Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Judge Halts Trump's Plan To Put USAID Workers On Leave; Dismantling USAID Means Deaths Are Inevitable Says Aid Groups; Heightened Preparations As Trump Is Expected To Attend Super Bowl LIX; Egg Prices Surge Amid Bird Flu Outbreaks; Fears Grow Over New Bird Flu Infections in Dairy Cattle; The Legality of U.S. Flying Migrants to Guantanamo; Missing Alaska Plane With 10 Aboard Found With No Survivors; Three More Hostages Released By Hamas; Puppy Bowl XXI, From Shelter To Stardom. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired February 08, 2025 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:00]

ROBERT "SCOOP" JACKSON, SPORTS JOURNALIST: And people carry what you did on the court with them to thing that you did off the court. And I think he saw that in Michael Jordan in his connection to what he did with his shoe brand and what he did with Nike, and what he did in other businesses, and how he was able to parlay his basketball career to team ownership. And I think he saw the way Mike moved, and not that he was trying to move in that way, but to be in that, what we like to call the second mission category.

And coming up, that was the whole thing is like Mike was always going to be mentioned first, but who was going to be that second mention when we talked about the GOAT, when we talked about who was the greatest ever in all aspects? I think to get that second mention, Kobe understood that he had to have the same level of greatness achieved outside of basketball, you know, than what he did on the court.

And he really put himself in position I think to, if not be that second mentioned, to at least be a tie in the first mention with Michael Jordan as far as greatness was concerned.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: I love that you talk about the parallels with Michael Jordan because who can forget during that memorial service, you know, for Kobe, how much Michael Jordan talked about, you know, he was like his brother? So, you know, it's palpable.

Scoop Jackson, thank you so much for being with us and thank you for sharing some of those details about what you recall about Kobe Bryant and your memories of him.

And of course, everyone, be sure to tune in to the final episode of "KOBE THE MAKING OF A LEGEND," that airs tonight at 9:00 Eastern and Pacific right here on CNN.

Hello again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

And top of the hour now where we are following new developments involving a legal setback for the Trump administration. A new court ruling is halting President Trump's plans to eliminate most of the workforce of a major U.S. humanitarian agency. A federal judge has temporarily blocked a plan by the Trump administration to put thousands of workers at USAID on indefinite leave or firing them.

Hours before the ruling, crews were seen removing signage from the agency's headquarters in Washington, D.C. The judge's ruling prevents more than 2200 people from being placed on administrative leave. The judge also ordering the government to reinstate 500 workers who have already been placed on leave. It's an agency Trump's daughter Ivanka once championed when she served as a White House adviser.

CNN's Betsy Klein is joining us right now.

Walk us through these details.

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE PRODUCER: Well, Fred, we have seen the Trump administration dramatically reshaping the role of the U.S. in the world as it comes to humanitarian aid and slashing federal spending. Now, to put this into some perspective, USAID's budget last year was $40 billion out of about $6.75 trillion for an overall U.S. federal budget.

But it was really one of those early first targets of President Trump's team. And we saw just on day one issuing an executive order calling for a reevaluation of foreign aid programs. Then we started to see some of these USAID projects be subject to stop orders across the globe. And then acting agency leadership called for putting all direct hires on leave as of just before midnight on Friday.

Now that, as you mentioned, was subject to a stop from a halt by a federal judge who issued an order temporarily blocking more than 2,000 USAID officials from being placed on leave. Now, it would have impacted about -- it would have left about 300 USAID officials out of a 10,000 person strong workforce. Of course, welcome news for USAID employees. But of course, a lot of uncertainty and frustration going forward after President Trump has said that the organization is run by radical lunatics.

But it is really an important tool for soft power for the U.S., promoting American values abroad. And a lot of questions and concerns from sources we've talked to about who fills that vacuum in the absence of U.S. leadership -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: And then, Betsy, what more can you tell us about, you know, Ivanka Trump's past support of USAID?

