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CNN International: Wider Cabinet Expected to Convene Soon to Vote on Deal; Both Biden and Trump Claim Credit for Gaza Ceasefire Deal; Trump Plans Aggressive Immigration Action on Day One in Office; Israeli Security Cabinet Approves Ceasefire-Hostage Deal; Auschwitz Commander's Home Opens to Visitors; Starship Explodes During Test, but Super Heavy Booster Successfully Lands Back at Launch Site. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired January 17, 2025 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: -- meet on the ceasefire agreement with Hamas, if it says yes, the first hostages could be freed on Sunday while 2 million Palestinians in Gaza hope for an end to their suffering. With Donald Trump taking office on Monday in the United States, CNN is learning new details about his plans for the U.S. border. And why did SpaceX's latest rocket disintegrate just a few minutes after takeoff?

The Israeli security cabinet is meeting right now to discuss the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal. That's according to an Israeli official. Once it votes, we're expecting the full cabinet to take up the agreement, possibly within the hour, if the Israeli government approves the deal. 33 hostages held in Gaza are expected to be released during the first phase, some as early as Sunday, being released, according to the Prime Minister Netanyahu's Office.

Two far right members of the security cabinet have openly opposed the deal. They are the National Security Minister and the Finance Minister, as for the 1.9 million displaced Palestinians, they just want to go home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MOEEN KHODR, DISPLACED NOTHERN GAZA RESIDENT: We hope that the remaining hours before the truce comes into effect, God willing, we don't lose loved ones during these hours. We don't lose someone dear to us again, and we won't be harmed by this crazy war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Since the ceasefire hostage release deal was announced, more than 100 people have been killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza. That's according to the Gaza Civil Defense, which says at least 27 were children.

Paula Hancocks is following the story from Abu Dhabi. Paula Israel's full cabinet now meeting in less than a half an hour to vote on this deal. That meeting was originally planned for tomorrow. What do you make of the meeting now scheduled?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Fredricka, these two meetings, the security cabinet and the full cabinet, they are believed to pass. It's believed that the majority of those within those two cabinets support this ceasefire deal. So, this is really a ratification of the deal that was announced on Wednesday.

We're hearing from the Israeli Prime Minister saying that the deal has been agreed upon the obstacles that have been sorted out. We're hearing a very similar statement from Hamas saying that obstacles have been sorted out by mediators, so any issues that appear to be on the table at this point appear to have been cleared.

So, what we're also hearing from the Prime Minister's Office is that they say they could see hostages being released as early as Sunday. Now we know that over the next six weeks, according to this first phase, there would be 33 hostages released in return for an undisclosed number of Palestinian prisoners.

There would be that temporary ceasefire and the key allowing of up to 600 humanitarian aid trucks a day into the Gaza Strip. That's really the starting point that many of these NGOs want to be able to deal with the acute needs in Gaza itself.

So, as it looks at this point, we're certainly hearing from the Israeli side that Sunday is still on for the ceasefire itself. We've heard that from the Biden Administration as well. In fact, we heard from U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, saying that it's not in the least bit surprising that there were issues until the last moment, given how challenging the negotiations have been over recent months, but that he is confident, fully expects the deal to go into effect Sunday, Fred.

WHITFIELD: So, Paula, just to reiterate what you just reported, that they have indeed voted on it. They have approved the Israeli Cabinet hasn't approved it, and phase one is now to get underway, and that includes the release of the 33 hostages on Sunday. So, the security cabinet has now approved this ceasefire hostage deal. So, at this point, what takes place in between this moment and the scheduled Sunday release of hostages?

[08:05:00]

HANCOCKS: So, the security cabinet, as you say, yes, just in the last minute or so, has approved the Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal. That was 11 members of that security cabinet. So, it now goes to the wider government cabinet. There are 33 members that have to approve of that. It does. It's widely expected that that will be approved as well as they do have the majority.

There will be those who hold out. There are those within the Israeli coalition that don't approve of this deal. You mentioned a couple of them, the far-right elements and ministers that will vote, potentially vote against and likely to vote against, but that shouldn't affect the outcome. So then, once that is approved, that is all the ratification that is

needed on the Israeli side. As far as Hamas is concerned, all the obstacles that they saw have been lifted. And as far as the Biden Administration is concerned, and the other mediators, Qatar and Egypt, they have had, on Wednesday, approved this deal and said that the deal was going ahead.

