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Concerns Grow Over Elon Musk's Access To Federal Data; Musk On USAID: "Criminal Organization. Time For It To Die". Migrants Descript Prison-Like Treatment During Deportation; Mexico National Guard Patrols Border after Tariff Threat; Trump Wants to House 30,000 Criminal Migrants at U.S. Base in Cuba; DeepSeek's Meteoric Rise Fuels Concerns About Its Influence; Warmest January on Record Despite Shift to Cooling La Nina; Fallout over Offensive Tweets by Best Actress Nominee. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired February 07, 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, I'm John Vause. Ahead here on CNN Newsroom, swinging the axe, Elon Musk guts the U.S. Agency for International Development. More than 10,000 workers worldwide recalled facing an uncertain future. After taking Goma M23 rebels are on the move in the Democratic Republic of Congo despite U.N. calls for peace. Plus, it wasn't meant to be this way, but last month was a record breaker, the warmest January on record, raising serious concerns about our climate crisis.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Atlanta, this is CNN Newsroom with John Vause.
VAUSE: 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, despite the White House lacking the legal authority to shut down a government agency created by Congress. Right now, almost 10,000 workers with the agency globally have been recalled. Less than 300 are expected to keep their jobs. The rest will be placed on leave, fired or furloughed in the hours ahead.
Two labor groups representing USAID workers sued the administration Thursday, trying to prevent the agency from being gutted. The lawsuit also targeted President Trump's executive order freezing almost all foreign assistance, an order which has thrown lifesaving work around the world into chaos and confusion.
(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: Secretary of State Marco Rubio is one of the administration officials named in that lawsuit.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATES: We're not trying to be disruptive to people's personal lives. We're not -- this is -- we're not trying to -- 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: Earlier I spoke with the former head of USAID. I asked about Donald Trump's accusation that the agency was run by a bunch of radical lunatics.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDREW NATSIOS, FORMER ADMINISTRATOR FOR USAID: The notion that the agency, a bunch of radical lunatics, is the biggest pile of garbage I've ever heard. The great bulk of the career people at AID follow whatever the political leadership want them to do. When I became the administrator, and I'm probably the most conservative administrator since the founding of the agency, I moved direct the agency toward more conservative policies to focus on business development, job creation, on economic growth, on trade capacity building. So they 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 may invest $6 billion in USAID projects a year. Now, 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 nut cases?
VAUSE: One of the criticisms of USAID has been that the agency is spending only 10 to 20 cents of every dollar directly on foreign aid. While those numbers actually come from the agency itself, but PolitiFact declared the statement to be false.
NATSIOS: No, 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, the average is 20 local people are hired. So the great bulk of people who work on aid projects don't work, 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 the project is. So it's just -- it's nonsense to say that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: And a federal judge has ordered a halt to President Trump's plans to cull more than 2 million jobs from the federal government. The deadline for federal workers to accept a deferred resignation offer or buyout has expired. A new hearing is now scheduled for Monday. CNN's Jeff Zeleny has details.
[01:05:15]
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF 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.
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KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: 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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZELENY: So late Thursday, all federal workers receiving a message from the government saying that they have now until Monday 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.
VAUSE: Growing concerns and more questions over Elon Musk's unfettered access to U.S. government data. Sources tell CNN a 23-year-old member of the Musk team was granted access to the IT system at the Department of Energy despite not having clearance. E-mails reveal some of Musk's minions tried to use a critical Treasury payment system to shut down U.S. aid spending. This is two of Musk's recent moves in an aggressive approach to cutting federal government spending. And now Democratic lawmakers are introducing legislation to push back on his efforts to gut federal agencies. House Oversight Committee vote to subpoena Musk, led by Democrats, was blocked by Republicans on Wednesday.
Joining us now is Catherine Rampell, a CNN Economics and Political Commentator and "Washington Post" opinion columnist. It's good to see you.
CATHERINE RAMPELL, CNN ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Great to join you.
VAUSE: OK, so I want you to listen to the U.S. president. This was on Monday. He was asked about the access Elon Musk has been given to federal data and why. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, why is it important for Elon Musk to have access to the payment systems at Treasury?
