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Federal Employees Faces Mass Layoffs Over Buyout Deadline; Philippine Vice President Impeached at the Lower House Level; Former USAID Leaders Slammed Trump's Plans to Dismantle the Agency; Ukraine Now Affected by the U.S. Foreign Aid Freeze. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired February 06, 2025 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[03:00:00]
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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, the White House tries to walk back some of Donald Trump's comments about taking over Gaza amid a global backlash.
The clock is ticking down for federal employees weighing whether to accept the U.S. government's so-called buyouts.
And U.S. farmers are frustrated by a costly and complicated work visa program, why some say it's a struggle to get good migrant workers to come into the country.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Rosemary Church.
CHURCH: Good to have you with us.
Well, it has been just over 24 hours since Donald Trump announced his intent to force nearly two million Palestinians out of Gaza and develop the enclave into what he calls the Riviera of the Middle East.
And after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu backed the plan during an interview on Fox News, Israel's defense minister is now ordering the military to prepare a plan for the quote, "voluntary departure of Palestinians from the enclave." The White House and other top aides are also praising the proposal while walking back key elements.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is portraying the plan as generous, with Palestinians only relocating temporarily. The White House press secretary called the plan historic, outside-the-box thinking and insisted U.S. taxpayers would not foot the bill.
The list of opponents is long, including the Palestinians, Saudi Arabia, Russia, China and Germany. Even some U.S. Republicans questioned how the plan puts America first. The U.N. Secretary General did not mention Mr. Trump or his proposal
specifically, but reaffirmed his support for a two-state solution.
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ANTONIO GUTERRES, UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY-GENERAL: In the search for solutions, we must not make the problem worse. It is vital to stay true to the bedrock of international law. It is essential to avoid any form of ethnic cleansing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
More now from CNN's Jeff Zeleny, reporting from the White House.
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JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF U.S. NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Against a wave of backlash from Republican senators and indeed leaders around the world, the White House moved to explain and walk back a bit President Trump's stunning statement from Tuesday night that the U.S. will, quote, "own the Gaza Strip and make moves to develop it."
Now White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the Palestinians would only have to be temporarily relocated. That was at odds with what the President said one day earlier. He said there would be a permanent resettlement.
But there was still some question about the President would be willing to send U.S. forces to the region. The Press Secretary said the President was leaving it open for this reason.
KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I think the President is very good when he's making deals and negotiating not to rule out anything because he wants to preserve that leverage in negotiations. And so I think that's what he's doing here.
ZELENY: So laying this out in terms of any ordinary deal the President has done certainly flies in the face of what he has long talked about. He has long criticized the never ending wars in his views and longstanding foreign entanglements.
But there certainly are some questions now. Is this just an opening gambit? If so, how will this affect the second phase of the peace process?
But White House advisers are saying the President, yes, is still serious about the idea of developing Gaza and of moving the 1.8 million Palestinians.
But there is no doubt, one thing is certain, the President said everyone loves this plan. That simply is not true. Leaders in the Arab world, of course, and European nations as well push back considerably on that.
Republican senators also said that there simply would not be an appetite for an investment of aid from the U.S. or forces as well. So there's some doubt now just one day after the President made that
stunning announcement in the White House what the future of that may be. But he certainly is committed to doing something new, he said, in the Middle East.
Jeff Zeleny, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: I spoke last hour with Gershon Baskin, a former hostage negotiator and the Middle East director for the International Communities Organization. And I asked him how far he thought Trump administration officials would go in walking back his Gaza plan.
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GERSHON BASKIN, FORMER HOSTAGE NEGOTIATOR AND MIDDLE EAST DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITIES ORGANIZATION: I hope that this was some kind of message that Trump was sending to Hamas, that it has to leave Gaza, it can no longer rule Gaza, and not talking about ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip or preventing the Palestinians from having an independent state.
The United States has for a long time backed the idea that the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a two-state solution. And yet President Trump gave messages both regarding Gaza and about Israel being allowed to annex parts of the West Bank that would be a death blow to the two-state solution, and could be a death blow to any peace agreements that the state of Israel has with any of its Arab neighbors.
