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CNN NEWSROOM

CNN International: New Zealand Mosque Attacks Suspect Appears in Court; Muslim Community Reacts to New Zealand Massacre; Interview with Mohammed Shafiq, Ramadhan Foundation, on New Zealand Attacks; Survivors Recount Harrowing Moments of New Zealand Shooting; Police in New South Wales Talking to Suspect's Family, Neighbors in Shock; Yellow Vest Protesters Clash with Police; Venezuela Locked in Political Crisis as Hardships Persist; Social Media Struggle to Remove New Zealand Attack Video. Aired 10-11a ET

Aired March 16, 2019 - 10:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[10:00:00]

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KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, there. I'm Kristie Lu Stout, live in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was an act of terror, it was an act of hate. On Friday, Muslim worshippers were targeted and gunned down in two separate shootings in two mosques on Friday. The death toll standing at 49. Scores of people wounded, 20 wounded seriously, including children.

There's a 4-year-old girl suffering from gunshot wounds. The scene behind me, you can see floral tributes for the victims and scenes like this are being repeated across the city of Christchurch at places of worship, at a church behind me, at mosques.

This is a community in mourning and also a community unified to fight the hatred that the world witnessed on -- earlier today.

The suspect appeared in court earlier today. The suspect behind the shooting has been identified. He appeared today. Let's bring up the video of what happened today.

The suspected attacker made his first court appearance. He is an Australian national in his late 20s, 28-year-old Brenton Tarrant is charged with murder. Additional charges may come.

We're also learning that he emailed that manifesto to the prime minister's office just minutes before the attack. This is the manifesto that he posted on HN, that espoused these views that were anti-Muslim, anti-immigrants. He denounced immigrants as being invaders, filled with anti-Muslim rhetoric and white supremacist ideology.

Now throughout the hours ahead we're going to be talking to members of the Muslim community, members of the community here in Christchurch. We'll also be talking to law enforcement, terror analysts and our own correspondents who have been fanned out, covering every inch of the story. We also got fresh video of New Zealand's prime minister Jacinda Ardern

and how she is trying to commune with the community in mourning here. She reached out to the Muslim community. In fact, she met with a group of Muslim leaders in Christchurch and reassured them that this act of violence has no place in New Zealand. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACINDA ARDERN, NEW ZEALAND PRIME MINISTER: New Zealand is united in its grief and we are united in our grief. And so I convey that message of love and support on behalf of New Zealand to all of you.

This is not New Zealand. The only part of the incident and actions that we have seen over the past 24-36 hours that is New Zealand is the support that you are seeing now. But nothing that led up to it is who we are or is who this city is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STOUT: Now earlier I talked with a Muslim leader who said that he believed this attack took place because it was a symptom of a far larger problem, a symptom of rising hatred, of rising xenophobia and rising Islamophobia, not just here but all over the world.

Our guest is Mohammed Shafiq, the chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation. He joins us live from Manchester.

Sir, thank you for joining us once again. Again, my sympathies to you and Muslims all over the world. You are the one who told me that, that you believe what happened here in Christchurch was a symptom of something far greater, of this global hatred.

If that's the reason why this happened, what can we do as a response?

MOHAMMED SHAFIQ, RAMADHAN FOUNDATION: Well, we can do what Jacinda Ardern said to President Trump when he asked if New Zealand wanted New Year assistance, what can the United States government to help. She said one thing, love Muslims all over the world.

I think that's a powerful message sent by Jacinda Ardern to the U.S. president but to leaders around the world, politicians, commentators, media, who fan this flame of intolerance and hatred towards Muslims and Islam.

As I said to you yesterday, if the environment in which we operate were demonizing a whole community, a whole faith system, becomes normalized, then we get deranged individuals who carry out such barbaric acts. And I think it's really important that all of us, whether we're in the public eye or not, behave responsibly.

And you saw it, I think, last night from Rush Limbaugh in the United States, denying and putting up conspiracy theories, thinking this didn't actually happen. It's disgusting. It's unacceptable. And I hope if there's any good to come out of what we've seen in Christchurch is the fact that all communities will come together and defeat this hatred. STOUT: When an act of terror takes place, its intention is usually to instill fear in the hearts of people or even to incite violence.

[10:05:00]

STOUT: How do you choose to respond to what happened here in Christchurch?

