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Europeans Vow To Stand By Ukraine, But Disagree Over Force Proposal; Judge Orders Trump Administration To Preserve Signal Chat; North Korea Sent More Troops And Weapons To Russia; Canada's Prime Minister Says U.S. Is "No Longer a Reliable Partner" On Trade; U.S. Vice President and Second Lady to Visit Greenland; Nowhere to Go: Migrants Await Asylum in Panama Shelter; Oscar Winner Speaks on Israeli Settler Attack; China Touts Succes of "Ne Zha 2", Slams U.S. Criticism. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired March 28, 2025 - 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: Europe's so called reassurance force for Ukraine appears to be going nowhere. Ahead on CNN newsroom.
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KEIR STARMER, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Now is not the time for lifting of sanctions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: But there is overwhelming European support saying yet to a Kremlin demand to ease international sanctions.
The White House ordered to keep all messages in the now infamous group chat about a military strike on Yemen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it'll be interesting perhaps telling whether those records were preserved.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Because if they weren't, it would be a clear violation of federal law. And also this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their views.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
More than 300 so far and counting as the secretary of state goes hunting foreign students involved in anti U.S. activities.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Atlanta. This is CNN Newsroom with John Vause.
VAUSE: More than 30 European leaders gathered in Paris Thursday to try and agree on specific measures to help defend Ukraine from Russia. The so called Coalition of the Willing has met three times now in a month and still just who is willing to do what remains unclear.
At the same time, no lack of clarity from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who suggested installing a temporary administrator in Kyiv to oversee new elections and sign off on any peace agreement. In other words, achieving a major objective of his invasion, removing the Ukrainian president from power, which is perhaps what Putin meant when he said he wanted the root causes that led today's situation eliminated.
Putin made those remarks while speaking to a submarine crew during a visit to Russia's largest naval base in Murmansk.
He told them he's willing to work with Europe even though in his words, European leaders are always trying to lead us by the nose.
By day's end in Paris, there was overwhelming agreement. Now is not the time to ease sanctions on Moscow despite Kremlin demands to do so before agreeing to a 30-day maritime ceasefire. And in what seemed to be a clear message to both the Kremlin and the White House, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told reporters the only discussion on sanctions was how to strengthen them. While Ukraine's president pleaded for the United States to get tougher with Putin.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We all need America to be stronger in relation to Russia. We really want the U.S. President to be stronger in relation to the Kremlin's master. But it is important for us we need to work on this issue.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: CNN's Clare Sebastian has a closer look at the coalition of the willing summit.
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CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this was a major show of unity from Europe and support for Ukraine, 27 heads of state as well as the leaders of NATO's and the European Union committing to strengthening Ukraine in the short term. Now, there was no firm agreement yet on security guarantees, but there was progress.
President Macron saying that more countries, though not all of those present, had signaled a willingness to be part of a so called reassurance force in Ukraine once a ceasefire is reached. But of course, that is far from imminent. Since the so called Coalition of the Willing last met at the beginning
of March, Russia has rejected a full ceasefire. It's agreed to a pause in attacks on energy infrastructure, which Ukraine says it's repeatedly violated.
And it's demanded extensive sanctions relief in return for a partial cease fire in the Black Sea, leaving in effect the U.S. led peace initiative in limbo.
Well, the good news for Ukraine is that the leaders gathered in Paris were apparently unanimous in rejecting Russia's terms. And given the extent of European sanctions on Russia, this carries weight.
STARMER: Complete clarity that now is not the time for lifting of sanctions quite the contrary. What we discussed is how we can increase sanctions to support the U.S. initiative to bring Russia to the table through further pressure from this group of countries.
EMMANUEL MACRON, FRENCH PRESIDENT (through translator): In terms of short term support for Ukraine, we also decided unanimously that this is not the time to lift whatever sanctions are on Russia and there will not be a lifting of sanctions before peace is clearly established.
SEBASTIAN: Now, by contrast, President Trump has said he's looking at Russia's conditions for a ceasefire. So the difficulty for Europe here is that it risks looking like it's breaking with the U.S. at a time when it's fighting to keep up the appearance of transatlantic unity and of course, convince the U,S, to provide some kind of backstop to an eventual security guarantee for Ukraine, something there's been no clear signals on yet.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskyy, after spending weeks repairing the damage of the Oval Office, spat with President Trump. This was also a fine line.
