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Sources: Trump Administration to Axe Thousands of USAID Staff; Judge Pauses Deadline for Federal Employees 'Buyout' Plan; U.N.: 165 Female Inmates Raped, Most Killed in Prison Fire; Police: Suspected Attacker Had 4 Guns, Lived as a Recluse; Elon Musk Targets U.K. Prime Minister Over Abuse Scandal; Baltic States Cut Electricity Ties to Russia. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired February 07, 2025 - 00:00   ET

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


JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Elon Musk plans to do to USAID what he did to Twitter.

[00:00:07]

Hello, I'm John Vause. Ahead this hour.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW NATSIOS, FORMER HEAD OF USAID: In my view, it's absolutely outrageous what they've done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: The global workforce for U.S. foreign aid recalled, with just a few hundred of 10,000 employees expected to keep their jobs.

Buyout offers for more than 2 million other U.S. federal workers now on hold.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: If they don't want to show up to the office, if they want to rip the American people off, then they're welcome to take this buyout.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Another key part of Trump's agenda heading to court this Monday.

An outrage in India.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANKIT, INDIAN MIGRANT DEPORTED FROM U.S.: Our legs and hands were cuffed, including women. All of us were shackled.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: The mistreatment of more than 100 Indian deportees on a U.S. military flight home.

ANNOUNCER: Live from Atlanta, this is CNN NEWSROOM with John Vause.

VAUSE: In just days, it seems Elon Musk, acting on behalf of the U.S. president, has effectively disbanded the U.S. Agency for International Development, which for six decades has delivered humanitarian assistance around the world.

But now almost 10,000 workers globally have been recalled. Multiple sources telling CNN less than 300 are expected to keep their jobs. The rest placed on leave, fired or furloughed in the hours ahead.

Two labor groups representing USAID workers sued the administration Thursday over efforts to break up the agency. The lawsuit also targets President Trump's freeze on almost all foreign assistance, a move which has brought critical work around the world to a halt.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAMANTHA POWER, FORMER USAID ADMINISTRATOR: This is devastating, and it is ceding the field, as well, to the People's Republic of China, to the Russian Federation, and other malign actors who would like nothing more than to see the U.S. ground game in American foreign policy, the face of American values, disappear like this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: The Trump administration's move to gut the agency has left workers around the world worried about their safety, as well as their future.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the move while trying to offer some reassurance.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We're not trying to be disruptive to people's personal lives. We're not -- this is -- we're not trying -- we're not being punitive here. But this is the only way we've been able to get cooperation from USAID.

We are going to do foreign aid. The United States will be providing foreign aid, but it is going to be foreign aid that makes sense and is aligned with our national interest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Andrew Natsios served as the head of USAID for five years during the George W. Bush administration, is currently an executive professor at the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University.

Sir, thank you for being with us.

NATSIOS: Thank you for having me.

VAUSE: I want you to listen to President Trump. He was speaking about the current leadership at USAID. This was on Sunday. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's been run by a bunch of radical lunatics. And we're getting them out. USAID, run by radical lunatics.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Does that description fit, from what you know about the current leadership at the agency? And I'm wondering if that choice of language --

NATSIOS: Well, there's no current leadership, because they -- they haven't appointed anyone. And the current career leadership has all been fired.

The notion that the agency are a bunch of radical lunatics is the biggest pile of garbage I've ever heard. The -- the great bulk of the career people at AID follow whatever the political leadership want them to do.

When I became the administrator and probably the most conservative administrator since the founding of the agency, I moved to direct the agency toward more conservative policies to focus on business development, job creation, on economic growth, on trade, capacity building so they could access Western markets from African countries.

The career people were enthused about it. They had no problem with that. The business community works with AID around the world, and they invest $6 billion in USAID projects a year.

Now, would -- do you think if AID were run by a bunch of lunatics on the left, that $6 billion from corporate America, hundreds of corporations have invested in our projects? Why would they do that if we're a bunch of nutcases?

