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CNN International: USAID Workers Around the World Reeling Amid Trump Administration Cuts; U.S. Homeland Secretary Noem to Visit Guantanamo Migrant Site; Elon Musk Targets UK PM Keir Starmer Over Abuse Scandal; Israeli PM Netanyahu Calls Trump's Gaza Takeover Plan "Remarkable" and "Worth Pursuing"; Trump's New Trade Wars Could Shape Up to be Disruptive; 50 Brands Are Advertising During Sunday's Big Game. Aired 8-9a ET
Aired February 07, 2025 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:00:00]
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Hello and welcome to our viewers all around the world. I'm Fredricka Whitfield, and this is the CNN Newsroom. Just ahead, Donald Trump's plan to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development heads to the courts. Sources tell CNN its staff of 10,000 will be slashed to less than 300. The U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio insists this isn't the end of American foreign aid.
(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)
WHITFIELD: Also, this hour, Greece's Prime Minister visits Santorini, after thousands evacuate the island fleeing repeated earthquakes. And back in the U.S., it's almost Super Bowl Sunday. We've got a preview of the football game, and also the multi-million-dollar ads lined up for the big day.
All right, Donald Trump has kept his promise to start making big changes on day one of his presidency, but many of his moves are keeping the courts very busy. The latest lawsuit was filed late Thursday by two labor groups representing government workers at the U.S. Agency for International Development.
This after sources tell CNN that fewer than 300 of the agency's 10,000 workers are expected to keep their jobs amid the Trump Administration's drive to completely gut the agency. The others will be fired or placed on administrative leave.
Hundreds turned out at the U.S. Capitol to protest the dismantling of USAID on Wednesday. U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who is now the Acting Administrator of the Agency, has attempted to clarify the changes which threaten life-saving humanitarian programs around the world.
(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)
WHITFIELD: Alex Marquardt is in Washington with more on this story. Good morning to you, Alex. So, USAID workers are fighting back with a lawsuit. What more do we know about it?
ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Fredricka, they are hoping to put a stop and reverse essentially what the Trump Administration has been doing over the course of the past few weeks, which is essentially gutting USAID and moving it into the State Department.
So, this lawsuit was filed yesterday in federal court here in Washington, D.C., two different labor groups representing these USAID staffers, essentially accusing President Trump, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury and their departments of doing something that is illegal, that they are not allowed to do under their executive authority.
The this is something we've also heard from Democratic lawmakers saying that only an act of Congress can actually do what they are doing to USAID, and that's essentially having it absorbed by the State Department. As you noted, the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, is now the Acting Administrator of USAID.
And at the same time, we are learning about a dramatic slashing of the USAID staff, all of the direct hires, so the U.S. government employees who are not contractors are to go on leave as of midnight tonight, we are told by multiple sources that some 300 essential personnel around the world will be kept.
So that, of course, is a small portion of the around 10,000 global staff of USAID. Now the Former USAID Administrator Samantha Power under President Joe Biden she spoke with CNN just last night, and she put it this way, take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SAMANTHA POWER, FORMER USAID ADMINISTRATOR: If we did this to military families, just summarily told them to pack their bags and leave a place that they had been deployed, there would be broad, bipartisan outrage, and that is what we are doing to public servants who have also given their lives serving alongside our military in really hazardous places. This is no way to treat public servants, and it is no way to advance America's interests.
(END VIDEO CLIP) MARQUARDT: So, Fredricka, the directive that has gone out to those direct hires around the world is essentially you have 30 days to get home. They're not ordering them home necessarily, but if they want their expenses paid for, then they essentially have 30 days to figure out.
And then you have thousands of contractors here in the U.S. around the world who are being furloughed or put on leave, blocked out of the system. But it is just a dramatic reduction in both the work force and the scope of USAID Fredricka.
[08:05:00]
WHITFIELD: And then help us understand better the scope of USAID -- you know, what will be the impact around the world?
