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Labor Groups Sued Trump on Dismantling USAID; Federal Judge Stops Buyout Deadline, Hearing Set on Monday; Baltic States to Pull the Plug on the Russian Grid; Former Interpreter for Ohtani Sentenced for Stealing the Player's Money. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired February 07, 2025 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to all of you watching us around the world, I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is "CNN Newsroom."

The Trump administration is looking to drastically cut the USAID workforce to explain the significance of the agency around the world.

As the backlash to President Trump's takeover plan for Gaza grows louder, a Palestinian who's already been displaced shares her reaction and personal story.

U.S. lawmakers want to ban DeepSeek from government devices. We'll look at how the Chinese chatbot has quickly upended the race for A.I. dominance.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Kim Brunhuber.

BRUNHUBER: We start with the Trump administration's sweeping efforts to shrink and dismantle the federal workforce. According to multiple sources, nearly 10,000 workers at the U.S. Agency for International Development are bracing to be put on administrative leave today or be fired outright.

We're told only 294 USAID personnel deemed essential are expected to survive the mass layoffs. Two labor groups representing USAID employees filed suit against the U.S. President on Thursday, but it's not clear if the court will intervene on emergency grounds before the day ends.

The lawsuit also targets the Trump administration's freeze on humanitarian assistance, which experts say will inevitably cause thousands of deaths worldwide from diseases like HIV and malaria. Women and girls will also be more likely to die during pregnancy or childbirth, and countless others could starve.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAMANTHA POWER, FORMER USAID ADMINISTRATOR: These are people who are making sure that kids who are on the brink of starvation get access to food that is currently now stuck in ports in Kenya, in the United States itself.

Food that American farmers have grown, food that families are desperate to get their hands on. And even if a switch were flipped and someone were to reconsider and say, yes, let's go back to using American farmers' food to reach people, there would be nobody to administer these programs.

This is devastating and it is seeding 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)

BRUNHUBER: The U.S. Secretary of State tried to defend the gutting of the agency. He said foreign aid is, quote, "the least popular thing the government spends money on." Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: 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)

BRUNHUBER: I want to bring in Peter Taylor, who's the director of the Institute of Development Studies, and he's with us from Brighton, England. Good to see you. Thanks so much for being here with us.

So there have been waivers that are meant to keep lifesaving aid flowing. I want to play more from the Secretary of State. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUBIO: We also made clear in the guidance that there will be specially designated programs that would not be a part of that order. And we are working through the process of identifying them now, what those specially designated programs are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: But still, when you freeze everything else, it still has an effect on that lifesaving aid. Is that right?

PETER TAYLOR, DIRECTOR, INSTITUTE FOR DEVELOPMENT STUDIES: Yes, and thanks for having me on, Kim. For sure, this sudden freeze has been met with a mixture of frustration, bewilderment, and, of course, huge anxiety.

The USA has been by far the largest international aid donor, $17 billion a year. So a sudden stop order on USA funded activities has had an immediate negative impact on critical humanitarian and development work around the world.

It's affecting communities and those who are already most vulnerable, children, those with disabilities, those who have health challenges and many other groups.

And it's really undermining those long term efforts in the U.S.' own interests. And it's derailing efforts to address poverty, malnutrition, spread of disease and global health security. So to stop immediately the flow of aid is really, I would say, catastrophic.

BRUNHUBER: Yes. And you've worked with aid projects around the world. You talk in generalities about all of those people who will be impacted, quite rightly. From your experience, give the audience sort of a concrete example of something that might be on the chopping block here that could make a huge difference in people's lives.

[03:05:07]

TAYLOR: Well, I can give you a really concrete example from our own organization's experience last week. Actually, we had colleagues who were on the ground undertaking a participatory workshop with community members who'd come from a significant area.

And this was part of a longer term project where they'd been working together for some time, looking at sanitation, how to provide clean water and also better facilities, sanitation facilities for all members of the community, particularly those who are most disadvantaged.

And during the first day of the event, they received a stop order where they were told that they had to cease the activity instantly. And all those community members who traveled quite far and had given up all their own activities to come there, were told essentially just to go home.

So obviously, people who were there at that time are incredibly frustrated in the knowledge that the work that they're doing with people who are vulnerable and need that support just had to instantly stop.

And they're struggling really to understand why this freeze could have that kind of implication where it has such an immediate impact and an ongoing activity should have to stop there and then not only disrupting the activity itself, but much longer term efforts to build relationships, build trust, work respectfully and actually to achieve real concrete impact on the ground through better sanitation for women, for children and for vulnerable people.