KLEIN: Well, I think Ivanka really helps tell the story of this dramatic pivot on foreign aid from President Trump. It was a key priority for him back in 2019, and it was such an important priority that he actually mentioned it as part of his State of the Union address, that he would be launching the Women's Global Development and Prosperity Initiative, spearheaded by his daughter under the USAID umbrella.

And that was, by all accounts, a very successful program that was continued under the Biden administration and reached a number of people abroad. But really, it addressed food insecurity, closing the digital divide. It also provided capital to women entrepreneurs across the globe.

[15:05:01]

So it was halted by this work stop order just a few weeks ago and again, very uncertain future for these kinds of programs -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Betsy Klein, thank you so much.

All right. From fighting disease to feeding the hungry, USAID is credited with saving the lives of millions of people around the world. Humanitarian groups say without the agency, deaths would be inevitable.

CNN's Brian Todd has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At this hospital in Thailand refugees from war-torn Myanmar say services at their refugee camp came to a sudden stop after the U.S. froze aid to the region.

MAUNG LAY, INJURED REFUGEE FROM MYANMAR (through translator): We don't have money to buy medicines. We will all die if we have no medicine at the camp.

TODD: Part of the fallout worldwide of President Trump's decision to gut the U.S. Agency for International Development, USAID, the agency that provides food and other humanitarian assistance to millions around the world. The president citing alleged waste and fraud unearthed by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.

SAMANTHA POWER, FORMER USAID ADMINISTRATOR: Sixty percent of the budget goes to humanitarian emergencies, literally to provide shelter, food, and medicine to keep people alive.

TODD: In 2023, USAID says it provided nearly $2 billion in food assistance to more than 45 million people around the world. But now food services in famine stricken places like Sudan are already shutting down. Programs to provide safe drinking water for billions of people in places like the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, and India are under threat. And the impact on treatments for disease could be catastrophic.

ANDREW NATSIOS, FORMER HEAD OF USAID UNDER PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH: There are health clinics around the world that are treating people for HIV/AIDS, for measles, for children who get measles, 50 percent of them die in the developing world. We had a campaign to eradicate polio. That's been stopped.

TODD: And USAID's ability to detect and treat diseases doesn't just help people in faraway lands.

DR. ATUL GAWANDE, FORMER USAID ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR FOR GLOBAL HEALTH: They're responding to diseases that threaten populations and can come to the United States. A case example is right now in Uganda there's a very serious Ebola outbreak in the capital city.

TODD: And another malaria uptick in the U.S., like the one in Florida in recent years, is possible if agencies like USAID can't detect it overseas first. USAID also works with security agencies to safeguard Americans.

STEVE SCHMIDA, FORMER USAID CONTRACTOR: There are organizations monitoring ISIS, right, in Syria, trying to keep an eye on extremist groups to make sure they don't attack us again. You know, these are -- they've gone dark.

TODD: Work often done by USAID employees who are putting themselves in peril.

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: You have USAID employees in incredibly dangerous areas that are impacted not just by disease but also conflict and war. At least some of these workers are in places where they are risking their lives.

TODD: And in some cases, dying. In 2023, A USAID contractor was killed in an airstrike in Gaza. In 2010, suicide bombers stormed a USAID compound in Northern Afghanistan, killing four people.

(On-camera): According to analysts and two former top USAID officials who spoke to CNN, another disturbing ripple effect is that as USAID pulls out of developing nations, America's adversaries like China, Russia and Iran could move right in to fill that void and distribute their own aid to those countries, winning hearts and minds on the ground, something China has already been doing in places like Latin America and Africa.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right. President Trump expected to attend the Super Bowl tomorrow in New Orleans and already heightened security around the event following that deadly terror attack in the city on New Year's Day.

CNN's senior national correspondent Ryan Young is live for us in New Orleans.