SHAFIQ: I think my initial reaction, Kristie, was really just sadness, children being killed and women and people in wheelchairs being shot, this deep anger and disgust. We saw it in Charlottesville. We saw it with the church of black worshippers in America. We saw it at the synagogue.

Places of worship are sacred. And I just really honestly feel that people need to stop finding excuses for these types of attacks against people of the Muslim community. My timeline yesterday, after I came on your program, was filled with far right extremists and sympathizers, justifying and defending the actions of what happened.

I think that's really sad and I think that responsibility rests on the top, from the White House, a president yesterday who belittled the rise of white supremacy in the United States and around Europe. It's a consequence when you hear people say that.

And the murderer, the terrorist himself, took inspiration from President Trump. And that's very, very serious.

STOUT: Islamophobia, xenophobia, anti-Muslim sentiment is something that you have experienced on a personal level. Never to the extent that we've seen as a mass murder terrorist attack that took place here in Christchurch yesterday.

How do we respond to that level of terror extremism?

SHAFIQ: As I said, the first thing we do, we have got to call out the hatred that politicians, right-wing newspapers and commentators have perpetuated over these past few years.

So the likes of your struggling senator, who I don't really want to name, within hours of this terrorist atrocity, tried to blame immigration or blame the Muslim community.

So the first step is to call out that hatred. We have got to roll back the demonization of the Muslim community. You know, we are not immune from criticism and challenge. My faith is big enough and strong enough to be challenged by people. But that's going to be done in an environment of tolerance and respect.

And then the third thing that we've got to do -- and you saw it in Christchurch but you've seen it across the world, people of all faiths I know coming together. Here in Manchester, for example, members of the Jewish community reaching out to the Muslim community, the Sikh community, Christian community, churches coming together. You saw that in Christchurch as well where you are. STOUT: Yes, absolutely. You are seeing outpourings of grief, floral tributes, for example. This church behind me, also in mosques and temples across the city. Mohammed Shafiq, thank you so much for joining me. We'll talk again later. And take care.

Now we are learning more about the victims of this horrific attack and many of them were immigrants, they were refugees, asylum seekers, who came to New Zealand, seeking a better life. We're learning more about their names, about their identities, about who they were. Let's bring up some photographs and some video for you.

This is Naeem Rashid. His brother has talked to CNN; he told us he was a professor at a university after emigrating from Pakistan. His son, Talha Rashid, was a student. And both father and son were killed in the attack on Friday.

Now this man is 25. Haji Daoud Nabi. He fled violence in Afghanistan more than 40 years ago. His son says Nabi found hope as a refugee in New Zealand. And he also perished in that horrific terror attack on Friday.

Ivan Watson is outside the hospital, where many of the survivors are coping with the aftermath of the attack, many of them dealing with serious critical gunshot wounds. Ivan joins us now.

What more have you learned about the victims of this horrific outburst of violence?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: According to the medical staff here at Christchurch Hospital, Kristie, there were, as of Saturday morning, at least 11 people in the ICU unit in critical condition and many more injured as well in this hospital.

The victims range from children to the elderly. We've just learn from the Indonesian foreign ministry that an Indonesian citizen was one of the victims killed, one of at least 49 people killed in this attack.

And we've seen well-wishers coming here to show solidarity, lighting candles, placing flowers near the entrance of the hospital. I just walked over from the Al Noor mosque, Kristie.

[10:10:00]

WATSON: It's only a 10-minute walk through the park from where I'm standing now and that is where the key suspect, who was charged with murder in a Christchurch court today, Brenton Tarrant, is believed to have gone in, burst in, while the worshippers were praying on Friday, streaming this on a camera and shooting people in the back as they were knelt in prayer.

And at this hour, 3:00 am, the mosque is lit up. There is a significant police presence in front and quite touching, just behind the police line, there are candles flickering in these predawn hours and flowers and notes from well-wishers right across the street from that mosque, another symbol of how New Zealanders are reaching out to their fellow citizens and neighbors in the wake of what the prime minister has called one of this country's darkest days -- Kristie.

STOUT: Absolutely. And in one of these floral tributes, we see posters saying, "This is not New Zealand." This was a terror attack that cuts deeply for people of New Zealand because it doesn't reject what the country is about, tolerance, about diversity, about being welcome of immigrants and their families.

And speaking of families, Ivan, the families of the victims, many of them have been in agony, waiting for more information about their loved ones, about finding out how their loved ones are doing.

