after
another for Haiti, and I think right now it's the worst that anyone has seen in decades.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GOLODRYGA: Port-au-Prince is the epicenter of the violence, and it's very difficult to get in and out of the nation's capital. But our David Culver
is there, and a short time ago he filed these reports, one from a school where people are camping out and the other from a police station.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, police stations like this one here in Port-au-Prince are main targets for gangs. They feel like as soon as they
can get hold of a station like this, they can then take siege and take control of much of the community. And they've tried coming after this one
many times.
Reinforcements have been built up not only because of the police, but because of the community. They've built barricades all around here. For the
police station to function properly, they need to rely on the community and to have these almost vigilantes building a lot of the barricades to keep
out any gang members.
So, this was a school here in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and every single classroom that we pass, like this one here, has now become a dorm room,
essentially. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of people who have made this a recent campsite. And you can see a lot of them are following us
around and are curious with what we're doing because for them it's a distraction, really.
And you talk to a lot of these folks, and they've come here in the past couple of weeks because of the most recent surge in violence and gangs
taking more and more territory here in the city. But these folks have also been on the run from their own homes for months, if not years.
She just got this small bag of rice, and she's going to cook it up for seven people. And a lot of them tell me they don't know where their next
meal is going to be. One little girl, eight years old, saying she goes to bed every single night hungry.
And a lot of that is because in the past two weeks in particular, supply lines, especially for programs of international aid like the World Food
Programme have been severed. So, while those organizations are trying desperately to get food in, it's not just about getting them into Port-au-
Prince, it's been about getting them into communities like this.
The challenges logistically are immense. They're dealing with this at a level that they have not faced prior. I mean, it's unprecedented. And the
pain, you sense it in the kids' eyes and their parents who feel helpless at this point. But for them, it's about pushing forward.
[12:05:00]
I asked one woman how you get up every day and move ahead. She said, with the grace of God, but then admitted in the same breath, that sometimes they
feel they'd be better off dead than living. David Culver, CNN, Port-au- Prince, Haiti.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GOLODRYGA: Just a powerful story there, the file of our David Culver. Well, dozens of U.S. citizens have been evacuated on the first State Department
flight out of Haiti. It landed earlier in Florida. The State Department says government officials are helping them with, quote, "the next steps". I
want you to listen to what one person who was evacuated said about what he saw in Haiti. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ABSON LOUIS, EVACUATED FROM HAITI: It's messy. I don't know what's going on. I don't know what to expect, so I have to make a decision. So that's
why I left. I'm waiting for things to get better so I can go back. But it has been chaotic. It is bad. It is bad. Hopefully, things do change, and
hopefully somebody will step up and fix this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GOLODRYGA: Well, let's take a closer look at the situation in Haiti. Jacqueline Charles is the Caribbean Correspondent for the "Miami Herald"
and joins us live from Miami. So, as these residents, the lucky ones, Americans, have been able to flee and come back to the U.S., obviously I'm
sure you'll be speaking with them and getting their stories, but I want you to respond to what I was really struck by one doctor saying.
He said, we often say in Haiti that in Port-au-Prince it's like we are in a boat. There's no captain, no direction, and we the people are inside it,
and we don't know where we are going and what can be done to save us.
You couple this with the fact that 80 percent of the capital is controlled by gangs. There's a lot of concern that up to one million people can face
famine. Hospitals are shutting down quickly. Describe to us the dire situation on the ground there now.
JACQUELINE CHARLES, CARRIBEAN CORRESPONDENT, "MIAMI HERALD": Well, it really is dire because something as basic as potable water is now becoming
a luxury. Imagine somebody who has to have dialysis treatment, and they can't do it. I mean, people's lives are feeling like it just doesn't
matter.
And, you know, the people that I talk to every day are saying, it's health coming. When is it going to come? Are we just going to be left to die
standing? The police are doing what they can. But yesterday, I was talking to an official in the police, you know, and he said, listen, we're on our
last line here. We have to remember, you know, these are human beings. And often this word resilience is used, but this situation is beyond that.
People are barely hanging on.
ASHER: Jacqueline, let's just talk about the political aspect of all of this, because Prime Minister Ariel Henry agreed that he would be stepping
down. He wanted to wait until a traditional council had been named. We know that most of the nine members of that council have indeed been named.
