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Teacher Detained In Russia Back In U.S. After "Exchange:"; Donald Trump Demands Hamas Release All Israeli Hostages; How Donald Trump's Gaza Plan Could Complicate Ties In Middle East; Judge Blocks Limit On Research Money From Government; Impact Of USAID Cuts On Thai Refugee Camp; USAID Cuts Impact Thai Refugee Camp, Aid Groups Running Out of Funds; Pope Criticizes Trump for Mass Deportation of Migrants; Lava Shooting Out of Hawaii's Kilauea Volcano; Two Stuck Astronauts May Get Home Earlier Than Expected. Aired 2-2:45a ET
Aired February 12, 2025 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[02:00:26]
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world, and to everyone streaming us on CNN Max. I'm Rosemary Church.
Just ahead.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARC FOGEL, U.S. TEACHER FORMERLY DETAINED IN RUSSIA: Thank you all. I love our country, and I'm so happy to be back here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: A long awaited homecoming. An American teacher detained in Russia for more than three years is now back on U.S. soil.
Push back from Jordan, Donald Trump's proposal to have the country take in Palestinians from Gaza falls flat as the fragile cease fire between Hamas and Israel now hangs in the balance.
And lives on the line, we will see the real world impact of U.S. foreign aid now cut off from refugees in Myanmar.
ANNOUNCER: Live from Atlanta. This is CNN NEWSROOM with Rosemary Church.
CHURCH: Thanks for joining us. Another American detained in Russia is now back on U.S. soil. President Donald Trump welcomed Marc Fogel to the White House last night.
The American teacher was arrested in Moscow in 2021 for carrying cannabis and given a 14-year sentence at a hard labor camp as a result. Vogel praised President Trump and other U.S. officials for arranging his release. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FOGEL: I feel like the luckiest man on Earth right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: The details of the exchange to secure Fogel's release are still unclear, but Mr. Trump said those would be revealed today and shared some other information about the deal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What were the terms of this deal, Mr. President?
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Very fair, very, very fair, very reasonable. Not like deals you've seen over the years. They were very fair. And I think that's going to lead and we're -- somebody else is being released tomorrow that you will know of. But we wanted to get this done, very important.
I think there's good will in terms of the war. You know, million and a half soldiers, young people have been killed.
FOGEL: I've met many of them.
TRUMP: And it's -- yes, and it's a -- it's a terrible thing going on, so we want to get that done. I think -- I think this could be the very important element. You could be a big part of it, actually, because it could be a big, important part of getting the war over with Ukraine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: CNN's Jeff Zeleny has details.
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: An extraordinary scene at the White House on Tuesday evening is President Donald Trump welcoming an American home from Russia. Marc Fogel, a school teacher from Pennsylvania, 63 years old. He'd been held as a prisoner for more than three years on a drug charge. This has been a release long in the making. It became clear throughout the day on a Tuesday.
The president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, flew to Moscow and brought home Marc Fogel. When he arrived at the White House, he had this to say to the president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FOGEL: I am not a hero in this at all, and President Trump is a hero. These men that came from the diplomatic service are heroes. The senators and representatives that passed legislation in my honor to get me home are the heroes. I am in awe of what they all did
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZELENY: On a snow covered frigid February evening, signs also of a thaw in relations between the United States and Russia. The president said this was a sign of goodwill. Certainly the diplomatic conversations are going on between the U.S. and Russia all over Ukraine. The vice president scheduled to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday.
Now, the president did not say what this would mean in the long term. However, it's clear that channels have been opened up. This is the first time a top U.S. official, as far as we know, has visited Moscow to bring home a prisoner since the Ukrainian war began.
Now this is something that clearly has been in the works for a very long time. Marc Fogel's mother spoke with Donald Trump last summer at that campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania moments before the assassination attempt on his life. You could see the gratitude on his face Tuesday night at the White House, certainly a major moment.
The president said one more prisoner to be released on Wednesday. Jeff Zeleny, CNN, the White House.