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, he's got access only to letting people go that he thinks are no good if we agree with him, and it's only if we agree with him. He's a very talented guy from the standpoint of management and costs, and we put him in charge of seeing what he can do with certain groups and certain numbers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: It sounds like Musk has essentially been given a free hand on the back of a mistaken idea that government should be run like a business. Problem is, businesses are driven by a profit motive. Governments are driven, at least in theory, in principle, by social responsibility. These two things don't really mesh well with each other.
RAMPELL: Yes, it is a very appealing concept, the idea of running government like a business, it implies discipline, it implies cost cutting, tightening your belt, making sure you're maximizing whatever you're supposed to be maximizing. But in the case of businesses, they are maximizing profits. Governments perform services and provide goods that the private sector generally will not, in part because those things are not profitable. Think food assistance for poor children, schooling, law enforcement, roads, all sorts of either public goods or various kinds of social insurance that the government is not trying to make money on because that's not the point. It's not about, you know, maximizing your revenue over your costs.
It's about promoting social welfare. However, the populace defines that social welfare.
VAUSE: And in the first few weeks, it seems Elon Musk is trying to do to the federal government essentially what he did to Twitter. So when Musk looks at an agency like USAID, he believes this.
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ELON MUSK, CEO OF TESLA MOTORS: As we dug into USAID, it became apparent that what we have here is not an apple with a worm in it, but we have actually just a ball of worms. If you've got an apple that's got a worm in it, maybe you can take the worm out. But if you've got actually just a ball of worms, it's hopeless. And USAID is a ball of worms. There is no apple.
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And when there is no apple, that's -- there's -- you've just got to basically get rid of the whole thing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: So he basically moves to fire about 10,000 workers, you know, it's a ball of worms. The problem, though, is within the government, there are restrictions on what the executive branch can do and what they cannot do. There are restrictions which a CEO of a tech startup or social media platform just doesn't have.
RAMPELL: Yes. So setting aside the fact that, however, Elon Musk has run Twitter to date has not been a model of success. He basically took a $44 billion company and has turned it into a $10 billion company. Elon Musk and Donald Trump are trying to take a hacksaw to the federal government and just slashing entire agencies. Whether USAID, which Elon Musk has a personal vendetta against for various historical reasons, among others, or other kinds of social services, programming, scientific research. You know, this is not about better management practices, better personnel, better HR, this is just sort of throwing a bomb in the whole system and hoping that that results in a better functioning government, allegedly.
Or maybe that's not the goal. Maybe the goal is to have a more dysfunctional government. But certainly the rhetoric that we're hearing is about, oh, we're going to -- we're going to make this run better. We're going to get rid of the deep state, whatever that's supposed to mean, which I think is supposed to be shorthand for, you know, civil servants who aren't pulling their weight or who are doing something nefarious, I don't even know. But there's nothing in any of this that suggests this is about, you know, better HR practices or getting the best people into government that we can.
VAUSE: And you touched on this about, you know, how Musk has actually been a CEO of Twitter. Not exactly the best model for one to follow. In his first full year as owner, Musk reduced the workforce at Twitter by 80 percent. The platform has been plagued with technical problems. The EU found X had the most Russian disinformation compared to other major platforms. Advertising revenue for 2023 was down 45 percent to $2.5 billion, and the company was last valued at $14 billion, I was told.
Musk, as we know, paid $44 billion for it all. So even if you're looking for a model for a business that works, Twitter probably isn't the best one out there. Which then ask the question, why is Musk in this role that he is in if his principal role is to make the government more efficient?
RAMPELL: Yes, it's an excellent question. Why is Donald Trump, the president, who won largely on the reputation of his excellent business skills and negotiation skills, when he has, at best, a checkered record in the sense that, you know, he filed for bankruptcy three times and lost money running a casino and all sorts of other things there? So, yes, I think these are -- look, Elon Musk is objectively very, very wealthy. Being very wealthy is not necessarily synonymous with being a great businessman or a great manager or a great turnaround artist for, let's say, a private company as we have seen with Twitter. There are things that Elon Musk does well, which is marketing Elon Musk and hyping up whatever company he's in charge of. And I think he's already selling, you know, swag and merchandise for DOGE, his whatever department, slash fake agency.
But -- and so, you know, he's good at marketing that. But that's very different from actually getting this massive organization that is the federal U.S. government, to operate more efficiently or better or more in the service of the U.S. public.
VAUSE: It's a good point. The similarities on that level between Trump and Musk, quite startling when you point them out.