CHURCH: And we are now learning that President Trump's proposal to own and control Gaza even took some administration officials by surprise, as well as some cabinet members and lawmakers. Where do you think he got this extreme idea that caught everyone off guard? His press secretary even admitting that Trump's plan was written as he revealed it to the world.
BASKIN: Well, I'm not sure that that's true. There was a video that was being shown all around the world prior to elections of Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, talking exactly about this plan, about the real estate development opportunities that would exist in the Gaza Strip, this wonderful coastal enclave of beautiful beaches that needs to be developed.
And I'm sure that the dollar signs were popping up in his eyes as he talked to his father-in-law about the golden opportunities to build resorts, casinos, hotels, and golf courses in the Gaza Strip in place of the people who are living there.
So this is not a new idea. What was surprising that Trump decided to pull it out of the hat at this press conference with Benjamin Netanyahu. And the most fearful part of the whole plan is that some 70 percent of the Israeli people think it's a good idea. And this is, of course, the burning effect of the hate and fear that
was developed after the horrific Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023.
CHURCH: So where do these mixed messages on Gaza's future leave the fragile ceasefire and hostage release deal that appears to have been forgotten in all this chaos?
BASKIN: Well, certainly it endangers the ceasefire, which is in its first stage, still is supposed to be into deep negotiations on phase two, and phase two is supposed to lead to the end of the war and the withdrawal to Gaza. But both the United States and Israel have refused to deal with the political question of who's going to govern Gaza on the day after.
And this will be a pretext for Israel not ending the war, not withdrawing from Gaza, and of course, perhaps not being able to the Israeli hostages who are left in Gaza.
This is a tragic reality that if the United States doesn't step up and if we don't force our own government here in Israel to step up, this war will continue. It has no strategic value in continuing.
It will only sustain and lengthen the suffering of the Palestinian people in Gaza who have already suffered too much, who have nothing left, no homes, no schools, no infrastructure, no water. We're having a rainstorm now with very strong winds and we have two million people living in tents in Gaza. I'm sure these tents were blown away during the night and people are sitting in puddles of water with the mud of Gaza.
This is a horrific reality that rather than Trump coming up with a plan to -- how to help rebuild Gaza quickly to enable people to have a decent life, he's talking about moving them like pieces of chests on a board that he controls. This is an unhinged reality.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Hundreds of thousands of U.S. government workers could be facing mass layoffs, part of Mr. Trump's efforts to downsize the federal workforce.
The President and billionaire Elon Musk are gutting federal agencies by freezing funds, ousting employees or putting them on leave, and by offering so-called buyouts, formerly known as the Deferred Resignation Program. That offer expires in the coming hours.
The White House wants to eliminate up to 200,000 positions. According to one Trump official, 40,000 federal workers have chosen to accept the offer. Agencies across the government have received the downsizing emails from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, to the National Weather Service, to the CIA, and the Department of Health and Human Services.
Meanwhile, the CFO of the Office of Personnel Management, which sent out the emails about the resignation offers, was pushed out this week, becoming the latest top career official removed by Trump political appointees working in coordination with Musk's team.
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Well the nation's largest federation of labor unions has filed an emergency lawsuit to block Musk and his team from unlawfully accessing the private data of American workers. The AFL-CIO, which represents more than 12 million union members, filed the suit in Washington, D.C.
CNN's Rene Marsh talks to a mother of three who is now facing unemployment as her job is threatened by Mr. Trump's plans to downsize the government.
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UNKNOWN: I keep having to start over.
RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And this was not supposed to be the thing that you needed to start over from.
UNKNOWN: I felt like going to the federal government was a way to find stability over the long term.
MARSH (voice-over): This woman who spoke with CNN on the condition that she remain anonymous was in one of the first groups targeted by an executive order. Employees connected to DEI programs, a single parent with three kids, school loans, steep rent and now facing unemployment.
MARSH: What is the general feeling across government amongst your fellow federal workers right now?
UNKNOWN: Grief. They're angry, many that are confused, but all kind of grieving in their own way. The work that many of us do directly impacts the lives of some of our most vulnerable citizens. The people that we serve through these programs that are going to be in far dire straits than we are.
