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Trump Aides Defend Gaza Takeover Proposal But Walk Back Some Elements; Trump Signs Order That Seeks To Ban Transgender Athletes From Women's Sports; DoJ To Reportedly Return Seized Docs To Trump; Vigil Held For Sweden School Shooting Victims; Philippine House Impeaches Vice President Sara Duterte; Arab-Americans React to Gaza Takeover Proposal; Trump Bans Transgender Athletes from Women's Sports; Meet the Legal Migrants Who Keep America's Farms Running; Moderating Alcohol by "Zebra Striping". Aired 1-2a ET
Aired February 06, 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: Hello ahead here on CNN Newsroom.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: So what he's very generously has offered is the ability of the United States to go in and help with debris removal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Selling Gaza-a-Lago. White House officials walk back parts of the president's plan for post war Gaza, but still saying it's an historic offer.
The rollback of transgender rights in the U.S. continues with another executive order from the White House, this one banning transgender athletes from women's sports.
And the crackdown on undocumented workers in the U.S. now having an impact on migrants in the country legally. A special report this hour.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Atlanta. This is CNN Newsroom with John Vause.
VAUSE: A day after Donald Trump left much of the world stunned with his proposal to relocate 2 million Palestinians out of Gaza and turn the territory into a Mar-a-Lago on the Mediterranean, or Gaza-a-Lago. And the White House and other senior officials are publicly talking up the plan, but with some important tweaks.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the offer to rebuild as generous and added Palestinians will be relocated only on a temporary basis. The White House press secretary says this historic plan is outside the box thinking, but added the project would not be funded by the U.S. and U.S. troops would not be involved.
Some Republicans are asking how Gaza-a-Lago fits with Trump's campaign promise of America first and the most influential country in the Arab world. Saudi Arabia was quick to condemn the plan. There was criticism as well from Jordan. Russia, China, Germany. And the Palestinians are not happy either.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
IYAM JAHJOUH, GAZA RESIDENT (through translator): We will not leave Gaza whatsoever, even though there's great destruction and everything and even the weather. We are staying here in our destroyed homes. We are steadfast in our land and we are not going to give a damn about Trump's statements.
AMIR KARAJA, GAZA RESIDENT (through translator): At the end, Trump comes and tells us this. We would rather eat this rubble and not be displaced from Gaza. We are steadfast here. Not him or anyone can get us or uproot us from Gaza. This is our land and we are the honest and true owners of the land. I won't be displaced.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: More details now from CNN's Jeff Zeleny, reporting in from the White House.
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JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF U.S. NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Against a wave of backlash from Republican senators and indeed leaders around the world, the White House moved to explain and walk a bit. President Trump's stunning statement from Tuesday night that the U.S. will, quote, own the Gaza Strip and make moves to develop it.
Now, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the Palestinians would only have to be temporarily relocated. That was at odds with what the president said one day earlier. He said there would be a permanent resettlement. But there was still some question about the fact that if the president would be willing to send U.S. forces to the region. The press secretary said the president was leaving it open for this reason.
KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I think the president is very good when he's making deals and negotiating, not to rule out anything because he wants to preserve that leverage in negotiations. And so I think that's what he's doing here.
ZELENY: So laying this out in terms of any ordinary deal the president has done certainly flies in the face of what he has long talked about. He has long criticized the never ending wars in his views and longstanding foreign entanglements.
But there certainly are some questions now, is this just an opening gambit? If so, how will this affect the second phase of the peace process? But White House advisers are saying the president, yes, is still serious about the idea of developing Gaza and of moving the 1.8 million Palestinians. But there is no doubt.
One thing is certain, the president said everyone loves this plan. That simply is not true. Leaders in the Arab world, of course, and European nations as well, pushed back considerably on that.
Republican senators also said that there simply would not be an appetite for an investment of aid from the U.S. or forces as well. So there is some doubt now, just one day after the president made that stunning announcement in the White House, what the future of that may be. But he certainly is committed to doing something new, he said in the Middle East. Jeff Zeleny, CNN, the White House.
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VAUSE: The Israeli prime minister has told Fox News Trump's vision for Gaza is a remarkable idea which should be considered. Benjamin Netanyahu is the first foreign leader to visit the White House since President Trump was sworn in for a second term.