Have you been able to see any of the victims' families at the hospital?

And how has the hospital been treating them?

WATSON: You know, out of respect for the people who are quite literally fighting for their lives, we're keeping a certain distance and waiting for hospital staff to brief people.

But one of the just terrible details that we learned from the New Zealand prime minister on Saturday was she said that she hoped they could remove the bodies of all the victims from the Al Noor mosque to allow a swift funeral for all of these victims.

So you can imagine that, hours after this terror attack, that place of worship still had victims, their bodies laying in there. It is Muslim tradition to bury people as soon as possible on the day of passing. But that has sadly not been the case for many families because of the sheer scale of this atrocity.

STOUT: Yes. And because the mosque has turned into a crime scene, a scene of terror. Ivan Watson reporting, thank you so much. We'll talk again soon, Ivan.

Our colleague, Alexandra Field, is also here in Christchurch and she has been talking to and meeting with survivors of Friday's terror attack. This is her report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the massacre at Linwood Mosque in Christchurch, where seven Muslims were killed, Ahmad Khan narrowly saved his own life.

AHMAD KHAN, EYEWITNESS: The guy shot at me but I dodged down so he missed me. And then I ran back to the mosque and told everyone to go to the ground because there's someone with a gun who's going to shoot everyone. And then everyone went to the ground and then he started shooting through the windows.

FIELD (voice-over): Inside Khan, found a friend bleeding.

KHAN: And I knew he was shot in the right arm. I went in there and held him and told him -- he was asking for some water. I said, calm down. The police are here now. And then the gunman came through the window again and shot him, when I was holding him, in the head. And he was dead.

FIELD (voice-over): Khan came to New Zealand 12 years ago, seeking safety, a refugee from Kabul, Afghanistan. His Afghan uncle, among those killed in the gunfire on New Zealand's darkest day at a second mosque just minutes away.

Khaled al-Shdokthi was inside Al Noor mosque when the bullets began flying there.

KHALED AL-SHDOKTHI, WITNESS: Some of my friends died, some of them this morning and one of my friends is still in the hospital because he was shot in his leg.

FIELD (voice-over): Al-Shdokthi, a PhD Candidate from Saudi Arabia, said he recently told his Saudi friends he thought New Zealand was the safest place on Earth. To him, it was.

AL-SHDOKTHI: I saw the bullets on the wall. The man came inside. And we couldn't do anything, just I looked, there I was, just sitting next to the window. I smashed the window and I escaped from the window and many people ran after me. And we went to the back yard.

FIELD (voice-over): Sue Harrison heard the shots ring out across the yard.

SUE HARRISON, WITNESS: I got in the stairwell and started hunkering down with panic --

[]

HARRISON: -- feeling in our hearts, just describing the sound.

FIELD (voice-over): Finally, there was silence.

HARRISON: After the gunshots had stopped for a few minutes, we peeked out the window and we could see people in the back yard of the mosque, sort of milling around. And they were up front. They went. They weren't panicking. They were just sort of walking around. There was wailing going on.

FIELD (voice-over): Harrison hasn't been allowed back to the apartment. The area around the mosque is still a crime scene. It's where 41 people who couldn't get out died inside -- Alexandra Field, CNN, Christchurch, New Zealand.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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STOUT: Welcome back to our ongoing live coverage of the aftermath of the terror attacks in Christchurch, New Zealand. I'm Kristie Lu Stout reporting in Christchurch. Behind me you can see one of many just huge floral tributes being laid

out at various places of worship, this one next to a church, next to temples and synagogues and mosques as well.

I was looking at some of the messages and they say, "Love will win over hatred."

And, "We are united, Christchurch."

This day, all eyes were on the courtroom when the suspect was charged and seen in court, the 28-year-old Australian national, Brenton Tarrant. He stayed silent during his first court appearance. He is suspected of killing the 49 worshippers who were in these two mosques on Friday, he is charged with murder, additional charges may come.