[02:05:02]
CHURCH: As Jeff Zeleny mentioned, Marc Fogel's mother personally approached President Trump about helping free her son. She describes her joy when she learned he was finally coming home.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MALPHINE FOGEL, MARC FOGEL'S MOTHER: He said, I'm in the Moscow airport. And I said, what are you doing in the airport. He said, I'm waiting to get on a plane to Washington, D.C. And I just was totally blown away, and he said, I'm coming home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: More details of Fogel's release are expected in the coming hours.
Israeli protesters are taking to the streets with a clear message for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, holding signs that say, don't blow the deal. This comes as Netanyahu says the cease fire in Gaza will collapse and the IDF will return to intense fighting if Hamas does not release hostages on Saturday as planned.
Hamas says it remains committed to the agreement, a day after accusing Israel of cease fire violations and threatening to postpone the hostage release. Netanyahu, though, seems emboldened by support from the U.S. president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): We all welcomed President Trump's demand for the release of our hostages by Saturday noon, and we all also welcome the president's revolutionary vision for the future of Gaza.
TRUMP: They either have them out by Saturday at 12:00 or all bets are off.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Jeremy Diamond brings us the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voice over): After three weeks of emotional reunions in Israel, and at long last calm in Gaza, the Israel-Hamas ceasefire now hanging by a thread.
NETANYAHU (through translator): If Hamas does not return our hostages by Saturday noon, the ceasefire will end, and the IDF will return to intense fighting until Hamas is completely defeated.
DIAMOND: The Israeli prime minister piggybacking off this ultimatum from President Trump.
TRUMP: As far as I'm concerned, if all of the hostages aren't returned by Saturday at 12:00, I think it's an appropriate time, I would say cancel it and all bets are off and let hell break out.
DIAMOND: After convening his security cabinet, Netanyahu not going quite as far, with an Israeli official telling CNN Israel is demanding Hamas release nine living hostages in the coming days.
Hamas threatening not to release any hostages this weekend, accusing Israel of multiple ceasefire violations. The Palestinian Ministry of Health says Israel has killed 92 people and wounded another 822 in Gaza since the start of the ceasefire. Israel has acknowledged several incidents during the ceasefire in which troops opened fire, saying Palestinians approached IDF positions in Gaza.
Humanitarian aid has surged into Gaza. But Palestinian officials say Israel is blocking the entry of some shelters, leaving many here exposed to the wind and rain. Israel called Hamas' accusations completely false.
The back and forth could not come at a more sensitive time in Israel after the release of three emaciated hostages shocked the nation.
Those images driving a new wave of protests, demanding the government reach a deal to release all 76 hostages as several families learned more about the conditions their loved ones are enduring.
ZIV ABUD, GIRLFRIEND OF HOSTAGE ELIYA COHEN: We heard that he was wounded. We heard that he was tortured and that he didn't get medical care, and that he was starving.
DIAMOND: In Israel's parliament, heated confrontations. Slaughtered and forgotten, disgusting, this woman shouts at former Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who is among those calling for returning to war.
In Gaza, fear and anxiety about that potential return to war. I pray to God the war doesn't restart. It's enough. How many victims we lost, how many homes were destroyed, this woman says. We are exhausted.
Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Tel Aviv.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Meanwhile, President Trump reiterated his plan to relocate millions of Palestinians in Gaza and redevelop the land as he hosted King Abdullah of Jordan at the White House.
Under Mr. Trump's proposal, Jordan and Egypt and other neighboring countries would be responsible for taking in the estimated two million Palestinians. But King Abdullah says Jordan has a steadfast position against displacing Palestinians.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KING ABDULLAH II, JORDAN: I think the point is, is, how do we make this work in a way that is good for everybody? Obviously, we have to look at the best interests of the United States, of the people in the region, especially to my people of Jordan.
[02:10:10]
TRUMP: We're not going to buy anything, we're going to have it and we're going to keep it, and we're going to make sure that there's going to be peace. And we'll have lots of good things built there, including hotels and office buildings and housing and other things.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Mohammed Bani Salameh is a professor of political science at Yarmouk University. He joins me now from Mafraq in Jordan. Appreciate you being with us.