Folks are having a good time there. And, you know, they are thinking about, oh, I see a display of security. They are thinking about security, but they're also reveling in the good times.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely. As you can see right here, they want us to clear the middle so were going to walk back just a little bit. But this is the whole part of the process here as you see the folks who are trying to secure the quarter. We've even seen Mike Johnson, Speaker Mike Johnson come through a little earlier, and they cleared the streets. But this is the show of force that they've been doing nonstop to make

sure people are safe. Look, there's a concentrated effort to make sure this street, Bourbon Street, one of the most famous streets in all of America, stay safe, especially after that terror attack that happened right here just during New Year's Eve. But the folks that we've seen have been really happy, been excited about being a part of this. More than 100,000 fans are expected to pack into the city to be a part of the celebrations.

And I can tell you, not only have things turned up just in terms of the volume of people, but the heat is also up. So you put all that together. You know, the president is coming to town. Listen to one city council member talk about the unprecedented level of security for this Super Bowl.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HELENA MORENO, NEW ORLEANS CITY COUNCIL: Not in my 15 years of public service in the city of New Orleans have I ever seen the level of security in the city like it is right now. Unprecedented, no doubt. Everywhere from, of course, local, regional, state, but also on the federal side.

[15:10:03]

We know that things are different because of what's happened here. But any city that's experienced something like this, they've had to face significant changes as well. But our culture and our city, the way that we feel about our city and the love that we have for our city, that still remains.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: Hey, Fred, you know, we walk around, we talk to people all the time. These folks came from New York. We were talking just as we were walking. How do you feel in terms of the safety and security? You've been here for about three days.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. I feel very safe. I've been to a lot of major events. I haven't seen this much army, police presence really ever. It's every single block there's like a different group of police army. There's police cars driving around for all the traffic. So I feel really safe here.

YOUNG: Has that stopped you from having a good time at all?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, of course not. Honestly, it makes you want to go out more because at night you feel more safe.

YOUNG: Fantastic. Thank you for meeting you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, of course.

YOUNG: So those folks are from New York, and so they are here. That's the perspective of people. At one point, they pulled back some of the security from being outside because they didn't want to scare people as they are walking up and down the quarter. But I can tell you things are really safe here outside of the people screaming Eagles or Chiefs. That's all that's going on here -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: Those are the only fighting words and that's OK. All right.

YOUNG: Absolutely.

WHITFIELD: Ryan Young, thank you so much. Helping to keep the peace there in New Orleans.

So as Americans head to the grocery stores to perhaps prepare for their Super Bowl spread, they are facing some sticker shock on some of the items, including eggs, of course, the price of eggs skyrocketing.

CNN's Nick Watt went to the source to find out why this is happening.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRANK HILLIKER, OWNER, HILLIKER FARMS: You can have two.

NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Frank Hilliker is rationing his eggs. The line forms around 7:00 a.m.

How many eggs do you eat?

EMILIE SOUTHWARD, SHOPPER AT HILLIKER FARMS: Myself, probably, three a day.

WATT: What?

SOUTHWARD: Yes.

WATT: That's a lot, no?

SOUTHWARD: That's a normal amount.

HILLIKER: Two dozen?

WATT (voice-over): The average American eats about 284 eggs a year. Well, they used to.

You're consciously dialing back on the eggs?

COLLEEN FINO, SHOPPER AT HILLIKER FARMS: Oh, for sure, yes.

WATT: Because of the price?

FINO: Right.

WATT (voice-over): President Donald Trump claims the high price of eggs helped him win the White House.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They were double and triple the price over a short period of time. And I won an election based on that.

WATT: He made wild promises.

TRUMP: We're going to bring prices way down, and we're going to get it done fast.

WATT: Then he got egged in the first White House briefing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Egg prices have skyrocketed since President Trump took office.

WATT: Democratic lawmakers urged him in a letter to crack down on corporate profiteering.

HILLIKER: They put price controls on things, but now all of a sudden, we're Cuba or Venezuela. You know, who wants to be like that?