On Wednesday at the Pentagon, Netanyahu held talks with the newly confirmed secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, and is expected to meet lawmakers in the coming hours.
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And J.D. Vance will travel to France and Germany next week, his first official international trip as Vice president.
Khaled Elgindy is an adjunct professor at the center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University, as well as author of "Blind Spot: America and the Palestinians From Belfast to Trump."
Khaled, thank you for being with us.
KHALED ELGINDY, ADJUST PROFESSOR, CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ARAB STUDIES, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: Thanks for having me.
VAUSE: So here's how the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, described Donald Trump's post war plans for Gaza. Here he is.
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RUBIO: And the only thing President Trump has done very generously in my view, is offer the United States willingness to step in, clear the debris, clean the place up from all the destruction that's on the ground, clean it up of all these unexploded munitions.
And in the meantime, the people living there will not be able -- the people who call that home will not be able to live there while you have crews coming in and removing debris, while you have munitions being removed, et cetera. That's the offer that he's made.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: So it's a generous offer. The president just wants to help out a little, clean up some debris. Perhaps you could explain to Secretary Rubio why Palestinians see all of this very differently.
ELGINDY: Yes, and I don't think it's just Palestinians. I think anyone with any sense of history or common sense would look at the proposal in its entirety and not just the selected items that Secretary Rubio mentioned. But in fact, the main component of Trump's plan is the removal of the entire population of 2 million Palestinians from Gaza. That's been the one point that he has -- the president has hammered home and doubled down and tripled down on repeatedly over the past many days, including yesterday.
And that's the part that I think is troubling for most people, since it amounts to ethnic cleansing and it's possible to clear out unexploded munitions and debris without removing the entire population. So it's not clear how those things fit together.
VAUSE: Well, according to CNN's reporting, White House officials say this suggestion by Trump was intended in part to spur action on an issue he views as more about, with no other nations offering reasonable solutions for how to rebuild an area that has been obliterated by Israeli bombardment following Hamas October 7, 2023 terrorist attack.
So in other words, this idea was put forward to encourage new thinking when it comes to rebuilding Gaza, which has been rebuilt many times in the past. So there's that one side. On the other extreme, as you say, it's a plan for ethically cleansing Gaza of more than 2 million Palestinians. Is it. Can it be both?
ELGINDY: Yes, it can be both. I mean, there are lots of new ideas that are outside of the box that are quite terrible ideas. I mean, someone could argue that Hamas's October 7 attack was outside the box, thinking they did some things that were really unprecedented. But I don't think anyone would argue that it was good or constructive or in any way positive.
So, unprecedented ideas are not always a good thing. And what the president has shown and what I think most of members of his administration have shown is a complete lack of regard for Palestinian life agency well-being, safety, security. There is no sense of the history of the conflict.
VAUSE: The war in Gaza and U.S. support for Israel by President Biden cost Democrats a lot at the last presidential election. By comparison, in November 2020, Joe Biden received 82 percent of the vote in eastern part of Dearborn, Michigan, home to a large Arab American community. In that Same area in 2024, Vice President Kamala Harris received only 23 percent. Many, but not all of those votes went to Donald Trump.
And now Arab Americans for Trump, a group that supported President Trump in 2024, announced Wednesday it's changing its name to Arab Americans for Peace. It seems unlikely if Kamala Harris was in fact president right now, she put forward anything like this Gaza plan.
Was it a bad idea to support Donald Trump against the Democrats and essentially to campaign against Harris or to stay home and not vote for Harris? ELGINDY: Well, I mean, I certainly can't speak for the members of that
group either before or after they change their name. I have nothing to do with them. And I know as a member of the Arab American community, there was quite an intensive debate going into the election about this very issue. There were very large faction of Arab Americans who said, look, we have to hold our noses and vote for Kamala Harris. She's the lesser of two evils.
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And there were others who said absolutely, categorically, never. Some of them voted for Trump, but I think more of them voted for third parties. And so the community was torn morally over how to proceed. But there's no question that her refusal to distance herself from Biden's policy of unconditional support for Israel hurt her campaign. Exactly how much is unclear, but it definitely hurt.
VAUSE: Khaled, thank you so much for being with us. Really appreciate your insights and your thoughts on this. Thank you.