MARSH (voice-over): It's a story playing out across all agencies of the U.S. government, 2.4 million jobs, the country's largest employer now in the Trump administration's crosshairs for a dramatic downsizing.
SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): They're shuttering agencies and sending employees home in order to create the illusion that they're saving money.
MARSH (voice-over): CNN has spoken to federal workers at multiple agencies, all who have been placed on administrative leave and are worried about being fired.
But even those whose jobs had nothing to do with DEI have been targeted, according to a union president. Some because they had participated in diversity training under the first Trump administration. Others had volunteered to plan events like celebrating Black History Month. UNKNOWN: It's a perfect storm. You are sidelining a lot of your
federal workers, making them feel fearful. And it doesn't take long for these systems to kind of break down and for the institutional knowledge that's lost to have like real world impacts.
MARSH (voice-over): At least 75 career employees at the Department of Education face the same fate, also placed on indefinite leave as the president crafts an executive order that will urge Congress to pass legislation that would shut down the agency.
The Trump administration's plan to slash the federal government includes firing employees who have been on the job less than a year, offering buyouts and restructuring job titles, classifying employees as political appointments, making it easier to fire them.
REP. DON BEYER (D-VA): I would characterize it as chaos. In just department after department, people have no idea who their leader is, what their job is. Can they come to work tomorrow? It's really the worst thing I've seen in federal government in my life.
MARSH: How does it feel to be targeted for the work that you're so passionate about? It's okay. You can take your time.
UNKNOWN: It actually makes me prouder of the people that I've worked with and the things that we've done.
MARSH (voice-over): Rene Marsh, CNN, Washington.
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CHURCH: Questions are growing over how much access Elon Musk and his government efficiency team have to the U.S. Treasury Department's highly sensitive $5 trillion payment system. A federal judge tried to get some answers on Wednesday, but government attorneys provided little information.
We did learn two people affiliated with Musk now have access to the system. We don't know what they're doing with it. The uncertainty is driving fears that Americans' private information could be compromised.
And that led two Democratic lawmakers to demand answers at the office of the U.S. House Speaker. The Congresswomen were met by a member of Mike Johnson's staff who tried to block them.
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UNKNOWN: I can -- if I can give you OLA contact information at the White House if you want to reach out to the White House?
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CHURCH: The lawmakers eventually came face-to-face with the House Speaker and pressed him on what Musk's team is doing, but say they left with concerns that Johnson wasn't aware of the problem. The Treasury payment system distributes Americans' tax returns, social
security benefits, disability payments and federal employees' salaries. All that information is supposed to be protected by significant privacy laws.
[03:15:04]
A source tells CNN the FBI is preparing to disband a specialized team that had been combating foreign threats to U.S. elections. The move to close the foreign influence task force comes from Donald Trump's new attorney general, Pam Bondi, hours after she was sworn into the job on Wednesday. In a memo, she says dissolving the team frees up resources to address quote, "more pressing priorities."
Former FBI Director Christopher Wray established the task force in 2017 following a wave of foreign influence operations targeting the U.S. electoral process. They included Russian efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election that Donald Trump won.
Sources tell CNN the U.S. Justice Department is in the process of returning documents seized from Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate. The FBI searched the Florida resort in August 2022 after Mr. Trump was accused of illegally retaining sensitive items.
Now that he is president again, he has broad authority over the control of U.S. government classified material. A U.S. district judge dismissed the case in July of last year, saying the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith was unconstitutional.
Coming up in just a moment, the latest on the worst mass shooting in Sweden's history. Mourners hold a candlelight vigil as police try to figure out a motive.
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CHURCH: Mourners left flowers at a candlelight vigil on Wednesday for the victims of Sweden's worst mass shooting. At least 10 people were killed and six others injured on Tuesday after a lone gunman opened fire at an adult education center. Police discovered the attacker's body at the scene, but they have not yet named him.
CNN's Melissa Bell has more on what police are learning.
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MELISSA BELL, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A nation in mourning, left reeling after an afternoon of horror on Tuesday.
ULF KRISTERSSON, SWEDISH PRIME MINISTER (through translator): We've today seen brutal, deadly violence against completely innocent people. This is the worst mass shooting in Swedish history. BELL (voice-over): At least 10 people killed, with more injured, in a
massacre at an adult school in the city of Orebro, central Sweden. Witnesses spoke of bangs and screams from inside the building as the rampage unfolded.