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He called on the U.S. to be stronger in its attitude to Russia, urging President Trump to help strengthen Ukraine's hand as it pushes for peace. Clare Sebastian, CNN, London.
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VAUSE: Earlier, our CNN's European affairs commentator Dominic Thomas, how effective sanctions can be when the Trump administration seems more than eager to do business with Moscow.
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DOMINIC THOMAS, CNN EUROPEAN AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: I think obviously when it comes to it, the very fact that President Putin articulates or makes a demand for concessions on sanctions actually reveals a vulnerability which the Europeans have understood loud and clear. This is the one area in which they can pressure the Russian administration. And so they're not about, without any concessions or any movement
forward on this peace accord, about to give up that aspect of the chessboard. The problem is as much as they were like and wish for an American backstop, something that is reliable and can be depended on. There is tremendous concern about the reliability of any kind of commitment from the United States.
And you have President Trump, I think is realizing that a solution here is not as easy as he perhaps had thought when he returned to office, is that there are red lines for Europe, for the European Union in general. He's been soft on multilateral support around NATO, around the European Union, and even the people around President Trump have been repeating regurgitating Russian disinformation, talking points about the fact that there are folks on the ground in Ukraine that are pro Russia or the fact that they speak Russia means that they are somehow aligned with the Russian Federation.
And so this sort of move towards neutrality is a problem for Europeans who see unambiguously Russia as the aggressor here and as the problem for which a solution is needed moving forward. John.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Our thanks to CNN European affairs commentator Dominic Thomas.
So far this year, North Korea is believed to have sent more than 3,000 soldiers to support Russian forces on the front line in the war with Ukraine. That's in addition to the 11,000 troops who've been fighting there and taking heavy losses since November, according to South Korean military intelligence.
The support from Pyongyang comes after signing a new defense agreement with Moscow last year. And Russian state media now says preparations are underway for a state visit to Russia by Kim Jong Un.
Across Ukraine, three years of war has filled graveyards with dead soldiers and left maternity wards quiet as couples have fewer children, setting the birth rate to an all time low. In short, Ukraine may be losing an entire generation to war. Here's CNN's Clarissa Ward.
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CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Baby Mark is just hours old, but his mother Ophelia waited years for this moment. Probably the war was the only thing stopping us from having a baby, she tells us. My husband is in the army and talked about kids for four years, and then the war started and it wasn't time for kids.
WARD: Do you feel it's sort of your duty?
WARD (voice-over): I think yes, she says. They are destroying us. Our nation. Odesa, like all of Ukraine, is in the grips of a demographic crisis. It can be felt in the heavy silence of these hallways.
WARD: This is definitely one of the quietest maternity hospitals that I've ever visited. And the main doctor just told us that births here are down 40 percent since the start of the war.
WARD (voice-over): According to official statistics, there are three deaths for every birth. Ukraine has the highest death rate and the lowest birth rate in the world. Just as the country needs babies to keep growing the population, it needs men to keep fighting the war.
On the streets of Odesa, draft officer Oleksandr stops men of fighting age to make sure they are not dodging their duty.
You're the second team to stop us today, two young men tell him. They're 21 and 19 below the conscription age of 25. Lucky for them, Oleksandr says it has become harder and harder to find draft dodgers because people put out notices on social media warning others of where the patrols are.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's caution day.
WARD (voice-over): It happens every day. As soon as we set up checkpoints and start working, the Odesa telegram channels inform locals about this, he says. And there are no people on the streets. Everyone runs away.
It's not hard to see why, everyone here has lost someone. Three years of war with Russia has ravaged Ukraine's male adult population. The section of Odesa's main graveyard designated for military burials is a sea of flags and tombstones.
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Fresh plots have been dug ready for the war's newest victims. Here, funerals are near daily and often held in batches of two or three. Every detail is perfectly choreographed. The city has had plenty of practice to get it right.
The mother of 23-year-old Anton Sidorko (ph) weeps over the body of her son. My sunshine, you won't shine anymore for me. You won't come and say, mama, I'm here, she sobs. I won't see you again. You are far away, so far away.