VAUSE: One of the criticisms of USAID has been that the agency is spending only 10 to $0.20 of every dollar directly on foreign aid. While those numbers actually come from the agency itself, PolitiFact declared the statement to be false.

NATSIOS: No, actually, they do -- they do most definitely -- sir, they do not come from the agency itself. They come from an advocacy group, and they're a bold-faced lie. All right?

I know exactly how much we spend, and I know where it comes from and when it goes.

Now, the reality is, for every one American, or one European, who heads an AID program in the developing world, we -- the average is 20 local people are hired.

[00:05:04]

So, the great bulk of people who work on AID projects don't work -- or don't come from or spend their money or get their income from being in the United States. They're people from Nigeria or from Peru or from Thailand, wherever -- wherever the project is. So, it's just -- it's nonsense to say that.

And that has been spread around, and it's -- it's not accurate. And it's from some of these advocacy groups that simply make statistics up.

VAUSE: Well, Donald Trump has tasked Elon Musk to shrink the size of the federal government. He's moved incredibly quickly to gut USAID, which on Sunday he described as a criminal organization, adding "time for it to die."

As you mentioned, only about 310,000 employees are expected to keep their jobs, because it has been gutted. And this is despite serious questions over the legality of what Musk has done.

I want you to listen to independent Senator Bernie Sanders. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): You cannot go into an agency like USAID and essentially fire everybody and get rid of that agency. You cannot do -- that's not -- that's an agency that was created by Congress. They want to get rid of USAID, fine.

Come to the Congress. Make your case. You can't do it unilaterally.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Is there a concern here that, because this has happened so quickly, appears to be a done deal, whether it's legal or not, reversing the damage at this point might not be possible?

NATSIOS: Well, a lot of damage has been done. I am a conservative, and I don't agree with Bernie Sanders on most things, but on this, he's correct.

What the administration is doing is illegal. It's unconstitutional. It's a usurpation of authority of the United States Congress. They do not have the authority to close down an agency. And what they're doing is outrageous from my perspective.

What the president said is nonsense. He's being fed a line of nonsense by Musk. Musk and the director of OMB are the people running all of this.

And I think it's odd that the richest man in the world is arranging the killing of small children in developing countries. It is -- in my view, it's absolutely outrageous what they've done.

And I speak as a Republican, a longtime Republican. I'm a retired military officer. I was a lieutenant colonel in the reserves. I served in the first Gulf War. I am not on the left, but what they're doing is unconscionable. VAUSE: Professor Natsios, thank you, sir, for your time. Very much

Appreciate your insights and your experience. Thanks for being with us.

And a federal judge has ordered a halt to President Trump's plan to cull more than 2 million jobs from the federal government. A deadline for federal workers to accept a deferred resignation offer or a buyout, due to expire just moments ago, has been extended to Monday.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF U.S. NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: A midnight deadline for federal workers to accept an offer for an early resignation was halted on Thursday by a federal judge in Massachusetts.

Three federal labor unions came together to ask the judge to put a pause on this plan being pushed by the Trump administration.

Now, the judge agreed to hold a hearing on Monday, which means it puts this entire question of the federal workforce being reshaped, at least in this respect, on hold until Monday.

Now, one of the central questions here, as federal workers are deciding whether to return to the office or decide to leave the government altogether: will they actually be paid? Now, some federal labor unions are warning them there could be issues with this.

There is deep skepticism and suspicion among the ranks of federal workers, largely because of comments like this from the White House press secretary.

LEAVITT: We encourage federal workers in this city to accept the very generous offer. If they don't want to show up to the office, if they want to rip the American people off, then they're welcome to take this buyout; and we'll find highly competent individuals who want to fill these roles.

ZELENY (voice-over): So late Thursday, all federal workers receiving a message from the government, saying that they have now until Monday --

ZELENY: -- at midnight to accept that offer, which would extend payments until September in exchange for leaving work early.

