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Trump Hosts Japanese PM In Washington; Israel Receives Names Of Hostages To Be Released By Hamas Saturday; The Impact Of USAID Funding Cuts In Africa; Elon Musk Targets UK PM Starmer Over Abuse Scandal; Chiefs And Eagles Prep For Sunday's Big Game. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired February 07, 2025 - 15:00   ET

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

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: -- more open to that group, taking some sort of investment stake in the company.

[15:00:05]

And so that's significant. He said he would mediate the deal, and he said he would meet with the CEO of that company next week. So, a significant step in the economic ties between these two countries.

ISA SOARES, CNN HOST: Kevin, appreciate it. Thank you very much.

A very busy hour, but that does it for us. Thanks very much.

NEWSROOM with Jim Sciutto is up next. Have a wonderful weekend.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington. Thanks so much for joining me today on CNN NEWSROOM. And let's get right to the news.

Three weeks into Donald Trump's presidency and world leaders are already making their way to Washington. This week, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, and now, the Japanese prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba. Next week, it will be the king of Jordan, possibly Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

They are all coming as the U.S. abandons one of its greatest soft power diplomacy weapons, slashing USAID. At this hour, the signage at USAID is being taped over, removed entirely by midnight tonight. The Trump administration is expected to reduce the agency's global workforce from some 10,000 employees to just under 300. That's a reduction of 97 percent.

Labor groups have sued the administration. It remains unclear if a federal court will step in before that deadline. Perhaps stay it.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny is at the White House.

Jeff, listening to that press conference there, there was a number of headlines, one of which I believe this is the first time we've heard the president himself say that he plans to fire agents involved in January 6th investigations. He said quickly and very surgically, in his words.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Look, Jim, that has been a central question. What will become of the fate of these FBI agents who were involved in the January 6th investigation? Our Kaitlan Collins asked that question of the president just a few moments ago, and he said, we will fire some of the FBI agents.

The question is, how many? I mean, is it people who had a direct and up close involvement or not? But the central takeaway here is that that certainly was a big morale issue at the FBI, and that morale issue is one that is concerning many longtime U.S. officials, really across the government. And, Jim, that is what is so extraordinary, even as foreign leaders are scrambling to meet with the new American president, the foreign aid is being dismantled. The sign was being taken down, as you said, at USAID, which is just a few blocks from here at the White House, even as he was speaking.

But a few other headlines from that press conference, and, in fact, a meeting that the prime minister and the president had, they said they would continue discussions on North Korea's nuclear program. Of course, that is a leading concern in the first Trump administration, as you well remember, Jim. The president reestablished or established a communications with the Kim Jong Un. We will see if that happens again this time.

They also said the U.S. and Japan will fight against a Chinese economic aggression. So much tariff discussion as well, but perhaps the domestic headlines were the biggest. When asked if there's anything that the president would not allow Elon Musk to do. Of course, he is leading this Department of Government Efficiency.

The president said he has free rein at the Pentagon and whatnot. But then he said, we don't talk that much. So, Jim, that's a central question, a bit of a contradiction there, just how much the president and the White House knows in real time what Elon Musk and his team is doing.

SCIUTTO: The other issue that has been a key, both political and trade issue between the U.S. and Japan, and that is the purchase of U.S. steel and also tariffs. And the Japanese prime minister was asked quite directly, what will Japan do if Trump imposes tariffs, as he promised to do from behind that podium? The Japanese prime minister demurred on that question, perhaps understandably. Trump even praised him for demurring on there.

But it does seem they've come to some sort of agreement on U.S. Steel, with Japan now describing that as an investment as opposed to an all out purchase, which we should note that President Biden opposed as well.

ZELENY: Right. That investment is certainly something we'll have to get more details on. But an investment, as opposed to trying to acquire it. But in terms of the tariffs, the U.S. will be exporting more liquid natural gas to Japan. That was something that was also good from there.

But, Jim, just watching the body language, this is the first time the prime minister has met the president. That was also an interesting moment. He said he'd been watching him from afar for a while. He said he was a celebrity, but he also said he could be frightening watching him on TV. And as the translator said, that the president got a smile on his face.

[15:05:02]

Of course, that is what he wants to do to other world leaders is rattle them a bit as he tries and reshapes his position here on the world stage -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: It was notable to hear from the Japanese prime minister after making those comments. He said I'm not trying to suck up to him, perhaps aware to some degree of how those comments might be interpreted.