But what are the next steps, especially when it comes to potentially holding an election? I mean, Haiti hasn't had elections in almost a decade.
Obviously, it is very difficult to hold any kind of political process, any kind of political vote in this kind of environment.
But walk us through the next steps on that front. Well, we have to first deal with the security issue. I mean, this morning we had reports that
there were armed gunmen who had flooded, you know, the hills from house to house.
And so, you're going to name a presidential council. But what sort of security is going to be provided to these individuals? And that's their top
concern right now in terms of who is going to secure us. The next job, you know, if they decide to go ahead with this, will be, you know, how are they
going to operate?
Who's going to be the president? Is it a vote by majority? And you have to find a prime minister to replace Ariel Henry, because under Haitian
constitution, you need to have continuity. So, he could not resign until there's a replacement.
ASHER: The U.S. aid chief just announced another $25 million in aid to Haiti. The U.S. is the largest provider of aid to Haiti. But clearly this
is not enough to tackle some of the long list of challenges that the country now faces. I guess when you're trying to address restoring some
sort of civility to the country, I know you said that addressing just the military control is very important.
But in terms of bringing humanitarian aid to the country, what's the most effective way of doing that right now?
CHARLES: Well, right now you don't have an air bridge. You don't have a maritime bridge. Your port, you know, was under siege just a few days ago.
So, how do you get aid in and then to distribute it? I mean, today, I have to tell you, the security is everything. People are not going to risk going
out. Even for aid workers, it's not safe.
So, it's one thing to, you know, have this money. And yes, it's there, but you have to be able to get it in the country. You have to have a situation
where the gangs are no longer targeting the airport. They're not targeting the seaport. And, you know, you heard from UNICEF over the weekend that
they've had many containers that have been taken over that have been pillaged.
[12:10:00]
So, we need to really get some sort of stability so that you can start to feed people or people are going to start dying very quickly.
GOLODRYGA: You know, we know that Haiti, understandably, is very wary of outside intervention, especially because of what's happened in its past.
But when you think about the fact that Kenya is potentially sending this 1000-person strong police force to the country, I mean, obviously, the
country desperately needs something.
You know, I'm not sure whether it is outside intervention, but it needs something in terms of other countries sort of stepping up to assist it.
Just walk us through whether you think a 1000-person police force is enough at this point or how the international community should be really rallying
together to help Haiti at this point.
CHARLES: So, look, there's been a lot of debates about the numbers and whether or not a thousand or 2500, because we have been named that have
offered up 2000, whether or not it's going to cut it. But let's just look at the numbers. You have a police force, less than 9000. You have a country
of 12 million people.
Not all of them are in Port-au-Prince. And you only have a couple of hundred specialized police officers involved in anti-gang operations. On
Friday, the police melted an operation in the lower part of Port-au-Prince in Delmas. They went in. They destroyed a lot of the buildings. They got in
a shootout with the gang members, with barbecue.
But if the police -- are they able to hold that? That's been a challenge, that when they go in and they take control of an area that's under gang
control, their numbers and all of the things that are unfolding, the violence, doesn't allow the police to stay there and that they need some
more bodies to hold control, because what we've seen with these coordinated attacks is that the gangs united.
And so, you've got violence escalating everywhere all around Port-au- Prince. It's not just in one location. That has been the saving grace until now, that these have been isolated incidents of volatility. Now what you
have is a volatile situation throughout the capital. So, how do you do that when you only have a couple of hundred police officers who are involved in
this operation and they have been going at it, some of them since last year, January, non-stop?
GOLODRYGA: Yeah, and the question is how would outside military or police help be responded to by the gangs on the ground there that, as you said,
have united on this front? A lot of very difficult questions, obviously a dire situation for the country, for the island. Jacqueline Charles from the
Miami Herald, thank you so much. And please do keep us posted on your reporting, as well.
ASHER: Thank you, Jacqueline.
CHARLES: Thank you.
ASHER: All right, one day after a pre-determined election returned Russian President Vladimir Putin to power, a planned rally is underway right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOLODRYGA: It is marking ten years since Crimea was illegally annexed by Moscow. Well, the U.N. says that it's been a decade marked by the
oppression and repression of any opposition.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: The White House, the European Union and others in the West are all condemning the Russian President's landslide victory. They say that the
Russian election, of course, was not free and that it wasn't fair. Now, with all the results in after three days of voting, election officials say
that Mr. Putin received more than 87 percent of the vote.