MARQUARDT: I mean, it's -- it's just -- it's, it's -- there's so many different impacts, so many ripple effects, jobs lost here in the U.S. around the world, both Americans and local hires projects grinding to a halt. That's just on the personnel side, and then in terms of the operations, what this lawsuit alleges is not just the chaos that these personnel are facing, but they say that it has created a humanitarian crisis.
Let me read part of this lawsuit. It says that halting USAID work has shut down efforts to prevent children from dying of malaria, stopped pharmaceutical clinical trials and threatened a global resurgence in HIV. Deaths are inevitable. Already, 300 babies that would not have had HIV now do. Thousands of girls and women will die from pregnancy and child birth without judicial intervention, it will only get worse.
Fredricka, the Secretary of State, has said that he had no choice but to take over USAID because of what he called rank insubordination. But it must be noted that Rubio has praised both USAID and foreign aid in general, most of which has been frozen now by him. He has praised it in the past as critical to U.S. national security Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right. Alex Marquardt, keep us posted. Thank you so much. CNN's Larry Madowo is joining us live from Uganda, as the dismantling of USAID has dire effects across Africa. Larry, what have you been hearing about the impact and really what people are bracing for?
LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I've been hearing from USAID staff, local contractors across Africa, but also from beneficiaries of projects up and down the continent. And this news has led to confusion, chaos, panic and anxiety about the future of these projects.
Now you can understand about a third of USAID funding comes to the Continent of Africa. For instance, Uganda is the third largest recipient of just health funding. A lot of that money goes into humanitarian causes or to health care. And just in this region alone, there is so much happening.
We have the situation in Goma, the Eastern DRC, where a rebel group has taken over a major city of 2 million and already hundreds of thousands of people were displaced there. USAID funded, the shelters, the food, the medicine for these people there. Here in Uganda, there is a lot of refugees that defend -- depend on USAID to eat, for where to sleep.
There are 1.4 million people in Uganda who are on antiretroviral therapy. These are people living with HIV who depend on money from USAID for their regular treatment. That's what keeps them alive. And all of them now are afraid that when they run out, some of them already have stock outs.
They don't know if there's going to be -- there's going to be more coming, and all these things from USAID come in these boxes branded USAID from the American people. And right now, so many of them on the Continent are telling me, surely 1 percent of the U.S. budget, the American people can afford that. But there's a counter argument here. I spoke to Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who says he's a beneficiary of U.S. funding and foreign aid. But he agrees with President Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL KAGAME, RWANDAN PRESIDENT: President Trump's unconventional ways of doing things. I completely agree with him on many things.
MADOWO: Even though it will hurt you as Rwanda, which depends on some USAID to fund your health care and development?
KAGAME: I think from being hurt, we might -- we might learn some lessons to -- not to do things we don't do that we shouldn't be doing this. Why I'm saying, yeah, it's aid thing which I've never been a friend of it much as I've been a beneficiary.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MADOWO: It's extraordinary to hear President Kagame say that. It's a thought that there are many on the Continent that share. They say, for instance, so much U.S. foreign aid is just stolen here, or it goes into administrative costs, buying people big cars and fancy lifestyles, not going to the people that need it. But two Fredricka those African countries, those that depend on this funding need to learn to be self-sufficient. They can be relying on the generosity of others forever.
WHITFIELD: Incredible. All right, Larry Madowo, thank you so much. All right, a federal judge has hit pause on Donald Trump's plan to shrink the U.S. federal government. Federal workers were facing a deadline at midnight Thursday to accept an offer of eight months of salary to anyone who quit their job right away.
The White House says 65,000 had signed up to leave. The judge wants to hear more arguments about the legality of it all. The Union that represents government employees calls the Trump offer an arbitrary, unlawful ultimatum. CNN's Kevin Liptak is at the White House with the latest. Kevin, good morning to you. So, with Congress controlled by Republicans, the courts are really the only thing that can stop some of these moves by Donald Trump. [08:10:00]
So, does the White House seem at all worried about the judges standing in the way?