Jeff Zeleny at the White House, thanks so much.

As we noted, Trump says he will fire, he says, some FBI agents assigned to work on January 6th cases. It's not hypothetical, given the FBI has handed over the personal details of thousands of agents and staff involved in those cases, handed them over to the Trump Justice Department. DOJ did agree to a court order today barring them from releasing names publicly without giving two days notice.

CNN's Josh Campbell joins us now from Los Angeles. He, of course, himself served in the FBI.

And I wonder, there's been an enormous amount of concern among FBI agents. I've spoken to some of them. I'm sure you have about what will happen to folks who are doing their job right in investigating a violent attack on the Capitol, as directed by their bosses. The president of the United States has just confirmed he's going to fire some of them quickly and he said very surgically.

What's the significance of that? And what reaction are you hearing?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, that last word you used there surgically, I think that's the most that we've heard from the president on what the scope might be here. The number of FBI employees who could be targeted for possible firings. What does surgical mean? That's still an open question, but it appears to mean that there aren't going to be mass firings that a lot of FBI employees were afraid of.

Nevertheless, we did see court action today. That's because a number of FBI employees raised concerns about their information being provided to officials at the Justice Department to include their names.

Now, what happened yesterday in court is that lawyers for the FBI agents wanted a judge to ensure that the Justice Department wouldn't publicly release those names, that information and what they did, they went so far to say is not only do we not want you to release this to the White House, but we want to bar Elon Musk and his DOGE team from getting access to this information. The Justice Department said that, look, we don't think under U.S. law that we can keep something from the president. So they came to this agreement today in court that the information

would not be released from the Justice Department without, as you mentioned, giving two days notice. That's not a lot. That's something.

I'll read you a statement we got in from the FBI agents lawyer. They say that the courts order ensures that FBI agents who are keeping our country and our community safe can continue to do their jobs without fear or public exposure or retaliation.

And finally, Jim, as you well know, this isn't academic. We know that agents whose names have been publicly released that were associated with Donald Trump cases have indeed received threats and harassment.

SCIUTTO: That goes to form. We've seen that so often.

Josh Campbell, thanks so much.

CAMPBELL: You bet.

SCIUTTO: All right. So let's talk about the law of all this, the multiple lawsuits against the administration, the legality of these actions.

Jeff Swartz, professor at Thomas Cooley Law School and assistant -- assisting now the State Democracy Defenders Fund, which is representing FBI agents in their lawsuit.

Jeff, let me begin if I can, on his basic elimination of the USAID, right? I mean, cutting the workforce by 97 percent, standing in the way a lot of payments, funding of a lot of existing programs.

Congress established USAID. Congress appropriated funds as it is constitutionally empowered to do so.

But the president, by executive order, is shutting it down. Is that legal?

JEFF SWARTZ, FORMER MIAMI-DADE COUNTY JUDGE: Well, it really isn't legal for a number of reasons. Number one, there is an order staying those firings until Monday. There is a judge is going to make a decision on Monday whether they can go forward with those firings.

The second reason is that Congress has the power of the purse. We all know that they appropriate money. They designate how it's supposed to be spent. This amounts to nothing more. And many of these actions amount to nothing more than impoundment of the funds to be used someplace else without Congress's approval.

I believe it was Nixon who tried to do that, and it was found during the Nixon years that that was an improper action by the president. He must spend the money as it was appropriated. And so I'm not sure how constitutional it is for them to take these type of actions.

SCIUTTO: But he's doing it, right? And the question is, is, even if this wends its way through the courts, is he effectively saying, I'm going to do it, try to stop me because -- because as you know, as well as me and folks watching, it takes a while for these things to move to the court, through the courts, and particularly if the final word is with the Supreme Court.

SWARTZ: Well, I'll give you an example. In the -- in the -- in the agents, the FBI agents, there was an additional provision in the new order that basically said that he could -- that there was a stay on the firings of any of the personnel at the FBI without a two day notice that was mentioned by your former agent.

[15:10:11]

And that's there. So that if, in fact, they want to go forward with firing some of these people, with that notice, our people who are representing the agents can go in and ask for an emergency order. I think this judge has made clear how she's leaning towards all of these things, and we'll just continue to litigate and get whatever relief we can.