Catherine, thanks for being with us. Really appreciate it.
RAMPELL: Thanks for having me.
VAUSE: It seems the U.S. president still working on the finer details of owning Gaza and transforming the territory into a luxury destination. Donald Trump has walked back the need for U.S. troops to occupy Gaza after the war. The president insists the U.S. will still oversee reconstruction and turn Gaza into one of the greatest and most spectacular developments of its kind on earth.
Also Thursday, Israel's prime minister was asked about the need for U.S. forces in Gaza.
(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, ISRAEL, PRIME MINISTER: No.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: President Trump's plan includes the relocation of Palestinians to neighboring countries. That's caused huge backlash. Rights groups and leaders from across the Middle East and beyond reject the move as illegal, saying it amounts to ethnic cleansing.
Netanyahu, though, called the idea remarkable and ordered Israel's army to draw plans for large numbers of Palestinians to voluntarily leave the territory.
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Egypt is warning of catastrophic consequences of Trump's plan for Gaza. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry on Thursday said the proposal constitutes a blatant and flagrant violation of international law and the most basic rights of the Palestinian people. Cairo is rejecting any proposal aimed at displacing Palestinians in Gaza. Meantime, those in the territory are still recovering bodies from the rubble weeks into the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. The Palestinian Ministry of Health says more than 560 bodies have been recovered since January 19.
Gaza authorities say they urgently need rescue equipment and tens of thousands of tents for survivors. Heavy rain and wind have swept across the enclave in recent days, leaving many areas flooded.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Jabalia camp is completely destroyed. Destruction all over. All that we have invested in is gone. Our money and our children are all gone. There were 10 families in my house, all destroyed.
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VAUSE: When we come back, outrage in India.
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ANKIT (through translator): Our legs and hands were cuffed, including women. All of us were shackled.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Over the alleged mistreatment of more than 100 Indian deportees on a 40 hour long U.S. military flight home. Plus thousands of people and their pets fleeing the island of Santorini ahead of the latest earthquake activity that has many people there still worried.
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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 calling for an end to the violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is a 3,000 people dead over the past few weeks. That's after Rwandan backed rebels seized Goma in the east. And they're now reportedly on the move, heading to another key city. Hopes for a diplomatic solution now rest on a meeting between the presidents of Rwanda and the DRC set for the coming hours.
And there are new details about a mass rape during a prison break amid the chaos of Goma's fall. According to the U.N., male prisoners started a fire at that facility just as the battle for the city was underway. Salma Abdelaziz explains what happens next.
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is truly horrible and a trigger warning to our viewers. We are learning that at least 165 female prisoners were raped. 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 meted 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 M23 battled government troops for control of Goma, city in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. In a matter of days, the M23 rebels forcibly seized control of the city.
Systematic sexual violence has long played plagued the country. And with the conflict now spiraling out of control, women and girls are yet again at risk.
Salma Abdelaziz, CNN London.
VAUSE: One of the most popular tourist destinations in Greece is now almost deserted. Thousands have left the island of Santorini because of increasing earthquake activity. Journalist Elinda Labropoulou has more now reporting in from Athens.
ELINDA LABROPOULOU, JOURNALIST: A state of emergency has been declared at the Greek island of Santorini after a 5.2 earthquake hit the island in the early morning hours. Now, this is not the first earthquake that those who are on the island have felt these last days. Seismic activity has been going on for nearly 10 days now and in total, 770 tremors have been recorded.
Now, experts say that this phenomenon is unprecedented. They're saying there's a good scenario and a bad scenario as to how this could play out. The good scenario is that the activity could eventually subside, but this could take weeks or even months. There is a bad scenario that these could be just four shocks and we might be waiting for the big earthquake yet.
People have been leaving the islands in huge numbers. Basically, they're saying that they do not want to be somewhere where they can feel the earth trembling under their feet. So a lot of them have gotten on boats and planes left to Athens. Some of the tourists have already gone home. And authorities are preparing there, have sent special units on the island. They're preparing for emergency situations.
We have had a few landslides so far, but nothing more dramatic yet. So this could be a waiting game is what the experts here are saying until we see which way this is going to go.
Elinda Labropoulou, CNN, Athens. VAUSE: The U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has a long, infamous history. And now Donald Trump wants to use that base to house tens of thousands, not just house, but to imprison tens of thousands of migrants. More on Guantanamo Bay and Cuba in a moment.