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: They don't, Fredricka, and it's interesting what we heard from the White House after the judge put this on hold was that they were grateful to him for extending the deadline for these federal workers to decide whether or not to essentially put themselves on paid administrative leave until September or face the risk of layoffs which the White House has said are coming as they work to dramatically reduce the size of the federal government.
Now, as you mentioned, about 65,000 federal workers have taken the White House up on this offer. That's short of their goal of 5 to 10 percent of the federal workforce, or about 100,000 workers. And I'd also just note it's short of just regular annual attrition rates of the government. About 100,000 federal workers retire every year, so they're still short of that as well.
And I think it just speaks to the degree of skepticism and suspicion that you hear among federal workers at this plan, and specifically, whether the money that they promise will actually materialize. That was the crux of this lawsuit from the three federal labor unions who said that because Congress hadn't appropriated funds for this severance, that it may not be legal, and that is what the judge will weigh again on Monday.
But as you mentioned, this is just one of so many legal challenges to President Trump's executive orders as he tests the bounds of his presidential authority, there have been more than two dozen challenges in court. Part of this is just an attempt to flood the system on the part of the White House, as President Trump works to sort of put his stamp on the federal government.
The White House feels pretty good about their challenges going forward. At the very least, what they hope to do is to have this go on in the courts. This will take an enormous amount of time and effort by the lawyers as this proceeds through the system, eventually, if it makes it to the Supreme Court, the White House feels pretty good about their conservative majority on that bench.
But one thing that I do think this does emphasize is that there are limits to the president's executive authority. And that if he is to execute on all of the things he promised to do as a candidate, he will need Congress in a lot of these areas when he comes to putting his stamp on the nation's legislation and on its laws.
That's part of the reason why he held this marathon, four-hour meeting here at the White House yesterday with Republican Leaders. He's due to meet again tonight with Republican Senate Leaders at Mar-a-Lago as they work to plot his legislative agenda going forward.
WHITFIELD: All right, Kevin Liptak at the White House, thanks so much. Germany's Chancellor is criticizing Donald Trump for going after the International Criminal Court. On Thursday, Mr. Trump announced sanctions against the ICC. Trump is mad that the court issued a warrant for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
A short time ago, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said sanctions are the wrong way to try to influence the court. The U.S., Israel, China and Russia have all refused to join the ICC, limiting the court's ability to prosecute people from those countries.
Just hours from now, President Trump will welcome Japan's Prime Minister to the White House. Shigeru Ishiba, will be the first Asian Leader to visit Mr. Trump in his second term. Their talks are expected to focus on defense as well as economic cooperation. Meantime, Panama's President says he will speak with President Trump later on today, the call comes amid rising tensions over the Panama Canal.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is expected to fly to Guantanamo Bay Cuba on Friday. Noem will assess the migrant operations center there amid plans to send significant numbers of migrants into detention. Two military flights have taken place this week carrying migrants with criminal convictions to Guantanamo Bay.
CNN's Patrick Oppmann is in Havana with the very latest. So, Patrick, what's the aim here for the Trump Administration is the infrastructure -- you know in place for this plan?
PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, it's not. Not at this point we've been seeing aerial photos -- you know satellite photos over the last few days of how the infrastructure has been -- being -- is being ramped up there. Essentially, what's going to be built is 10 camps in this very isolated U.S. military base that while it is in Cuba, really, there is no access to the rest of this island.
Because you have the U.S. military guarding it, and then you have the Cuban military outside guarding it as well. So, you can only really get to the base by plane or by ship. And that is really the message of the Trump Administration is trying to send is that they are -- they're going to lock away what they call the worst of the worst, up to 30,000 migrants.