For those who give life, the pain of losing that life too great to bear. Back at the maternity hospital, Ophelia's husband has come to fetch her and baby Mark. He asks we not show his face. Grow big and strong, the nurse says as she hands him the baby. Come back to us for a sister.
But he will be heading back to the front in just over a week, and Ukraine's population will never recover until there is peace. Clarissa Ward, CNN, Odesa.
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VAUSE: Canada's prime minister says 200 years of friendly relations with the United States is over after President Trump announced a new 25 percent tariff on imported vehicles. Carney described that as a direct attack and says there will be retaliation in kind.
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MARK CARNEY, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: The old relationship we had with the United States based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperations is over. But exactly the United States does next is unclear.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Japan also considering a shot in this trade war, with the prime minister there saying all options are being considered, with Germany and France urging the E.U. to respond as well. But while world leaders weigh their options, most experts agree that it will be Americans who should expect to pay a lot more for a new car. CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich has our report.
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VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Well, first, the car manufacturers are going to feel these increases in prices and then that's going to translate all the way down to the consumer.
If you look at the cost to produce a vehicle with a 25 percent tariff, economists estimate that this will cost about $3,500 to $12,000 more per vehicle. And then when about the consumer, a lot of economists are suggesting that it could cost upwards of $5,000 to $15,000 more per vehicle.
But let's take the White House's numbers on this. According to their fact sheet, a $40,000 vehicle made in America would cost $5,000 more if that company uses foreign parts. And that is important because 10.2 million cars produced here in the United States in 2024. 50 percent of the parts in those cars were foreign parts. So that is getting tax.
But ultimately, the White House is sticking by what they're saying. We heard from trade adviser Peter Navarro just a short time to go, who doubled down on these tariffs and said ultimately they would be good for the consumer. Listen.
PETER NAVARRO, WHITE HOUSE SENIOR CONSELOR FOR TRADE AND MANUFACTURING: The 25 percent tariff is going to be absorbed in a lot of different ways, and we're going to race to get more production here. And on net, consumers are going to better off.
YURKEVICH: Ultimately, it is up to the car companies if they want to absorb some of these costs and if they want to stand up more production here in the US.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: In a moment, Signalgate goes to court with a very familiar judge ordering the case to and demands for the Trump administration rather to keep those records preserved.
Also ahead, invasion barges, why these are key to China's plans to invade Taiwan and why so many military planners around the world are increasingly concerned.
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VAUSE: U.S. federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to preserve the group chat messages from top officials discussing plans for an attack on Houthi rebels in Yemen. A watchdog group is suing to prevent the text from being auto deleted by the Signal app or otherwise destroyed. The administration says federal agencies are already working to locate and preserve the text messages.
Judge James Boasberg is overseeing this case. He recently drew the ire of the Trump administration, especially the president, of his handling of a challenge to the deportation of Venezuelan migrants. Former Trump attorney Ty Cobb explains why preserving the text messages is so important.
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TY COBB, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE ATTORNEY: Everybody on that group chat had an obligation under the Federal Records Act and the Presidential Records Act, you know, to transfer that text chain to their government accounts and preserve it under those statutes. I think it'll be interesting, perhaps, telling whether those records were preserved.
And keep in mind that with regard to Goldberg's thread that he preserved, he came in late and opted out early once he realized what was going on. So he doesn't have the entire string.
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He only has the string that, you know, he was captured during the time that he had.
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VAUSE: All this week, the Trump administration has argued Signalgate is no big deal. Nothing to see here. But a handful of Republican lawmakers appear to be breaking with the White House and are calling for an investigation. CNN's chief congressional correspondent Manu Raju has our report.
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MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There are a lot of Republicans on Capitol Hill who are ready to move on from the Signal controversy that has really dominated the discussion in Washington over the last several days. Yes, the Senate Armed Services Committee, the leaders, the Republican leader, Roger Whitaker, who's the chairman of the committee, as well as Jack Reid, the top Democrat, the committee, they did in fact request an independent inspector general investigation that is separate from Congress. They want the government watchdog to essentially figure out what happened here. But will Congress actually mount its own investigation? It's unclear
the extent to which the Senate Armed Services Committee will do its own probe. They want to have their own briefings. But will they go beyond that? That is still an open question.