Also, U.S. lawmakers to draw a line for DeepSeek's ChatBot, which has upended the entire AI industry.
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VAUSE: Welcome back, everyone. I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN Newsroom.
The first U.S. Military flight carrying deportees home to India has sparked outrage. More than 100 migrants flown home Wednesday say they were kept in prison like conditions, shackled during the entire 48 hour long flight, were yelled at and misled about their final destination.
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HARVINDER SINGH, INDIAN MIGRANT DEPORTED FROM U.S (through translator): Our hands and feet were cuffed and were told that were being taken to a detention center. But they brought us to the airport instead.
ANKIT (through translator): 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: Many were outraged with the crowd in New Delhi burning an effigy of Donald Trump. Some Indian lawmakers staged another protest near parliament.
CNN has reached out to the Pentagon and the U.S. border authorities for comment. We have not heard back.
The latest images from the U.S.-Mexico border showing members of the Mexican national guard patrolling the Rio Grande as part of a deal between the White House and Mexico to pause tariffs. Hundreds of the promised -- hundreds of promised national guard members have actually arrived at the border to reinforce security.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum promised a total of 10,000 troops to help battle drug trafficking and control immigration into the U.S.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is expected to travel to the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba on Friday. She'll visit what's now called the Migrant Operations Center as the Trump administration moves forward with its plans to dramatically expand the number of prisoners being held there. U.S. military flights have already started transporting at least 23 migrants to the island.
CNN's Patrick Oppmann looks back at the history of the base.
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PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's the oldest overseas U.S. military base and throughout the years no stranger to controversy.
The U.S. Naval Station in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba or Gitmo was first leased from Cuba in 1903, a year after the end of the U.S. occupation of the island.
Following the 1959 revolution, which aligned Cuba's government with the Soviet Union, the U.S. base was no longer welcome. Then-Cuban leader Fidel Castro cut off water to the base, and tens of thousands of explosive mines were placed along the base's fence line by both the U.S. and Cuban militaries.
The base became all but inaccessible except by boat or plane, which made Gitmo well-situated in the 1990s to house thousands of Cuban and Haitian migrants trying to reach the U.S. by boat and to indefinitely imprison terror suspects following the September 11th attacks.
GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: These people are being treated humanely. There's very few prison systems around the world that have seen such scrutiny as this one.
OPPMANN: Despite those assurances, Guantanamo became synonymous with detainee abuse.
Upon taking office, then-President Barack Obama vowed to close the base's prison.
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have ordered the closing of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay and will seek swift and certain justice for captured terrorists.
OPPMANN: Closing Guantanamo for Cubans has a different meaning. In 2018, CNN was given rare access to Caimanera, a usually off-limits town just across the bay from the navy base.
Residents here said they hear the gunfire and explosions of military maneuvers from the base, and enjoy the yearly July 4th fireworks show. But otherwise have no contact with the U.S. naval presence that their government says should not be here.
Each year, the U.S. government sends Cuba a check for just over $4,000 to lease the base, which Cuban officials say they don't actually cash. What they want is for the U.S. to return the base to Cuba.
But as under the original treaty, both governments have to agree to any changes to the base. It is unlikely to go anywhere anytime soon.
Ultimately, neither the Obama nor the Biden administrations were able to close the detention center for terror suspects, instead transferring most of them to other countries. Now, only 15 detainees remain.
For the U.S. marines and civilian employees stationed here. Gitmo has the feel of a small town with a bowling alley for entertainment and Cuba's only McDonalds and Starbucks.
But under the Trump administration, the base may be busier than it has been in decades.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Today, I'm also signing an executive order to instruct the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security to begin preparing the 30,000-person migrant facility at Guantanamo Bay. Most people don't even know about it.
We have 30,000 beds in Guantanamo to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens.
OPPMANN: It's not clear how long the migrants will remain or how they would be repatriated to their countries of origin.
Despite those questions, the migrants that the Trump administration calls the worst of the worst have begun to arrive at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for the foreseeable future their new home.
Patrick Oppmann, CNN -- Havana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[01:34:49]
VAUSE: Two U.S. lawmakers are moving to ban China's DeepSeek from all U.S. government devices, arguing the Chinese A.I. chatbot can undermine U.S. national security and collect personal information. The bipartisan move follows similar action in Italy, Taiwan and Australia.