The same thing for the for the USAID people, they're stuck overseas. As we understand it, the government won't pay for their return, won't pay for their housing. They have restrictions now on going to embassies. So as a result of which I don't know how these people are going to survive and there is obligations to bring them home.

So when you cut off this money, you're not spending the money the way you're supposed to.

SCIUTTO: Yeah. So the secretary of state said, well, if you have kids in school, you know, we may be able to make some accommodation. We should note that these are people deployed abroad. They bring their families. They make plans around being deployed abroad with their families. And now are -- well, they're in an enormous amount of uncertainty.

Let me ask you, regarding the FBI agents' case, because the president said there behind the podium that he will fire some agents and he accuses them of being corrupt. What would he have to prove to enable him or the attorney general to fire or the FBI director to fire those agents? You can't just say they're corrupt. I imagine you'd have to back that up.

SWARTZ: You'd have to back it up with them taking some action that was unauthorized by their supervisors, things that were done for in this particular case for political purposes, instead of just following orders and investigating a crime that may have been committed. They're not allowed to do that. They are not allowed to use their power for a political purpose.

The complaint by the president has always been that the FBI acted in a political way. They weren't really investigating crimes. They were picking on his supporters and they were political prisoners, at one point he called them.

He would have to show by documentation that, in fact, that's why these agents took these actions. And I'm going to tell you now that it's hard-pressed at this point for him to come up with that kind of proof. SCIUTTO: I mean, the other option, right, is just to kind of push

them to the side, right? Put them in undesirable positions in the bottom levels of the building, right? And it just strikes me, I wonder, is based on not just the moves regarding the FBI agents, but even USAID, you know, Congress established USAID, it appropriated the money.

But we had live pictures on just -- just a few moments ago showing them covering up the signs. And they've dismissed 97 percent of the employees. It strikes me that he's just going ahead, right? And sure, maybe a court will pull it back. But --

SWARTZ: Yeah, I understand. And he and they are -- he is going ahead even though he was stayed from firing the people. I don't know whether he actually -- I don't think he has the power to shut down the agency. The agency was created by Congress.

SCIUTTO: Keep me off camera.

SWARTZ: He can't just do away with these things.

SCIUTTO: Jeff Schwartz, other -- other questions for you as -- as you watch this, you have a judge staying Trump's birthright citizenship order, order, attempting to end birthright citizenship despite the quite clear language in, I believe, the 14th Amendment establishing birthright citizenship. Does that stand? I mean, is this -- is this a case that's going to go anywhere?

SWARTZ: It's going to go someplace. It's going to go up to some circuits, and eventually find its way to the Supreme Court. But you have more than one judge. I think it's two or three judges now have come down with orders saying this is blatantly unconstitutional.

I don't know where he's going with this other than to create for all of us who have possibly ancestors who came across and never registered. They got off a boat. They never registered. They just started occupying land, whatever it may be. And all of a sudden now we are not American citizens because our ancestors were not American citizens.

And all of us now have to apply for citizenship. That's going pretty deep, but there has to be a reason behind this. He's going to go after Dreamers. He's going to go after people who he refers to as anchor babies. He's going to go after anybody who's claiming, I was born on this land, and therefore I am an American citizen.

[15:15:02]

I can go deeper than that. But I don't -- you know, there's something else behind it. But that's a topic for another conversation.

SCIUTTO: Well, we should note that every living American has a father, grandfather, great grandfather, mother, et cetera, who was in the same shoes.

SWARTZ: Including the president of the United States. SCIUTTO: Just a question of when. We're all immigrants. Just a

question of when.

Jeff Swartz, thanks so much.

And we will be right back with more analysis of President Trump's press conference. There was lots of news there. What did he have to say about Elon Musk's expanding role in government?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: More now on President Trump's press conference just a few minutes ago with the Japanese prime minister and the business deals, Trump seems to be trying to strike with its ally.

The latest, Trump says that Nippon Steel is looking at an investment rather than a purchase of U.S. Steel. This is a sale that both sides of the aisle have been criticizing, including President Biden.

Joining us now is CNN's Mark Preston.

That's interesting. I wonder if that is a distinction without a difference. I mean, an investment could be a big purchase figure, right? I mean, it could be. Or maybe it's partial, I don't know.

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, and it was interesting because it was -- he made it seem like it was a substantial investment, but not ownership because that wouldn't look too good, which was interesting because it was almost as if Nissan was going to own it. But we are basically going to make it not look that way.