And in the House, there are some, all sorts of indications that Republicans there do not have any appetite to launch any investigation whatsoever into this matter. They willing to essentially sweep it under the rug and move on, hope it does not happen again.
And talking to Republican senators, some of them, including Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa, someone who had initially struggled with Pete Hegseth's nomination, ultimately decided to vote yes, told me she still has confidence behind the Defense Secretary.
RAJU: Do you have confidence in him as Defense Secretary still?
JONI ERNST, U.S. SENATE REPUBLICAN: I do. And this is a call that the President will make. But I know that the NSC is going to scrutinize this and then they'll get back to us and let us know.
RICH MCCORMICK, U.S. HOUSE REPUBLICAN: It was unintentional. It was a mistake. I think it's been admitted it's a mistake. It was wrong. It won't happen again.
RAJU: Hegseth has not admitted that as a mistake.
MCCORMICK: I haven't heard him not admit it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But I don't see where investigation is needed at this time.
SUSAN COLLINS, U.S. SENATE REPUBLICAN: In her opening statement, DNI Gabbard should have said this never should have happened. We made a major error.
RAJU: And that last comment striking a bit of a different tone, Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who does sit on the Senate Intelligence Committee, she had raised some concerns about Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence, and not acknowledging that there were errors that were made and not apologizing for their involvement in that Signal group chat.
But while there are those concerns among Republicans, many are just simply ready to move on, hope that nothing else emerges and hope that essentially the focus will shift next week when they come back to Washington. Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Recent Chinese military innovations are fueling concerns that they may be used for a future invasion of Taiwan. These massive barges can be linked in a chain connecting a beach to deeper parts of the sea. Analysts say they can be used as makeshift docks, allowing China's military to offload tanks and armored vehicles from ships. This comes after Chinese researchers unveiled the ability to cut
fortified power and communication cables at record depths. The island of Taiwan is surrounded by undersea cables, and cutting them could disrupt military communications during a conflict. But one defense analyst says these technologies point to a wider use than Taiwan.
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SU TZU-YUN, DIRECTOR, TAIWAN'S INSTITUTE FOR NATIONAL DEFENSE AND SECURITY RESEARCH: It's not only just for unification Taiwan. The real answer is China tried to become a sea power. Yes, I do believe that China will conduct a war.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Joining us now from Alexandria, Virginia is Tom Shugart, a defense analyst and retired U.S. Navy captain. Thank you for being with us.
TOM SHUGART, DEFENSE ANALYST: My pleasure, John. Thank you.
VAUSE: OK, so Taiwan's fortress like coastline, where the ocean meets the mountains, is a key part of its defense planning. You know, there's not a lot of places where an amphibious landing can actually take place. So first up, how do these giant barges or these invasion barges, whatever you want to call them now, change that calculation?
SHUGART: Well, it looks like it's possible there could be a number of new locations where they could potentially use these barges. So Taiwan, the Taiwanese Defense Force has been able to over the years narrow down to what they call, you know, red or green or yellow beaches, those areas that they think could potentially be usable for amphibious assault.
These really unique landing barges, by having these really long, 140 meter long ramps, may be able to potentially drop those ramps across places that might not have been usable before, such as seawalls or across obstacles or onto coastal roads. So it really could open up the aperture for a number of places that potentially Taiwan didn't have to worry about defending before.
VAUSE: Here's a spokesperson for the Defense Ministry in Beijing describing recent military operations by the PLA around Taiwan.
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WU QIAN, SPOKESMAN, CHINESE MINISTRY OF NATIONAL DEFENSE (through translator): Taiwan is a part of China. It has never been a nation. It wasn't in the past, it is not at present, and it will never be in the future.
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Recently, naval and air troops of the PLA Eastern Theater Command conducted readiness patrols and joint exercises in areas around Taiwan to test and enhance their war fighting capabilities. (END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: These days they're not backwards and coming forwards. What are the chances that China's military will meet 2027 deadline set by Xi Jinping of being capable of retaking Taiwan by force if ordered? And how crucial will these barges be to that?