WATT: Waffle House just introduced a temporary 50 cent egg surcharge. And Roberto's Tacos, around the corner from Frank's Farm, is charging customers an extra buck 50 for all eggy dishes.

Who are they blaming?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, they take it out on me.

WATT: Smell is rather noticeable.

HILLIKER: What smell?

WATT: Do you eat a lot of them?

HILLIKER: No. They're too expensive. It's gone from $2 to $3 a dozen to $9 a dozen.

WATT: That's massive.

HILLIKER: It is, crazy.

WATT (voice-over): And predicted by the USDA to climb even higher.

HILLIKER: Current egg shortages because of the bird flu.

WATT: It is, fully.

HILLIKER: Because of the bird flu.

WATT (voice-over): The only way to stop the spread is to cull millions of infected birds, so slashing egg supply.

HILLIKER: These astronomical prices are all due on supply and demand. Economics 101. There's nothing Biden could have done to stop the bird flu. Look, there's nothing President Trump could have done to stop the bird flu. It's neither of their fault.

WATT: You literally have all your eggs in one basket.

HILLIKER: Yes, I do. You got to be careful with that.

WATT: There are so many other bad egg wordplays that we could use, but --

HILLIKER: Eggs-actly.

WATT (voice-over): Nick Watt, CNN, Lakeside, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:18:52]

WHITFIELD: Scientists have new concerns about the deadly bird flu virus after a second strain was detected in six cowherds this week. It is the first time this variant was found in dairy cattle, meaning it made the jump from one species to another. And now scientists are worried that the infection could soon spread to humans and make it more difficult to contain.

Jessica Malaty Rivera is an infectious disease epidemiologist and a senior adviser at the Pandemic Prevention Institute.

Great to see you. So this new report just in from the USDA found that the newer strain of bird flu has a genetic change that may help the virus infect mammals more easily. How concerned are you about this?

JESSICA MALATY RIVERA, INFECTIOUS DISEASE EPIDEMIOLOGIST: You know, Fredericka, really concerning because we have not seen an outbreak like this. It's quite unprecedented to have these many animals, particularly mammals that live in close proximity to humans, have these many cases. And with every new infection, the risk of mutation increases. And so when we saw news that this new more severe genotype that had previously only been infecting birds, now in dairy cattle, it does raise a lot of alarms that we are not ahead of this outbreak.

[15:20:06]

It is happening at a scale that we cannot get ahold of. And in the absence of really good data and really real-time data, we're kind of flying in the dark here.

WHITFIELD: So what has to be done to get ahead of it or at least contain this outbreak?

RIVERA: A few things. We need massive surveillance. We need to upscale our surveillance at a very local level with farmers, with cattle, with all types of bird species. We need to increase vaccination, vaccination access to those who are most at risk. Those include farmers and people who are in close proximity like veterinarians. And we need to have really good data systems so that these are really transparent so that people can see exactly what's going on.

These delays in the information are making it really difficult for folks to have responsive public health measures. And we've not really seen a delay like this since what happened with COVID-19 in those early days of the pandemic.

WHITFIELD: So you said vaccination. Wait a minute. There's vaccination against bird flu for mammals?

RIVERA: There are vaccinations available for mammals. And right now, you know, even with humans, for instance, seasonal flu vaccine will actually really help because one of the concerns that we have is something called reassortment. And reassortment happens when somebody with a regular, say, human flu type, is infected with that and then gets exposed to, say, h5n1. Those two flu viruses can reassort and then essentially like think about a deck of cards reshuffling and can then adapt in a way that will make it turn into a different type of virus that can then affect the upper respiratory tract, which right now it's more of a lower respiratory tract infection.

But seasonal flu vaccines are actually one way we can keep this down, because we don't want people having a combination of seasonal flu plus bird flu. But for bird flu vaccines, it is available to mammals and they are vaccinating animals right now. But they're just not doing it at a scale that we would hope to see.