SCIUTTO: Right. Okay.

So on the tariffs' question, it was interesting because the Japanese prime minister was pressed on it. Trump -- Trump said straight out and he's -- he's -- he's not shy about saying I'm going to impose tariffs. We have a trade deficit with Japan, which basically means the U.S. buys more from it than Japan buys from us. And he wants to solve that. He views that as fundamentally unfair.

The Japanese prime minister said, well, you know, it could be mutually beneficial. It's a different approach to this tariff war, if you want to call it that, than we saw with Canada and Mexico.

[15:20:06]

It got quite tense. This one seems to be like were going to put tariffs on each other. Everything's cool.

PRESTON: They were very -- they were very laudatory of each other and --

SCIUTTO: That matters to Trump.

PRESTON: It matters to Trump. And the Japanese prime minister was -- was very clear to say that there would be a piece of paper which, you know, means nothing, but other than it means something that showed that the country is going to work together.

However, the Japanese prime minister was able to deliver a couple of things for Donald Trump, right? One, Nissan making a major investment. Okay, as you said --

SCIUTTO: In U.S. Steel.

PRESTON: In U.S. Steel, right? And then in addition to that, liquefied natural gas, the pipeline will open. Japan wants all that liquefied natural gas. And I do wonder if that is going to help offset the tariff situation.

SCIUTTO: That seems to be -- I mean, Trump -- Trump seemed and Trump said it in so many words. He said that were going to eliminate the trade deficit largely through oil and gas. So if you're selling more liquefied natural gas, does that, perhaps that solves the problem.

PRESTON: I mean, I would guess so. I mean, I have no -- I have no idea how much they're talking. But it was interesting because Trump also tried to put the Japanese prime minister in a very awkward situation when he said, I'm going to make sure that you get the liquid gas. Now, the previous administration wouldn't -- Joe, you wouldn't do it, would you, or something like that.

SCIUTTO: Well, it's true. I mean, Biden did put a pause on those on those exports. It's interesting though. I was looking up that Japan gets 90 percent of its oil from the Middle East, primarily Saudi Arabia. I imagine Riyadh was listening to this press conference with some concern.

Tell me about that relationship, too, because it was notable to hear Prime Minister Ishiba say, I was so excited to see such a celebrity. He described seeing Donald Trump on camera because he hadn't met him in person before. And then he said, but in person, he's very sincere. He has a strong will.

And then he qualified it by saying, well, I'm not trying to suck up to him.

PRESTON: Which I thought was a great line because he was trying to suck up to him, sometimes hiding in plain sight is the best thing to do, and that's what the prime minister did today. He basically sucked up to President Trump.

But remember, he came over here to President Trump's country. He knows that President Trump is a strong man, so to speak. He goes into President Trump's house. He's going to do nothing other than show fealty to President Trump.

Now, I guarantee you, when he goes back home, you know, there'll be some other things that will be said. And he'll get back some of the some of what he gave away, let's say to Trump today.

SCIUTTO: Does it show -- I mean, if you look at Canada's and Mexico's experience as well, because they were on the doorstep of a major trade war, again with allies, and at the last minute, they -- they said they'll put some more border security, which, to be frank, they'd already offered prior. Maybe they added a few things like a border czar, et cetera..

Does it show that you can sweet talk and deal, make your way out of the worst trade outcomes under this new president?

PRESTON: A hundred percent. You have to be a deal maker. You have to be somebody who's willing to go in and talk about pluses and minuses, and how do we get to there? What is going to -- I almost feel like it's one of those real estate shows, you know, that we see populated across TV. How do we get to that final number? And I think that's what Donald Trump, that's all he thinks about.

SCIUTTO: Yeah. Mark Preston, thanks so much as always.

Well, today on the front cover of "Time Magazine", who was it? Elon Musk sitting where at the president's Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. A depiction, of course, of the enormous influence the unelected, richest man in the world now has on the Trump administration and the federal government.

The actual president, who is, I think we could say, sensitive to his appearances on the covers of magazines, weighed in earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Mr. President, do you have a reaction to the new "Time Magazine" cover that has Elon Musk sitting behind your Resolute Desk?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No.

REPORTER: The "Time Magazine?"

TRUMP: Is "Time Magazine" still in business? I didn't even know that.