Now here's the moment when he was taken into custody and the prime minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, gave more details about the arrest.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACINDA ARDERN, NEW ZEALAND PRIME MINISTER: The individual charged was in custody 36 minutes from receiving the first call. The offender was mobile; there were two other firearms in the vehicle that the offender was in and it absolutely was his intention to continue with his attack.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STOUT: Now the relatives of the suspect, again, an Australian national, they say they are cooperating with the police investigation. And the mayor of the Australian town where the suspect is believed to have been from, he also spoke today saying that what that act did and what that suspect did had nothing to do with this community.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JASON KINGSLEY, CLARENCE VALLEY ACTING MAYOR: The tragedy that's transpired --

[10:20:00]

KINGSLEY: -- in the past 24 hours it's not a reflection of Grafton or Australia nor is it a reflection of New Zealand. And this individual does not represent us or our values.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STOUT: The neighbors of the suspect, they've also spoken to the media. They said they would never believe that someone in their own neighborhood, their own community, would be responsible for the deaths of so many people, 49 people confirmed dead. Jessica Cartwright of TVZ filed this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JESSICA CARTWRIGHT, TVNZ (voice-over): Armed police and the bomb squad descending on a house in the Dunedin suburb of Andersons Bay, the sudden attention drawing out neighbors, shocked and surprised to learn of the connection to the Christchurch attack.

ANGELA WHILES-HUMPHREYS, NEIGHBOR: Bizarre. Honestly, who would have thought?

It makes you think who are your neighbors?

You don't know what's going on where. But this could have happened anywhere.

CARTWRIGHT (voice-over): Police arrived last night. The property revealed to be the home of Brenton Tarrant, the man accused of committing the terrorist attack in Christchurch that's claimed 49 lives.

ARDERN: They were not a resident of Christchurch. In fact, they were currently based in Dunedin at the time of this event.

CARTWRIGHT (voice-over): Today the armed offender squad sending guards as detectives combed through the property Tarrant lived in.

WHILES-HUMPHREYS: It's unnerving, actually, seeing them there because they do have quite the guns.

CARTWRIGHT: The house Tarrant lived in is on a quiet street in a seaside suburb of the city. Neighbors here say they never saw anything unusual.

CARTWRIGHT (voice-over): A makeshift memorial of flowers and messages left at the city's mosque today. Those attending too upset to speak but the police presence a stark reminder of the continued concern for the city's Muslim population.

Dunedin's mayor, Dave Cull, met with leaders from the city's Muslim community today.

DAVE CULL, DUNEDIN MAYOR: The police made it very clear that public safety is absolutely paramount. So they're thinking about and empathizing with young Muslim women, for instance, who are quite conspicuous and feeling vulnerable.

They're thinking about the Muslim kids that are going to school on Monday and wondering whether they'll be treated differently or pointed at, that kind of thing.

So there's a reassuring perceptiveness about some of the responses from the police and the minister of education and people like that.

CARTWRIGHT (voice-over): That reassurance, some small comfort to those trying to come to terms with this terror attack.

(END VIDEOTAPE) STOUT: At the White House on Friday, U.S. president Donald Trump was asked about white extremism and whether it posed a global threat. This is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you think white nationalism is a rising threat around the world?

TRUMP: I don't really. I think it's a small group of people that have very, very serious problems. I guess, if you look at what happened in New Zealand, perhaps that's the case. I don't know enough about it yet. They're just learning about the person and the people involved. But it's certainly a terrible thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STOUT: Now Sajjan Gohel joins us via Skype, he's a terror analyst with the Asia Pacific Foundation.

Thank you for joining us. Since the last time we talked, we have learned a lot more about the suspect; his age, 28-year-old Australian national. We know his name, Brenton Tarrant.

But if there is one Brenton Tarrant out there, could there be many others?

SAJJAN GOHEL, ASIA PACIFIC FOUNDATION: We have to believe that is possible, Kristie. We cannot avoid the fact that the white supremacist movement is growing, it is proliferating.

We've seen how it can carry out attacks in the most deadly way possible yesterday, in one of the most coordinated, brazen assaults that one has seen for a while. And, unfortunately, it could inspire other individuals to potentially carry out copycat attacks.

So there is a lot of concern now that the far right, the white supremacist movement, has now been able to carry out a mass casualty attack. Potentially there could be others in the future.

STOUT: Is white supremacist, white nationalist thinking now taking root in New Zealand in a big way?

GOHEL: Well, we know that the white supremacist movement in Britain, America, Australia, were gaining traction. They have often spoken about a race war. They've used apocalyptic terms to try to incite in their warped ideology.

New Zealand was not seen as one of those places where the movement was perhaps growing. Maybe that's also why --

[10:25:00]

GOHEL: -- Christchurch was targeted, because it wasn't the most obvious location. This individual that is accused of having carried out the attacks came

from Australia and he specifically chose Christchurch, he chose those mosques, he knew about the gun laws in New Zealand in order to execute the attack. Unfortunately it was about choosing that location.