ELGINDY: Thank you.
VAUSE: Classified documents and other personal items seized by the FBI during a 2022 raid of Donald Trump's Florida country club Mar-a-Lago will soon be returned to the president. Sources tell CNN the Justice Department under new Attorney General Pam Bondi is also reviewing a number of cases brought against Donald Trump, as well as federal policies around diversity, equity and inclusion. CNN's Paula Reid has details now reporting from Washington.
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PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: President Trump getting his stuff back from the Justice Department and that is expected to include some classified do. Now, his Mar-a-Lago home was searched back in August of 2022. During that search, the FBI found roughly 100 classified documents and they were mixed in with his personal possessions like birthday cards, golf shirts, even a picture of Celine Dion.
Now, prosecutors seized on that to support their case that these classified documents were not properly handled, noting that they were just mixed in with all this personal stuff.
Now that the federal case against Trump has been closed, there is a process to return his possessions. Now, that would not always include classified material for most people, but now that he is president, he has broad discretion over classified documents.
And it's interesting because his attorney general on Wednesday, she announced that she's going to undertake a review of all of the criminal cases that Trump has faced. Now, that includes the classified documents case, federal case, also the federal election subversion case. She's also going to review the New York State case, so called hush money trial where Trump was convicted, and even a civil case where he faced hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties in New York.
This was just one of over a dozen memos that the newly minted Attorney General Pam Bondi signed as she really laid out how the Justice Department is going to work to serve the priorities of the Trump administration.
Other memos that she signed, including changes to DEI both internally and externally. We've seen across the government since Trump took office, a lot of changes to how DEI will be applied inside the federal government agencies, but also when it comes to the Justice Department, Bondi revealed today in her memo that the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department will be used to prosecute illegal use of DEI in the private sector or in educational institutions that receive federal funding.
She also laid out how she wants prosecutors to prioritize cases, wanting them to focus on immigration, human trafficking and protecting law enforcement. Paula Reid, CNN, Washington.
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VAUSE: And a source tells CNN a specialized FBI team which investigates foreign threats to U.S. elections will be disbanded. The decision to close the Foreign Influence Task Force was made by new Attorney General Pam Bondi just hours after she was sworn in on Wednesday.
In a memo she wrote, dissolving the team frees up resources to address more pressing priorities. Former FBI Director Christopher Wray established the task force in 2017 after Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Well, the investigation continues into last week's catastrophic midair collision. Crews are close to removing all the jets debris from the river in Washington. Well, those details in a moment.
Also, the latest on the worst mass shooting in Sweden's history. Mourners hold a candle at vigil as police continue to search for a motive.
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VAUSE: Argentina looks set to join the U.S. by announcing it will withdraw from the World Health Organization. Officials say their decision was based on profound differences over health management, especially during the COVID pandemic. They accused the WHO of causing economic damage from what they call endless quarantines.
Withdrawing from the WHO was one of Donald Trump's first acts when he returned to office. Argentina's President Javier Milei has developed a close relationship with the U.S. president. It goes much of his rhetoric, including border security and trade.
For its part, the WHO says its pandemic response was intended to save lives and to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
Well, the White House says rapid safety upgrades to the U.S. air traffic control system are coming, adding Elon Musk and his team will implement those changes.
This comes just days after the system used to send safety alerts to pilots in real time experienced an outage. And it comes one week after the deadly midair collision between an army helicopter and a commercial flight. Crews expect to finish retrieving all major pieces of the jet Thursday and then begin removing parts of the helicopter debris.
Officials say all 67 passengers and crews from the collision have been recovered and the bodies have been identified.
Now to the latest on the worst mass shooting in Sweden's history. Mourners left flowers at a candle vigil for the victims on Wednesday. At least 10 people were killed, six others injured on Tuesday after a lone gunman opened fire at an adult education system.
Shooter's body was found at the scene, but police are yet to release his name. But there are new details about the gunman. We have more on that now from CNN's Melissa Bell.
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MELISSA BELL, CNN PARIS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A nation in mourning left reeling after an afternoon of horror on Tuesday.
ULF KRISTERSSON, SWEDISH PRIME MINISTER (through translator): We are all set that we've today seen brutal, deadly violence against completely innocent people. This is the worst mass shooting in Swedish history.