GOLODRYGA: And a large turnout, as well. The outcome was never in doubt. There were no genuine opposition candidates running. And after the polls
closed, the Russian leader made an unusual move. He finally mentioned the name of the late Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny. He died last
month in a Russian prison north of the Arctic Circle.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT: As for Mr. Navalny, yes, he passed away. It is always a sad event. A few days before Mr. Navalny passed away, some
colleagues told me that there was an idea to exchange Mr. Navalny for some people who are in prison in Western countries. Maybe you believe me. Maybe
you don't. The person who spoke to me had not finished his sentence yet when I said I agree.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: As we talked about, the elections in Russia certainly were not free. They were not fair. But there was indeed some public resistance. CNN's
Matthew Chance reports from Moscow.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Another flash of defiance in Russia's presidential vote. The opposition
called this midday against Putin. Supporters gathering at polling stations across the country in a show of solidarity. It's what Alexei Navalny,
Russia's late opposition leader, had urged before he suddenly died.
CHANCE: Well, the Russian authorities say that anyone who attends an unauthorized protest will be dealt with severely. But you can see it's just
after 12 o'clock here in Moscow. And a lot of people have turned out at this one polling station to cast their ballots. It's not a protest, but it
is an indication of just how many people here are heeding Alexei Navalny's call.
[12:15:00]
CHANCE: Why have you come now to cast your vote?
UNKNOWN: Because they come, too.
CHANCE: And you wanted to see all these people?
UNKNOWN: Yes.
UNKNOWN: Yeah, we wanted to come together and see each other.
CHANCE: Okay.
UNKNOWN: In person.
CHANCE: Why did you decide to come now at 12 o'clock?
UNKNOWN: You know why. I think everyone could stay in this queue know why.
CHANCE: For three days, Russians have been voting in an election which President Putin was always certain to win. But scattered acts of disruption
have exposed the division. In several polling stations, dye was poured into ballot boxes to ruin paper votes already cast.
Across Russia, a number of voting centers were hit with arson attacks. But officials insist these deeply flawed presidential elections, in which the
opposition wasn't even allowed to stand, were free and fair.
Compared to the last presidential vote in 2018, we received only half as many complaints, Russia's Chief Human Rights Commissioner tells state
television. I don't remember such active, deeply monitored elections here, she adds.
But the defiance of some Russians has also been exceptional. The simmering discontent in the Kremlin's tightly controlled Russia briefly boiling up to
the surface. Matthew Chance, CNN Moscow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GOLODRYGA: CNN was near Russian polling sites outside the country on the final day of Voting Sunday, including one in Berlin, where Alexei Navalny's
widow waited hours to cast her ballot. Yulia Navalnaya says that she wrote her late husband's name on the paper ballot. She then went on to call
Vladimir Putin a killer and a gangster.
ASHER: All right, Israel has launched a major offensive at Gaza's largest hospital, crowded with the patients and displaced people.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: All right, witnesses reporting airstrikes and tank fire around Al- Shifa Hospital. The IDF is calling on people to evacuate. They're telling them to move south, saying that its intelligence indicated that senior
Hamas leaders have been operating inside the hospital.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza says about 30,000 people are sheltering in the complex and calls the raids a, quote, "war crime". The raid comes amid
a new round of ceasefire talks. A source says that Israel's Mossad chief will meet with Qatari and Egyptian officials to try to broker a deal with
Hamas that would secure the release of more hostages. Israel's Prime Minister has called Hamas' proposal, quote, "outlandish".
GOLODRYGA: And Benjamin Netanyahu is also hitting back at comments by a top U.S. senator calling for new elections in Israel. But here's what he told
CNN over the weekend.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: I think what he said is totally inappropriate. It's inappropriate for, to go to a sister democracy and try
to replace the elected leadership there. That's something that Israel -- the Israeli public does on its own and we're not a banana republic.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GOLODRYGA: And we're also just learning that Prime Minister Netanyahu and U.S. President Joe Biden have just wrapped up their first phone call in
about a month.
ASHER: CNN's Jeremy Diamond joins us live now from Jerusalem with the very latest. Jeremy, let's start with what's happening at al-Shifa Hospital.