REPORTER: By "Time Magazine" --

TRUMP: Elon is doing a great job. He's finding tremendous fraud and corruption and waste.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: He said just moments ago that he has now instructed Musk to look at everything, including Pentagon funding.

By the way, we should note that Elon Musk's company is the beneficiary of significant Pentagon contracts.

Joining me now to discuss, Brian Barrett, executive editor of "Wired", which has been tirelessly covering Musk's influence.

Brian, good to have you on. Thanks so much for joining.

BRIAN BARRETT, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, WIRED: Thank you for having me. SCIUTTO: So Elon Musk's original remit was to try to save the

government money. DOGE, Department of Government Efficiency, make it more efficient. And by the way, there aren't many Americans who wouldn't say the government is not particularly efficient. That said, the extent of his reach deep inside numerous agencies and the reach as were learning and you've been learning of his former interns, right? Including into critical systems is enormous.

Can you describe to folks watching right now how many operations he has his hands in right now?

BARRETT: Well, you know, Jim, I wish I could, but part of the problem is we just don't know. We've done a lot of reporting that shows probably a dozen agencies that we know for sure that these, mostly young, mostly former Musk employees are in. But I'm more worried almost about the extent that we don't know what they're doing. In terms of where we do know and where we are especially concerned, though, I would highlight a couple of things.

Recently, there was a 25-year-old who had access to not only read the code in the systems of the Treasury Department and the payment systems of the federal -- federal payment systems. He also had the ability to alter that code, something that the administration has denied. But our reporting has showed that he did for some time. He has since resigned from DOGE because of a social media past that was checkered.

There also feeding volumes of data from the Department of Education into an A.I. system to analyze it. And the thing about A.I. systems is what you put in, they keep and they turn it into training data, and they use it for other things.

So we have this massive outflow of data, too. It's not just what they're looking at, it's where they're putting it.

SCIUTTO: We should note that the president was asked about this 25- year-old staffer forced out for those racist posts, and he said, well, if J.D. Vance says he should be brought back, I agree with him. So he may very well end up back -- back on staff.

I got two big questions here. One relates to payments. So these guys have the ability to interrupt payments to -- to the many individual and organizational entities who receive funding from -- from the U.S. government. Has this ever happened before to an end? Do they have any legal authority to have that sort of access?

BARRETT: I'm not aware that its happened before. I don't know, I'm not a lawyer. I can't speak to legal authority. I would question it. I will say that it currently appears that they only have read access right now, but the fact that they had the ability to write for so long, and even I will say the read access itself is very alarming.

We just published a story recently on wired that shows a threat analysis within a treasury agency that calls this DOGE team potentially the biggest insider threat they have ever faced, and that is how they're being viewed from within these agencies, an insider threat that has to be addressed. But as you said, they appear to have carte blanche, both from Musk and

from Donald Trump.

SCIUTTO: Now, when they run these, all the data from inside those systems, including communications, emails, I imagine, et cetera, through these A.I. systems, is it correct that they're looking for certain words and phrases for, for instance, those relating to DEI? I mean, is this can we describe this as an ideological scan to set up for an ideological purge?

BARRETT: You know, I honestly can't say, but I will say and that again, that gets back to the transparency issue. What are they looking for? What are they using it for? They're not telling people and it's not publicly known.

What I will say though, the DEI efforts are so public, they are so publicly telling agencies like the CDC to get any DEI references out of the papers that they're working on accepting that, you know, to the point where contractors are shutting down their DEI programs so that they can continue to work with the federal government.

I wouldn't be surprised if that were part of it, but I think a lot of it, too. I would flag in terms of sensitive things that were thinking about. Remember that a lot of these agencies have U.S. citizen health records, U.S. citizen social security numbers, U.S. citizen employment.

There is a lot of data that you only the government really has access to in this holistic way. That is now at the -- at the mercy of DOGE.

SCIUTTO: And is it vulnerable, right? Because I mean, there was a lot of talk about them bringing in a private server, right to store all this information. I remember the issue Republicans had with Hillary Clinton and her emails was that she put State Department emails onto a private server, which I imagine are far easier for foreign adversaries, hackers, et cetera, to access.

BARRETT: Yeah. Again, without -- without knowing some of the details and I keep going back to that. But I think it's important to point out what we don't know, because these are things that the American people deserve to know.

SCIUTTO: Yeah.