BELL (voice-over): At least 10 people killed with more injured in a massacre at an adult school in the city of Orebro, central Sweden. Witnesses spoke of bangs and screams from inside the building as the rampage unfolded.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): A guy next to me was shot in the shoulder. He was bleeding a lot. When I looked behind me, I saw three people on the floor bleeding. Everyone was shocked. The police were not on site and neither was the ambulance, so we had to help.
BELL (voice-over): Authorities now believe the perpetrator found dead at the scene shot himself. Police have ruled out terror or gang violence as possible motives.
ROBERTO ELD FOREST, OREBRO POLICE DISTRICT CHIEF (through translator): There's much to suggest that it's a solitary act and that's the picture we have right now.
BELL (voice-over): Sweden has grappled with gang related violent crime in recent years, but scenes like those at Orebro are rare. Such violence in a school has stunned the country. In the words of the prime minister, a darkness fell over Sweden on Tuesday night and as dawn broke, a tide of questions and grief to come. Melissa Bell, CNN, Orebro.
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VAUSE: The vice president of the Philippines has been impeached, accused of plotting to assassinate the president. Sarah Duterte is also facing allegations of large scale corruption and failing to stand up to Chinese aggression in disputed waters. She's not made any public statements about the impeachment, but her brother called it political persecution. And supporters are working on dismissing the case in the Philippine Senate.
Many of the legislators who launched the impeachment process are allies of President Fernando Marcos Jr. -- Ferdinand Marcos.
Still to come on CNN, more on President Donald Trump's plan for a potential U.S. takeover of Gaza. Now Arab Americans who voted for him are now reacting to that news.
Also, while surrounded by young girls and women as well, President Trump taking action to keep transgender athletes out of women's sports. More on that in a moment.
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VAUSE: Welcome back everyone. I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN Newsroom. More now on Donald Trump's controversial and for some jaw dropping plan for the U.S. to own Gaza and transform the territory into luxury beachside developments.
The U.S. president says under his plan, 2 million Palestinians who live in Gaza will be permanently relocated to neighboring countries. That brought swift condemnation from around the world with Russia, China, Germany and Saudi Arabia saying forced relocation would cause new suffering and hatred.
White House officials and senior Republicans now walking back part of the president's plan. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Trump very generously offered the U.S. to become responsible for the reconstruction of Gaza. And U.S. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt had this to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEAVITT: This is an unhabitable place for human beings. Do you really think that families can live their dream in a region that looks like this with no running water, no electricity, it's a demolition site right now. It's not a livable place for any human being. I think it's actually quite evil to suggest that people should live in such dire conditions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: CNN's Jason Carroll spoke with Arab Americans about why they voted for Donald Trump in November. While Mr. Trump's latest move has them angry, many would not change their vote.
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JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Days before the last presidential election, Donald Trump was the invited guest at the Great Commoner restaurant in Dearborn, Michigan. Albert Abbas says he extended that invitation, a decision he is now reflecting on given all that has happened in the last 24 hours.
ALBERT ABBAS, DEARBORN, MICHIGAN RESIDENT: many in the community are at a loss for words. Last night was a very rough night for most of us.
CARROLL: Abbas is Arab American and one of a number of Democrats who voted for Trump. Abbas says he hoped Trump would do more than President Joe Biden did to help Palestinians suffering in Gaza.
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip.
CARROLL (voice-over): But after Trump said Palestinians should leave Gaza so it can be redeveloped, Abbas says not only does he feel betrayed, he's hearing from a number of people angered over his past support.
ABBAS: People were really, really frustrated, and I don't think there's anyone to blame. At the end of the day, as Arab Americans or Muslims, we really didn't have much of a choice.
CARROLL (voice-over): Dearborn, a Detroit suburb, is home to the largest Arab American population in the United States, a community which helped Trump carry the critical swing state. He won 42 percent of the vote in Dearborn versus Vice President Harris, which with 36 percent, and Jill Stein with 18. In 2020, Biden handily carried the city with 69 percent.
Faye Nimmer voted for Trump in 2024 out of frustration over the previous administration's support of Israel. Now she is troubled by the president's proposal to move Palestinians out of Gaza.