So of course, we cannot say it will for sure, given the fact that there have been these hurdles that have been thrown up at the last moment, but as of this point, if it gets through the final ratification in Israel, then we should see that deal going through and starting tomorrow.

Now we don't have the exact logistical and technical details of when that starts? We have heard, though that there would be those 33 hostages being released in stages. So, there would be three to start with. A week later, you would see four hostages released, and then every week, another three, until the final week, when the rest of the hostages in this particular phase will be released.

Now we understand they are the humanitarian section, if you like, the females, the children, the elderly, the sick, the wounded, which is what we have been told all along, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Now Paula, you had mentioned, Hamas had already approved of it, even though we heard from Netanyahu within the last 24 hours prior, saying that Hamas had reneged on the deal, and though it seemed like it was off. What are some of those hurdles, some of those obstacles that had to be worked out?

HANCOCKS: The simple fact is that both sides were blaming the other for any kind of delays or any kind of obstacles. We did hear the Israeli Prime Minister saying that that Hamas had reneged on the day -- on the deal, Hamas saying it hadn't done that, and then pointing out that Israel was putting up obstacles.

This is what we have been seeing over many months. Remember that the U.S. President Joe Biden and those in his administration have said what we are seeing today in this deal is effectively what was in the deal last May. But there have been, of course, the minutia, the details to be hammered out.

And of course, both sides had to be in the position and in the place where they wanted to sign up to this peace deal. Over recent months, many things have changed. Hezbollah, for example, there has been a ceasefire with Israel, that may have changed the way that Hamas looked at what it wanted to do.

And of course, there is pressure as well from the U.S. President-Elect Donald Trump saying he wanted this to be wrapped up before his inauguration on Monday, that is likely to have put significant pressure on the Israeli side. So, the obstacles that have been thrown up have been plenty over recent months, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Paula Hancocks, we'll check back with you. Thank you so much. Let's bring in now Jeremy Diamond from Tel Aviv. Jeremy so the security cabinet approving the deal. What more can you tell us about what was worked out?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Israeli security cabinet did indeed just vote in favor of this agreement, voting that the full government, meaning the full cabinet of the Israeli Prime Minister's government vote to approve this deal and put it in motion.

And so, we expect that that will be the next stage of the process here in the next hour or two, most likely we will see the Israeli government likely approve this agreement that will then set in motion this process where the Israeli Supreme Court will hear petitions from Israelis who have been impacted or who are victims of the crimes of these Palestinian prisoners who are set to be released.

But that is largely a pro forma process. The Israeli Prime Minister has enormous leeway to release those prisoners in a deal such as this. And so, it does appear, Fred that everything is now on track for this ceasefire agreement to go into effect on Sunday.

[08:10:00]

We don't know exactly what time the ceasefire will start, or what time those first hostages, three female civilian hostages, we expect to be released on Sunday. We don't know exactly what time that will happen? But it does appear as if, finally, after quite a bit of uncertainty yesterday about the fate of the ceasefire agreement here in Israel, with a lot of political wrangling happening between the Israeli Prime Minister and his right-wing governing coalition partners.

It does appear that at least now, everything is back on track, that this ceasefire agreement is likely to be implemented on Sunday, and that we are on the way for a six-week ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, one that will see the release of 33 hostages, hundreds of Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli jails, the entry of much needed humanitarian aid.

But it is important to note that until that moment when that ceasefire goes into effect on Sunday, the war is very much still continuing in Gaza. The Israeli military is continuing to drop bombs and missiles inside of the Gaza Strip, people are continuing to be killed. More than 100 Palestinians have been killed since this ceasefire agreement was announced.

And so that is the tragedy of the moment, even as we are on our way towards better days and towards a moment of calm, six weeks of calm inside of the Gaza Strip. Right now, people are still dying, and the final victims of this war, until that ceasefire goes into place, likely have not yet happened yet, Fred.

WHITFIELD: And so, Jeremy, you mentioned there's been a lot of political wrangling for the Prime Minister Netanyahu, if this indeed goes through, gets the full support of the full body the full cabinet. Does this fortify his position, or does this still reveal vulnerabilities for him?

DIAMOND: It certainly does still reveal vulnerabilities. Itamar Ben- Gvir, the National Security Minister, held a press conference last night where he said that he will indeed resign from the government, alongside altogether, six seats that he and his party hold in the Israeli Knesset, the Israeli parliament, if this ceasefire agreement is approved, and that is indeed what is happening right now.