BRUNHUBER: Now, there are now lawsuits from those representing those who work for USAID challenging the legality of getting rid of so many employees and so on. But even if the courts reverse the order with an administration that clearly wants the agency to die in the -- literally, in the words of Elon Musk, is the damage already basically done?

TAYLOR: Well, I think a huge amount of damage has been done, but ironically, a lot of the damage is for the U.S.' own interests, aside from the catastrophic impact, as we've been saying, for people's lives. This is affecting humanitarian efforts.

It's affecting a whole array of development efforts which are working with people on the ground, which are really helping to improve people's lives, help to achieve greater stability, help countries to grow and to become more prosperous.

And yet this instant result is going to firstly decrease the level of trust in the U.S. as a nation to be a global actor and a collaborator and a cooperator. It's also opening the doors for other countries, as we just heard in the previous segment, for, you know, China already is very, very active on the global scenes, developing partnerships.

It's already greatly increasing its global development and South-South cooperation fund to four million dollars. So we know that other countries will step into the gap which is being opened by the U.S. And if the U.S. does not attract this, it may be too late.

BRUNHUBER: Yes. Let me jump in, because I did want to ask you this, because, you know, still many Americans might say, well, you know, it's aid going to other countries. We heard Marco Rubio there say it's foreign aid is the least popular thing that the government spends its money on.

But let's say even if you were an American who was for some reason against spending any money to help others, cutting many of these programs could affect Americans themselves in the medium and long term when it comes to things like health and security.

TAYLOR: Absolutely. I mean, just in the short term, a huge amount of aid, whether it's food or medicine, is actually purchased from U.S. companies. So the U.S. economy and those companies are going to take a hit directly simply because they are suppliers of many of the materials which are then used in aid.

Also, in the longer term, we know historically that where the U.S. has provided aid and support to countries around the world, that's helped to create stability. And that then creates a more healthy world. It helps to address environmental challenges which everyone benefits from, including from the U.S.

So the impact in the short term will be felt, I think, in some aspects of the economy in the U.S. But in the mid to longer term, these global challenges that we all have responsibility to address are going to have an impact on the U.S as well and on the population.

And I'm not sure that that message has really been conveyed clearly enough, because I think still a lot of people think about charity and perhaps more traditional understandings of wealthy nations providing funds for those who have less.

But we're in a global world and there's no doubt that the impact of this freeze is going to have a longer term on the U.S., both economically, but also in terms of its soft power in the world and its ability to influence and work with other countries. BRUNHUBER: Such a huge and wide ranging impacts. We'll have to leave

it there. Peter Taylor in Brighton, England. Thank you so much.

TAYLOR: Thank you.

[03:10:05]

BRUNHUBER: Well, meanwhile, a U.S. judge has halted another effort to thin the federal workforce by pausing the deadline for federal employees to accept the Trump administration's deferred resignation offer, also being called a buyout. The original deadline would have expired just a few hours ago. A new hearing is now scheduled for Monday.

Jeff Zeleny has the 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.

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.

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.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BRUNHUBER: In one of his latest executive orders, President Trump is placing sanctions on people who help the International Criminal Court conduct investigations. The White House accuses the ICC 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 top Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the war in Gaza.

Meantime, Israel's prime minister met with a bipartisan group of U.S. senators on Capitol Hill on Thursday. The Senate's Republican majority whip says Benjamin Netanyahu pushed for Congress to sanction the ICC, a measure passed the Republican-controlled House but was blocked by Senate Democrats last month.

Trump and Netanyahu both claim U.S. troops won't be needed to carry out plans for the U.S. to take over Gaza after the war. The president posted this on Thursday, insisting the U.S. would oversee reconstruction of the enclave and turn it into, quote, "one of the greatest and most spectacular developments of its kind on Earth."

He promised U.S. soldiers wouldn't be needed. Israel's leader gave a definitive answer when asked about U.S. troop involvement. Here he is.

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

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: No.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Of course, there's been enormous backlash to President Trump's plan for Palestinians to be relocated to neighboring countries while the U.S. takes ownership of Gaza.

Rights groups and leaders from the Middle East and beyond reject it as illegal and say it amounts to ethnic cleansing. But Netanyahu called it a, quote, "remarkable idea and ordered Israel's army to drop plans for large numbers of Palestinians to leave the enclave."

Inmates started a fire during a prison break in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The horrific results, dozens of sexual assaults on female prisoners later died in the flames, that's ahead.