BARRETT: But, yes, if there are private servers in these places, that is probably less secure. I would also say a lot of these people who are working at DOGE that we have identified, they're between the ages of 19 and 25, at least a couple of them have passed that some would describe as colorful. Others would say are checkered.

The people who have this information, it seems unlikely that they have passed the basic background checks that you would expect. Again, we can't speak to whether they have or not because that's not something anyone has shared. But it's troubling not just where it's being stored, but who's seen it, who's taking it. Are they responsible? SCIUTTO: And who has -- well, maybe -- maybe conflicts of interest, right. That relate to -- to that data. So far, Moscow has been targeting areas for cuts which are actually tiny percentages of the federal budget, USAID, foreign assistance, less than 1 percent of the budget, federal worker buyouts, less than 5 percent. Trump says now he's instructed Musk to look at the Pentagon.

The Pentagon, by far the biggest piece of discretionary spending. Tell us how far that might extend.

BARRETT: Well, I think what I'm really interested in is how strongly the Pentagon will push back. We have seen some pushback from agencies as we've gone along. I think the pentagon is in a position to have a pretty forceful pushback. We haven't seen it yet. Our reporting hasn't dug -- dug into that yet.

But I think that's what is worth keeping an eye on, because it is, you know, among other agencies, but primarily where, as you said, noted earlier, Elon Musk has his companies have billions of dollars worth of contracts there. There is such a clear conflict of interest. There is no reason to think that he will not do whatever he can to sort of self serve in this instance.

So I think that's what I would keep an eye on. Will the Pentagon say no, this is where were drawing the line, and will that give other agencies cover.

SCIUTTO: To your knowledge, given that there are a number of legal challenges underway, there are lawsuits. There have been some temporary restraining orders. Have those slowed down this access in any way or stopped some of this access, or are Musk and his and his team effectively blowing through them?

BARRETT: There has been some, I think we saw at treasury, we saw the pullback of the level of access that they had. I think were seeing other lawsuits that are I think that process is slow. I think the legal process is going to take a while to get there, but I think we are seeing little wins chipping along the way that are defining the boundaries.

Again, whether they can do it quickly enough because all of this is happening very fast, all of it. A lot of it has already happened. So I think -- to the point, to the extent that it's been successful, that's great. I think that the urgency is maybe not being met in this moment.

SCIUTTO: A lot of that going around. Brian Barrett, thanks so much for -- for breaking it down for us.

BARRETT: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Coming up ahead of the next hostage release tomorrow, what we're learning about the list of people Hamas says it will be sending home to Israel.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:36:00]

SCIUTTO: Hamas released the names of three Israeli men it says it will free from Gaza on Saturday. This will be the fifth round of exchanges under the ongoing ceasefire with Israel. The three men are 56-year-old Ohad Ben-Ami, 52-year-old Eli Sharabi, and 34-year-old Or Levi.

The Israeli prime minister -- prime minister's office confirmed these men will be released on what will be their 491st day of captivity.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond has more on their release, and the scores of Palestinian prisoners who will also be part of this exchange.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: We've now learned the names of the three Israeli hostages set to be released from Hamas captivity on Saturday as part of this ceasefire agreement.

The first one is Eli Sharabi, a 52-year-old who was taken captive by Hamas from Kibbutz Be'eri on October 7th. His wife and his two daughters were sadly killed in that October 7th massacre. His brother was also taken hostage from that same kibbutz on that same day, but he died in captivity, likely killed by an Israeli airstrike, according to the Israeli military.

Then we are also expecting the release of 56-year-old Ohad Ben-Ami, also taken hostage from Kibbutz Be'eri alongside his wife Raz Ben-Ami. You can see the reaction of the family here as they learned the news that he would be released. His wife Raz is in that video because she was released as part of that November 2023 ceasefire agreement.

And lastly, Or Levi, a 34-year-old who was kidnapped from the Nova Music Festival, will be released. Sadly, his wife was killed on that day alongside so many others in that Nova Music Festival, but he will be returning to his son, a three-year-old boy who has been waiting more than 15 months now for his father to return.

Four hundred and ninety-one days of captivity so far for these hostages. And, of course, we know that dozens still do indeed remain in captivity. We are also expecting that 183 Palestinian prisoners and detainees will be released in exchange for these hostages. According to Hamas, 18 are serving life sentences, 111 were detained in Gaza since October 7th.