[08:15:00]
And then one of the toughest institutions the United States has anywhere. And of course, this is where 9/11 terror suspects were sent for so many years. There are only about 15 of them left in the last several days, more than 20 migrants, including Venezuelan gang members, have been sent to Guantanamo Bay.
So, when Kristi Noem lands a little bit later today, she will be assessing how this work is going to get these facilities, very bare bones, facilities ready for these migrants. She has said the migrants will have access to lawyers, that they will have the same rights that they would have otherwise in the United States.
But of course, that has been very hard to do over the years with the 9/11 terror suspects, because you were talking about such an isolated place. So, to get them lawyers to have access to legal counsel has been very expensive, very complicated over the years, and now, when you're just talking about so many more people, really becomes an open question about how they will house these people?
How they will feed them? And, perhaps more importantly, how long these migrants will be kept in Guantanamo? If this is something that, like we saw with the 9/11 terror suspects that will just continue on for years and years.
WHITFIELD: All right. Patrick Oppmann in Havana, thanks so much. All right, still to come, even while he's busy in Washington, Elon Musk is spreading his political influence further afield. Next, why the billionaire is resurfacing an old scandal that erupted in Britain back when the current prime minister was a prosecutor?
Plus, the Greek Prime Minister visits, the tremor rattled island of Santorini, urging calm, even after seismologists warn an even bigger earthquake could come. The latest straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: The Greek Prime Minister visited the Island of Santorini, which is under a state of emergency amid a wave of recent tremors. The Prime Minister urged people to stay calm and to follow advice from Civil Protection. A 5.2 quake on Wednesday was the strongest of hundreds of quakes to rattle the island in recent days. The constant tremors have caused thousands of people to evacuate to the popular tourist destination. Journalist Elinda Labropoulou has more from Athens.
ELINDA LABROPOULOU, JOURNALIST: A state of emergency has been declared 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.
[08:20:00]
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 fore 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 they have sent special units on the island. They are preparing for emergency situations. We have had a few land-slides 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. WHITFIELD: Tech billionaire Elon Musk is not only focusing on shaking up the U.S. government, he has also set his sights on Britain. Musk has been targeting British Prime Minister Keir Starmer over a sex abuse scandal that came to light more than a decade ago when Starmer was a prosecutor. CNN's Nic Robertson examines how Musk's actions are opening old wounds in Northern England?
(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 UK 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: Yeah.
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 was two men behind me. They interrupted and said, we can give you a lift, which the officer said, yeah, go with them.
ROBERTSON: So, the police handed you over to two abusers.
WALKER-ROBERTS: Yes.
ROBERTSON: You were how old?
WALKER-ROBERTS: 12. Yeah, as children were 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 UK, PM, 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 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.
AFZAL: When you just focus on the brown guy, you're telling girls beware of the brown guy. You were 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. According to an Independent National Inquiry, the child abuse scandal spanned dozens of British cities, affected thousands of children through shame on national institutions heightened racial tensions, particularly in cities like Oldham, historically poor with higher than national average immigration. Oldham, a rust belt type of town, is also pushing back.
ABDUL WAHID, OLDHAM COUNCILLOR: Not just Elon Musk, anybody who gets the opportunity to be fair when they want to drive an agenda, Oldham seems to get used.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Councillor Wahid supports Musk's call for an inquiry, but not the way is doing it.
WAHID: Some of the rhetoric he's coming out with is probably not helpful.