FAY NIMMER, DEARBORN, MICHIGAN RESIDENT: I mean, it's very concerning and it's infuriating.
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CARROLL: Personal feelings, you're infuriated, but standing by your decision for now to have voted for Trump.
NEMAR: Correct.
CARROLL: And what would move that needle for you to say, you know what, I made a mistake?
NEMAR: Palestine is the red line for this community.
CARROLL: Nemar says she suspects Trump is bluffing and is using his proposal as some sort of negotiating tactic.
That's the same sentiment shared by Amer Zhar.
AMER ZHAR, COMEDIAN: First, this is clearly not going to happen, right?
CARROLL: And real estate broker Ali al Farajalla (ph).
ALI AL FARAJALLA, REAL ESTAGE AGENT: A lot of people are calling me and texting me saying, hey, you know, how did your vote work out? You know, how is that third party vote?
CARROLL: Both were so-called protest voters. Neither supported Trump or Harris.
Are there any sort of second thoughts now about having supported a third-party candidate?
FARAJALLA: Absolutely not. And I'll still do it again and again and again.
ZHAR: I didn't vote for Trump. So a protest vote? I don't know. I would say it was a targeted vote of conscience to say that the children of Gaza have to mean something. Their death has to mean something.
CARROLL: And while Arab-Americans here were divided in the past, going forward one point is uniting them -- opposition to Trumps proposal to move Palestinians out of Gaza.
SAM BAYDOUN, WAYNE COUNTY, MICHIGAN COMMISSIONER: The community will be unified. I will tell you this. The Palestinian people would rather die and live in a demolition site than to be ethnically-cleansed and being sent out of Gaza to Egypt or Jordan.
CARROLL: So there's a real sense from those that we spoke to here in the Arab-American community that they've been let down by both parties.
A real sense of frustration, clearly, over Trump's proposal. But those very same people told us that if Harris had been elected and if there had been a Harris administration, their feeling is that Palestinians would still be suffering.
Jason Carroll, CNN -- Dearborn, Michigan.
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: The White House has continued to target transgender rights with another executive order, this time banning transgender athletes from competing in women's sports.
Young girls surrounded the president as he signed the order, titled "Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports". It applies to any academic institution receiving federal funding.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Under the Trump administration. We will defend the proud tradition of female athletes, and we will not allow men to beat up, injure and cheat our women and our girls. From now on, women's sports will be only for women.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Critics of transgender athletes claim they have an unfair advantage in sport, which has not been scientifically proven. Research from 2023 while limited, found sex differences do develop after puberty, but many are reduced or erased over time by gender-affirming hormone therapy.
Doctor Aidan Kelly is a clinical psychologist and a director at Gender Plus, which provides gender, healthcare and education services across the U.K. and Ireland. Thank you for being with us.
DR. AIDAN KELLY, DIRECTOR, GENDER PLUS: Thank you for having me on.
VAUSE: Ok. From the moment Donald Trump was sworn into office for a second term, he signed a flurry of executive orders targeting transgender rights and protection. The first was titled "Defending Women from Gender Ideology, Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government". And here's the U.S. President speaking during his inauguration.
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TRUMP: As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female.
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VAUSE: So can you explain the contradiction here between what is proven science and what Donald Trump is saying in that one short declaration at his inauguration.
KELLY: Yes. Absolutely.
I mean, I think it's quite unquestionable that Donald Trump is taking this stance to protect women. And there are -- there's plenty of evidence to show that different gender identities, what we might now call transgender identities, have existed across cultures and across time.
So in indigenous populations, across the world and going back many, many hundreds of years, there's evidence that people have identified and lived as and different gender identities.
And so this is a natural form of the human condition had existed and will continue to exist whether Donald Trump wants to admit that or not, will continue to exist going forward as well really.
VAUSE: The president has also removed federal funding for youth, gender-affirming care for anyone under the age of 19, as well as ending funding for medical schools and hospitals, researching gender- affirming care.
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VAUSE: In recent years, the American Medical Association came out very strongly, advocating for gender-affirming care, saying it is medically necessary, evidence-based care that improves the physical and mental health of transgender and gender diverse people.
So again, what does the science say about the benefits of gender- affirming care and what will happen without it?