UNKNOWN (through translator): A guy next to me was shot in the shoulder. He was bleeding a lot. When I looked behind me, I saw three people on the floor bleeding. Everyone was shocked. The police were not on site and neither was the ambulance, so we had to help.
BELL (voice-over): Authorities now believe the perpetrator found dead at the scene shot himself. Police have ruled out terror or gang violence as possible motives.
ROBERTO EID FOREST, OREBRO POLICE DISTRICT CHIEF (through translator): There's much to suggest that it's a solitary act, and that's the picture we have right now.
BELL (voice-over): Sweden has grappled with gang-related violent crime in recent years, but scenes like those at Orebro are rare. Such violence in a school has stunned the country.
In the words of the prime minister, a darkness fell over Sweden on Tuesday night, and as dawn broke, a tide of questions and grief to come.
Melissa Bell, CNN, Orebro.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: The vice president of the Philippines was impeached Wednesday after being accused of plotting to assassinate the president. Sara Duterte is also facing allegations of large-scale corruption and of failing to stand up to Chinese aggression in disputed waters.
She did not immediately comment on the impeachment, but her brother called it political persecution. Her supporters are trying to get the case dismissed in the Philippine Senate. Many of the legislators who launched the impeachment process are allies of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Still to come, more on President Donald Trump's plan for a potential U.S. takeover of Gaza, and how Arab Americans who voted for him are reacting to the news.
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CHURCH: More now on our top story, U.S. President Donald Trump's controversial plan for a potential takeover of Gaza and the relocation of Palestinians to neighboring countries has drawn swift condemnation across the globe. Russia, China, Germany and Saudi Arabia say it would cause new
suffering and hatred. White House officials and top Republicans are attempting to clarify Mr. Trump's remarks.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he, quote, "very generously offered the U.S. to become responsible for the reconstruction of Gaza." And U.S. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt had this to say.
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LEAVITT: This is an uninhabitable place for human beings. Do you really think that families can live their dream in a region that looks like this, with no running water, no electricity? It's a demolition site right now.
It's not a livable place for any human being. And I think it's actually quite evil to suggest that people should live in such dire conditions.
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CHURCH: CNN's Jason Carroll spoke with Arab Americans about why they voted for President Trump in November. While Mr. Trump's latest move has them angry, many say they wouldn't change their ballot.
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JASON CARROLL, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Days before the last presidential election, Donald Trump was the invited guest at the Great Commodore restaurant in Dearborn, Michigan.
Albert Abbas says he extended that invitation, a decision he is now reflecting on, given all that has happened in the last 24 hours.
ALBERT ABBAS, DEARBORN, MICHIGAN RESIDENT: Many in the community are at a loss for words. Last night was a very rough night for most of us.
CARROLL (voice-over): Abbas is Arab American and one of a number of Democrats who voted for Trump. Abbas says he hoped Trump would do more than President Joe Biden did to help Palestinians suffering in Gaza.
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip.
CARROLL (voice-over): But after Trump said Palestinians should leave Gaza so it can be redeveloped, Abbas says not only does he feel betrayed, he's hearing from a number of people angered over his past support of Trump.
ABBAS: People were really, really frustrated. And I don't think there's anyone to blame. At the end of the day, as Arab Americans or Muslims, we really didn't have much of a choice.
CARROLL (voice-over): Dearborn, a Detroit suburb, is home to the largest Arab American population in the United States, a community which helped Trump carry the critical swing state.
He won 42 percent of the vote in Dearborn versus Vice President Harris with 36 percent and Jill Stein with 18. In 2020, Biden handily carried the city with 69 percent.
Faye Nimmer voted for Trump in 2024 out of frustration over the previous administration's support of Israel. Now she is troubled by the president's proposal to move Palestinians out of Gaza.
FAYE NIMMER, DEARBORN, MICHIGAN RESIDENT: I mean, it's very concerning and it's infuriating.
CARROLL: Personal feelings, you're infuriated, but standing by your decision for now to have voted for Trump.
NIMMER: Correct.