Government agencies would have 60 days to develop standards for deleting DeepSeek and any product by its parent company.
Just weeks ago, DeepSeek released the chatbot called R1, sending shock waves through the Silicon Valley and Wall Street and fueled fears that the U.S. could fall behind China in A.I. technology.
As CNN's Will Ripley reports the project was started by a young engineer once dismissed as an inconsequential nerd.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A Lunar New Year message live from Beijing, a stage full of humanoid robots powered by artificial intelligence.
China projecting itself as the world's next A.I. superpower, just days after the world rattling announcement from tiny Chinese tech startup DeepSeek.
Last month, DeepSeek was a little-known company on the fifth floor of this nondescript Beijing office block. Now, it's making global headlines.
DeepSeek's founder, Liang Wenfeng, once dismissed as a nerdy engineer with a bad haircut now hailed by Beijing as China's next tech visionary, rocking the global A.I. industry, leaving Silicon Valley scrambling.
His company employs around 140 engineers, mostly in their 20s and 30s. Many interned at U.S. tech giants -- Amazon, Microsoft, Google, NVIDIA. The same companies that lost billions when DeepSeek announced its A.I. chatbot.
DeepSeek's A.I. model is not just powerful, it's a Silicon Valley disruptor, developed at a fraction of the cost, the company claims.
But there's one major obstacle, hardware. The U.S. has tightened export controls on advanced A.I. chips made in Taiwan, aiming to slow China's progress. But Beijing is determined to catch up fast.
The global spotlight is already exposing cracks. DeepSeek's servers often overwhelmed. Also, growing concern over censorship.
When we asked DeepSeek about one of the most sensitive topics in China, the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, it didn't just avoid the question, it shut it down.
But when we asked whether Taiwan is part of China, DeepSeek did not hesitate to give us the official Communist Party line.
Critics argue U.S. A.I. models also restrict content, but in China, it's not the tech companies setting the limits, it's the government.
Now, with the help of A.I., Beijing can shape conversations far beyond its borders.
What happens if China wins, definitively wins?
MATT SHEEHAN, FELLOW, CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE: They could use that to impose all kinds of controls and costs on the United States, on all competitors.
RIPLEY: China A.I. researcher Matt Sheehan says artificial intelligence could revolutionize productivity, cure diseases, drive economic growth. It could also spiral beyond human control, potentially destabilizing the world.
RIPLEY: Are you nervous?
SHEEHAN: I'm very nervous.
RIPLEY: DeepSeek just overtook ChatGPT as the most downloaded A.I. app in the U.S., once again triggering national security fears over data privacy and the growing power of another app controlled by China's Communist Party.
Will Ripley, CNN -- Taipei.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Scientists are warning a new variant of the H5N1 bird flu virus may be here to stay. The Nevada Department of Agriculture says six dairy herds there have tested positive for the variant, the first time it's been found in dairy cattle, which means the pathogen passed from wild birds directly to the cows.
The new variant known as D1.1 has been associated with severe infections in humans. One expert says the variant should be classified as endemic or continuously circulating virus.
A health alert in Uganda over the outbreak of a virus in the Ebola family. It's a viral hemorrhagic fever called Sudan virus. Ugandan ministry of health declared the outbreak January 13th -- or 30th, rather after one person died from the virus.
The CDC alert advises people who have recently traveled to Uganda to watch for symptoms of Sudan virus for 21 days. Those symptoms may be flu-like and could include a rash and unexplained bleeding or bruising.
Still to come, the earth continues to set records for extreme global temperatures as the Trump administration rolls back efforts to slow global warming.
More on that in a moment.
[01:39:18]
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VAUSE: Last month, the world was meant to be a little cooler but according to scientists in the European Union, it was the warmest January on record. The E.U.'s Copernicus Climate Change Service says the streak of extreme global temperatures continues despite the shift to a normally cooling La Nina weather pattern. The global average temperature in January was 1.75 degrees Celsius higher than pre- industrial levels.
Live now to San Francisco and Kristina Dahl, vice president for science at Climate Central, a nonprofit news organization which analyzes and reports on the latest climate science.
Thank you for being with us.
KRISTINA DAHL, VICE PRESIDENT FOR SCIENCE, CLIMATE CENTRAL: Thanks for having me.