Plus, new details on Sweden's worst mass shooting, a possible connection between the gunman and the school where he opened fire. Stay with us.

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[03:15:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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ANTONIO GUTERRES, UNITED NATIONS 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)

BRUNHUBER: Well, that's the U.N. Secretary General on the ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has left 3000 people dead in Goma over the past few weeks.

Rwandan-backed rebels are now on the move, heading to another key city in wherein Rwanda is accused of helping the rebels. The president is expected to meet with his Congolese counterpart in the coming hours.

We're also learning about the horrific fate suffered by female inmates during a prison break amid the chaos of Goma's capture. The U.N. says male prisoners started a fire at the facility as the battle for the city was underway last week.

Salma Abdelaziz explains what happened next.

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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 4000 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.

[03:20:06]

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, a 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 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)

BRUNHUBER: New details are emerging about the suspect in the worst mass shooting in Sweden's history.

I want to show you live pictures coming to us from Orebro, Sweden, site of the attack, and now a growing memorial to those killed, according to multiple media outlets.

The gunman was a 35-year-old Rickard Andersson. Police say they're looking into information that he was somehow connected to the school where 10 people were killed on Tuesday.

CNN's Melissa Bell has more. But first, we just want to warn you that this report does have graphic content.

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MELISSA BELL, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An inferno is how police describe 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.

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 your neighbor?

P.J. 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, SISTER-IN-LAW OF VICTIM: I mean, I can't find words. I don't know. 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.

J. SAMUELSSON: Just how, why? I don't know. I don't even know what questions to ask. Nothing going to satisfy me because this is just senseless.

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

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Salvage crews have recovered the military helicopter involved in a deadly midair collision with a passenger jet near Washington, D.C. It was lifted from the Potomac River on Thursday, where both aircraft crashed after last week's collision. Sixty seven people were killed. It was the deadliest U.S. aviation disaster in more than 20 years.

Officials say they're reducing traffic around Reagan National Airport, partly because of the recovery operation, but also reviewing other airports that have a lot of mixed helicopter and airplane traffic.

Despite conflicting reports, investigators say they're not yet sure if the Black Hawk helicopter was equipped with a safety feature known as advanced surveillance technology.

The Baltic States sever one of their last remaining ties to Moscow.

Just ahead, a years-long project to dismantle Russia's links to their power grid. More on that coming up. Stay with us.

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[03:25:00]

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BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all of you watching us around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is "CNN Newsroom."

Egypt is the latest country to join the chorus of international criticism over Donald Trump's proposal for a U.S. takeover of Gaza. Cairo says it rejects any proposal to permanently remove Palestinians from Gaza and warns of catastrophic consequences for the plan, which calls for Palestinians to be relocated to neighboring countries.

The Egyptian foreign ministry calls it a flagrant violation of international law and the most basic rights of the Palestinian people.

Meanwhile, people in the enclave 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.

[03:30:00]

Heavy rain and wind have swept across the enclave in recent days, leaving many areas flooded while displaced Palestinians have nowhere to go.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN (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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: I want to go live now to Cairo, Egypt, and Amal Murtaja, a Palestinian English teacher who was displaced by the war in Gaza.

Thank you so much for being here with us. So I just want to start with Donald Trump's so-called plan to have Israel turn over Gaza to the U.S. at the end of the fighting. I mean, what do you make of it?

AMAL MURTAJA, DISPLACED PALESTINIAN: Thanks for having me. Well, I believe that Trump's plan to displace us Palestinians from Gaza is a deliberate act of ethnic cleansing. It violates international laws and human rights.

Forced displacement is not about just moving us from one place to another. It's about erasing our identity and robbing us of our land and destroying our historical and cultural roots.

The idea of uprooting an entire population and relocating us somewhere disregards our rights to self-determination and treats us as obstacles rather than human beings with dignity.

This, I believe, this does not solve or resolve the main issue and the core issue of the conflict, which is occupation, siege, and the systemic denial of our rights.

BRUNHUBER: You're in Egypt, one of the countries that the Trump administration says should take in many, if not all, Palestinians. So it's as if you can just kind of just pick up where you left off in another country. I mean, that's something you've been trying to do.

But I understand you haven't been able to work, your husband as well. I mean, how hard is it for you and your family to just sort of resettle somewhere else?

MURTAJA: It is incredibly challenging, to be honest. I mean, we are completely paralyzed. Not having the official papers and not having residency has been a massive barrier for us to move on with our lives.

It is denying us access to many opportunities around here, the basics of life, education, work and, of course, health insurances, health care.