MOHAMMED BANI SALAMEH, PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, YARMOUK UNIVERSITY: Happy to be with you. Good evening to your audience.
CHURCH: Thank you, sir. So, in his joint news conference with Jordan's King Abdullah Tuesday, President Donald Trump doubled down on his plan to own Gaza, saying the U.S. has the authority to just take it. Under what authority can trump do that? How legal would that be?
SALAMEH: Well, under the authority of no man's land, Mr. President Trump is acting as we are living without international law, without international principles, as if we are in the state of nature, in the pre era of history.
And I think this is the mentality of a businessman, not a statesman. Those Palestinian people, they have been living there for millions of years. And Mr. Trump, maybe he doesn't understand the concept of homeland.
If something went wrong in the United States, Mr. Trump maybe will go to another island and live there happily ever after, but not for the Palestinian people who have paid heavily and like the rest of nations all over the world, they are entitled to their homeland and to reconstruct, rebuild Gaza and stay there. They won't replace Gaza with any other part in the world, even if they were offered luxury places in United Arab Emirates, in Jordan, in Egypt, anywhere, they won't accept it, because there is no place like homeland.
CHURCH: And President Trump repeated his goal to displace all two million Palestinians in Gaza, referring to a parcel of land in Jordan where they could live.
After their meeting, King Abdullah said Jordan maintains its steadfast position against the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. And his deputy prime minister told CNN that the Palestinians will remain in Gaza.
But what happens if Trump threatens Jordan and Egypt with economic retaliation, if they continue to refuse to take in Gaza Palestinians. What impact would that have on those two countries?
SALAMEH: Well, Jordan and Egypt could potentially face reductions in U.S. economic aid, your -- to their opposition to such settlements. But I think we can survive without those, you know, economic aid. Jordan did it in the past.
In 1979, Jordan refused to join the Camp David Accords back then, and we paid, you know, such a price. And also in 1990 when Jordan refused to join the international coalition against Iraq after the Iraqi occupation in 1990.
According to, you know, our culture, according to the Arabic proverb, a free -- a decent woman will not -- will starve rather than selling her body. The Jordanian people, they are ready to face all these consequences, and not to make Jordan a substitute homeland for the Palestinians.
And by the way, this will endanger not only Jordan and the regime, but also the U.S. and the Western interests in the whole region, because such a proposal will destabilize the whole Middle East.
CHURCH: And how legal is it to forcibly relocate millions of Palestinians under international law, essentially of the whole population of Gaza? How legal is that?
SALAMEH: Well, international law upholds the principle that individuals cannot be forcibly displaced from their homeland. Such actions contradicts the right to self-determination of fundamental principle enshrined in numerous international legal instruments, including the United Nations Charter.
And also, it violates the American principles, the American values, and this will deconstruct Americans, you know, credibility in the region. America is the home of the braves and the land of the free. How do you jeopardize American strategic alliance with countries like Jordan and Egypt in order to implement such an arrogant proposal by President Trump? [02:15:32]
CHURCH: All right.
SALAMEH: The United States would lose more.
CHURCH: Mohammed Bani Salameh, thank you so much for talking with us. Appreciate it.
SALAMEH: You're welcome, thank you.
CHURCH: Still to come, Elon Musk defends his mission. The world's richest man claims there's a mandate to reform the U.S. federal government while downplaying his own potential conflicts of interest. We'll look at that after the break.
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[02:20:24]
CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone.
The world's richest man is defending his mission to cut U.S. government spending and bureaucracy. Elon Musk took questions from reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday, and claimed Donald Trump's election victory is all the authority he needs to gut entire agencies and access taxpayer data from the Treasury Department.
Musk said, with little evidence, the federal government is rife with unelected fraudsters accepting kickbacks, becoming millionaires through deceit.