VAUSE: So, given January's surprise record-setting heat, is there now at least consensus that the planet is warming at a rate much faster than even the most dire predictions that scientists had. And while we don't know the reason why, we do know what the consequences will be.
DAHL: Yes, the warming that we've seen over the last couple of years is really a puzzle.
[01:44:45]
DAHL: We seem to be warming faster than was expected and (INAUDIBLE) entirely outside of the range of what our models say could happen with this level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, it's still much faster than we expected.
And so scientists are working right now to try to figure out what is causing this warmth aside from just the long-term warming that's being caused by our burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas.
VAUSE: And at the same time, the new U.S. president has been issuing a flurry of executive orders, rolling back action taken by the previous administration to try and slow the rise of global temperatures.
Notably this. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The next item here is the withdrawal from the Paris Climate Treaty. We're going to save over $1 trillion by withdrawing from that treaty.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: That claim was not true in 2017. It remains untrue today. But what is true are the results of a scientific study which found all U.S. counties are feeling the economic burn of extreme heat, with labor productivity losses expected to cost half a trillion dollars annually by 2050, and extreme heat will claim nearly 60,000 lives a year by 2050.
That's to say nothing of the cost of extreme natural disasters like the wildfires in L.A. two weeks ago.
So whatever money is saved, real or imagined, by scrapping government initiatives now, that's nickel and dime compared to the destruction caused by global temperatures, especially if we hit three degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels. I mean, what are we looking at here?
DAHL: Yes. That's right. I mean, what the science shows is that for every dollar that we invest in preparedness for climate change and building resilience, it winds up saving us $6 or $7 down the line in damages.
And so if we want to limit the impacts of future climate change, we need to be both cutting emissions as quickly as we can as a globe, every country around the world. And we need to be building resilience so that we can cope with the changes that we know are coming down the pike.
And so, you know, these efforts to pull the United States out of the Paris agreement run counter to what is needed if we're to tackle this problem as a planet.
VAUSE: Possibly the only thing worse than doing nothing right now is the Trump administration's move to actually pump more carbon into the atmosphere.
Here's the president again.
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TRUMP: I declared a national energy emergency, and it's so important, national energy emergency to unlock the liquid gold under our feet and pave the way for rapid approvals of new energy infrastructure.
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VAUSE: The last thing needed right now, it seems, is a surge in oil production, but especially when there's much better, cheaper and cleaner sources of energy which can be developed.
DAHL: Yes, it's very clear that if we are to limit the impacts of future warming, we need to be weaning ourselves off of fossil fuels very quickly.
And the other reality here is that the cost of electricity right now, the cost of energy when it comes from renewable sources, is much cheaper than many fossil fuel-based sources. And there is momentum around solar power and wind power.
And there are also, you know, economic dynamics within the oil industry that make it not such an easy thing for the industry to say, we're going to ramp up production right now where there's the need to not overproduce and produce more than is being demanded in order for it to be economically viable.
And so there are a lot of dynamics that come into play here. But you know, the bottom line is that we need to be transitioning away from these -- these fuels as fast as we can to limit future damages.
VAUSE: The United States is the largest economy in the world. It should be a world leader on initiatives like this, on climate change. Without the United States taking that role, can the rest of the world make up for what the United States is doing now when it comes to its recalcitrance for climate change?
DAHL: Yes. There are two things here. So one is that the United States is historically the largest emitter of greenhouse gases or heat- trapping gases like carbon dioxide and methane.
Now on an annual basis, our emissions are much lower than China's are, for example, right now. And so China's currently the largest emitter. But as the largest historical emitter, the United States has some responsibility, right, to be participating in the reduction of greenhouse gases over time.
So there's both the emissions themselves and what, you know, how we would determine what a fair share of emissions cuts are for the United States versus China versus India.
[01:49:47] DAHL: But then there's also the signaling, right? The United States is the world's most dominant superpower. And so the things that we do on the international stage do matter in what we're signaling to other countries that we're willing to do.
All of that said, there is, you know, a lot of momentum within the United States, at the state level, at the city level, at the individual level to be addressing our carbon emissions. And so, you know, regardless of what is happening at the federal level, many of those state and local efforts will continue.
VAUSE: That's the optimistic view. I hope you're right. I hope it does, you know, work out as you say, with, you know, local and states taking up the slack for the federal government. We shall see.