[08:25:00]
ROBERTSON: Which --
WAHID: Well, making 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)
WHITFIELD: And CNN has reached out to Musk's team for comment and has not heard back. We'll be right back after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: All right, now to the Middle East, where thousands of Palestinians are being displaced as Israel pushes ahead with its crackdown on the Occupied West Bank. One Governor says more than 10,000 residents have been forced to flee his town. Israel says it is targeting terrorists in the operation launched days after a ceasefire came into effect in Gaza.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is backing the U.S. President's proposal to take over Gaza, and the Israeli Army is being ordered to prepare plans for Palestinians to leave Gaza. But across the region and around the world, Donald Trump's proposal is sparking confusion and condemnation. Egypt is warning that Mr. Trump's plan could have catastrophic consequences. A UN human rights expert is also voicing her condemnation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FRANCESCA ALBANESE, U.N. SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON HUMAN RIGHTS: It's nonsense and it's unlawful. What he proposes -- it's, I mean, people talk of ethnic cleansing. No, it's worse. It's worse. It's forced displacement. Is inciting to commit forced displacement, which is an international crime, force displacement and further dispossession, and in the -- in the context of a genocide, I mean, it will strengthen the complicity in the crimes that Israel has been committing over the past 15 months and before.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: This, as Palestinians in Gaza face another harsh winter with little or no shelter. Heavy rain and wind are hitting the region, making the suffering worse. For more on the situation, let's bring in Laila El-Haddad, a Palestinian-American Journalist and Author.
[08:30:00]
Good morning to you. So, you know, how are Palestinians reacting to the Trump White House trying to clean up the whole takeover of Gaza talk by saying it would be relocating Palestinians in it on a temporary basis.
LAILA EL-HADDAD, PALESTINIAN-AMERICAN JOURNALIST AND AUTHOR: Thank you for having me. Well, I think we should be clear. It's not relocating anyone anywhere. It's forcibly displacing them. It's ethnically cleansing them. And with regards to how Palestinians are reacting. I mean, it's a mix of sort of, you know, we're perplexed and horrified at once.
A lot of people, you know, I talked to in the beginning said it is you for real, sort of like, should we cry, should we laugh? But I think in the end of the day, and speaking to relatives, at least, who are currently in Gaza and the north of Gaza, who have, you know, endured the unimaginable for 15 months, have gone to the depths of hell and back.
They say to me, we're not going anywhere, if Trump really thinks that we've endured 15 months of what human rights experts and organizations have called the plausible genocide and decades of military occupation, before that, only to be then forcibly displaced by Trump.
Well, you know, he needs to think again, because he hasn't met someone from Gaza before. But I think beyond that, what's really dangerous, what's really reckless about Trump's comments. You know, think what you may say, it's a bombastic proposal, it's unrealistic.
Its Trump being Trump, is that it gives a green light to Netanyahu to sort of finish what he's already started, what he's already wanted to do. This is certainly not the first time that we've heard proposals about forcibly displacing Palestinians, whether during the past 15 months or long before that.
Just as soon as December, Netanyahu had said that he speaking with his minister of strategic affairs, he wanted to, quote, unquote, another euphemism thins the population of Gaza as much as he could to make it more controllable. Another euphemism, of course, for ethnic cleansing.
And the very premise of Zionism right, is based on this notion of maximizing control over Palestinian land with as few Palestinians as possible. And it was Ariel Sharon, Former Israeli Prime Minister, who once famously said that this would not be possible without the eviction of the Palestinian-Arabs.
So, for Netanyahu, I mean, he's salivating. He's like, this is the greatest gift he could have ever gotten. This in addition to 10 billion in promised a new weapons and aid.
WHITFIELD: A real or not, as you say, it has already given license to Israel to position its military for, you know, evacuations, you know, is there stopping that momentum?
EL-HADDAD: I mean, I think again, this the real fear and danger is that Netanyahu, not that he needed permission, but interpret this literally and already has given orders to the Israeli military to make preparations for the forcible, or what he called voluntary. I don't know how you're going to make this voluntary, maybe incentivized, you know, displacement of Palestinians from Gaza.
And so, you know, again, speaking to relatives, they're saying to me, I mean, one relative said something very eloquent, poetic. He said, how can you uproot us if our blood and our bodies have become the soil? In other words, we're not going anywhere. This is our land. These are our homes, and nobody has consulted us.