But that is very much an open question, based on how the judge rules on that.

So, we have one more example here of a federal judge stepping in to block, or at least temporarily hold, a Trump administration move.

Jeff Zeleny, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE) VAUSE: The International Criminal Court is the latest target of a Trump executive order. The White House has sanctioned the ICC, accusing the court of engaging in, quote, "illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and its close ally, Israel."

According to a fact sheet obtained by CNN, the executive order places financial and visa sanctions on individuals who assist ICC inquiries and their family members.

The move amounts to an effort to punish the ICC for issuing arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials.

[00:10:02]

Meantime, Israel's prime minister met with a bipartisan group of U.S. senators on Capitol Hill Thursday. The Senate's Republican majority whip says Benjamin Netanyahu pushed for Congress to sanction the ICC.

The measure passed the Republican-controlled House, but was blocked by Senate Democrats last month.

Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu both claimed U.S. troops will not be needed to carry out plans for the U.S. to take over Gaza after the war.

The president posted on Thursday, insisting the U.S. would oversee reconstruction of the territory and turn it into, quote, "one of the greatest and most spectacular developments of its kind on earth."

He promised U.S. soldiers would not be needed. Israel's leader gave a definitive answer when asked about U.S. troop involvement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. Netanyahu, do you think U.S. troops are needed in Gaza to make President Trump's plan feasible?

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: No.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Another part of President Trump's plan for Palestinians to be relocated to neighboring countries, while the U.S. takes ownership of Gaza, has drawn enormous backlash worldwide.

Rights groups, as well as leaders from the Middle East and beyond, reject it as illegal and say it amounts to ethnic cleansing.

Netanyahu called it, quote, "a remarkable idea" and ordered Israel's army to draw up plans for large numbers of Palestinians to leave voluntarily.

Donald Trump also stepping up deportations of undocumented migrants from the United States, a key campaign promise. Some of the 100 migrants flown back to India on Wednesday say they were kept in prison-like conditions on the way home. They complained they were shackled during the entire 40-hour-long flight. They were yelled at and misled about where they were actually going.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARVINDER SINGH, INDIAN MIGRANT DEPORTED FROM U.S. (through translator): Our hands and feet were cuffed, and we were told that we were being taken to a detention center, but they brought us to the airport instead.

ANKIT: Our legs and hands were cuffed, including women. Except the children -- those who were below 18 years of age -- all of us were shackled. We were given no washroom facilities, and they never removed the cuffs, even to eat.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: That was the longest deportation flight since the U.S. military began taking migrants home. Some Indian lawmakers protested the treatment on Thursday.

CNN has reached out to the Pentagon and the U.S. border authorities for comment. Nothing yet.

Still to come here, the horrific details of how a jailbreak amid the conflict in Congo turned into a brutal mass rape of more than 150 inmates.

Also, new details on Sweden's worst mass shooting. A possible connection between the gunman and the school where he opened fire.

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[00:16:57]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONIO GUTERRES, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: Silence the guns. Stop the escalation. It's time for mediation. It's time to end this crisis. It's time to peace.

Let us all act together for peace.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: The U.N. secretary-general there on the ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has left 3,000 people dead in Goma over the past few weeks.

Rwanda-backed rebels took that city. And now, on the move, heading to another key location. Neighboring Rwanda accused of helping the rebels.

The president is expected to meet with his Congolese counterpart in the coming hours. And there are some horrific details about the fate suffered by female inmates during a prison break amid the chaos of Goma's fall. The U.N. says male prisoners started a fire at the facility as the battle for the city was underway last week.

Salma Abdelaziz has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is truly horrible. And a trigger warning to our viewers. We are learning that at least 165 female prisoners were raped.

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): This video shows where and when this horrifying mass rape took place. You are looking at inmates fleeing from a prison in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Now, more than 4,000 detainees made it out that day. But before their escape, some of the men carried out the mass rape of 165 women. Then they set the prison alight. Most of those rape victims died in the fire. That's according to the United Nations.