But he claims his efforts are fully public, despite the lack of oversight or potential conflicts of interest with his billions of dollars in government contracts.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELON MUSK, CEO, TESLA MOTORS: All of our actions are maximally transparent. In fact, I don't think there's been no other case where an organization has been more transparent than the DOGE organization.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Meantime, President Trump is complaining about the various legal challenges to his sweeping executive orders, claiming judges don't have the right to block his efforts to overhaul the federal government.
More on that from CNN's Chief Legal Affairs Correspondent, Paula Reid.
PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: On Tuesday, President Trump directly addressed concerns that he may not follow court orders as his policies continue to be caused or blocked by federal judges. Now, asked by a reporter if he will comply with court orders, Trump
insisted that he would comply with the courts, he says he always abides by them, but he did, of course, say that he would appeal, and acknowledge those appeals take a long time.
But his comments come as he has attacked judges as being, "activist", and his administration has not complied with all the court orders they have faced.
And just Monday night, a federal judge blocked the administration's attempt to limit the amount of money that research institutes can receive from the government, and that was just one of roughly five different ways that the courts told the administration it needed to pause or stop certain policies.
But this losing streak was very much anticipated by Trump lawyers, before Trump was even sworn in, they said they expected his policies would be challenged in court. They would lose these initial challenges, which are often filed in jurisdictions where the challengers expect to win. Republicans do the same thing when challenging democratic policies. They also don't expect to win all the appeals.
But what they hope to do is get to the Supreme Court so that conservative super majority that they hope will share Trump's view of expansive executive power on some of these issues.
So, if anyone thinks that this losing streak, losing all of these cases over the past few weeks, that that would be a deterrent for the Trump policies, it will not.
The one thing that could get them to change course is if they do get a Supreme Court ruling on one of these policies that will give us some indication of how the court views the way Trump and DOGE are using the executive branch.
Once they get that insight, they might change up some of their policies or tactics, but certainly not before then.
Paula Reid, CNN, Washington.
CHURCH: Another Trump initiative has been to freeze humanitarian aid. Still to come, the real impact of those cuts at a refugee camp in Thailand.
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CHURCH: The inspector general of USAID was fired on Tuesday, one day after releasing a report criticizing efforts to dismantle the agency, according to a source familiar with the matter. Paul Martin was told via email that his position was terminated effective immediately. A spokesperson for his office said no reason was given. The administration is required under law to provide 30 days notice to Congress before firing an inspector general, and is supposed to provide reasons.
USAID oversees the distribution of foreign aid from the United States. The Trump administration has moved swiftly to make cuts to the agency, freeze funding and put staff on leave.
Well, the sweeping changes ordered by President Trump and Elon Musk are having a very real impact on people across the world who desperately need help. Ivan Watson takes us inside a refugee camp in Thailand.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
IVAN WATSON, CNN, SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This is what happens when the world's biggest aid donor suddenly stopped sending money. Families ordered to evacuate their sick loved ones from this hospital in the mountains of western Thailand.
Days later, the hospital deserted. Its front gate locked shut.
WATSON: This is a refugee camp for tens of thousands of people who fled the civil war across the nearby border in neighboring Myanmar, the hospital here largely depended on U.S. government funding, which suddenly stopped. And now nearly two weeks --
[02:30:00]
And now, nearly two weeks later, there isn't a single doctor on duty for this community of more than 30,000 people.
WATSON (voice-over): It's a 30-minute drive from this sprawling refugee camp to the nearest Thai hospital. The director here shocked by the sudden closure of the camp hospital.
WATSON: Has this been stressful, these last two weeks for you?
DR. TAWATCHI YINGTAWEESAK, DIRECTOR OF THA SONG YANG HOSPITAL: Yes. Yes, I think so. Yeah. So dangerous.
WATSON (voice-over): His facility has to suddenly absorb some of the refugee camp's patients, and that includes three-year-old Mary. Is this your first baby?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah, first baby.
WATSON: You're going to be a mama soon. You're going to be a mother.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah.
WATSON (voice-over): Suffering high blood pressure, she was rushed to this maternity ward this morning and is now in labor, far from her family and home at the camp.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I just want to ask the U.S. government why they have to stop helping the refugees.