That means that Prime Minister Netanyahu's margin of majority in the Knesset is going to drop from eight seats to just two seats of majority. And then there's the question still of what is the Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich going to do?

He and his party, who hold seven seats in the Knesset have made clear that they will leave the government unless the prime minister provides them with assurances that Israel will go back to fighting the war in Gaza once the first phase of this agreement, meaning that six-week ceasefire concludes.

And we don't yet know the extent of the assurances that the prime minister has provided Smotrich whether, in fact, he will wait until the end of that six-week period to decide whether or not to leave the government. But certainly, if the prime minister is listening to Smotrich and to his right-wing political allies, then that will short circuit a process that is supposed to begin on the 16th day of this ceasefire.

And that is negotiations to extend that ceasefire and to ultimately bring about a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. We know that that was the intention of the Biden Administration, to start this with a six-week ceasefire, but that ultimately the hope being that negotiations could ultimately lead to a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and an end to the war as we know it today. That is very, very much uncertain at this stage, given the political dynamics here in Israel.

WHITFIELD: All right. Jeremy Diamond, thank you so much. So, once again, the deal has been approved by the security cabinet in Israel. Now it goes to the full cabinet for a vote. We do expect them to meet later on this hour, and we're going to have much more on this later on in our program. All right, both President Biden and President-Elect Trump are taking credit for this ceasefire deal. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I told him what I was doing, what I thought could happen. But what we did, we brought in the people, or his going to be his national security people. We brought them in closer to tell them what was happening. As we hand this off.

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND CURRENT PRESIDENTIAL- ELECT: We're so ungracious of Biden to say, oh, he did it. He didn't do anything. If I didn't do this, if we didn't get involved, the hostages would never be out. They would have never come out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right, let's bring in Margaret Talev, Senior Contributor for AXIOS. She's also the Director of Institute for Democracy, Journalism and Citizenship at Syracuse University. And she is joining us now from Washington, D.C. great to see you.

[08:15:00]

All right, so at least the Israeli security, you know, council has agreed on this deal, and now we're looking at this out loud, kind of clarification of who helped get the deal this far, Biden or Trump. Biden did say that this deal was one that he offered last May, Trump's envoy was at the table. We heard Biden say he -- they invited them to help collaborate. So, I mean, I guess it's safe to say this is a unique transitional move. Is it important? You know, who kind of gets the upper hand on credit?

MARGARET TALEV, SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR, AXIOS: If you are a hostage and you are going to get your freedom back it matters 0 percent. If you are Joe Biden or Donald Trump, it apparently matters a lot. And so, I think, you know, Fred, what we're seeing here is sort of, maybe not the best of politics.

But the way politics should work, which is that public servants in both parties come together to get something over the finish line, and that's what we've seen with Brett McGurk, who is President Biden's longtime negotiator in the region, and with Steve Witkoff, he's a real estate developer deeply involved in Donald Trump's inaugural but also has been tapped as President-Elect Trump's incoming Envoy for the Middle East.

And we saw McGurk and Witkoff kind of divide and conquer. Take different meetings. McGurk sticking with the parameters of the deal that the Biden Administration had been laying out and developing for months, and Witkoff using his and Donald Trump's relationship with Bibi Netanyahu to be in the room while McGurk was on the phone. OK, that's all fine.

And guess what? It seems to have worked. But Trump saying he should get all the credit, Biden bristling over that. Then Trump bristling because Biden bristled. That's all politics. It's a lot of politics, and it's happening at this moment of transition. We were talking a moment ago about the politics for Netanyahu in Israel, but in the United States.

Obviously, this is a big political moment, the inauguration of Donald Trump on Monday. And there are some echoes. It's definitely not an exact parallel, but some echoes of that from Carter to Reagan.

WHITFIELD: Oh, yeah, I can't help but think of that.

TALEV: Yeah, and the end of the Iran hostage crisis, and it was a little bit different in that case. But again -- you know it's both presidents would like to take some credit for this. And I think the truth is that it's not clear whether this deal would have gotten done on this timetable, if not for the timing of the start of Trump's presidency, but it's also true that Biden's team absolutely spent months working on the details of this. And more broadly, it's true that this is not a United States war. This

is a war between two other nations or governing groups, and there are many other factors at play that made a deal elusive and that are putting pressure for the deal now.