SHUGART: Well, it's hard to say that there will be 100 percent there by 2027. They certainly would have do still have some work to do and amphibious assault on Taiwan would be a fairly difficult one. But if I'm looking at what are the kinds of things that China would need to do to be ready to go for that kind of operation in 2027, the development of these barges on this timeline at this time is the kind of thing that I would expect to see.
If you think about them testing them out now in 2025, probably using them in lending exercises in the summer of 2025 and then being able to make tweaks, changes to designs and go into further mass production and further testing, it's the kind of thing on the timeline I might expect given the fact that Xi Jinping has directed his military to be ready to go in 2027.
VAUSE: Right now there's, what, the immediate threats of larger opposed to Taiwan's security. But beyond that, is there a greater concern that China has moved on from the days of imitation, stealing and then reverse engineering west technology as becoming much more innovative, especially when it comes to the military.
SHUGART: Those days are definitely long over when it comes to the Chinese military. You can see this an example that their new J-36 six generation fighter that doesn't really look like anything that the west has. You can see it in their anti-ship ballistic missiles and you can see it in these barges as well as other warships the Chinese have built, for example the Type 76 amphibious assault ship that has a catapult, which is not something you don't see on anybody else's amphibious assault ships for aircraft and additionally dedicated carriers, drone carriers, aircraft carriers built to launch drones in particular. Again, these are not things that we see in the West. They are beyond copying.
And some analysts have described China's militarization at the moment as the fastest the world has seen since Nazi Germany. At the same time, China dominates commercial shipbuilding globally. According to one recent study, the largest state owned shipbuilder built more commercial vessels by tonnage in 2024. This is in China than the entire U.S. shipbuilding industry has built since the end of World War II.
80 years ago, semi lines and factories in Detroit were crucial to defeating the Axis powers. And now China is the world's factory. And it all kind of seems a bit grim at the moment.
SHUGART: This is the kind of thing I worry about. If you look, for example, In World War II, Japan launched a war against the United States, but did so against the United States that had an industrial base that it was, that was far larger than Japan's, such that you, the U.S. Navy could build up and overwhelmed the Japanese by the end of the war.
At this point, the shoot the foot, the shoe is really on the other foot with respect to China and that it has a far larger industrial base in the United States. That's at this point. I really worry about this, particularly given predilection and Chinese doctrine for launching surprise attacks.
VAUSE: Thomas, thank you so much for being with us. We really appreciate your insights. It's a fascinating topic and one that should be of concern to a lot of people, you would imagine. Thanks for being with us.
SHUGART: My pleasure. Thank you.
VAUSE: The U.S. vice president and second lady are preparing to visit Greenland on Friday as U.S. President Donald Trump openly talks about annexing the island. And that's making things quite interesting for their arrival. Details in a moment.
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back everyone. I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
For the good folk of Greenland, their long wait is almost over. Within just hours, the U.S. vice president and second lady will touch down for a 5.5-hour long visit. Amid the non-existent giddy excitement, many in Greenland remain outraged by the U.S. president's stated desire to buy the mineral-rich island.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's an island that from a defensive posture and even offensive posture, is something we need, especially with the world the way it is. And we're going to have to have it.
And so I hate to put it that way but we're going to have to have it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: As anger at the Vance visit grew in recent days, their itinerary shrank. Attending the world's foremost dog sled race is no longer on the agenda despite U.S. sponsorship. It will be just a visit to a U.S. base and a meet-and-greet with service members.
A Danish lawmaker says Trump is only interested in Greenland as a way of expanding U.S. territory.
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ANDERS VISTISEN, EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT MEMBER: America have had security bases and military installations in Greenland since 1940. They have decided themselves to scale back their military presence.
If they wanted to upscale that for any serious reason, there will not be any objections from Denmark or Greenland. There's no obstacles in getting American companies to mine Greenland. Actually, the Greenlandic Home Rule government encouraged that.
So there's really no other argument for this persistence than Donald Trump wanting to enlarge his territory and apparently enlarging it by taking it from an allied nation, the Kingdom of Denmark.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Along with the Vances in Greenland will be national security adviser Mike Waltz, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Republican Senator Mike Lee, a vocal supporter of Donald Trump's plans to buy Greenland.
The U.S. Secretary of State says he has personally revoked more than 300 visas, mostly for foreign students with more on the way. Marco Rubio described those students and others as lunatics involved in anti U.S. behavior.