BRUNHUBER: So, I mean, so many obstacles there. Now, the White House says Palestinians would only be temporarily relocated while the rebuild took place, though they said that could take upwards of 15 years.

And Trump said, I want to read this quote here. "The only reason the Palestinians want to go back to Gaza is that they have no alternative." Is that how you feel?

MURTAJA: No, that's not how I feel. This is where I belong. This is my hometown. This is where I should be. This is where I want to live for the rest of my life.

And my kids have the right to they -- have they deserve to live in dignity and the security. And we have the right to remain in our homeland. It's not because we don't have anywhere else to go to. We want to go back.

BRUNHUBER: It is still a dilemma, though, for people like yourself who've been exiled, I imagine. And you've written about that agony sort of what to do.

I want to read a quote of what you wrote in a recent article there. "The real war starts now with everyone not knowing what to do with their lives, not knowing which decision is the right decision. Everything we think is both right and wrong. We're lost in a sea of doubt, despair and uncertainty."

Take me through that. Why is that?

MURTAJA: Well, right now, all Palestinians who are displaced either in Gaza and I mean, in Egypt or in, let's say, Canada or Australia, whatever country that took them.

We are in an absolute, you know, we don't know what to do. We are completely lost. We can't think or comprehend what our life is going to look like in the next few years or let's say even months.

I mean, we are like for me, it's been very difficult if I said, OK, so I'm going to stay in Egypt for the next few years to build my life.

But again, I can't do anything. I'm not. I can't move or I can't work. I can't put my kids into schools.

The same thing applies to everyone else. These other people who have traveled to other countries, maybe with slightly different or better circumstances, they still share the struggle, you know, navigating through a different culture, imposing a different life and forcing us to move into somewhere else where we don't belong is completely, you know, difficult. And it's a challenge that we can't just think about. Whenever I call

my friends, whenever I -- anyone that I tell them what you're going to do next, they tell me, we don't know. If you know, help us, lead us.

So it's just -- we don't know what to do. We don't know where this is going. When is this going to end? Are we going to go back to Gaza? If we go back to Gaza, is Gaza livable? Can we live there? Is there like schools and hospitals? Nothing is there.

[03:35:09]

So that's why we really don't know what to do.

BRUNHUBER: Well, that's it. And you yourself, I mean, you have lost your house. It's been destroyed. You spoke to the school, your children's school destroyed as well.

MURTAJA: Yes.

BRUNHUBER: Not just physical things. Lives lost as well. Your brother's wife and your two nephews all killed. So much has been lost. So you talk about that dilemma.

So a straight question to you. Will you and your family go back no matter what Donald Trump or Benjamin Netanyahu say?

MURTAJA: Well, if we get the chance to and once life becomes again livable in Gaza, definitely we're going back to Gaza. This is where we belong. This is our homeland.

And we deserve to live there. And my children deserve to live in dignity and security and to live in their homeland and to know their history.

BRUNHUBER: Well, certainly hope that does come to pass for you and your family. I really appreciate you speaking with us here, Amal Mutaja in Cairo. Thank you so much.

MURTAJA: You're welcome. Thank you.

BRUNHUBER: Moscow is playing down reports that Presidents Putin and Trump could meet soon, the Kremlin says. The two haven't had any contact to discuss if or when they should meet.

Now, the comment comes days after Trump said the U.S. was engaging in constructive talks with both Moscow and Kyiv about the war in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy said Thursday his country received its first batch of French Mirage 2000 fighter jets and U.S. made F-16 fighters from the Netherlands. The shipment is part of European allies' efforts to strengthen Ukraine in its fight against Russia.

The Baltic States are officially disconnecting from Russia's power grid this weekend after years of planning. CNN's Clare Sebastian explains the security concerns as Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia try to turn the page on their Soviet past.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN 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 year's 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 nervous to the east.

The war in Ukraine revealing just how willing Moscow is to both weaponized 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 are increasing our surveillance efforts, we are 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 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.

Clare Sebastian, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: The U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has a long and infamous history. Now President Trump wants to use it to house tens of thousands of migrants. We'll have the history of Gitmo next on "CNN Newsroom." Stay with us.

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[03:40:00]

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BRUNHUBER: U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has walked back his assertion that Panama had agreed to no longer charge American ships for transiting the Panama Canal.

Rubio instead said he, quote, "expects this to be the case," but acknowledged Panama has its own laws and procedures to follow.