KELLY: So the science is clear that really this is -- this can be life-saving care. We, of course, can always do more and do better with our evidence base, and we can always do more to help those for whom this might not be the right pathway.
However, that does not, kind of preclude us from helping the vast majority of people who do incredibly well by accessing timely -- timely health care in this area.
So again, you know, stamping it out, but also not just stamping it out, but stamping out the research and the evidence base behind it is incredibly troubling really.
VAUSE: Yes. On Wednesday, another executive order, this one banning transgender women from competing in women's sport. The president also gave a directive for international athletes traveling to Los Angeles for the 2028 Olympics.
This is what he told the director of Homeland Security.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: To deny any and all visa applications made by men attempting to fraudulently enter the United States while identifying themselves as women athletes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: The White House has publicly stated it wants sporting bodies and federations around the world to take similar action to what's happening in the U.S.
So is that likely to happen? And could there also be a much wider rollback globally of transgender rights?
KELLY: I mean it is -- there's a troubling trend at the moment across, you know, internationally, there's not quite the same extreme. In the U.K. here, there have been some restrictions placed on transgender health care for youth as well.
So, you know, it is really, really worrying. I think Donald Trump is taking it, and perhaps unsurprisingly, to the most extreme position that I know of and internationally, whether he's able to follow through with it all, implement it all. We've seen him declare in other situations that he's going to act upon
some things and do things, but maybe he pulls back from it at a later point.
And so I would hope that this is something that might happen in this situation, because it's incredibly troubling. It's going to be incredibly damaging for real people's lives when people just need compassion and care. And instead they're facing victimization and villainization.
And so it's -- really incredibly worried. We should all be worried about it because it won't just stop with trans people. It will -- it will progress to other vulnerable, marginalized groups within society, next once that -- once that happens, really.
VAUSE: And in the United States and around the world, the percentage of the population that are, you know, part of the transgender community is incredibly small. And yet this has such an outsized impact on their life.
We've never seen a rollback of rights like this against any one group in the United States in recent history.
KELLY: Absolutely. It's a tiny percentage of the population, but yet it gets such a huge amount of the airtime and, you know, it's totally disproportionate to the amount of people that there are in our society.
And so you have to wonder if this is some sort of tool or instrument to distract or kind of organize society in a certain way. But it certainly is a tiny proportion of people who just want to live their lives.
The vast, vast, vast majority of trans people are not interested in being elite athletes or part of an elite sporting community. And they just want to live happy, fulfilling, meaningful lives.
But yet all of this air time, you know, public -- public attention is focused on them. And it's really, really, really concerning.
VAUSE: And just very quickly, with regards to sport, the presence of a transgender woman who is taking part in a women's sporting meet, whatever it might be, do they have an unfair advantage, or is it fairly, you know, one on one basis? It's fairly equal.
KELLY: I mean it's a really complicated question to answer. I think it depends massively on the person's medical, you know, whether what medications or surgeries they've had, what sport we're even talking about.
And so it's an area that is admittedly complicated, but it is still something that is a tiny, tiny, tiny percentage of the time that ever even happens.
And there are lots of really, really better qualified scientists and experts who would be able than me, who would be able to kind of work out in what ways you might be able to level the playing field, really.
VAUSE: I think you did a pretty good job explaining it, Dr. Kelly. Thank you so much for being with us. We really appreciate your time. Thanks for getting up early.
KELLY: Thank you.
VAUSE: Still to come here, U.S. farmers frustrated by a costly and complicated work visa program. Why some say it's a struggle to get good migrant workers just to come into the country.
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VAUSE: Strike two for Donald Trump's attempt to end birthright citizenship. A second federal judge blocked the president's executive order Wednesday, ruling it contradicts the 250 years of U.S. history of citizenship by birth and conflicts with the plain language of the constitutional amendment, which enshrines that right.
The Trump administration is likely to appeal with the matter possibly decided ultimately by the Supreme Court.
A nationwide crackdown on illegal immigration across the U.S. has left many farms struggling simply to find reliable workers. Some say the visa program meant to help migrant laborers into the U.S. legally, could be a lot more efficient.
David Culver has our report.
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DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Calling out to us from the back of the bus, Juan Manuel Cisneros shows us what he describes as his American dream come true.