So, it's sort of typical U.S. political egotism to make it seem like it's all about these two presidents, and either one of them can claim the mantle. The bottom line is, in a few days, this is going to be Donald Trump's situation, the U.S.'s situation under the Trump Administration to manage.

And President Biden will be Former President Biden, so whoever wants to claim credit for it now, the pressure to manage this and try to ensure that it's completed is going to fall right Trump Administration --

WHITFIELD: Right, because it's a three stage -- you know three-part kind of deal, yes, if the full cabinet -- you know signs, approves it, you know, today, then the expectation is hostages will be released as early as Sunday. But then there's a phase two and a phase three that will fall under the next administration to either keep it going, help support that plan.

But for this outgoing president right now, for this to happen on this calendar day, just -- you know this is the last full working day right of his presidency, how potentially pivotal will this be for him, for his legacy, as he does try to -- you know seal certain things in this last full working day for him?

TALEV: I think it has been important to him, personally, for a sense of wanting to accomplish this and not leave him hanging. And he is hopeful that it will help round out a legacy that right now, if you look at the legacy in real time, which is almost never how presidents are judged in the long term, President Biden is extremely unpopular.

He's leaving office with something like -- you know slightly more than a third of the nation's approval. That's not where any president wants to be, and he will always have the botched withdrawal of Afghanistan as part of his legacy. If the first hostages could actually be released on his watch. I think that would be something that he would want and embrace for his legacy.

[08:20:00]

But whether that happens on Sunday or whether that happens on Monday, the fact that this deal was inked and approved, not just in Doha by the negotiators, but by the Israeli government, no matter what will have happened on President Biden's watch, with some help from the incoming president and his team.

WHITFIELD: All right. Margaret Talev, great to see you. Thank you so much.

TALEV: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Still to come, CNN is learning more about what Donald Trump plans to do only hours after he takes office, we'll have details on an expected immigration crackdown on his day one. And Joe Biden takes action to address disparities in sentencing for crack cocaine related crimes, why he is commuting the sentences of more than 2000 drug offenders?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back. Donald Trump is spending his last full day at Mar-a-Lago today before heading to Washington for Monday's Inauguration. And CNN has learned that he plans to issue a series of executive orders regarding immigration on day one.

They'll include sending more troops to the southern border efforts to remove undocumented immigrants with criminal records, new restrictions on who can enter the United States, and could even feature a challenge to the long-held policy of birthright citizenship. CNN's Priscilla Alvarez has more.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The executive actions being prepared by President-Elect Donald Trump's team on immigration would amount to a dramatic shift in immigration policy and will affect immigrants nationwide and likely those around the world.

Now, they fall into three buckets, interior enforcement, so that includes, for example, ICE sweeps in major metropolitan areas like Denver and Chicago and those sanctuary cities, those are jurisdictions that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement and areas that the incoming Border Czar Tom Homan has often criticized.

Now, sources tell me that they still plan on focusing on public safety and national security threats in the course of the sweeps, but if there are others who are encountered who are also undocumented, they too could be arrested.

Now the second bucket here is the border. Now Trump is poised to inherit a relatively quiet U.S. southern border. The numbers are low, but they do plan to double down on enforcement and shore up Pentagon resources to help agents on the ground.

And the third bucket is legal immigration, bringing back an iteration of the travel ban that is something that President Joe Biden rolled back, but also considering, for example, ending birthright citizenship, which would tee up a legal fight.

Now charged with implementing most -- a lot of this immigration agenda would be Kristi Noem, if she is confirmed. She is the South Dakota Governor. She has been tapped by Trump to be the Head of the Department of Homeland Security, and she today will be before committee for her confirmation hearing where she will be asked questions about all of these parts of the immigration agenda.

[08:25:00]

While, of course, the power center on policy remains at the White House. With incoming Border Czar Tom Homan and also Stephen Miller, back to you. WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much. Priscilla. As one of his last official acts in office, Joe Biden is commuting the sentences of more than 2000 nonviolent drug offenders. Mr. Biden is granting clemency to federal prisoners convicted of crack cocaine related crimes. He says many are serving disproportionately long sentences that would not be given out if the same crimes were committed today.

He has now issued more than -- more individual pardons and commutations than any U.S. President in history. CNN White House Correspondent Arlette Saenz is tracking all of this for us. Arlette, good morning to you.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Fred. Well, with three days left in office, President Biden is taking the sweeping clemency action, saying that he will commute the sentences of nearly 2500 non-violent drug offenders. The focus is really on those who are facing sentences disparities over crack cocaine.