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MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visa.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're saying it could be more than 300 visas?
RUBIO: Sure. I mean, at some point I hope we run out because we've gotten rid of all of them. But we're looking every day for these lunatics that are tearing things up. And by the way, we want to get rid of gang members, too.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Turkish PhD student Rumeysa Ozturk is one of the 300 whose visa was revoked. Right now, she's being held without charge in a facility in Louisiana about 1,500 miles away from where plainclothes immigration officers arrested her in Massachusetts, accusing her of supporting Hamas, which is deemed a terrorist group by the U.S. State Department.
Secretary Rubio, doubling down on the allegations just a short time ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUBIO: There's a clear distinction between protesting against the democratic order and protesting in favor of groups that advocate the slaughter and murder of innocent people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Last March Ozturk wrote an op-ed in her school's newspaper criticizing Tufts University for the response to pro-Palestinian movements. Ozturk's family believes her detention is related to that article.
Well, the 100 migrants expelled from the United States are now essentially stuck in a country they know nothing about. That would be Panama.
CNN's Omar Jimenez went there to speak to them, who now say they have no clear way out.
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OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So we're on our way to a shelter right now here in Panama City, Panama where migrants are caught in this sort of Trump-created limbo where they've been deported from the United States But they also can't go home.
AMBO, MIGRANT FROM CAMEROON: I left Cameroon due to political issues. It is either I will be sentenced to death or I will spend the rest of my life in prison.
JIMENEZ: Life for Ambo as she asked to be called, is now this shelter. She's among the dozens of migrants here from places like Afghanistan, Russia, China and more.
These are all people who say they can't go home because they fear either persecution or potentially being killed.
Ambo didn't want her face identified on camera. She says she arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border on January 23rd, hoping to make a case for asylum.
The U.S. eventually put her on a plane, and she thought she was being transferred to another American immigration facility, until they landed in Panama.
AMBO: We're asking them, why are they bringing us to Panama? Why are we in Panama?
JIMENEZ: It was actually part of the Trump administration's mass deportation plan, which it has pressured Latin American countries like Panama to help with.
The Panamanian government then took these migrants to a hotel in Panama City, guarded by tight security, the migrants say, with little to no access to outside communication.
AMBO: Maybe the immigration from the U.S. has come to Panama to listen to our stories, why we went there? Maybe they were --
JIMENEZ: So you still had hope that someone from the United States would come and fix the situation?
AMBO: Yes. Yes. Yes.
JIMENEZ: Her optimism was shattered.
AMBO: They shouldn't just, like, abandon us like that without telling us what we have done wrong. Yes, it becomes very, very difficult and confusing to us. I've left my children back home.
JIMENEZ: Others don't have anything at home to go back to.
Why can't you go back to Ethiopia?
SALAM, MIGRANT FROM ETHIOPIA: That is political, I cannot go back. I don't have family. They die already, our family. All of my family.
JIMENEZ: Salam, as she wanted to be called, is from Ethiopia. She also didn't want her face on camera.
Is this where you all sleep in this room?
SALAM: Yes.
Everyone is in the bad situation.
JIMENEZ: It's one of multiple places in Panama where these migrants are trying to navigate life in a country they've never known.
ARTEMIS GHASEMZADEH, MIGRANT FROM IRAN: We are lost here.
JIMENEZ: Artemis Ghasemzadeh fled Iran.
GHASEMZADEH: I changed my religion in Iran and the punishment of that is maybe a long prison or at the end is death.
JIMENEZ: She was seen in this February photo from "The New York Times" with the words "help us", written on the hotel window where these migrants were first taken.
[01:39:52]
JIMENEZ: They were then moved to a location hours outside the city.
Over a hundred of the migrants that were sent here to Panama City were then taken to a remote jungle camp away from the resources of Panama City, but also, for the most part away from effective means of communication.
GHASEMZADEH: The food was really disgusting. The bathroom was really dirty, no privacy, no door.
SALAM: The water -- even if you will take shower, it's itchy. You can see my leg.
JIMENEZ: Wow.
SALAM: All my body is like this.
JIMENEZ: Through every step along the way, attorneys for these migrants argue their rights were violated.