STOUT: And can you tell us more about the gun laws in New Zealand and the loopholes that were in those gun laws that allowed him to acquire such a lethal firearm?

GOHEL: In fact, he had a legal license. Those weapons were potentially obtained because of that gun license. And there has been this debate in New Zealand for a while about the gun laws, which are not as tight as they are, say, in Australia or the United Kingdom.

And the prime minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, is now actually talking about tightening those gun laws to avoid a potential situation like this from happening. And when individuals are able to procure such deadly firearms, we've seen the effect of it. This individual visualized terrorism using those weapons.

Those weapons are also ideologically connected because he wrote messages of far-right paraphernalia on the cartridges that were then used to kill innocent people.

STOUT: The government today did announce they are going to ban the semiautomatic weapons. But as you raised just now, there's an additional problem: the ideology. How do you counter that?

Sajjan Gohel, we'll leave it at that for this hour. We'll talk again, especially on that issue, in the next hour.

You're watching CNN and our special live coverage from Christchurch, New Zealand, and the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on two mosques. Keep it here. You're watching CNN.

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STOUT: Welcome back to our continuing coverage of the New Zealand terror attacks. I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Christchurch.

PAULINE CHIOU, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Pauline Chiou in New York. Here are the very latest developments.

The man accused of carrying out the mosque terror attack made his first court appearance; 28-year-old Brenton Tarrant remained silent as he was charged with one count of murder. More charges will be filed later.

Two others are also in custody but their involvement in the attack remains unclear. We are learning he emailed his manifesto to the prime minister's office just minutes before the attack. At least 49 people were killed and -- [10:30:00]

CHIOU: -- dozens more wounded in the shootings. And that's the latest on the suspect and the criminal case. Let's go back now to Kristie Lu Stout in Christchurch, who has been speaking with people directly impacted.

STOUT: Pauline, thank you.

In fact, joining me now is David Lynch, he is a passionate community member here in Christchurch, very articulate, eloquent as well, expressing his sorrow, his feelings to CNN and the world's media.

David, thank you for joining us.

DAVID LYNCH, CHRISTCHURCH RESIDENT: Thank you.

STOUT: My sympathies for what happened to your neighborhood, to your community.

How have you been processing this?

LYNCH: I think it's come as a shock to everyone here in Christchurch and New Zealand. We see this sort of thing unfolding all over the world and, suddenly, less than 24 hours ago or probably still 24 hours ago, it happened right here. It will take time for people to process it and understand the impact of it and how we move forward.

But, yes, it's come as a huge shock. There's anger, people asking, how could this be?

But it's happened. And now we pray obviously for the people that are injured in hospital, that they will recover. Those that have died, clearly there are families that need to be looked after. And this community and this country will do that. But we still now are a country that's been affected by something we never thought would happen here.

STOUT: There's been an outpouring of emotion and of tributes like what we see behind us. And you know the story, the origin of what's happening here.

LYNCH: I do because my daughter and I were down here this afternoon. We placed a floral tribute, like many thousands of others. She actually was at a school, which was the closest school to the mosque, and was in lockdown. And it was fairly concerning initially. But we realized that they were in good hands.

But we felt it was important, she felt it was important to come here and to visit the site also where the mosque is and try to connect with it. And that was very emotional for her and for myself. But we've made that connection.

And now it's a question of asking ourselves, how, as a country, do we actually prevent this from happening again and understanding how a man that had clearly a hatred for Muslims suddenly became a terrorist? STOUT: That's a question, what do we do to make sure this never happens again?

There's one very touching tribute sign that said, "This is not New Zealand."

This is not what this country is all about.

So how do we protect the decency of New Zealand and the lives of so many people so something like this won't happen again?

LYNCH: Well, I think that we have to, first of all, continue with our lives. But we have to re-evaluate -- everyone needs to re-evaluate how this came about.

But as we know, if someone is determined to harm someone, they will do so. Maybe it goes right back to when those people were young children. But then, from what we know of this man, he appeared to be a reasonable community member but, some years ago, changed.

What changed him?

What was it that forced him to suddenly have this hatred and then planning some years ago to come here and do what he did a day or so ago?

STOUT: Another one of those signs behind us says, "Love not hate."