And frankly, Palestinians are sick of being moved around like chess bonds, complete disregard to their own rights, to their own dignity, to their own humanity in terms of how to stop it. I think that this is a moment for the international community as well as the countries in the region, to really step up and be able to say, we categorically, not only categorically reject this, but take action, because otherwise this is going to do in what remains of the rules-based order.
But I think in the end of the day, it's also incumbent about on people of conscience around the world, on Palestinians themselves to be able to take a stand in whatever, you know, ways, small way that they can.
WHITFIELD: What is the leverage that middle eastern neighbors would need to inflict to help back the idea of Gaza remaining in Palestinian hands?
EL-HADDAD: I mean, frankly, I don't know that I have much hope in any of the, you know, the regional neighbors. I know that King Abdullah is visiting Washington next week, along with President Sisi, you know, the problem is that they're the largest recipients of USAID, after Israel, and in some ways, are beholden to them.
[08:35:00]
But for them, they see this move as a sort of, you know, I think Trump trying to twist their hand. I mean, it would be extremely politically destabilizing and threatening to their own countries, but I think this is Trump saying, well, you know, you either do this on your own terms or I'm going to force you to do it.
In other words, again, this notion of thinning the population, but in the end of the day, it's just not an acceptable notion. It's neither realistic, nor is it legal, nor is it moral. It's repugnant, the fact that we're even sort of sitting here discussing whether this is possible, how to put an end to it.
Again, for more than 75 years, Palestinians have been enduring these threats in starting from the Nakba. But of course, in 1948 and they see this as another Nakba continued, and those are the very words, as a matter of fact, that Former Israeli Minister Avi Dichter used, he said, we're rolling out another Nakba in Gaza.
And so, it's going to either result, of course, for further, you know, resistance, I think, in the region, certainly in Gaza, certainly in Palestine, unless, I think the regional partners and the international community band together and say, you know, this is something we categorically reject, which many, of course, like Italy, have not done.
WHITFIELD: Laila El-Haddad, thank you so much. Great talking to you.
EL-HADDAD: It's my pleasure. Thank you.
WHITFIELD: Moscow is playing down reports that Presidents Putin and Trump could soon meet. The Kremlin says the two have not been in contact to discuss if or when they should meet. Earlier this week, Mr. Trump said the U.S. was having 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 us made F-16 fighters from the Netherlands. The shipment is part of the European allies' efforts to strengthen Ukraine in its fight against Russia.
The Baltic states are 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 jettison this legacy of 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 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 EU, 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 cyber-attacks 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, of course, we're increasing our additional security measures. We are going to watch this with an eye of the 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 S-link two power cable badly damaged on Christmas Day. This ship, which was enroute from Russia, suspected by Finnish police of dragging its anchor almost 100 kilometers along the sea bed. 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 western most outpost of Kaliningrad, home of its Baltic fleet, now even more isolated. Its power lines relics of a super power past redrawn. Clare Sebastian, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: All right, still to come, taking on the threat of U.S. tariffs, Canada's Prime Minister meets business leaders today to come up with a plan to boost the economy. We'll talk to an expert when we return. And the numbers will tell the economic story in the U.S. The jobs report is out. Details straight ahead.
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[08:40:00]
WHITFIELD: The numbers are in. In the first jobs report of this new U.S. presidency. The U.S. labor market continued to grow in January, but not as much as most economists expected. Employers added 143,000 jobs last month, and there was some good news, as the unemployment rate dipped to 4 percent according to data just released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Meanwhile, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is meeting with business and labor leaders today to find ways to diversify trade and boost its economy. This comes in the wake of President Donald Trump's threat to impose tariffs. Our next guest says President Trump's new trade wars may prove far more disruptive than his first.
Ed Gresser is with us now. He's the Vice President and Director for Trade in Global Markets at the Progressive Policy Institute. He's joining us right now from Washington, D.C. Great to see you, Ed.