SILVIA SEMA ROMAN, REGIONAL LITIGATOR FOR MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA: When they got to America and when they got to Panama they were never allowed to speak to an official that wanted an attorney to hear their story and their circumstance. and so even though they all claim to be asylum seekers, they have never had the right to be heard.
JIMENEZ: In early March, the government released the over a hundred migrants from the remote jungle camp but gave them temporary permits to find another place to go or risk deportation from Panama.
ROMAN: It might be like involuntarily be taken back to their countries. And that's our concern.
JIMENEZ: If you went back to your country, do you think you would be killed?
SALAM: Yes.
GHAZEMZADEH: If I come back to my country, my government kill me.
JIMENEZ: Ambo still dreams of America, but has no idea how this nightmare will end.
AMBO: I don't think I can stay in Panama. But now the point is, where am I going to go to?
JIMENEZ: Omar Jimenez, CNN -- Panama City, Panama.
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VAUSE: In just over a month, Australians will go to the polls to vote for a new federal government. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the election as the country faces a cost-of-living crisis, as well as uncertainty over future relations with the United States and China.
His main rival is conservative firebrand Peter Dutton, who's been described as Trump-lite. according to polls, he and Mr. Albanese are running neck and neck. Some analysts say Australia could end up with a hung parliament, which means whoever wins will need support from minor parties to form a coalition government.
In a moment, Hamdan Ballal won an Oscar this month for his documentary about Israeli settler violence against Palestinians. And just days ago, Jewish settlers targeted him and his neighbors, attacking him in front of his home in the Occupied West Bank. And he will share his story next with CNN.
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VAUSE: In the past few days, more than a dozen workers with various aid groups in Gaza have either been killed or are now missing, according to their employers. The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, says eight staff members were killed in the past week alone.
That's after Israel broke a ceasefire with Hamas and renewed military operations.
Israeli strikes have also killed a volunteer with the World Central Kitchen. Six others were wounded in the attack, which came as meals were being distributed, according to the U.S.-based nonprofit.
Meantime, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society says nine of its emergency medical workers since Sunday have gone missing when Israeli forces fired on ambulances and fire trucks in the Rafah region in Gaza's south. In that incident, Israel claimed militants were using the vehicles as cover.
Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal says he will not be leaving his West Bank home despite Monday's attack by Jewish settlers, which he believes was motivated by revenge for his award-winning documentary about Israeli violence against Palestinians.
And he spoke to CNN's Jeremy Diamond.
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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Just a few weeks ago, Hamdan Ballal was being celebrated in Hollywood after winning the Oscar for best documentary.
Today, he is back home in Masafer Yatta in the Occupied West Bank, a bruise now underlining his left eye.
HAMDAN BALLAL, PALESTINIAN DIRECTOR: Look, this is outposts.
DIAMOND: Ballal and other eyewitnesses say he was attacked by the very same Israeli settlers whose attacks on Masafer Yatta were the subject of his Oscar-winning documentary.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Back to the car.
DIAMOND: This video, captured by an American peace activist, documents a part of Monday's attack as settlers pelted their car with rocks.
Alongside one of those damaged vehicles, Ballal says he arrived here that evening after he was alerted to the presence of settlers.
BALLAL: The settlers started like to throw stones to the house and destroyed the water tank.
DIAMOND: As some Palestinians began throwing stones back at the settlers and more settlers and soldiers arrived, Ballal thought of his family down the hill.
BALLAL: If the settlers come down there and they start to attacking them, ok, what's happening with them?
So, directly and quickly, I back to my house and I stand there. And I told my wife if you see me die, don't open the door. I close it like here and stop here, exactly. And they came from -- from this side.
DIAMOND: He says an Israeli soldier then approached him, his rifle drawn, as one of the settlers began beating him from behind, hitting him in his head.
BALLAL: When I saw I'm bleeding, I felt, I will -- this is the last moments in my life.
DIAMOND: In that moment you thought you were going to die?
BALLAL: Yes, because that's that -- the attacks was so, so hard. And you know, my head, like, was like a football between the legs and the wall.
[01:49:53]
DIAMOND: Here?
BALLAL: I was shouting and screaming, crying, but they don't care.