CARROLL: And what would move that needle for you to say, you know what? I made a mistake.
NIMMER: Palestine is the red line for this community.
CARROLL (voice-over): Nimmer says she suspects Trump is bluffing and is using his proposal as some sort of negotiating tactic. That's the same sentiment shared by Amer Zahr.
AMER ZAHR, COMEDIAN: First, this is clearly not going to happen, right?
CARROLL (voice-over): And real estate broker Ali Alfarajalla.
ALI ALFARAJALLA, REAL ESTATE AGENT: A lot of people are calling me and texting me saying, hey, you know, how did your vote work out? You know, how is that third party vote?
CARROLL (voice-over): Both were so-called protest voters. Neither supported Trump or Harris.
CARROLL: Are there any sort of second thoughts now about having supported a third party candidate?
ALFARAJALLA: Absolutely not. And I'll still do it again and again and again.
ZAHR: I didn't vote for Trump. So a protest vote? I don't know. I would say it was a targeted vote of conscience to say that the children of Gaza have to mean something. Their death has to mean something.
CARROLL (voice-over): And while Arab Americans here were divided in the past going forward, one point is uniting them. Opposition to Trump's proposal to move Palestinians out of Gaza.
SAM BAYDOUN, WAYNE COUNTY, MICHIGAN COMMISSIONER: The community will be unified. I will tell you this. The Palestinian people would rather die and live in a demolition site than to be ethnically cleansed and being sent out of Gaza to Egypt or Jordan.
CARROLL: So there's a real sense from those that we spoke to here in the Arab American community that they've been let down by both parties. A real sense of frustration, clearly, over Trump's proposal.
But those very same people told us that if Harris had been elected and if there had been a Harris administration, their feeling is that Palestinians would still be suffering.
Jason Carroll, CNN, Dearborn, Michigan.
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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Former leaders of the U.S. Agency for International Development are condemning the Trump administration's attempts to dismantle the humanitarian agency. And they're calling on Congress to take action.
CNN's Jennifer Hansler has details.
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JENNIFER HANSLER, CNN U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT REPORTER: Five former leaders of the U.S. Agency for International Development from both Republican and Democratic administrations are speaking out against President Trump's attempts to dismantle the humanitarian organization. They are calling on Congress to protect the statutory authority of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
In a new statement obtained by CNN, these five former administrators, Samantha Power, Gayle Smith, Andrew Natsios, J. Brian Atwood, and Peter McPherson, also defended the workforce of the U.S. Agency for International Development, who have come under intense rhetorical attack by President Trump and Elon Musk.
In their statement, they said that these are career women and men who have served USAID well and that it is the duty of the administration and Congress to protect the agency and its people. They also said that any attempt to weaken or abolish the agency is to the benefit of neither political party and the detriment of all Americans.
The statement on Wednesday comes after a series of actions taken by the administration to dismantle and potentially abolish the independent agency, a move that Democrats and the Congressional Research Service say is not legal.
[03:35:09]
On Tuesday night, the workforce got notice that nearly everyone, with few exceptions, would be put on leave on Friday night. Those serving abroad will be made to come back to the United States.
However, there are few details about how this process will play out. And those who spoke to CNN said they have a lot of concerns about what happens next. Many of those serving abroad serve in post for years, meaning their
children and their spouses have established their lives abroad as well, be it in schools or with jobs. And they have a lot of concerns and questions about how they will uproot their lives and reestablish them here in the United States.
Jennifer Hansler, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Ukraine is starting to feel the ripple effect of the U.S. freeze on most of its foreign aid. The Trump administration has paused the aid for 90 days while it's moving to dismantle much of the U.S. agency for international aid.
Ukraine has been the largest recipient of U.S. assistance since the war began, receiving more than $30 billion through the agency since 2022. The money has been used for anything from supporting military veterans to health, education, energy and infrastructure. But now aid workers say many of those programs are in limbo.
Well for more, we're joined by Oksana Romaniuk, who leads the NGO, the Institute of Mass Information. She is in Kyiv, where her organization is based. Appreciate you being with us.
OKSANA ROMANIUK, CHIEF, INSTITUTE OF MASS INFORMATION: Hello.