WATSON (voice-over): On January 20th, President Donald Trump ordered an immediate 90-day pause in all U.S. foreign aid. He declared the USAID industry is not aligned with American interest and claims it serves to destabilize world peace. For years, Myanmar has been ripped apart by a brutal civil war, a military dictatorship that seized power in a coup in 2021 battling numerous insurgent groups.
The conflicts forced more than 3 million people to flee their homes. And now, aid organizations tell CNN, they only have a month and a half of funding left to feed refugees along the Thai border with Myanmar, leaving smaller aid groups scrambling to fill the gap.
WATSON: You're going into Myanmar?
KANCHANA THORNTON, DIRECTOR, BURMA CHILDREN MEDICAL FUND: This is -- will go across the border, yeah.
WATSON (voice-over): Kanchana Thornton regularly takes food, infant formula and medicine across the border river to desperate people in the conflict zone. The U.S. funding cut made matters worse.
WATSON: Why is it affecting you? You don't get money from Washington.
THORNTON: Well, patient come to us and asking us for help.
WATSON: Because they're not getting it from the original?
THORNTON: They are not -- yeah, because they're not getting support that they should from the NGO that got the funding cut.
WATSON (voice-over): Everywhere we go in this poverty-stricken border region, we hear about basic services disrupted and aid workers being laid off.
WATSON: This clinic treats nearly 500 patients a day. It receives nearly 20 percent of its funding from the U.S. government. Washington has been sending money here for at least 20 years. But now, all of that has stopped.
WATSON (voice-over): Uncertainty, now felt by Rebecca and her nine- year-old daughter Rosella.
WATSON: Yeah. Can you show me your favorite pictures?
WATSON (voice-over): The residents of the refugee camp who had to move out of the hospital when it shut down last month, even though Rosella was born with a bone condition, she needs oxygen around the clock.
My daughter needs the hospital to be open, Rebecca says, and so do I because I'm pregnant.
The cut in U.S. funding means this pregnant mother no longer has access to a doctor and she doesn't know how much longer her daughter's oxygen will last.
WATSON: The pause in U.S. funding has already become a matter of life and death here. The International Rescue Committee tells CNN that an elderly woman who couldn't get access to supplemental oxygen died after the hospital in her refugee camp closed last month. Life has never been easy for refugees in this porous border region. And if the world's largest aid donor truly does pull out, I think it's fair to say life will get much, much harder.
Ivan Watson, CNN, on the Thailand-Myanmar border.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Pope Francis has delivered a stinging rebuke of the Trump Administration's mass deportation of undocumented migrants. In a letter to U.S. bishops, the Pope writes what is built on the basis of force and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being begins badly and will end badly.
President Trump's Border Czar, Tom Homan had some choice words for the Pope, telling him to "Stick to the Catholic Church and leave border enforcement to us."
Still to come, after a months-long delay, there's a new plan to bring two NASA astronauts home from the International Space Station. We'll take a look at that.
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[02:39:10]
CHURCH: I want you to look at these live pictures of lava, once again exploding out of the Kilauea volcano on the big island of Hawaii, shooting about 100 meters into the air. Kilauea, one of the world's most active volcanoes, has been erupting on and off for nearly two months. Earlier eruptions have lasted around 13 hours to eight days with pauses in between. The eruption site is inside Hawaii's Volcanoes National Park, and no homes are threatened by the lava.
NASA says two astronauts stuck in space may return to Earth a few weeks sooner than previously thought. Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams flew to the International Space Station aboard the Boeing Star Liner's first crude test flight back in June. That launch was the start of a planned week-long mission.
[02:40:00]
However, safety issues prolonged their state to what has now been eight months. NASA are intended to use a new SpaceX capsule to bring them home, but use of that craft was delayed as well. The space agency announced on Tuesday they would return on an older SpaceX capsule, allowing them to get home in mid-March instead of later that month or in April.
I want to thank you so much for joining us. I'm Rosemary Church. "World Sport" is coming up next. Then I'll be back in about 15 minutes with much more "CNN Newsroom." Do stick around.
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[02:45:00]
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