The Israeli government has yet to actually confirm the number or the names of those Palestinian prisoners.

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Tel Aviv.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: Our thanks to Jeremy.

After the break, the impact of USAID funding cuts seen in the poorest parts of Africa. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:41:35]

SCIUTTO: A great deal of anxiety and uncertainty loom over USAID cuts, nowhere more evident than in sub-Saharan Africa, the poorest region in Africa received more than $6.5 billion in U.S. aid last year. That aid now hangs very much in the balance.

CNN's Larry Madowo has more from Uganda.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

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 got to 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 and 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 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 counterargument 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.

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 U.S. aid to fund your health care and development.

KAGAME: I think from being hurt, we might we might learn some lessons to, you know, to do things we don't do that we should be doing. That's what I'm saying here. This aid thing, which I've never been a friend of it much as I've been a beneficiary of it. 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 to that African countries, those that depend on this funding need to learn to be self- sufficient. They can't be relying on the generosity of others forever.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: Our thanks to Larry Madowo for that report from Uganda.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk is not only focused on shaking up the government here in the U.S. He's also set his sights very much on Britain. Musk has been targeting British Prime Minister Keir Starmer over a sex abuse scandal for more than a decade ago, when Starmer was a prosecutor.

CNN's Nic Robertson examines how Musk's actions are opening old wounds in one northern England town.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAR RADIO: Good morning.

[15:45:01]

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.

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.

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: Sam, who was raped by a South Asian grooming gang, doesn't want to show her face, fearing a backlash.

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

ROBERTSON: Do the police handed you over to abusers?

WALKER-ROBERTS: Yes.

ROBERTSON: You were how old then?

WALKER-ROBERTS: Twelve, yeah, I was. Children were meant to trust officials. I was hurt from that.

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

Starmer accused Musk of, quote, lies and disinformation.

The region's former chief prosecutor questions Musk's motivation.

NAZIR AFZAL, FORMER CHIEF PROSECUTOR FOR NORTH-WEST ENGLAND: He's just -- just stirring up a racist pot.

ROBERTSON: 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're not telling them that they're 40 times more likely in this country to be abused by a British white guy.

ROBERTSON: 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 poorer, with higher than national average immigration.

Oldham, a rust belt type of town, is also pushing back.

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

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

WAHID: Some of the rhetoric is coming out with is probably not helpful. ROBERTSON: Which bit is that?

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: 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. And too many people are jumping on this bandwagon.

ROBERTSON: A bandwagon, Musk, perhaps figures, might drive Starmer from office.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Oldham, England.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: We should note, CNN has reached out to Musk's team for comment, has not yet heard back.

And we will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:52:17]

SCIUTTO: Super Bowl weekend is finally here. The Kansas City Chiefs are looking for a three-peat, something that's never been done in the NFL.

Chiefs star tight end Travis Kelce says for him, it's always more about the journey than the destination.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRAVIS KELCE, CHIEFS TIGHT END: I used to want to be known as the greatest tight end ever, but I think it's just more so enjoying these moments that I have with my teammates and trying to get these wins and create these memories. These -- this -- this entire year has been such a, you know, it's been such a battle for every single person that comes into that building every week, putting their body on the line, putting the their lives aside, outside of football, just for one common goal. And I think I want to be known as just one of the best teammates these guys have ever had.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: I'm sure he wouldn't mind hoisting the Super Bowl trophy again.

CNN's Andy Scholes is in New Orleans ahead of the game with a preview.

(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 playoffs. So, you know the Chiefs are going 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, Hurt 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, you know, I've always been focused on, you know, what I'm asked to do and can I do it at a high level? And then also -- also processing the way that I'm being taught to see the game and then how I already see the game, and then obviously you have that burning desire to win. So, all of those things are 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 think that's pretty cool.

KELCE: 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 would be pretty cool.

PATRICK MAHOMES, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS QUARTERBACK: It's always cool to be able to play in front of a 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 and respects the game that I play.

[15:55:03]

SCHOLES: Now, Thursday, we had the Kendrick Lamar Super Bowl halftime 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 storytelling. And he 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 Swifties are certainly hoping that she shows up at halftime. We'll have to wait and see.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: I put some pretty big money on Taylor Swift showing up for the Super Bowl.

Thanks so much for joining me today. I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington.

"QUEST MEANS BUSINESS" is up next. Hope you have a great weekend.