We need to end the hatred. David, thank you for joining us this evening. It is so early in the morning. It's 3:00 am in the morning. We appreciate it. Thank you so much and take care.

We've been hearing reaction from people here in New Zealand, from leaders all over the world and also from President Erdogan of Turkey, who has demanded justice on the back of the murder of so many Muslims in two mosques here in Christchurch. And we've also learned more about the investigation linking the suspect to his travels in Turkey.

Arwa Damon has been piecing the details all together and she filed this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A senior Turkish official tells CNN that the perpetrator of the horrific massacre in Christchurch made numerous trips to Turkey and may have also traveled on to other countries in Africa, Asia and Europe.

What Turkish authorities are trying to investigate right now is exactly what his movements, contacts and motivations were while he was here in country. And according to the state-run broadcaster, TRT, they are citing officials, saying that those trips took place in 2016, one of them lasting for up to 43 days.

In the perpetrator's hate-filled manifesto, in one segment, he calls for the assassination of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. A lot of leaders within the Muslim Arab community and beyond are calling for an end to Islamophobic rhetoric and for an end to anti-Muslim, anti-immigration rhetoric, as is the Turkish president himself, really saying this --

[10:35:00]

DAMON: -- unthinkable massacre is a direct result of rising Islamophobia and President Erdogan is calling on all nations but especially Western nations to do their part to try to stem this hatred, to prevent violence like this from happening once more -- Arwa Damon, CNN, Istanbul.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

STOUT: It was an act of terror, it was an act of hate being condemned roundly all around the world. We'll have more from Christchurch after the break, headlines as well. Keep it here. You're watching CNN.

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CHIOU: I'm Pauline Chiou in New York following the latest developments in the New Zealand terror attack.

The New Zealand prime minister's office says it received an email with the manifesto of the suspected mosque attacker minutes before the massacre began; 28-year-old Brenton Tarrant was charged with murder in his first court appearance on Saturday. More charges are expected to be filed.

At least 49 people were killed in this mass shooting during Friday prayers. We are following the story all this hour for you. But we also want to bring you up to date on some of the other developments internationally happening around the world.

The so-called Yellow Vest protests in Paris have turned violent once again. French police fired tear gas and used water cannons to disperse protesters, who shattered store windows and set a newspaper stand on fire.

This is the 18th consecutive Saturday of demonstrations against president Emmanuel Macron and his policies.

Joining us live from Paris is France 24 correspondent Catherine Norris-Trent.

Catherine, this was a particularly violent day today.

What exactly did you see and hear?

CATHERINE NORRIS-TRENT, FRANCE 24 CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pauline, the clashes are continuing here in Paris on the Champs-Elysees avenue. Right now groups of Yellow Vest protesters are still clashing with riot police here in France.

We're still hearing the explosions of tear gas canisters being fired. We can still smell and see thick smoke in the air at the end of the avenue. The protesters have set up barricades. They've been burning tires, setting fire to newspaper kiosks and a nearby building, which has a bank on the ground floor but also is a residential building.

People had to be evacuated from that fire, including a mother and a young baby, according to Paris police. They are saying that dozens of people have been brought in for questioning, 82 at the last confirmed count.

This is the biggest clashes we've seen in the Yellow Vest protests in several months. They have been coming out onto the streets pretty much every weekend. This is the 18th day of action. They've been continuing their protests. But it's been seeming to dwindle down in recent weeks. But then again today we're seeing clashes --

[10:40:00]

NORRIS-TRENT: -- in the center of Paris.

CHIOU: There's momentum again, Catherine, and massive discontent with Macron's policies since he's seen as siding with business.

Who are in these groups of protesters and what are they demanding?

NORRIS-TRENT: It's very difficult to know who exactly all of the Yellow Vest protesters are. The French authorities, the French interior minister has said there are 7,000 to 8,000 people out on the streets of Paris this Saturday. He says around 1,500 of those are ultraviolent people who have come to wreak havoc, to come to attack Paris.

We have seen the Yellow Vest protesters dividing into separate groups. Here on the Champs-Elysees, there have been violent clashes with riot police and the authorities are saying that these are well-known rioters, who often come onto the streets during protests to make the most of the chaos and to battle with riot police and attack restaurants and shop fronts. s

Some of these people are known to be associated with anarchist movements, both of the far right and the far left. But alongside that, you've also got ordinary French citizens, who are very unhappy with their living standards. They're very unhappy with French president Emmanuel Macron, seeing him as representing the rich, the elite in French society, and saying his tax policies have been hitting them hard.