Kristina Dahl, thank you so much for being with us.
DAHL: Thank you for having me.
VAUSE: Well, the first of several storms expected to impact the U.S. in the coming weeks is creating dangerous conditions in parts of the country.
Extremely heavy rains triggered flash flooding in Kentucky and West Virginia. Thunderstorms spawned at least one confirmed tornado. The rough weather knocked out power to more than 85,000 homes and businesses.
New storms are forecast to arrive every few days for the next several weeks. Moving from the West Coast into the Rockies and across the Plains into the northeastern United States.
When we come back, why co-stars and now Netflix are withdrawing support for the star of Emilia Perez, this year's most Oscar-nominated movie.
Stay with us.
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VAUSE: Security will be tight for Super Bowl on Sunday with armored vehicles, scores of heavily-armed police officers, street blockades and drones already deployed in New Orleans.
The Philadelphia Eagles will play the Kansas City Chiefs, and they're all ready. The game is being played just over a month after a New Year's Day terrorist attack in the city's French Quarter. That's when a man drove a pickup through a crowd on Bourbon Street, killing 14 people, injuring dozens more.
Netflix is distancing itself from Karla Sofia Gascon, the Oscar- nominated star of the movie "Emilia Perez". That's amid the growing scandal over her now-deleted offensive tweets.
Gascon is the first open transgender actress to be nominated for an academy award. Details now from CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister.
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ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: "Emilia Perez", Netflix's big Oscar contender with 13 nominations -- now reduced to a tearful apology from its breakout star, Karla Sofia Gascon, whose controversial tweets shocked Hollywood at the height of her Oscar campaign.
The tweets, uncovered by an independent writer, included this 2016 post. "Islam is becoming a hotbed of infection for humanity that urgently needs to be cured." Alongside a Muslim family photo, she called Islam a "deep, disgusting humanity".
During protests over the police killing of George Floyd, Gascon called Floyd a drug addict swindler whose death "has served to once again demonstrate that there are people who still consider black people to be monkeys without rights and consider policemen to be assassins. They're all wrong."
In an exclusive interview with CNN en Espanol's Juan Carlos Arciniegas, Gascon apologized and said she's not a racist.
"I've been condemned and sacrificed and crucified and stoned without a trial and with no option to defend myself," she said, tearfully adding that she felt the public made her out to be a terrible monster.
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WAGMEISTER: It's a stunning turn of events for Gascon, who made history just last month as the first openly transgender actor to ever be nominated for an Oscar.
CLAYTON DAVIS, SENIOR AWARDS EDITOR, "VARIETY": The reconciling of the moment is like this historic nomination we're supposed to be celebrating. She would have been prominently displayed and cut-to during the Oscar telecast.
WAGMEISTER: In another resurfaced post, Gascon mocked the Oscar telecast itself, calling it a "vindictive film award ceremony. I didn't know if I was watching an Afro-Korean festival, a Black Lives Matter demonstration, or March 8th". Apparently referring to International Women's Day.
The academy immediately unfollowed Gascon on social media and her costars and the film's director are distancing themselves, too.
ZOE SALDANA, ACTRESS: He desires to remain anonymous.
WAGMEISTER: Zoe Saldana, who won the Golden Globe last month, is now vying for her first Oscar and spoke to Variety's Clayton Davis.
SALDANA: I'm very sad. I'm also disappointed.
WAGMEISTER: Despite the growing backlash, Gascon says she won't pull out of the race.
"I cannot step down from an Oscar nomination," she said, "because I have not committed any crime, nor have I harmed anyone."
WAGMEISTER: Few doubt the power of Gascon's performance. She plays a complex role, a cartel leader both as a man and a woman. But now many are asking how Netflix missed a huge landmine on its road to Oscar Gold.
DAVIS: All that work and money was flushed down the toilet just a week ago.
WAGMEISTER: Now, Netflix has not publicly commented on the situation at all. I have reached out to Netflix. I have not heard back. But I do hear that they are actively distancing themselves from Karla Sofia Gascon in an effort to salvage this campaign for the rest of the cast, crew and creatives who worked so hard on this film.
Back to you.
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VAUSE: Thank you for that.
And thank you for watching. I'm John Vause.
Please stay with us. CNN NEWSROOM continues with Kim Brunhuber after a very short break.
Have a good weekend. See you next week.
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