WHITFIELD: So what do you want to see happen next?

RIVERA: Like I said, we need better surveillance. We need better data systems and reporting. I mean, just this week, we saw the CDC's MMWR, which is the morbidity, mortality weekly report, finally resumed after a two-week kind of unprecedented hiatus. What we were expecting to see were the three reports about h5n1 that were in the pipeline, but instead we saw a report about the wildfires in Maui and in Los Angeles.

And that's the kind of data that will really help us make better informed choices. And so the biggest thing I want to see right now is transparency, communications, data reporting, better surveillance. All of these things are really lacking right now, and it's causing us to have a really slow response to this unprecedented outbreak.

WHITFIELD: Well, if you believe all those things are lacking now, what are your concerns or thoughts or what do you look forward to if there is a vote of confirmation this coming week? Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is nominated as secretary of Health and Human Services. What are your thoughts, concerns about what's on the horizon?

RIVERA: You know, the danger of having somebody like RFK Jr. at the head of HHS, an industry -- an agency that has an overseas workforce of over 80,000 people and a $1.7 trillion budget, the danger of this cannot be understated. We're talking about somebody who has a basic misunderstanding of the very thing he's trying to solve, chronic diseases, to not understand that infectious diseases are a large driver of chronic disease infections is a huge misunderstanding.

And to want to cut infectious disease research for what he said eight years during an unprecedented infectious disease outbreak is unbelievably dangerous. You know, what he's trying to do is relitigate evidence or science for which we have mountains and decades of evidence to prove the very thing that he's claiming either doesn't exist or is not true. It's unusual that he also continues to invoke the scope of work that is outside of HHS, things that would be under the purview of, say, EPA or even USDA.

And so we need somebody who understands the science, who understands the science of chronic diseases and infectious diseases, who understands the principles of public health, which is harm reduction, the value of some of the greatest gifts that public health has given us, which is vaccination. And to have somebody who kind of refutes all that and is antagonistic about all those things is deeply concerning.

WHITFIELD: You're an epidemiologist, but you're also a mother of three. What are your -- what's your confidence level about whether your kids are going to be -- will have the access to all the vaccines that you believe in?

RIVERA: Oh, that's a terrifying question to be honest. I don't think that one person can single handedly just ban vaccines. I think that that would be absolutely, incredibly difficult to do. But what we are talking about here is, or he's proposing is almost creating these parallel systems to retest or relitigate the value, the safety and efficacy of vaccines for which we have, again, like I said, tons of data.

[15:25:07]

I don't think vaccines will disappear immediately after a confirmation of RFK, but I do think it's going to be very difficult to possibly, especially in some jurisdictions that are more antagonistic to vaccines, where they become more, you know, optional. It may be harder for some folks to either get access to them or to get good information about them. Right now, we're even seeing the basic papers that come with a vaccine appointment no longer available on the CDC's Web site. You have to go to places like immunize.org to get that information.

So it's not a good precedent that we're setting right now on vaccine confidence and vaccine availability. But I'm hopeful that one person cannot just delete the access to them.

WHITFIELD: All right. Jessica Malaty Rivera, thank you so much. Good to see you.

RIVERA: Thanks for having me.

WHITFIELD: All right. Coming up, is it legal for the U.S. government to fly migrants from the southern border to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba? A law professor who litigated Guantanamo issues weighing in, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:30:29]

WHITFIELD: As the Trump administration ramps up immigration deportation efforts, they're looking for new places to house detainees. On Friday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visited Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. The Trump administration is taking steps to use the naval base there to temporarily hold 30,000 migrants. I'm joined now by Harold Hongju Koh. He is a law professor at Yale who

litigated Guantanamo related issues and later served as a senior diplomat in the Clinton and Obama administrations. His latest book is the "National Security Constitution in the 21st Century."

Professor, great to see you.