We're learning that Israeli troops raided the compound of that hospital. Some eyewitnesses on the ground are saying that it caused multiple
casualties, that there was a fire that was set off in one of the buildings, as well. What more can you tell us about what's happening on the ground
there?
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Zain, this is a major Israeli military operation, one of the most significant ones that we've seen in
northern Gaza in quite some time. It involved not only Israeli ground troops, armored vehicles and tanks advancing on Al-Shifa Hospital, but also
reports of airstrikes from eyewitnesses on the ground.
The results are a severe number of casualties, unknown exactly how many at this time in and around that hospital. The Israeli military, for its part,
says that it is conducting this operation because senior Hamas operatives, they say, have been operating from within Al-Shifa Hospital.
They even say that they have killed a senior Hamas operative who they say was the head of Hamas' internal security operations directorate. They say
that he was killed in a firefight with Israeli troops while he was on the grounds of Shifa Hospital. The Israeli military has also released video of
what they claim is Hamas fighters firing their weapons from the grounds of Shifa Hospital towards Israeli troops.
But what is also clear is that this operation appears to have involved several airstrikes as well, with eyewitnesses on the ground reporting
civilian casualties, including women and children who were killed in this operation around the hospital, with several buildings appearing to have
been destroyed.
[12:20:00]
The surgical building of the hospital was also set on fire by what one doctor described as Israeli missiles having been fired at that building.
So, this is still a developing situation, and one, of course, that is reminiscent of the fact that the Israeli military raided Shifa Hospital
back in November.
At the time, they claimed that there was a major Hamas command and control center beneath the grounds of the hospital. They were able to show evidence
of tunnels beneath the grounds of the hospital, but we did not see evidence of that kind of extensive command and control structure that they claimed
existed there.
ASHER: All right, Jeremy Diamond, live for us there. Thank you so much.
GOLODRYGA: Coming up for us, no rain at all for almost two months. We'll talk to the president of a country that is literally running out of water
and running out of time.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GOLODRYGA: Our planet is scorching. A brand new report today finds that the world's ocean surface temperatures have broken records every single day
over the past year.
ASHER: Yeah, so what does that mean? That means that March 5th was the hottest March 5th on record. November 13th was, of course, the hottest
November 13th on record. So on and so forth. The impact of those scorching ocean temperatures can mean stronger hurricanes and terrible, terrible
damage to marine life, like the bleaching that is happening to reefs all over the globe.
GOLODRYGA: In the U.S., the climate crisis has created the hottest winter on record for most of the country, and cities that normally would be
covered in snow barely got a sprinkling. In some cities, the snowfall was almost two meters less than average.
ASHER: And here's a fact that is hard to get your head around. Not a single drop of rain has fallen in Zambia in almost two months. Not a single drop
of rain. That means literally no rain at all in what, by the way, is supposed to be rainy season in that country.
GOLODRYGA: Yeah, and for a nation already suffering from drought, it has turned into a major disaster. And not just in the obvious ways, like crops
dying from thirst. In Zambia, 85 percent of the country's power comes from hydroelectric generators. No water in Zambia means no power, as well.
ASHER: Time now for The Exchange. Joining me live now is the person who is tasked with finding a way through the climate crisis in Zambia, the
country's President, Hakainde Hichilema.
[12:25:00]
Thank you so much for being with us, President Hichelema.
HAKAINDE HICHILEMA, ZAMBIAN PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, Zain Asher, and it's a pleasure to be on your program today.
ASHER: So, I just wanted to start by talking about the crisis you're having to navigate in Zambia right now. We're talking about not a single drop of
rain in about two months. That means that the drought has essentially devastated the agricultural sector.
It has meant a lack of food. It's meant significant food insecurity. And also, you are having to ration power right now. Just explain to our
audience who may not know what Zambia is going through right now.
HICHILEMA: Zain, Zambia is going through the worst drought ever. A hundred years around that period, we have not seen drought like this. We have six
million people that are facing, you know, a risk of food shortages.
We have basically, you know, water supply, which is supposed to drive our green energy, I must say for that matter, because we have 85 percent of our
energy green already, hydro, you know, power. That is being affected negatively -- hugely negatively. And it means our economy will be slowed
down, could be slowed down, will be slowed down, because we need, as you know, energy to drive the economy.