The president, in his statement, said that those who are impacted have longer -- disproportionately longer sentence than what they would have had if they were convicted under the laws today, and it comes as the president has said that he views this as an attempt to right some of the wrongs of the past.

He said this action is an important step toward righting historic wrongs, correcting sentencing disparities and providing deserving individuals the opportunity to return to their families and communities after spending far too much time behind bars.

Now this disparity stems from a 1986 law that president, then Senator Biden, had actually supported. That law had put into motion the disparity the differences in sentencing between crack and powder cocaine in the years since, and especially recently, President Biden has really worked to try to end some of those disparities. So, this is also a legacy move in many ways.

Now this is just the latest round of clemency items that President Biden is addressing since the November election. He has issued a host of pardons and commutations that includes more than three dozen pardons for non-violent crime offenders. There was also the commutations of sentences for nearly 1500 people who had actually been placed under house arrest during the COVID-19 pandemic or moved into house arrest I should say.

There's also the commutation of more -- about three dozen federal inmates who had been on federal death row. And then there's that controversial pardon that President Biden had granted his son Hunter Biden, who had faced gun and tax federal charges. Now it all comes as Biden is really approaching these final days with a flurry of activities.

He's trying to cement some of his final legacy items before he takes office, but also taking some steps to try to put into place measures that perhaps Trump could not undo when he takes office. Today, we have this clemency announcement which cannot be reversed. You've also seen in recent weeks; the president ban new oil and gas drilling at about 625 million acres of ocean waters.

He did that in a way that will be very difficult for Trump to undo. So, President Biden is really right now trying to work down to the wire to hammer out and finalize some of these final actions he's taking. There is a big question going forward about whether President Biden will decide to issue any preemptive pardons.

Those would potentially be for individuals who could be targeted for prosecution once Trump takes power. President Biden said that he was still weighing that and that he wanted to see what exactly Trump says, what he broadcast about his intentions this week, but he has also told the president-elect himself that he shouldn't try to settle any scores with any type of prosecutions of people who he views as political enemies.

WHITFIELD: All right. Arlette Saenz at the White House, thank you so much. All right now to the Los Angeles area wildfires, officials say at least 27 people are known to have died because of the fires, while another 31 are missing. A change in the weather has helped fire crews make progress in getting on top of the wildfires.

By early Friday, the Palisades fire was 27 percent contained and had not grown in the last three days, but fierce winds and red flag warnings are expected to return next week. All right, still to come, prospects for peace. A closer look at what the ceasefire and hostage deal could mean for the people in Gaza and the hostages held by Hamas? Plus, prison sentences for three Russian lawyers punished for doing their job representing Alexei Navalny, details straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:30:00]

WHITFIELD: At any moment now, Israel's full cabinet will convene to discuss the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal. A short time ago, the 11-member security cabinet met and approved the agreement. It calls for a halt to 15 months of war and the release of dozens of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

We're learning the first batch of hostages could be released as early as this Sunday. The truce also calls for a surge of humanitarian aid into Gaza, decimated by more than a year of Israeli strikes. Meanwhile, Israel is keeping up its bombardment in Gaza, even after the ceasefire was announced.

Gaza's Civil Defense says more than 100 people have been killed, about a quarter of them children. For more on the ceasefire and what's ahead for the people in Gaza, let's bring in Khaled Elgindy. He's an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, and the Author of "Blind Spot: America and the Palestinians, from Balfour to Trump". Good morning to you.

KHALED ELGINDY, ADJUNCT PROFESSOR AT GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ARAB STUDIES: Good morning. Thanks for having me.

WHITFIELD: All right. So ahead of this a full Israeli cabinet vote, there were Israeli strikes that continued in Gaza, killing 101 people, according to Gaza civil defense. So, what are Palestinians likely anticipating with this potential deal agreement?

ELGINDY: Well, I think probably for all Palestinians in Gaza, the ceasefire going into effect on Sunday cannot come soon enough, you mentioned in your report, the Israeli Air Force has continued to bomb, maybe even intensified its bombing campaign across Gaza and flattening homes in Northern Gaza.