Only around a dozen female inmates who had also been raped survived the blaze.

Now, fighting has been taking place after a feared and dangerous rebel group called M-23 battled government troops for control of Goma, a city in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In a matter of days, the M-23 rebels forcibly --

ABDELAZIZ: -- seized control of the city.

Systematic sexual violence has long plagued the country, and with the conflict now spiraling out of control, women and girls are yet again at risk.

Salma Abdelaziz, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: The suspect in the worst mass shooting in Sweden's history has been identified. According to multiple media outlets, he's 35-year-old Rickard Andersson.

Police say they're investigating information that he was somehow connected to the school where ten people were shot and killed Tuesday.

CNN's Melissa Bell has details. But first, a warning: her report has some graphic content.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELISSA BELL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An inferno is how police described the scene of Sweden's worst ever mass shooting. Ten people were killed on Tuesday, with the gunman then turning his

weapon on himself.

ANNA BERGQVIST, CHIEF INVESTIGATOR (through translator): We have a perpetrator who was found inside the school, and he was not known to us before. He had a gun license for four guns. And all these four guns have been confiscated. Three of those weapons were next to him when police secured him inside the building.

BELL (voice-over): Police are waiting for DNA results before officially naming the suspect, but Swedish media and Reuters, citing police sources, have pointed to 35-year-old Rickard Andersson.

[00:20:06]

BELL: What more can you tell us about Rickard Andersson?

BERGQVIST: We don't have identification yet. It will take a couple of hours or days before we have that. But of course, we have spoken to his relatives.

BELL (voice-over): Something of a recluse, say his neighbors, who are still in shock after police descended on their neighborhood.

Shattered glass, police tape, and a broken-down door where the suspect is believed to have lived.

P.J. SAMUELSSON, NEIGHBOR: I came here and went to my apartment, and I saw three big SUV cars and heavily armed policemen. I couldn't come up here.

BELL: What did you know about, about your neighbor?

SAMUELSSON: Nothing. Nothing at all. I've never seen that guy.

BELL (voice-over): Andersson left few traces online, but his tax returns, obtained by CNN, show no income at all since 2015.

Outside the school in Orebro, where the king and queen laid flowers on Wednesday, there is a steady stream of mourners late into the night. Among them, Jenny Samuelsson, who just found out that her sister-in- law was amongst the victims.

JENNY SAMUELSSON, LOST SISTER-IN-LAW IN SHOOTING: I mean, I can't -- I can't find words. I don't know. I -- and everyone else, of course. And it's not just her. It was her and nine more, just taken.

BELL (voice-over): Even as the town of Orebro mourns those that it lost in the massacre, the question of why hangs heavy, with few leads yet on a motive.

SAMUELSSON: Yes. How? Why? I don't know. I don't even know what -- what questions to ask. Nothing's going to satisfy me, because this is just senseless.

BELL (voice-over): Melissa Bell, CNN, Orebro, Sweden. (END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Elon Musk spreading his political influence from Washington to the world. Up next, how and why the billionaire is pushing an old scandal which erupted when the British prime minister was a prosecutor. More on that in a moment.

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[00:26:31]

VAUSE: Welcome back, everyone. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause.

The chair of the U.S. Federal Election Commission appears to be another high-profile appointee which the president wants gone.

Ellen Weintraub says she received this letter from the president, advising that she was being removed from her position. She argues there's a legal way to replace FEC commissioners. This isn't it.

The FEC regulates fundraising and spending by candidates for federal office, publishing disclosure reports.

Weintraub, a Democrat, has served as a commissioner for more than two decades after appointed by then-President George W. Bush.

CNN has reached out to the White House for comment.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk not only focused on shaking up the U.S. government, but he also has his sights set on Britain. Musk has been targeting British Prime Minister Keir Starmer over a sex abuse scandal from more than a decade ago, when Starmer was a prosecutor.