I said, do you always carry that document with you? And he goes, yes, because if anything happens, he can pull it out and say, I'm here legally in this country.
Everyone on this bus can say the same. They're farmworkers here on H- 2a visas, which allow foreign workers to fill temporary or seasonal agricultural jobs.
They come here for about eight months. All the folks on this bus are on their lunch break are from Mexico. He says they're able to work the field. And as he sees it, it's a good solution to be able to make money and yet at the same time be here legally.
But with that visa comes grueling work.
RICK ROTH, PRESIDENT, ROTH FARMS: Nobody local wants to work in agriculture harvesting crops. Nobody. These are hardworking, able-bodied men, and that's what they're doing.
They're doing manual labor.
CULVER: And they're doing it in a place that might surprise you. That's east.
ROTH: Yes.
CULVER: If I go far enough, I'll hit Mar-a-Lago.
ROTH: Yes, you will.
CULVER: You need only travel about 40 miles from here, as Roth Farms sits just on the western edge of Palm Beach County, Florida. Certainly doesn't feel like the beaches of Palm Beach.
ROTH: But it has the weather.
CULVER: Which can be brutally hot and humid for those working these fields. Yet, despite his need for a reliable and cost-efficient workforce, Roth says he supports President Trump's stance on immigration.
Is it going to get more difficult to get workers, you think under President Trump and the crackdown on immigration?
ROTH: No, I think it actually will get easier. We just want people to be vetted and we want good workers that have come out to come out here.
CULVER: So the H-2a visa program may seem like a perfect solution to keep predominantly-migrant workers employed on farms like this one here in Florida. But critics point out that it doesn't cover every person or every situation.
Say, for example, those migrants who are fleeing violent and dangerous situations and don't have a home to go back to once the seasons over. Or those who simply want to live and work with their families year- round in the U.S.
Then you've got small farmers who say that the program is just way too costly and way too complicated.
For now though, Roth sees H-2a visas as the best way to keep U.S. farms running. He hires a third-party company to handle the logistics. They recruit the workers from abroad and then place them at several different farms, including Roth's.
ROTH: You hire them in Mexico. And you transport them over here. You pay all the transportation costs.
CULVER: You're paying for that.
ROTH: I pay all the transportation costs. We put them up in housing. We pay all the housing costs.
The only thing we're allowed to charge them for is the cost of the food when we feed them.
CULVER: So what is it like for these workers?
So here it is, about 5:00 in the evening. And these workers have just finished their shift at Roth Farms. They're arriving back at their housing complex.
Juan Manuel and the others invite us to meet them after their work day is over.
Yes. What do you do this time of the day? Yes. When you get here from work.
Dinner's at 6:00?
We can go with him. He's inviting us up.
Well, muchas camas aqui, no?
They've been working ten hours today. They work six, sometimes seven days a week. They have just a few things that they need. A few changes of clothes, some snacks and not much privacy.
Juan Manuel shows us his setup.
He says what he makes is about $16 an hour. So here what you make in an hour, as he puts it, is an entire day's work in Mexico.
This is his third year on the visa work program.
He said the money that he makes here, he's able to support his family in Mexico as well, and help his mom and dad and brother and sister.
And he said, that's what you need to do to survive.
You can see all the workers now are gathering from all the different buildings, most of them all work at different sites, but they come together to eat and then sleep.
And then they will be back at it on the fields in about 10, 11 hours from now.
What's interesting is many of the farmers that we've spoken with are in support of President Trump, and along with it, his immigration policies.
But as these deportations continue, they warn that this sense of urgency when it comes to the H-2a visa program working to expand it, working to make it more cost effective, particularly for smaller farmers who say it's just way too expensive. And they say its overall just too complicated to use. So to make it less cumbersome.
They say if the president doesn't act on that, that food prices in this country will soar to levels that we have not seen before.
(END VIDEOTAPE) [01:49:49]
VAUSE: Our thanks to David Culver for that.
More than two weeks into Donald Trump's second term, and demonstrators have held their first nationwide protest. 50 protests in 50 cities in one day. Many opposed to the crackdown on illegal immigration, as well as a ban on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs.
Protesters also took aim at billionaire Elon Musk, who gained access to federal payment systems after being designated a special government employee.