CHURCH: So what impact has the targeting and dismantling of USAID by the Trump administration had on your organization and the work that it does?
ROMANIUK: Well, first of all, we are very grateful to the American people, which allowed us to operate in really very terrible conditions of war under this constant Russian shelling. We still were able to maintain free media and we were able to fight for democracy.
Our organization actually depended on U.S. crimes by some 80 percent. And we do the only in Ukraine monitoring of Russian crimes against media. We have documented over 800 such crimes.
We also provide safety equipment. We provide bulletproof vests. We provide first aid kits. And we have supported over 10,000 journalists who arrived in Ukraine and are able to work. And also Ukrainian journalists who are able to work safely thanks to that.
And as you know, we have this power outages and blackouts. And we also had a network of media hubs in Ukrainian cities along the front lines. So these hubs were able to provide media places where they can, where they could operate and help our country be resilient against this invasion.
For the moment, we are working as volunteers because our mission remains the same. We believe that we need to defend free press and media, and we believe that free media are fundamental to a democratic society. So we will continue our work as long as it takes. And it's not-- CHURCH: But how, sorry to interrupt you, but so how has it been
impacted at this point? I mean, it is broad what you do. And thank you for explaining what all your organization does. But how has it been impacted by the possibility of this money running out?
ROMANIUK: We can -- we cannot pay rent for this resilience hubs already. And I cannot pay my people. We have not very many people, but we do not have money to pay.
We are actually fundraising right now to find at least something. In Ukraine, people donate to the army mostly. And it is like -- it is normal because we need to protect safety first of all.
I'm afraid that I will have to shut down some activities, which are very essential for us.
[03:39:55]
And I will have to fire people or, as I told you, we work, we plan to continue our work, even if we have no money, because for us, it is very, very important. We believe in what we do.
CHURCH: And your organization also, you mentioned this documents, Russian crimes against journalists and media workers. What will happen to that work now?
ROMANIUK: I, I don't know, we plan to continue our work even without money. But of course, we cannot pay to lawyers right now and field trips will be also affected, as you understand, because you have to pay for travels.
But anyway, we are fighting.
CHURCH: Indeed.
ROMANIUK: We will not stop. We plan to continue our activities because it is very important. I understand that it is extremely difficult, but I cannot just tell you that we will lie and die. We will fight.
CHURCH: Well, perhaps other nations listening to this interview may step in and help in the lack of money there. We'll see what happens. Oksana Romaniuk, thank you so much for talking with us. I appreciate it.
Well, meanwhile, Russia has confirmed for the first time that it's discussing Ukraine with the United States. The Kremlin spokesman said talks between the two powers have, quote, "intensified recently."
On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also says his government has stepped up talks with the U.S.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We have significantly intensified our contacts with the U.S. administration. We are also engaging in quite substantive discussions with our other partners. Ukraine needs real, lasting and guaranteed peace.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Ukrainian prisoners of war held captive by Russia returned home on Wednesday. They were released as part of a prisoner swap.
Each side exchanged 150 POWs in a deal mediated by the United Arab Emirates. The Russian government said their released prisoners are currently in Belarus.
Still to come, U.S. farmers frustrated by a costly and complicated work visa program, why some say it's a struggle to get good migrant workers into the country. Back with that and more in just a moment.
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[03:45:00]
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CHURCH: Donald Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration has many farmers in the U.S. navigating new struggles to find reliable workers for their fields. And some say the visa program meant to help migrant laborers into the U.S. legally could be a lot more efficient.
CNN's David Culver reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID CULVER, CNN SR. U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Calling out to us from the back of the bus, Juan Manuel Cisneros shows us what he describes as his American dream come true.
CULVER: I said, do you always carry that document with you? And he goes, yes, because if anything happens, he can pull it out and say, I'm here legally in this country.
CULVER (voice-over): Everyone on this bus can say the same. They're farm workers here on H-2A visas, which allow foreign workers to fill temporary or seasonal agricultural jobs.
CULVER: They come here for about eight months. All the folks on this bus who are on their lunch break are from Mexico. He says they're able to work the field.
And as he sees it, it's a good solution to be able to make money and yet at the same time be here legally.