CNN's Nic Robertson examines how Musk's actions are now opening old wounds in a Northern England town.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good morning. Demands for a national inquiry into grooming gangs, very close to the center of which is Elon Musk.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice-over): In these Northern English streets, gangs of predominantly Pakistani- heritage men groomed and gang-raped vulnerable young girls, exploiting them under the noses of authorities.

ROBERTSON: It is this painful national scar that Elon Musk has helped reopen, using his social media platform, X, to call for a national inquiry into these awful events more than a decade ago.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): His intervention, targeting the U.K. prime minister, is winning Musk fans.

SAMANTHA WALKER-ROBERTS, CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE SURVIVOR: I honestly can't thank him enough for doing this, because we need justice. And we can't keep going on year after year, decades on, and still getting nowhere.

ROBERTSON: What's different this time?

WALKER-ROBERTS: Everyone's finally listening.

ROBERTSON: Because of Elon Musk?

WALKER-ROBERTS: Yes.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Sam, who was raped by a South Asian grooming gang, doesn't want to show her face, fearing a backlash.

WALKER-ROBERTS: I went to the police station to report a sexual assault that had just happened. There were two men behind me. They interrupted and said, "We can give you a lift," which the officer said, "Yes, go with them."

ROBERTSON: So, the police handed you over to two abusers?

WALKER-ROBERTS: Yes.

ROBERTSON: You were how old then?

WALKER-ROBERTS: Twelve. Yes. As children, we're meant to trust officials. I was hurt from that.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Musk appears to have picked Oldham and the abuse scandal to reignite attacks on U.K. P.M. Keir Starmer that began last summer, picking up again early January when Musk began accusing Starmer, who was the chief prosecutor as the child abuse scandal surfaced, of failing. Tweeting, "Prison for Starmer. Starmer must go."

Starmer accused Musk of, quote, "lies and disinformation."

The region's former chief prosecutor defends his and his boss at the time, Keir Starmer's, record.

NAZIR AFZAL, FORMER CHIEF PROSECUTOR FOR NORTH-WEST ENGLAND: We had gone from being poor to having the highest conviction rate for child sexual abuse in British history.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Says Musk's motivation is not about helping Sam and other victims.

AFZAL: He's just -- just stirring up a racist pot.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Worse, he says, Musk's right-wing tweets amplifying posts focusing on crimes committed by, quote, "migrants." Pakistani Muslim and Asian gangs are putting girls at risk.

[00:30:13]

AFZAL: When you just focus on the brown guy, you're telling girls, beware of the brown guy. You're not telling them that they're 40 times more likely in this country to be abused by a British white guy.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): For years, rape was happening in plain sight. Institutional failings, repeated.

ROBERTSON: According to an independent national inquiry, the child abuse scandal spanned dozens of British cities, affected thousands of children, threw shame on national institutions, heightened racial tensions, particularly in cities like Oldham. Historically poorer, with higher than national average immigration.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Oldham, a rust belt type of town, is also pushing back.

ABDUL WAHID, OLDHAM COUNCILOR: It's not just Elon Musk. Anybody who gets the opportunity, to be fair, you know, when they want to drive an agenda, Oldham seems to get used.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Councilor Wahid supports Musk's call for an inquiry, but not the way he's doing it.

WAHID: Some of the rhetoric he's coming out with is probably not helpful.

ROBERTSON: Which bit is that?

WAHID: Well, making the comments that are specifically aimed at a race and a religion and cultures, et cetera.

ROBERTSON: Why is it unhelpful?

WAHID: It's unhelpful, because everybody starts pitching against each other.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Musk's divisive onslaught has forced Starmer's hand, triggering new legislation and a new, but non-statutory, inquiry for Oldham.

Sam says it's not enough. What she wants from Musk is to stop enabling the right wing.