Then the food security -- insecurity situation is a double insecurity. Food insecurity, energy insecurity, Zain. Then we have a national insecurity.
It's a matter driven largely by climate change. Climate change that the world has been talking about, but we have not been doing much. I know we've
talked a lot, but we've not done much.
So, therefore, this year, really, Zambia is seeing something we've never seen before. This is supposed to be the time when our crop of staple food,
maize, is basically maturing or close to, but it's gone, wiped out. In six of our ten provinces, the crop is gone. This is terrible.
GOLODRYGA: Mr. President, this is happening, obviously, during what is supposed to be a rainy season. You have drawn up plans to ration
electricity and keep the economy running as best as it can right now. But is it a reminder of climate change really being a global crisis?
This is not something that's just impacting your country alone. You export a lot to countries not only in the region, but as far away as China, as
Europe. This impacts them, as well. And I'd like for you to highlight that for our global viewers, as well.
HICHILEMA: The impact -- the negative impact of this climate change, you know, which has occasioned this drought -- worst drought, as I said, since
really records began in our country in a structured way, is going to create a food shortage, is going to basically, you know, add damage to our energy
generation capacity and obviously impairing our food production.
I return to that in a way that, remember, Zambia was also providing food to a number of countries in the region. This year, we'll not be able to do
that. It means that the hunger, the humanitarian support that is required now in this country will basically go beyond the boundaries of this
country, into the region, onto the continent, and I think to some extent, the global community.
So, really, the situation is there.
The situation is desperate. We need to basically support this country as a global community, humanitarian support in two main components. One is to
feed our people. So, we shouldn't get our people to die of hunger.
Number two, to basically gravitate the country now towards what we call agriculture based on irrigation -- water harvest, irrigation -- precision
irrigation, so that we can secure our food supplies, not just this year, but into the future for the region, for the continent. And we need to be --
Zambia needs to be, a net contributor to the global food basket.
So, the impact is huge. The impact also is seen, will be seen, in the limited energy that we need to basically exploit our mineral resource
endowment, which very, very much provides an opportunity, critical minerals, copper, cobalt, nickel, manganese, lithium-based minerals, to
transit, for the world to transit into green energy by and large, electrical vehicles by and large.
So, this is a global impact. And we call upon colleagues, humanitarian sector, the global institutions, the global financial system, the global,
if you like, security system, to hear this country called Zambia, which has been making progress.
[12:30:00]
If it was not for the drought this year, we were going to have the largest harvest ever in our country. But this has been taken out just like that.
GOLODRYGA: Wow.
ASHER: Unbelievable, you know, what Zambia is experiencing right now. And you just finished sort of dealing with the cholera outbreak and now, you
end up dealing with this. I know that you have been taking food from areas in your country where there has been an excess of food and giving them to
the poor areas.
There's been this sort of Robin Hood approach, which, of course, can't last forever. You are in desperate need of outside help, of global assistance
through this. President Hichilema, we do have to leave it there. But thank you so much. We wish you all the best as you navigate this crisis in your
country.
HICHILEMA: Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Most appreciated. And we believe the global community will hear the call -- the call of Zambia
for support. And this is essential. Thank you very much.
GOLODRYGA: Thank you, Mr. President. Well, coming up for us, former U.S. President Donald Trump raises alarm bells over these comments he made
during the campaign rally over the weekend.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: If I don't get elected, it's going to be a bloodbath for the whole -- That's going to be the least of it. It's
going to be a bloodbath for the country. That'll be the least of it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ASHER: All right, welcome back to "One World".
[12:35:00]
I'm Zain Asher.
GOLODRYGA: And I'm Bianna Golodryga. Happening just a short time ago, attorneys for former President Donald Trump say they're unable to get a
bond to pay the $464 million fraud judgment, calling it a, quote, "practical impossibility".
ASHER: Yeah, Trump's attorneys say that they have approached about 30 different underwriters to back the bond, which is due by the end of this
month, but they haven't had any luck.
GOLODRYGA: CNN's Kara Scannell joins us now from New York. So, Kara, there's more to this. They say that ultimately, they think this would be
able to be resolved, but they're having an issue right now. Explain exactly what his side is saying.
KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, so the deadline for Trump to come up with this bond, a total of $464 million for everyone, but he alone is on
the hook for $454 million, plus about $100 million in interest.