HAROLD HONGJU KOH, INTERNATIONAL LAW PROFESSOR, YALE UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL: Good to see you, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: So past presidents have utilized Guantanamo Bay to house migrants, including Haitians, Cubans. I actually have spent some time in Guantanamo covering when the Haitian and Cuban refugee crisis had reached a particular peak, and using those facilities. But how do you see the Trump administration's plans either mirroring or differing from those efforts?

KOH: Well, they differ in a way that makes them really impossible to achieve. First, those cases you described all involved people who are coming to the United States and had never entered the United States, and therefore hadn't acquired various kinds of rights. The people who he's talking about bringing there now have been in the United States, and they're subject to what are called removal procedures, where they're supposed to determine whether they're criminals who must be deported.

They have all the rights that you would have under U.S. law, and they can't be removed without continuing to exercise those rights. Secondly, we're in a situation where they've never brought that many people to Guantanamo. In the current setup down there, you've been there on the left side of the base. It's a bay. The facility only holds about 100 people, 100 to 120 people. He's talking about bringing 30,000 people there.

The last time that was even envisioned, that would have had tents on every single runway, every single golf course, and other thing on the other side of the base. This is in a desert environment. It would require more hospitals. The water there is not drinkable. It's through desalination. The cost per person would be astronomical. And finally, and most important, there is no legal authority to detain people outside the United States who are in removal proceedings. The people who are there now, who are supposedly al Qaeda, have been detained under the law of war authorities. But these are people who are being called removable, and they haven't proved that they're removable yet.

WHITFIELD: So you're already painting a picture of what would be unbearable conditions if you're talking about the current White House's plan of 30,000 migrants to be housed there. I think when I was there, because there was an overflow, people were staying in tents. It was hot. It was not optimal, that's for sure. But again, you helped remind us that was temporary.

How long do you think the White House is proposing to hold people there at Gitmo under what could be, you know, very uncomfortable conditions? KOH: Well, I think the prior question is how many people are they

going to bring down there? There had been only 15 al Qaeda detainees down there, and they just brought down 10 more Venezuelans who are people who are in removal. That's only 25. But this is a classic example of what we've seen in the last few weeks, which is talk big and figure out the implementation later. When Secretary Noem went there yesterday, I'm sure she started to understand that certain promises had been made that were just impossible to achieve.

And so what I think we're going to see here, as we've seen in a bunch of other areas, is an effort to walk this back, having made this big claim. I think eventually they'll bring a small number of people there. They cannot hold them indefinitely or it would be illegal. And there will be lawsuits filed. And then, as we've seen in the stories at the top of the hour, probably their presence there will be blocked and then the administration will hope that everybody forgets that they did this announcement.

[15:35:11]

WHITFIELD: In your in your latest book, you talk about the importance of checks and balances to keep the U.S. safe. You know, what do you make of the flurry of executive orders the president is signing, the use of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency team, all of this?

KOH: Well, I think we're seeing an effort to use executive orders illegally to destroy our preparedness to alienate our allies and to harm vulnerable individuals. And this is really a stunningly misguided policy being pursued illegally. What's going on with Elon Musk is essentially empowering private --

And that's the reason why you have full time government employees who have been cleared and are entitled to take care of classified information and know how to use it. So what Trump is trying to do is destroy the established government and then bring in a bunch of amateurs. Some of the people who are working for Musk are, you know, 19-year-old tech kids, and they think that they can replicate in --

WHITFIELD: All right. Sorry we got a bad signal right there. But I think we do get the gist of the professor, Professor Harold Hongju Koh's a point of view. Thank you so much, Professor.

All right. Coming up, recovery crews are working to recover the remaining victims of a regional airline that crashed off the coast of western Alaska before weather conditions worsened. A live report next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:41:31]

WHITFIELD: A plane that disappeared in Alaska Thursday with 10 people on board has been found with no survivors. Officials are working to recover remaining victims and the wreckage in Nome, Alaska, with harsh weather on the way.

CNN's Julia Vargas Jones is joining us with the very latest -- Julia.