Alongside these clashes on the Champs-Elysees, there are other Yellow Vest protesters, who've been joining a large climate protest elsewhere in the French capital. And that's been passing off very peacefully.

CHIOU: Catherine, thank you so much for bringing us up to date, Catherine Norris-Trent live from Paris on the Yellow Vest protests. The standoff continues in Venezuela. On one side, president Nicolas Maduro and the Venezuelan military. On the other, supporters of self- proclaimed interim president Juan Guaido. And caught in the middle, the people of Venezuela, facing shortages of food, water, power and medicine.

Let's go live to Venezuela and our Paula Newton, who is standing by in Caracas.

Paula, you've been there for several weeks, talking with both sides here as well as people directly impacted.

Where do things stand now?

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's exactly as you describe. It was a standoff. This hasn't just been the situation the last few weeks. It has been the situation for the last few years.

Now look, the standoff between the government and the opposition has fallen into a very familiar pattern. Today Juan Guaido, the opposition leader, is in Valencia. It's an opposition-held city. He is trying to get some more momentum behind his movement.

That's not to say we won't see anti-government protests here in Caracas as well. But he is trying to make sure that, however he can, as I say, that momentum, that spirit of trying to get him to actually form an interim government continues.

It is a tall order. Nicolas Maduro is out there with military exercises. We expect a show of force today right across Venezuela, again, showing his military might.

The backdrop here, as you said, Pauline, is we're starting to recover from days of what was an absolutely crippling blackout. We've spoken about it many, many times, how difficult the situation is here for average Venezuelans.

The blackout just compounded all of that. And while the country is starting to get back on its feet, we still see sporadic outages of power and clearly still shortages of food, medicine, fuel, especially acute in hospitals and clinics.

Against that backdrop, Pauline, we had the last U.S. diplomats leave this city. There are no American diplomats left here. And Elliott Abrams, a special representative for Venezuela with the United States, spoke yesterday, saying, look, we do not have a good sense of when this will end.

He was actually quite forthcoming and saying we've never been able to predict when a regime will fall. He claims that the Maduro government is getting weaker by the day but right now, Pauline, what we see on the ground here is a very familiar standoff that will continue.

CHIOU: And you've been telling us for several days now, Paula, both sides are digging in, refusing to budge and claiming their territory. I want to ask you about international aid because we do know certain countries are behind Maduro and more than 58 countries behind Juan Guaido.

What kind of international help is actually coming in, going on behind closed doors?

And what kind of international help are both sides willing to take?

NEWTON: The issue is none. So right now the Juan Guaido had, for weeks now, been pre-positioning a lot of aid from the countries that are allied with him to try to come into this country. Maduro, president Maduro, has always said, we are not beggars and we do not need your aid, continuing to say that, look, we have enough in this country on the ground. I can tell you --

[10:45:00]

NEWTON: -- the situation is much different. But there is perhaps some route for dialogue. We'll see what president Maduro says as the U.N. is continuing to hold a mission here. A lot of that is a technical mission. They are looking into allegations of abuses into human rights.

But I know behind the scenes, especially through the United Nations coordinator, they are trying to see if some of that aid will make it here. I can tell you, Pauline, again, we have been here before. And if I talk to people here in the poorer neighbors in Caracas, they're not waiting on any aid. They need to scramble every day for even basics like water.

CHIOU: We know, as a result, there has been lots of looting there throughout the city. Paula, thank you so much, Paula Newton bringing us up to date on the situation in Venezuela.

Now the fight continues over U.S. president Donald Trump's plan to build a wall along the Mexican border. Mr. Trump declared an emergency to fund the wall. Congress then passed a resolution to nullify that declaration.

But on Friday Mr. Trump vetoed that resolution. Now congressional Democrats say they'll attempt to override the veto. Sarah Westwood joins us live from the White House.

And, Sarah, what's expected to happen next in this showdown?

SARAH WESTWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pauline, we saw a bit of history yesterday with President Trump issuing the first veto of his presidency. Now House Democrats say they are going to hold a vote to try to override that veto. They would need a two-thirds majority of the House to do that.

They're not likely to hit that number. Remember, only 13 House Republicans broke with the president, joined with Democrats, to try to block the president's emergency declaration.

But Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader of the House, says she wants to hold that vote anyway because she views the president's veto as a defiance of the will of Congress. President Trump yesterday continued to defend his use of an emergency

and thanked Republicans who stood with him saying he was proud of the ones who voted against the resolution of disapproval. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: It is definitely a national emergency. Rarely have we had such a national emergency. Therefore, to defend the safety and security of all Americans I will be signing and issuing a formal veto of this reckless resolution and that's what it was.

And I have to in particular thank the Republicans, strong, wonderful people, the Republican senators, that were on our side and on the side of border security and on the side of doing what they have to keep our nation safe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WESTWOOD: Now the president had framed this vote as one focus primarily on border security as a referendum of the idea of building a wall along the southern border. Democrats and some Republicans, though, viewed this as a vote on whether the president's use of emergency powers was constitutional.

Obviously this was a major rebuke of the president's policy, having 12 Republican senators put this resolution on his desk -- Pauline.

CHIOU: Indeed. Sarah Westwood live from the White House, thank you very much.

Dozens of people have been killed by a tropical cyclone that's barreled inland from Mozambique. The storm hit the Mozambique coast on Thursday. It has cut a city of half a million people off, knocking out power and shutting down the airport. Now officials in Zimbabwe are reporting a growing death toll and widespread damage there. Houses and bridges were washed away.

(WEATHER REPORT)

[10:50:00]

CHIOU: And still ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, the latest on Friday's terror attack in New Zealand and what to do about messages of hate posted online.

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STOUT: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Christchurch as we continue to follow breaking news of the New Zealand terror attacks. Chilling details about the suspect, about his hate-filled manifesto and about the prime minister's office in New Zealand. This is what we learned. The office of the prime minister here, Jacinda Ardern, received an

email with the suspect's manifesto just minutes before the shooting on Friday began. Remember, it began 1:40 pm local time on Friday.

The email was sent to a generic email account maintained by staff. The prime minister herself, she did not see the email.

Authorities have declined to discuss potential motives for the attack that left dozens of people dead and dozens more wounded. As you recall, this is an attack that was carried out -- it was brutal, it was cold, an act of terror that has taken 49 lives. It was all livestreamed on Facebook. It was streamed live.

The post existed on Facebook for a period of time until the social media giant was able to take it down. Even so, it's already out there for the world to see, to cause damage, to scar minds and, heaven forbid, to incite more violence and hatred.

Joining us more about the social media angle is Salma Abdelaziz from London.

It's not just Facebook. It's usually a struggle for all social media companies to be able to take down, identify and get rid of violent and hateful content.

Why is that?

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN PRODUCER: That's absolutely right, Kristie. I've been going through these cached pages of the days before and after the attack. What you can see it's like a dystopic (sic) tragedy of technology gone terribly wrong.

Everything about this attack, from the planning to the carrying out to the aftermath, was meant to appeal to this Internet subculture that's popularized memes and trolls. And the attacker wanted to glorify it. He wanted to glorify this community.

Let's talk about how it unfolded online. Two days before the attack, he begins to post online, on Twitter, on other pages, even including pictures of his gun with white lettering phrases on it, trolls and memes, again, inside jokes to the online community of hate that he belongs to.

And then the manifesto, 87 pages of what you can call a rant, meant to explain his attack but also meant to, again, play on those memes and inside jokes that he praises so much in the online community.

And then, of course, we know that, when the attack took place, 17 minutes livestreamed on Facebook, horrific to read how people begin to realize in the commentary this is happening, that people are losing their lives and, most scarily, that some of them are glorifying it.

And for all tech giants, Facebook included, who said they were taking down these postings as quickly as possible, it's been a challenge. These reforms (sic) that once existed in the fringes of the dark web -- [10:55:00]

ABDELAZIZ: -- but now they're in the open.

The question is how do we tackle it?

What's happening now simply isn't working.

STOUT: Absolutely. It's a huge challenge. It's not just in the darkest areas of the Internet, it's on Facebook being livestreamed. It's available off a link, off of a Twitter account. It's out there and potentially spreading like a virus.

Salma Abdelaziz, thank you so much for your reporting. We'll talk again soon.

I'm Kristie Lu Stout, reporting from Christchurch. We will continue to follow developments at this early hour in the morning here in New Zealand. We'll leave you with some pictures of the victims, the victims of Friday's brutal terror attack.