DIAMOND: Ballal says the soldier pressed his rifle into his leg and threatened to shoot. He was then arrested.
In custody, he says he was blindfolded and forced to sit on the ground, hit by soldiers every time he tried to move, a claim the Israeli military denies.
The Israeli military said they arrived here on the scene of what they described as a, quote, "violent confrontation" between Israelis and Palestinians, according to the IDF, sparked by Palestinians throwing rocks at Israelis -- something that everyone here denies.
While their Oscar win is shining a light on settler violence in the West Bank, Ballal and his co-director Basel Adra knew they would come back to the same reality, or worse.
BASEL ADRA, CO-DIRECTOR, "NO OTHER LAND": We know that the settlers would be with the occupation army, and police would be more angry and do revenge and punishment, mainly to silence us and to try to prevent us from transferring the message and the truth and reality of what's happening.
DIAMOND: Ballal believes he was targeted because of his Oscar win, but he says he won't be deterred.
You are determined to stay. This attack won't change that.
BALLAL: You see, my blood is here on the ground. This is my house. And here my blood. Ok? So, I will -- I will stay here. Well, the connection is becoming like more and more -- now, the connection between me and the land, this is blood. So, I will never, never, never, ok, left my home.
DIAMOND: Jeremy Diamond, CNN -- Masafer Yatta in the West Bank.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Still to come on CNN, a new animated film breaking records at Chinese theaters, not so much in the U.S. Details in a moment.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ouch.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was poison.
Save my life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Magical moment there as E.T. and Elliot share a connection during the 1982 classic movie. Now one of three original E.T. models is up for auction by Sotheby's in New York. The prop was designed and built by special effects artist Carlo Rambaldi, the monster maker behind "King Kong" and other films.
Also for sale, the mechanical study, which brought one of E.T.'s eyes to life. Childhood memories like these do not go cheap. Expect to pay up to $1 million if you want to go home with E.T.
"Ne Zha 2", the sequel to a popular Chinese animated film is enjoying boffo, which means good ticket sales, thanks to Chinese propaganda. But it's not getting the same star treatment in the United States.
And here's CNN's Kristie Lu Stout to explain.
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KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This pint-sized warrior from Chinese mythology is fearless and the fiery star of "Ne Zha 2", a Chinese animated epic that is breaking box office records, beating Pixar and DreamWorks to become the highest-grossing animated film ever.
Its success igniting scenes of celebration in China. The city of Chengdu lit up skyscrapers to mark the milestone.
[01:54:50]
STOUT: After packing theaters in the mainland, "Ne Zha 2" opened in Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, North America and elsewhere. It became an instant hit among the Chinese diaspora.
In this video from the film's overseas distributor, moviegoers in Australia pile on the praise.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've never seen animation like that before and it just blew my mind.
STOUT: Praise further pushed on state media, touting the movie as a symbol of China's soft power and social media as well, with netizens hailing how China is overtaking the U.S.
YING ZHU, PROFESSOR, HONG KONG BAPTIST UNIVERSITY: So, there's a tremendous amount of national pride in this. So, that kind of explains this phenomenon of rallying support behind this box office success.
STOUT: To help boost its box office take, supporters in China are watching the movie again and again.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): This kid has watched it twice and that kid has watched it three times. Our family has bought about 12 "Ne Zha 2" tickets in total.
STOUT: But outside China, mainstream audiences are not flocking to the film. This social video shows an empty theater for a U.S. screening of "Ne Zha 2". This reality has not gone down well prompting rumors of a U.S. boycott of the film.
Any criticism of "Ne Zha 2" may draw attacks from patriotic fans. These people share the abuse they say they've received online for sharing unflattering takes of the movie and articles on how the film is becoming impossible to criticize, have been censored.
ZHU: When it becomes not just a cultural event, it becomes a movement everybody has to be in, right?
STOUT: Across China, passions are high for the highest-grossing animated movie of all time, an achievement earned from runaway ticket sales, mostly at home.
But for China to claim soft power success on the global stage, it has yet to strike gold.
Kristie Lu Stout, CNN -- Hong Kong.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Boffo, baby, boffo.
Thank you for watching. I'm John Vause.
CNN NEWSROOM continues with Kim Brunhuber after a very short break.
See you right back here next week.
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