On Wednesday night, the State Department posted on X that the government of Panama has agreed to no longer charge fees for U.S. government vessels to transit the Panama Canal. This saves the U.S. government millions of dollars a year, the post said.

On Thursday, Panamanian President Raul Mulino called the claim an intolerable falsehood.

[03:44:53]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAUL MULINO, PANAMANIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): I am very surprised by the statement from the State Department yesterday because they are making an important and institutional statement from the entity that governs the foreign policy of the United States under the president of the United States based on a falsehood. And that is intolerable, simply and plainly intolerable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: The Justice Department is appealing a judge's order that halted President Trump's birthright citizenship policy. On Thursday, a judge in Seattle, Washington, slammed the president for trying to skirt the rule of law to play what he called policy games with the Constitution. The judge said if the government wants to change the law, it needs to, quote, "amend the Constitution itself."

The ruling expands a previous short-term block the judge issued against the executive order days after Trump signed it on Inauguration Day. The Constitution grants citizenship to anyone born in the U.S., but Trump says it shouldn't apply to undocumented migrants.

Another federal judge in Maryland also issued a preliminary injunction against the order on Wednesday.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is expected to travel to the American military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba today. She'll visit what's now called the Migrant Operations Center as the Trump administration moves forward with its plan to dramatically expand the number of people being held there.

The base has been used for years to house terrorism suspects and enemy combatants. But now U.S. military flights have started transporting migrants to the island, 23 of them at last word.

Our Patrick Oppmann looks back at the history of the base.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN HAVANA BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): 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, THEN-U.S. PRESIDENT: These people are being treated humanely. There's very few prison systems around the world that have seen such scrutiny as this one.

OPPMANN (voice-over): 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, THEN-U.S. PRESIDENT: I have ordered the closing of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay and will seek swift and certain justice for captured terrorists.

OPPMANN (voice-over): 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.

OPPMANN: 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.

OPPMANN (voice-over): 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 McDonald's and Starbucks.

But under the Trump administration, the base may be busier than it has been in decades.

CONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: 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 (voice-over): 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)

BRUNHUBER: Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba arrived in the U.S. on Thursday ahead of a meeting with President Donald Trump.

[03:50:03]

Ishiba will be the first Asian leader to meet Trump since his return to office. The two are expected to discuss deepening cooperation on defense and the economy.

The proposed merger of U.S. Steel and Japan's Nippon steel could also be on the agenda. Then-President Joe Biden blocked the move last month over national security concerns.

China's new A.I. chatbot is about to face pushback here in the U.S. Still ahead, U.S. lawmakers move to draw a line for DeepSeek, which has upended the entire industry. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Well, these are live pictures of the U.S. Capitol, where two lawmakers will make a major move against DeepSeek later today. They'll propose a bill that would ban the Chinese A.I. chatbot from all U.S. government devices, citing national security concerns.

Now, the move comes just weeks after the company released the chatbot, which took the A.I. industry by storm. As Will Ripley reports, the technology is raising concerns about China's leverage around the world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): 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 servers often overwhelmed, also growing concern over censorship.

RIPLEY: 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.

[03:55:06]

But when we asked whether Taiwan is part of China, DeepSeek did not hesitate to give us the official Communist Party line.

RIPLEY (voice-over): 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.

RIPLEY: 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.

OPPMANN (voice-over): 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.

OPPMANN (voice-over): 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)

BRUNHUBER: The former interpreter for baseball star Shohei Ohtani has been sentenced to four years in jail. Ippei Mizuhara was sentenced on Thursday for stealing nearly $17 million from the L.A. Dodgers player.

Mizuhara must also pay $18 million in restitution, 17 million to Ohtani and the rest to the IRS. Mizuhara has acknowledged using the money to cover his growing gambling debts and debits with an illegal bookmaker, in addition to buying $125,000 of baseball cards and paying his dental bills.

Now in Sydney, Australia, a man says he wasn't surprised to find snakes in his backyard, but he was shocked to find out more than 100 venomous red bellied black snakes were hanging out in his mulch. David Stein says his wife figured out what was really going on. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID STEIN, HOMEOWNER: My wife Googled why so many snakes, black snakes are together, and it turned out that they're pregnant females. They congregate to give birth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: In the end, a reptile expert recovered five adult snakes and 97 newborns, but then one of the pregnant snakes delivered more babies during the removal process. Reptile experts say the snakes will be relocated to a national park.

Well, that wraps this hour of "CNN Newsroom." I'm Kim Brunhuber. Max Foster picks up our coverage from London after a quick break.

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