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Fred. Of those 10 people, nine of them passengers, one pilot. We are learning the identity of these victims, two of them workers on their way to this remote region of Alaska, northwest Alaska, to work on a water plant to bring heating issues, to fix heating issues in this remote community. Both of them, Rhone Baumgartner and Kameron Hartvigson with the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium.

We're also learning inclement weather on the way starting tonight. So crews really have about 18 hours of time before they have to -- might have to stop due to snow and slush and wind that will be coming their way. We are hearing from the Coast Guard also more on what could have happened to make that plane lose connection with the tower.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN MCINTYRE-COBLE, COAST GUARD LIEUTENANT COMMANDER: Around. 3:18 p.m. yesterday afternoon. This aircraft experienced some kind of event which caused them to experience a rapid loss in elevation and a rapid loss in speed. What that event is, I can't speculate to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VARGAS JONES: And Fred, there's still seven people there aboard that plane that have not yet been recovered. Now, authorities are saying that that is their priority. We are waiting to hear more from the NTSB in the coming hours.

WHITFIELD: All right. Keep us posted, Julia Vargas Jones. Thanks so much.

All right. Coming up, families celebrate after three more Israeli hostages are freed. But their frail appearances causing alarm.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:48:03]

WHITFIELD: Celebrations after three more Israeli hostages were released by Hamas earlier today. But as Jeremy Diamond explains, the homecomings were more somber than previous releases.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, we are in Hostages Square where earlier today we witnessed very emotional scenes as hundreds of Israelis gathered here to watch as those three Israeli hostages were released from Hamas captivity after 491 days. But it was really a roller coaster of emotions. Initially, yes, there was the wave of relief as those three hostages emerged in live pictures for the first time after more than 15 months.

But then there was also some pained looks on the faces of many here, as they realized the state in which those three Israeli hostages were emerging. All three of them looking quite frail and emaciated after their time in captivity. It was particularly striking to see the image of Eli Sharabi, a 52-year-old who was taken hostage from Kibbutz Be'eri on October 7th. The difference between how he looked before he was taken hostage and how he looks now really striking. Clearly, he has lost a lot of weight.

And really, these images are driving the Israeli public to focus on the remaining hostages in Gaza. And these images driving a public debate here in Israel over the fate of this ceasefire agreement, with many saying that it is a reason to push to extend this agreement and to ensure that all of the remaining hostages in Gaza come home now.

Earlier this week, it's important to note that the Israeli defense minister, the former Israeli defense minister, Yoav Gallant, noted that the agreement that is bringing these hostages home now is identical to the one that Hamas agreed to in July. And his point being that all that has happened since then are wasted months during which many of these hostages have faced dire conditions.

But in addition to that sense of urgency, we did see the emotional reunions between these three newly freed hostages and their families, many of them meeting initially at the Re'im military base in southern Israel, and then others also meeting with them at hospitals in central Israel.

[15:50:18]

In addition to that, we've seen as 183 Palestinian prisoners have been released from Israeli prisons in exchange for those three hostages. They include 18 who were serving life sentences. Several of those will be deported to third party countries. 111 of them were detained in Gaza over the course of this war since October 7th. We know, of course, that some of those who have been detained in Gaza were rounded up as part of Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip.

Many of them held without charge or without trial. And now indeed being released as part of this agreement and on the Palestinian side as well, both in Gaza as well as in the West Bank, we have seen images of people reuniting with family members and also, of course, several individuals who were taken to hospitals after their time in Israeli prisons.

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Tel Aviv.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:55:48]

WHITFIELD: All right. Tomorrow is game day for the NFL players in New Orleans, but also for the doggies of the Puppy Bowl. More than 100 rescue dogs will show off their moves and compete for the Lombarky trophy. The best playing pup will win the Most Valuable Pup award. Of course. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAN SCHACHNER, PUPPY BOWL REFEREE: Don't try to hide from me. Come here, come here, guy, come here. It's OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Hey. Oh, you heard the games referee Dan Schachner. And there he is. Is that Poppy? Did you adopt Poppy from last year's bowl?