ED GRESSER, DIRECTOR FOR TRADE & GLOBAL MARKETS AT THE PROGRESSIVE POLICY INSTITUTE: Yeah, thanks so much. Thanks for having me on.
WHITFIELD: All right. Well, let's get started with the jobs report, the first under the second Trump presidency. The numbers you know, just coming through, 143,000 jobs added this year, a little less than the 170,000 or so that economists had expected. How do you interpret this?
GRESSER: -- is not very impressive, not terrible business as usual, I suppose. One thing I've noticed over the past year is that manufacturing employment has been trending down, down about 100,000 over the last year. That's a little disturbing.
WHITFIELD: OK. And then I wonder if we can shift gears to the U.S. imposed tariffs against China, Mexico and Canada. How impactful and how soon do you believe the impact will be felt with President Trump's imposing of 25 percent tariffs on Canada in particular, particularly while just ahead of their meeting today, and we'll talk about that meeting?
GRESSER: OK, well, what they've done is just say, last week we're going to have a 25 percent tariff on Canadian goods. That's a big disruption to the U.S. economy, and they've put it off about now, I think, three weeks ahead, so we don't really know whether they're going to do it or not.
But one big immediate impact is most of our crude oil imports come from Canada. So, there'll be a big shock to refineries and then to fuel buyers, home heating oil, gasoline, jet fuel, those sorts of things. If you do it to Mexico too, that's a big shock to groceries, both of them are big suppliers of auto parts to U.S. factories and -- shops.
So earlier on, Mr. Trump was saying his first priority was to restore price stability and bring down prices. Now he's saying we want to inflict a little bit of pain on the public through higher prices. It's kind of confusing. Not good news.
[08:45:00]
WHITFIELD: And then now today, Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau will be meeting with, you know, labor and business leaders. What will be at the crux of that meeting is it in, you know, in anticipation of trying to plan any kind of retaliatory tariffs against the U.S., or is it, what do they need to bolster in their economy, in anticipation for these potential U.S. 25 percent tariffs?
GRESSER: A little bit of both. Canada is the U.S. largest trading partner. We buy about $400 billion worth of them. We sell them about 300 billion plus something. So, for the U.S., it's really important. For Canada, it's existential. This is like 20 percent of the Canadian economy trade with the United States.
So, they are thinking about one way to respond to support for their own economy, two ways to kind of deter the U.S. and make sure that we understand this is a violation of an agreement and it is damaging to both countries. And third, to one, think about whether the U.S. is really as reliable a partner as we've been for these past -- you know, 100 years now.
If we're going to be making this sort of threat against Canada, very friendly country, NATO -- it's really troubling, and it's especially troubling to Canadians.
WHITFIELD: Very important imports coming from Canada, oil, lumber, car parts. Ed Gresser.
GRESSER: Yeah.
WHITFIELD: Thank you so much. Have a great weekend.
GRESSER: Thank you very much, and same to you.
WHITFIELD: All right, still to come. Speaking of weekends, Super Bowl weekend. It's almost here, just you know, couple hours away. In fact, are you rooting for the team looking to make history, or the team looking to play spoiler. Our preview straight ahead.
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WHITFIELD: Netflix is reportedly distancing itself from Karla Sofia Gascon, the Oscar nominated star of the move Emilia Perez, amid the growing scandal over her now deleted offensive tweets. Gascon is the first openly transgender actress to be nominated for an Academy Award. Here now is CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): 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 include 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 and -- Juan Carlos Arce Niegas, Gascon apologized and said she's not a racist.
I have been condemned and sacrificed and crucified and stoned without a trial and with no option to defend myself, she said, tearfully, adding that she thought the public made her out to be a terrible monster.
[08:50:00]
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 AT 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 (voice-over): 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 co- stars and the film's director are distancing themselves too.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He desires to remain anonymous. WAGMEISTER (voice-over): Zoe Saldana, who won the Golden Globe last month, is now vying for her first Oscar and spoke to Variety's Clayton Davis.