There seems to be a sort of rush to do as much damage as possible. But for Palestinians, I think it's they can only look forward to a cessation of the bombing so that they can go and pick up the pieces and begin the process of healing and of tempting some kind of reconstruction, if that's even possible.

[08:35:00]

WHITFIELD: Is there a feeling that Palestinians are even reluctant to believe that Israel will, you know, live up to its end of the agreement deal, if what you -- as you just described, there's like this intensified bombardment taking place just ahead of, you know, signing or agreeing to the deal in terms of the full cabinet?

ELGINDY: Yeah, I mean, it's -- I think it's safe to say that most Palestinians I've talked to certainly are very skeptical about Israel's intentions after the ceasefire goes into most don't -- will adhere to the ceasefire arrangement and that bombing and other military activities will continue in some form.

Maybe as a way to sabotage the deal to satisfy Netanyahu's far right coalition partners, or maybe simply, after getting, you know, many of the Israeli hostages released. They resume the bombing again as before, in the way that Netanyahu has said you would. I mean, he has said all along that he does not want the war to end, that he would like to even after hostages are released to continue the bombing.

And we don't know what sort of arrangement he's made with his coalition partners to bring them on board to be able to vote for the ceasefire in the first place.

WHITFIELD: So more than 46,000 people have been killed during this war. I mean, Gaza simply reduced to rubble. And in this first phase, in addition to hostages being released, Palestinians would be allowed to start, you know, heading home. I mean, what is home going to look like for a lot of people?

ELGINDY: Yeah, for the vast majority of them, particularly in the northern part of Gaza, there is nothing left. The Israeli army has been quite methodical and systematic in its destruction of Northern Gaza. There's virtually nothing left. So, most of them will not have homes to go back to.

And it's unclear, you know, Eve how long it will take to even bring temporary housing that is, you know, that is fit for humans, unlike the tents that they're living in now that routinely are flooded and, of course, can do nothing against the severe cold of the winter. So, yeah, it's a very, very uncertain future for Palestinians in Gaza, but there's no question that any cessation in Israeli attacks will come as a relief to everyone.

WHITFIELD: Adjunct Professor Khaled Elgindy, thank you so much for your time and expertise. Appreciate it.

ELGINDY: Thanks for having me.

WHITFIELD: In Russia, three lawyers who represented the late opposition politician Alexei Navalny have been handed prison sentences of up to 5.5 years. After a trial behind closed doors, they were convicted Friday of belonging to an extremist group. Some activists are calling the trial a gross violation of the law.

Let's go more on this now. Sebastian Shukla is joining me now from Berlin. What more do you know about this trial and what took place?

SEBASTIAN SHUKLA, CNN PRODUCER: Well, Fred, what we're learning is that the persecution of Alexei Navalny and all of his entities and people connected to him appears to be continuing unabated in Russia, despite the fact that we're coming up to a year since he died in that Arctic penal colony.

Today's verdicts against these three lawyers, Vadim Kobzev, Igor Sergunin, and Alexei Liptser, which have been given -- each been given different sentences ranging between 3.5 and 5.5 years behind bars for what this courts held completely behind closed doors east of the Russian capital, described as using their status to help Alexei Navalny, pass messages from prison to the outside world, which then deemed them as allowing him to continue as the head of an extremist organization.

That designation extremist organization comes against his group called FBK, which stands for the Anti-Corruption Foundation. It's now headed by his wife, Yulia Navalnaya, in exile, along with lots of his other colleagues too. That group has been looking to be dismantled by the Kremlin for quite some time, even well ahead of Alexei Navalny's death.

[08:40:00]

The group itself has been known for producing those incredibly slick videos exposing corruption at the highest levels of the Russian government, including one infamously about President Putin's mega palace that's been built on the Sochi Black Sea coast. Now what the allegations from Yulia Navalnaya are and the FBK team is that the court here may not necessarily be playing by the same rules here, or at least a fair playing field.

Back in December, Navalnaya's team published videos which appear to show the prison colony spying on Alexei Navalny and these three lawyers as they held these sacrosanct meetings between client and lawyer, that confidentiality agreement, which is enshrined everywhere in the world as being completely and utterly sacrosanct.

What this penal colony appeared to be doing, or definitely were doing, is that they were following Alexei Navalny in everything that he did. His every single move, which goes against any of the rights for any prisoner in Russia. And as for what civil rights groups have been saying in Navalnaya herself.