So, that is due next week, a week from today, and Trump has asked an appeals court to allow him to go forward and appeal the ruling in this case
where he was found liable for fraud, but not require him to post the judgment, that huge amount of money, in this time. He's saying it is, as
you said, you know, impossible from a practical standpoint.
They've approached 30 brokers to try to get them to support this finding, and they said that no one is able to, that of the brokers, some of the
largest ones in the world, that a lot of them have internal limits that won't allow them to post more than $100 million. And then even those that
could, they won't accept anything but cash or stock, something that can quickly be turned into cash.
So, they're not willing to accept any of his real estate properties, and that is what Trump's attorney has said has been one of the major obstacles
in being able to secure a bond. So, Trump's team has asked the judges and the appeals court to allow them to continue to appeal without allowing the
New York Attorney General's Office to enforce the judgment because they're saying, we have the properties, they know we have the properties, they can
collect that at the end if we lose this appeal.
And the New York Attorney General's Office has opposed this. We expect the Appeals Court to make a decision on this by the end of this month. But
again, you know, kind of all of these things converging again, Trump having this deadline to come up with the money, which he says he can't, and the
appeals court now will make a decision on this shortly.
GOLODRYGA: Okay, Kara Scannell, thank you.
ASHER: All right, Trump is once again raising eyebrows and causing a lot of concern by comments he made over the weekend that appeared to raise the
specter of political violence yet again in this country.
GOLODRYGA: Yeah, he always seems to walk right up to the edge, though some would argue he went over it this time. The former U.S. President would be,
he said that there would be a, quote, "bloodbath if he was not re-elected" though later he said that he was referring to the fate of the auto
industry. We'll let you decide for yourself.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We're going to put a 100 percent tariff on every single car that comes across the line. And you're not going to be able to sell those cars
if I get elected. Now, if I don't get elected, it's going to be a bloodbath for the whole -- that's going to be the least of it. It's going to be a
bloodbath for the country. That'll be the least of it. But they're not going to sell those cars.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: We'll let you be the judge of what Donald Trump meant by that. In terms of other political news, though, if there is one thing that Joe Biden
knows about the upcoming presidential election is that he will need the votes of women to win the White House. Four years ago, Biden won women by
15 percentage points.
GOLODRYGA: Yeah, but polls show his lead has narrowed this time around. And that is one reason why his campaign is highlighting Women's History Month
right now. President Biden is holding an event in the White House where he is signing an executive order to increase funding for women's health
research. The White House is calling it a transformative change to improve the lives of women across America.
ASHER: Yeah, it comes just days after Vice President Kamala Harris made history becoming the first sitting vice president to actually visit an
abortion provider. Political analysts say the fight over abortion rights is one of the major reasons Democrats did better than expected in the 2022
midterm elections.
GOLODRYGA: Joining us now is CNN Senior Political Analyst Mark Preston. Mark, good to see you. If I could go back to the comments that former
President Trump made over the weekend calling for a bloodbath or predicting a bloodbath, whether it's in the auto industry or whether it's in the
country if he doesn't win. We'll let our viewers decide.
But here is what the Biden campaign responded with. They said, "This is who Donald Trump is. A loser who gets beat by over seven million votes and then
instead of appealing to a wider mainstream audience, doubles down on his threats of political violence."
And this sort of gets to the issue of broadening his appeal to women, to independent voters, but specifically addressing the former president's
comments, is this viewed as an effective tactic in response by Team Biden? Because it sounds like they're going to have to have something ready each
time the former president says something.
MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, Bianna, I think they are going to have something ready each time. It's almost as if Donald Trump is
giving them a gift in some ways because you're right.
[12:40:00]
This election is going to be won or lost. You know, in a couple of lines, the first line is going to be independent voters, folks who aren't
Democrats or Republicans here in the United States, or it's going to be women. You know, it could be women who may have conservative views,
conservative economic views, but tend to be more socially liberal.
They could be folks who are kind of being driven away by Donald Trump. And they live in -- in very key states. They live in a few states that we think
are going to decide the election. That's Pennsylvania, that's Wisconsin, that's Michigan. And then if you get down into the southeast of the United
States, that's Georgia, perhaps North Carolina. But the idea that Donald Trump, you know, can take a step back and say, look, I was talking about
the auto industry.