WALKER-ROBERTS: He needs to say that this is about survivors, not about everyone else. Too many people are jumping on this bandwagon.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): A bandwagon Musk, perhaps, figures might drive Starmer from office.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Oldham, England.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: And CNN has reached out to Elon Musk and his team for comment. We are yet to hear back.

Well, cutting the ties to Mother Russia. When we return, a years-long project to dismantle Russia's links to the power grid of three Baltic nations. That's just hours away now. More details on that in a moment.

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[00:36:51]

VAUSE: More than 10,000 people have fled the Greek island of Santorini after Wednesday's 5.2-magnitude earthquake.

The island was rocked by a week of tremors leading up to the quake. The Greek government has declared a state of emergency until March 3.

Santorini sits near the boundaries of two massive tectonic plates. The last major quake to hit the island was 1965, when a 7.5-magnitude quake killed at least 53 people.

For 80 years, three Baltic states have been connected to Russia's power grid. But in the coming hours, those ties will finally be severed.

As CNN's Clare Sebastian reports, this moment has been years in the planning for Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Cutting One of the last Ties to Moscow.

This is an old Soviet electrical cable that, until recently, linked Lithuania to a Russian-run power grid. Dismantling it is one of the final stages in a years-long project by the three Baltic states to take back control.

VOOTELE PAI, ADVISER TO ESTONIA'S INTERIOR MINISTRY: Here in this region, we understand fairly well that the cheap Russian energy, in whatever form it comes, it always comes at a price that no democratic European country should be able to afford.

SEBASTIAN (voice-over): More than 30 years after Soviet troops rumbled back over the border, and two decades after joining NATO and the E.U., Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are once again looking nervously to the East.

The war in Ukraine revealing just how willing Moscow is to both weaponize electricity and, as NATO warned again this week, disrupt daily life in Europe through suspected acts of sabotage, ranging from cyberattacks to arson.

SEBASTIAN: Now, the Baltics have been preparing for this moment for many years, building three new undersea cables to the Nordic countries and a critical link to Poland.

And that meant that they were actually able to stop buying electricity from Russia more than two years ago. But Moscow still controlled the shared grid and managed the frequency. And so, they were vulnerable.

SEBASTIAN (voice-over): Ahead of the switch, security has been stepped up around energy infrastructure.

DOVILE SAKALIENE, LITHUANIAN DEFENSE MINISTER: We're increasing our surveillance efforts. We're increasing our additional security measures. We are going to watch this with an eye of a hawk.

SEBASTIAN (voice-over): And NATO now has a new mission to protect undersea cables in the Baltic after a string of incidents, including one right here, the Estlink-2 power cable, badly damaged on Christmas day.

This ship, which was en route from Russia, suspected by Finnish police of dragging its anchor almost 100 kilometers along the seabed.

Russia has denied any involvement, Moscow calling it anti-Russian hysteria.

SAKALIENE: To imagine that this -- this series of incidents are happening just before we disconnect from the Russian network again. One more coincidence, really?

SEBASTIAN (voice-over): The Baltic power switch is a blow for Moscow, experts say. Its Westernmost outpost of Kaliningrad, home of its Baltic fleet, now even more isolated. Its power lines, relics of a superpower past, redrawn.

[00:40:01]

Clare Sebastian, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: The former interpreter for baseball star Shohei Ohtani has been sentenced to four years in jail.

Ippei Mizuhara was sentenced Thursday for stealing nearly $17 million from the L.A. Dodgers player. Mizuhara also must pay $18 million in restitution, $17 million to Ohtani and the rest to the IRS, the Internal Revenue Service.

Mizuhara has acknowledged using the money to cover his growing gambling debts, and as well as his debts with illegal bookmakers, in addition to buying $325,000 of baseball cards and paying for his dental work.

I'm John Vause, back at the top of the hour with more CNN NEWSROOM, but first WORLD SPORT starts after a short break. See you in about 19 minutes.

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