SCHACHNER: It sure is. That's right. You have a great memory.

WHITFIELD: Oh, my gosh. So tell me more. I mean, what are people going to -- what should they expect tomorrow. And then how do they get a cute Poppy like you've got?

SCHACHNER: Right. Yes, well, you won't expect Poppy. She is officially retired from the game.

WHITFIELD: No, of course.

SCHACHNER: But she's here to tell you as an ambassador of the game that it's our 21st year. We're bigger and better than ever. We have 142 dogs, rescue dogs across the country participating in this year's bowl. It's a three-hour event. We're going to have 80 different shelters across 40 different states, including 11 special needs dogs. All of our favorites will be there. The kiddie halftime show. We'll have a special pregame show and by the end of the Puppy Bowl, like every year, we expect every single one of our dogs to get adopted.

WHITFIELD: Oh, my gosh. And so how does it work? You're watching, you go online, you bid, you, I mean --

SCHACHNER: Yes.

WHITFIELD: OK, tell me more.

SCHACHNER: That's it. You don't have to bid. You just go to PuppyBowl.com, get connected with that shelter. And guess what? If that dog is already taken, chances are the dogs and Puppy Bowl are part of a litter. So they have siblings at that same shelter that are up for adoption.

WHITFIELD: Oh, that's a very important piece of intel to know. OK, your little Poppy is so cute and calm. I mean, does adopting a dog also come with some, you know, instructions? Some assistance?

SCHACHNER: Yes, 100 percent. And as a referee this year of over 140 dogs, I can tell you we've seen it all and you're going to see it all if you're considering adopting. So make sure you have the time and the energy for a pup. You know, the time, the patience. A lot of weewee pads will be helpful, a lot of treats and love will be helpful, too.

WHITFIELD: Oh, my gosh. And these dogs are really playing rough there, but they're really having a good time. I mean, this really has become a full time job for you as well, hasn't it? Because you keep coming back for more and all of us as viewers keep tuning in for more. It seems like it's instant gratification, both sides.

SCHACHNER: It is. A, because we surprise ourselves every year. We get our roster size larger and larger every year, and we see puppies do new things every year, like kick field goals, score double touchdowns, and then the crazy stuff like stealing my penalty flag, bathing in the water bowl, napping on the sidelines, and a little bit of illegal odor downfield penalties get called from time to time, too.

WHITFIELD: Oh, my gosh, how fun. All right, so tell me about this halftime show. What should we expect?

SCHACHNER: Well, I think the human version of our game has got Kendrick Lamar. We've got Kitty Lamar. So we've got adoptable kittens all performing for your viewing pleasure. They'll be dancing and playing during halftime. So don't -- you know if you take a bathroom break don't -- make sure it's a short one so you don't miss the fun.

WHITFIELD: Oh, OK. I mean, so kitties can be, you know, a little demure, you know, and low key. So what should be our expectations of their, you know, high energy performance? Is this a case in which we'll see some high energy from some kitties?

SCHACHNER: Oh, yes. You'll see -- oh, 100 percent. You know, we're athletic through and through at Puppy Bowl. And not only that, these kittens are also looking for a home. So I think they're going to be putting on a little bit extra sauce in their performance to try to appeal to the viewers and find their adoptive home forever.

WHITFIELD: All right, Dan Schachner, always so fun. Little Poppy as cute as can be. Congratulations on your new bond. And of course we'll all be watching the Puppy Bowl. It's kicking off tomorrow at 2:00. We won't be watching because we'll be on the show at 2:00. But, you know, maybe in between commercial breaks you can tune in, but then you come back to us.

It's across the Warner Brothers channels, including Animal Planet, Discovery and streaming of course on Max.

All right. Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. The NEWSROOM with Jessica Dean starts right now.