Some of the signs read "Arrest Nazi Musk" and "Nobody voted for Musk", "Stop the felon" and "Refuse a fascist America".
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at what Project 2025 said they wanted to do. And then you see what executive orders are coming out. And guess what? They match up perfectly.
So it doesn't take a lot of logic, you know, to tell he was lying to us.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I'm very angry over Roe. I'm very angry over Roe. And really right now what's on the forefront of my mind is the mass deportations.
My heart just can't.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Still ahead, the drinking trend known as zebra striping. We'll explain what it means, why its growing in popularity.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: More severe weather is expected in the coming hours for California. An atmospheric river has already brought record rainfall, fierce winds and heavy mountain snow, it's led to flooded roads as well as landslides across the state.
California recently endured wildfires, deadly wildfires in recent weeks, and now emergency crews are working to assess the new damage and as well as clear the debris.
It's still not known when some roads will reopen. The heaviest rainfall is forecast over the next 24 hours.
Heavy rain in northern Bolivia flooded a small community Tuesday, affecting at least 100 families and submerging many homes. The rainfall lasted for hours and caused a stream to overflow. Rescue teams were deployed and the government says 30 families are now in temporary shelter. Well, many people are now starting to moderate much of their alcohol
intake by a drinking game known as "zebra striping". A trend which is apparently catching on, even though most people don't seem to know what it is.
Naturally, CNN's Anna Stewart hits the pubs to find out how it works.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A drink in the pub is at the heart of British culture, but the way people drink is changing. To survive, the industry needs to understand how, apparently, people zebra stripe.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is zebra striping? I don't know. Is it the thing you put on a black and white horse?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some form of dance? No, no idea.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What I would imagine is painting something in black and white, but apart from that, I don't really know.
[01:54:47]
STEWART: So say you're going to start the night drinking beer. This would be your black stripe. Then your next drink would be nonalcoholic. We have a nonalcoholic gin and tonic here. This is your white stripe.
And then perhaps for your next drink, go back to alcohol. Nice glass of red wine, another black stripe. Simple.
It's a tactic to moderate drinking that's becoming more popular. More than half of U.S. and U.K. consumers are likely to zebra stripe in January, and 61 percent are either definitely or likely to moderate alcohol this way in 2025.
But are people actually using the term?
BEN BRANSON, FOUNDER, SEEDLIP: I've not come across anyone saying, actually, tonight, I'm zebra striping. It's not catchy. I'm here going, oh, I don't like the phrase, but I don't have a better one.
But I think the ritual and behavior of alternating is brilliant. That's what you call moderation.
STEWART: Ben Branson was at the forefront of the non-drinking drinks industry when Seedlip was launched in 2015, billed as the world's first nonalcoholic spirit. At the time, he had a lot of pushback.
BRANSON: This is never going to sell. This is a ridiculous idea. What is the point? We don't need nonalcoholic options.
And so you fast forward to there being a thousand brands, a $23- billion category, global, growing, exciting.
STEWART: Diageo is now the majority shareholder of Seedlip, and all the major players are invested in the alcohol-free space, promoting options for when people mix it up.
BRANSON: We saw this play out with Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, where sugar was concerned, probably back in the 90s. The big companies see what's going on, I'm sure.
I don't think they're worried, I think they are just working out how and where and when to -- yes, to get involved.
STEWART: Zebra striping, as a term, may still be earning its stripes. Not everyone is convinced.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have an alcoholic drink, then you have a nonalcoholic drink, then you have a nonalcoholic drink, and so on and so forth. What is the point?
STEWART: But the wider shift away from traditional drinking isn't going away.
Anna Stewart, CNN -- London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: New Zealand is celebrating Waitangi Day, the anniversary of the country's founding documents. Thousands gathered in the town of Waitangi in the North Island, where the treaty was signed in 1840 by the British Crown and Maori chiefs.
The treaty lays down many governing principles still in force today. This year's anniversary comes amid controversial efforts in recent months to reinterpret the treaty.
Last November, tens of thousands marched in protest on a bill that they say erodes the rights of Maori people, which are laid out clearly in that treaty.
Thank you for watching. I'm John Vause.
Please stay with us. My friend and colleague, Rosemary Church is up after a short break.
See you back here tomorrow.
[01:57:57]
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