ZOE SALDANA, AMERICAN ACTRESS: I'm very sad. I'm also disappointed.
WAGMEISTER (voice-over): 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. 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 land mine on its road to Oscar gold.
DAVIS: All that work and money was flush down the toilet just a week ago.
WAGMEISTER (on camera): Now, Netflix has not publicly commented on this situation at all. I 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.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: All right. Elizabeth Wagmeister, thank you so much. All right. Now here's a question for you. How are you gearing up for Sunday's Super Bowl? CNN's Andy Scholes is in New Orleans. He takes a look at what the Eagles and the Chiefs players are doing to get game ready.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Well Saquon Barkley needs just 30 yards on Sunday to end up with the most rushing yards ever for a player in a season and playoff. So, you know, the Chiefs are going to try to be gearing up that defense to stop him, which means Jalen Hurts is going to need to have a good game for the Eagles if they want to be victorious in Super Bowl 59.
And two years ago in the Super Bowl, Hurts was fantastic against the Chiefs, he threw for more than 300 yards, had four total touchdowns, but of course, the Eagles fell short in that one. Well, Hurts says he's used that loss to fuel him to be even better in the biggest moments.
JALEN HURTS, PHILADELPHIA EAGLES QUARTERBACK: My mentality and my approach, is always to find ways to better myself, and it's always looking internal first, and then looking at my teammates and how I can better the guys around me as well. So, I've always been focused on what I'm asked to do, and can I do it at a high level.
And then also process in a way that I'm being taught to see the game, and then how I already see the game, and then obviously you have that burn and desire to win. So, all of those things are a priority to me.
SCHOLES: Now, only two players have ever been able to beat Patrick Mahomes in the playoffs. That's Tom Brady and Joe Burrow. Hurts, certainly hoping he is the third come Sunday. Now, President Trump is coming to New Orleans on Sunday. He's going to be the first sitting president to ever attend the Super Bowl, and Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce -- That's pretty cool.
TRAVIS KELCE, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS TIGHT END: That's awesome. It's a great honor. I think, you know, no matter who the president is, I know, I'm excited, because it's the biggest game of my life, you know, and having the president there, you know, it's the best country in the world. So, it'd be pretty cool.
PATRICK MAHOMES, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS QUARTERBACK: It's always cool to be able to play in front of sitting president, someone that is at the top position in our country, and so I didn't see that clip, but obviously it's cool to hear that he's seen me play football in respects to the game that I play.
SCHOLES: Now, Thursday, we had the Kendrick Lamar Super Bowl half time press conference. It wasn't a traditional press conference like years past. No questions came from the media, and Lamar said his performance on Sunday will be like his career and focus on story telling.
And didn't give any hints on any surprise guests that may show up. But Taylor Swift and Lamar, they did collaborate on that 2014 Bad Blood remix. A lot of Swift is certainly hoping that she shows up at half time. We'll have to wait and see.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: -- Thank you, Andy Scholes that would be shattering. All right, watching the commercial breaks during the Super Bowl. Well, that's a sport into itself.
[08:55:00]
This year we will see space themed ads consumer mascots like Mr. Clean and a number of ads for Artificial Intelligence, and check out how the singer seal is making waves in this ad. OK, a little freaky, but hey, he's got a sense of humor and he's got a great voice. And then when it comes to food, Uber Eats has whipped up a stellar cast, including Martha Stewart and Kevin Bacon.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we'll call this a pig skin make people crave bacon.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody loves bacon.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I love bacon.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bacon.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ever ask yourself how buffalo got a team?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: All right, big ads, big celebrities and a big price tag for a 32nd ad, at least 10 Super Bowl slots sold for over $8 million each. All right, we'll all be watching, and we'll be at the edge of our seats for the commercials. You know, that's how it goes. All right. Thank you so much for joining me here in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. "Connect the World" with Erica Hill is up next.
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