Perhaps he was. He did say it in that context. However, he uses incendiary comments all the time that you always have to check him. And he knows what
he's doing. He knew what he was saying to that crowd when he did that. And that does play well with his base. But he can't just win with his base in
November.
ASHER: Yeah. And just to go back to your point, Mark, just really about how women are so important if the Democrats are going to win in November. I
mean, look, the abortion rights issue really helped mobilize voters two years ago during the midterms. And we saw it mobilized voters in special
elections, as well.
PRESTON: Right.
ASHER: But in terms of the general, does the general election work the same way? Democrats honing in on this issue. Will it be a winner for them in the
general as it has been in the midterms and special elections, too?
PRESTON: Well, they sure hope so and the Republican Party is, in fact, helping them in some ways. Abortion here in the United States, it is a
split issue, but a majority of folks believe that abortion, a woman's right to choose, should be legal.
But we've seen Republicans, certainly Republican-led states, Alabama, for instance, just a month ago, was going to, or outlawed, the Supreme Court
down there, the state Supreme Court led by Republicans, outlawed IVF treatments.
Now, the Republican Party as a whole had to come together and to push back against that because they realized that that was going to hurt them, not
only in the near term, but also in November. And this will be the issue for Democrats heading into November. It is going to be about a woman's right to
choose, just as immigration is going to be the issue for Donald Trump heading into November.
GOLODRYGA: Yeah, and Democrats can draw a direct line on the abortion issue to Donald Trump. I mean, he himself has said that it is because of him that
Roe was overturned and the three conservative justices that he boasts about appointing to the Supreme Court. CNN Senior Political Analyst Mark Preston,
thank you.
PRESTON: Thanks.
ASHER: All right, so to come, YouTube is cracking down on artificial intelligence content on its website. Hear the new rules the video sharing
giant is rolling out. That story, up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:45:30]
ASHER: All right, in an online world, it can be a challenge to tell what is real and what is fake, especially with the use of artificial intelligence
on the rise.
GOLODRYGA: Video sharing giant YouTube is rolling out some new policies to help us tell a different story -- a difference, and to tell the difference
from that. Starting today, the site is requiring creators to label A.I- generated content.
ASHER: And another big push on A.I. is coming from Elon Musk. "The New York Times" reports Musk released the computer code behind his A.I. chatbot,
Grok, a move towards Musk's battle to control the future of artificial intelligence. For more on this, I want to bring in CNN's Clare Duffy.
So, Clare, so starting Monday, YouTube is now requiring anyone who is generating content on its platform to label any part of the video that has
been created using artificial intelligence. Just walk us through, A, the sort of reason behind this in terms of YouTube pushing for this, and what
are the consequences if content creators do not follow this rule?
CLARE DUFFY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, so as you said there, starting today, when creators go to upload a video in YouTube's Creator Studio,
they'll see a couple of questions that will ask them whether that video contains any A.I.-generated contents. So, that could be video, images, or
even audio that could potentially mislead or confuse anybody who's watching it.
So, for example, creators willing to disclose their video makes it appear as if a real person is saying or doing something that they didn't actually
say. And creators, if they repeatedly fail to disclose realistic-looking A.I.-generated content, could face consequences, including losing the
ability to monetize or make money from their videos.
Now, what will this mean for users? Users will now start to see a label on videos disclosing when that video contains A.I.-generated content. In most
cases, that label will be in the description of the video, but for certain potentially sensitive topics, including politics, there'll be a more
prominent label actually on the video player.
Now, this is, of course, an effort by YouTube to address the concerns that the proliferation of A.I.-generated content in these generative A.I. tools
that have made it so easy and widely accessible to create this kind of content.
There are real concerns that that could cause confusion across the internet about what is real, what is fake, especially as we go into the 2024
presidential election. So, YouTube here looking to make it more transparent to users when what they're seeing is A.I.-generated.
GOLODRYGA: We know that A.I. is something that both Elon Musk has invested in, but also something that he's concerned about, as well, and his public
disagreements with Sam Altman in OpenAI in the past. So, having said all that, talk to us more about his new code, Grok, that he's rolled out.
DUFFY: Right, so what we're talking about here is Elon Musk's startup XAI and the Grok chatbot that that company has made that seeks to compete with
the likes of OpenAI's chat GPT, chatbots from Meta and Google. Elon Musk is looking to stake out his claim, his section of this growing generative A.I.
market.