She has called these three lawyers, political prisoners and Amnesty International have been particularly damning in their statement, where they have said Russian authorities are dismantling what remains of the right to legal defense and abusing what is a criminal justice system only in name, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. CNN's Sebastian Shukla, thank you so much. All right, a house described as paradise justice stones, throw from the horrors of Auschwitz, the house where the commander of the Nazi concentration camp lived, will soon open to visitors.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: It was an ordinary house next to the site of one of the most horrific chapters in history. The 2023 film "Zone of Interest" portrayed the idyllic lives of the Nazi commander of the Auschwitz death camp and his family, while over a million people were murdered just next door.

Now, the house is opening its doors to visitors ahead of the 80th anniversary of the camp's liberation. CNN's Melissa Bell has a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The blocks of Auschwitz, a view that's now grimly familiar, but from a house that, until now had never been opened to the public before. The home of the camp's longest serving commander, Rudolf Hoss who lived here with his family.

His wife, Hedwig, described it as a paradise, in which they were able to raise their five children with a well-tended garden, manicured flower beds, a pool and a sauna. It's a massive house, and you get a sense of just how comfortable they would have been, the presents, the toys, the domestic joy.

[08:45:00]

Inside a lot of effort was put into protecting the family from the horrors outside, including frosting on the windows.

JACEK PORSKI, SENIOR ADVISER OF COUNTER EXTREMISM PROJECT: So, the Hoss family has left a couple of those things. One of the most important things that we have found are those trousers that belong to the prisoner, probably a person that died here in this place, you can see a red triangle, which means it was a Jewish political prisoner.

But next to this, you can also see this wire that was probably actually a way to be able to wear it for a person that was starving here.

BELL: The only hint of anything out of the ordinary in this house is down here in the cellar, where this tunnel allowed the commander to go from his idyllic family life to the slaughter he was organizing next door.

BELL (voice-over): Just a couple of 100 yards from the house inside the camp, what Rudolf Hoss did, was refine the techniques of mass killing. He felt they were too inefficient at Treblinka. So, he took the gas chambers and scaled them up here to an industrial level.

BELL: It's really only when you're inside the gas chamber that you get a sense of the horror of this place. More than a million people were killed here, but 900,000 of them died on the very first day that they arrived. Back inside the property, everything was done to obscure the sights and the sounds of what was happening just next door.

So, trees had been grown along the wall, so that no one inside the house had to see or understand or know about the horror next door. The point of the house now, though, is going to be to shed light.

MARK WALLACE, CEO OF COUNTER EXTREMISM PROJECT: We're standing in an ordinary house quite warm, I might add, while those that suffered over there froze in a winter like this, the ordinary cannot be extreme. We want to take this place and make sure that extremism is no longer ordinary.

The first thing that we did was, OK, we have to open this house to everyone. And symbolically, we said, what can we do? And we thought putting a mezuzah on the door was the way to do that. It was symbolic that it was fully open to everyone. It's almost as if it's a mezuzah of humanity.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BELL (on camera): This month, the world will mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the camp. But by the time this footage was shot by the liberating troops, Rudolf Hoss was on the run, but he was then captured, taken to Nuremberg, and then brought back here, where he was hanged from these gallows within sight of his home, that paradise from where he'd run hell. Melissa Bell, CNN, Auschwitz, Birkenau.

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[08:50:00]

WHITFIELD: In a little over an hour, we may get an opinion from the U.S. Supreme Court on the fate of one of America's favorite apps.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president is now on TikTok.

TRUMP: It's my honor. Hello, everybody! I'm having a lot of fun here every day. I'm going to save TikTok.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Well, looks as though the U.S. ban on TikTok will go into effect on Sunday, unless the nation's highest court intervenes. Although two Democratic Senators are pushing for a 90-day reprieve, saying they hope to avoid shutting the app down. The prospect of saying goodbye to TikTok has got emotions running high, as Anna Stewart reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNA STEWART, CNN REPORTER (voice-over): Emotions are running high for TikTok creators.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is like the first place that I have felt like I could just be myself.

STEWART (voice-over): For many it's not a hobby, it's a job.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This has changed my life financially.

STEWART: TikTok has 170 million monthly users in the United States, and by its estimate, some 2 million content creators could lose $300 million in just one month.

STEWART (voice-over): Estella Struck founded a marketing agency to help sustainable brands grow on social media.

ESTELLA STRUCK, FOUNDER OF VIVIENE NEW YORK: I have been telling my creators to prepare for this and all of their TikTok videos and repurposing them to YouTube shorts and then Instagram trial reels. We will see a new era of new creators rise to the top.

STEWART (voice-over): Gohar Khan got into not one, but six Ivy League colleges, who then started creating TikTok videos in 2020 giving college advice. Now he's partnered with companies including Google, Best Buy and Adobe, and earns up to five figures a post.

GOHAR KHAN, TIKTOK CONTENT CREATOR: It wasn't after I secured my first brand deal when I realized that this could be possible financially, and that I could potentially make a living from this.

STEWART: A lot of people just say it's simple, just, you know, move to a different platform. Is it that simple to just replace the monetization you get on TikTok with, say, Instagram?

KHAN: Definitely not. So, repurposing your content or reposting your content to these other channels, that part is simple, but to assume that the other channels and that these other platforms will pick your content up in the same way. That's difficult, because the TikTok algorithm is different from, say, the Instagram reels algorithm or the YouTube algorithm.

STEWART (voice-over): If TikTok is banned, the app won't necessarily disappear from people's phones.

ELIANA GHEN, TIKTOK CONTENT CREATOR: It's not really going anywhere. You just can't download it. So at least we'll have time before, like, the bugs take over. Wow, I feel like I'm in like a quite a zombie apocalypse. STEWART (voice-over): Nobody really knows what will happen on day one. It's likely to be unavailable on app stores for download or updates. One solution for the creators, find a new content home. Anna Stewart, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right. Some disappointment last night for Elon Musk, he's saying it looks like a leak of fuel or oxygen caused a SpaceX starship to blow up just minutes after launch. Burning fragments of the spaceship were caught on video, the debris forcing some airlines to delay flights in the Florida area.

The spacecraft, which was unmanned, was set to deploy mock satellites as part of a demonstration. SpaceX managed to capture the reusable, super heavy booster rocket between two extended arms in a tower on the Texas Coast, a maneuver that the company has nicknamed the chopsticks catch.

For now, let's go back to those delayed and diverted flights. CNN Aviation Correspondent Pete Muntean is joining us right now. All right, so, I mean, this had ripple effects. This was pretty frightening to see that kind of thing happening, you know, in the air, and very startling and frightening if you were in an airplane or about to take off in one.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Lots of people saw it from the air Fredricka, it's pretty significant, because it could be the first time that the falling space debris has ever had a major impact on air travel like this, though not the first time that falling space junk has been seen by pilots.

Remember, it's the Federal Aviation Administration that controls the airspace in the U.S., the same federal agency that grants a launch license to SpaceX. So, there could be an interesting rub developing here. Pilots reported seeing this view of starship breaking up about 10 minutes into its test flight, 90 miles above the Earth.

That's when the link to starship was lost. And there was apparently real concern that some of this could fall on a commercial flight below.

WHITFIELD: Yeah.

MUNTEAN: Because the airspace in the Caribbean can be very busy, especially in the wintertime. So, the FAA put into place a rare sweeping delay for flights leaving Miami International Airport, also Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood International Airport. And this was the peculiar line.

[08:55:00]

Flights were delayed about an average of 45 to 60 minutes because of a rocket launch anomaly. A separate alert said this was due to debris, and I want you to listen now to this recording from LiveATC.Net -- pilots telling air traffic controllers of the colorful display unfolding in front of them. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just got a major streak going from at least 60 miles. There are all these different colors. Just curious, it looked like it was coming towards us, but obviously, because of distance. Just letting you know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: Good news is this not last for all that long. And here's the statement from the FAA. The FAA briefly slowed and diverted aircraft around the area where space vehicle debris was falling. Normal operations have now resumed. Now the FAA says it was able to divert some flights away, also keep the incoming flights out of that area of concern, private space flight makes the skies even more crowded all the time, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Yeah. Hey does anyone know what size chunks you know some of that debris might have been?

MUNTEAN: Doesn't have to be all that big to make a big streak like that, especially as it's burning up in the upper atmosphere, all of that friction of the air causing those parts to break apart and create pretty big colors, pretty much all the colors of the rainbow --

WHITFIELD: My goodness. All right. Pete Muntean, thank you so much. I'm glad that as far as we know, no one got hurt. Happy to hear that. All right. Thank you so much for being here in the CNN Newsroom with me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. "Connect the World" with Jessica Dean is up next.

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