And he's moved to make the code behind the Grok chatbot open source to make it so that anybody could go ahead and look at that code. And what he's
saying is the point of this whole thing is to make it transparent what the outcomes are that people are seeing. So, when they ask the Grok chatbot a
question, it will be more clear to them what data it was trained on and how it comes to an answer.
Now this, of course, comes as he's suing OpenAI for, in his words, abandoning its open source mission -- abandoning its agreement initially
when it was founded to make all of its technology open and available to the public. Now, there is this sort of disagreement in the A.I. world about
whether or not it's actually good to open source this technology and make it so that anybody can review it.
On one hand, you have proponents like Elon Musk who say that that will make the technology more transparent. But you also have critics who say that it
could open up the technology for abuse and misuse. And it's also worth noting that regular folks will not necessarily understand this code when
they look at it.
It's computer codes. So, you have to have a sort of not-based knowledge to actually understand what you're looking at there. And so, that sort of
potentially undermines this transparency that Musk is looking for here.
ASHER: All right, Claire Duffy, live for us there. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. All right, still to come, Iceland experiencing yet another
volcanic eruption. The story and the breathtaking images ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:52:40]
GOLODRYGA: A volcano erupted in Iceland for the fourth time since December, triggering new evacuations over the weekend.
ASHER: And thankfully, there are no reports at this point in time of any sort of injuries or damage to critical infrastructure from this eruption.
But CNN's Michael Holmes shows us some of the fiery images and has a few eyewitness accounts to share, as well.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): A siren wails at the world-famous Blue Lagoon Spa in Iceland. The orange plume racking up the night sky means
it's time to evacuate again. For some tourists, this is part of the excitement, one of the reasons they came to Iceland to see its active
volcanoes.
And there has been a lot of activity lately. This is the fourth time since December that a volcano has erupted in southwest Iceland, less than an hour
from the country's capital Reykjavik. The fissure is estimated to be about three kilometers long and flowing once again towards the town of Grindavik,
where emergency teams are working to reinforce the town's defenses.
HALLDOR GEIRSSON, GEOPHYSICT: Most of the flow is going east of the town towards the sea, so it looks like the barriers are really doing the job
they were designed for.
HOLMES: Grindavik was first evacuated in November after a series of earthquakes split open roads in the town, heralding the reawakening of a
volcanic system which had been dormant for nearly 800 years. Then lava first burst through the surface in December, followed by a second eruption
in January that destroyed several homes and buildings in the area.
A third eruption last month demolished a hot water pipeline and cut off heat to more than 20,000 people. The last few residents of Grindavik who
had returned to their homes have been evacuated again, and Icelandic authorities have declared a state of emergency for the area, calling this
the most powerful eruption on the Reykjanes Peninsula since 2021.
As in previous eruptions, the Blue Lagoon Spa once again closed its doors, interrupting the vacations of some tourists, some who may have gotten a
little more of the Icelandic volcano experience than they imagined.
MELISSA EZAIR, TOURIST: I've never experienced anything like that before. I'll be honest, I wasn't scared or anything. I hope everybody got out okay,
but it really was an experience.
[12:55:00]
And I'm like, at the same time, wow, how could this happen?
HOLMES (voice-over): Michael Holmes, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GOLODRYGA: Look at those images. Well, from fire to look at this beautiful sight, the U.S. National Park Service says the cherry blossoms in
Washington, D.C. are in peak bloom.
And although it's extremely beautiful, well, it's worrisome because it's also very early.
ASHER: Yeah, peak bloom is when 70 percent of the cherry trees lining the National Mall and the Tidal Basin have bloomed, that usually actually
wouldn't normally happen for at least another two weeks.
GOLODRYGA: The U.S. Capitol just experienced one of its warmest winters on record, as we noted earlier in the program. Temperatures rose to 80 degrees
Fahrenheit, nearly 27 degrees Celsius by late January. And climate change and very warm weather made this peak bloom the second earliest in D.C.'s
history. Same thing in Japan, by the way.
ASHER: Right, yes, that's exactly -- that's exactly what happened.
GOLODRYGA: All right, let's take care of our planet, guys. That does it for this hour of "One World". I'm Bianna Golodryga.
ASHER: And I'm Zain Asher. I appreciate you watching. Amanpour is up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