CULVER (voice-over): But with that visa comes grueling work.
RICK ROTH, PRESIDENT, ROTH FARMS: Nobody local wants to work in agricultural harvesting crop. Nobody.
These are hard working, able bodied men. And that's what they're doing. They're doing manual labor.
CULVER (voice-over): And they're doing it in a place that might surprise you.
CULVER: That's east. If I go far enough, I'll hit Mar-a-Lago.
ROTH: Yes, you will.
CULVER (voice-over): You need only travel about 40 miles from here, as Roth Farms sits just on the western edge of Palm Beach County, Florida.
CULVER: It certainly doesn't feel like the beaches of Palm Beach.
ROTH: But it has the weather.
CULVER (voice-over): Which can be brutally hot and humid for those working these fields.
Yet despite his need for a reliable and cost-efficient workforce, Roth says he supports President Trump's stance on immigration.
CULVER: Is it going to get more difficult to get workers, you think, under President Trump and the crackdown on immigration?
ROTH: No, I think it actually will get easier. We just want people to be vetted and we want good workers that are going to come out and come out here.
CULVER: So the H-2A visa program may seem like a perfect solution to keep predominantly migrant workers employed on farms like this one here in Florida. But critics point out that it doesn't cover every person or every situation.
Say, for example, those migrants who are fleeing violent and dangerous situations and don't have a home to go back to once the season's over. Or those who simply want to live and work with their families year- round in the U.S. And then you have small farmers who say that the program is just way too costly and way too complicated.
CULVER (voice-over): For now, though, Roth sees H-2A visas as the best way to keep U.S. farms running. He hires a third-party company to handle the logistics. They recruit the workers from abroad and then place them at several different farms, including Roth's.
[03:50:02]
ROTH: You hire them in Mexico and you transport them over here. You pay all the transportation costs.
CULVER: You pay for that.
ROTH: I pay all the transportation costs. We put them up in housing. We pay all the housing costs.
The only thing we're allowed to charge them for is the cost of the food when we feed them.
CULVER (voice-over): So what is it like for these workers? CULVER: So here it is about 5:00 in the evening, and these workers
have just finished their shift at Roth Farms. They're arriving back at their housing complex.
CULVER (voice-over): Juan Manuel and the others invite us to meet them after their workday is over.
CULVER: Yes? What do you do this time of the day? Yes, when you get here from work.
Dinner's at six? We can go with him. He's inviting us up.
They've been working 10 hours today. They work six, sometimes seven days a week. They have just a few things that they need, a few changes of clothes, some snacks, and not much privacy.
CULVER (voice-over): Juan Manuel shows us his setup.
CULVER: He says what he makes is about $16 an hour. So here, what you make in an hour, as he puts it, is an entire day's work in Mexico.
CULVER (voice-over): This is his third year on the Visa Work Program.
CULVER: He said the money that he makes here, he's able to support his family in Mexico as well and help his mom and dad and brother and sister. And he said that's what you need to do to survive.
You can see all the workers now are gathering from all the different buildings. Most of them all work at different sites, but they come together to eat and then sleep. And then they will be back at it on the fields in about 10, 11 hours from now.
What's interesting is many of the farmers that we've spoken with are in support of President Trump and, along with it, his immigration policies. But as these deportations continue, they warn there's this sense of urgency when it comes to the H-2A Visa Program. Working to expand it, working to make it more cost effective, particularly for smaller farmers who say it's just way too expensive.
And they say it's overall just too complicated to use to make it less cumbersome. They say if the president doesn't act on that, that food prices in this country will soar to levels that we have not seen before.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Still to come, big questions emerge after Elon Musk posts on social media about upgrading the U.S. air traffic control system. We'll have a report after the break.
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[03:55:03]
CHURCH: The investigation continues into last week's catastrophic mid- air collision in Washington between a U.S. Army helicopter and a passenger jet.
Crews expect to finish retrieving all major pieces of the jet on Thursday and then begin removing helicopter parts. Officials say all 67 victims from the collision have been removed from the site and positively identified.
The Trump administration says Elon Musk and his team will make what they describe as quote, "rapid safety upgrades" to the U.S. air traffic control system. This comes just days after the system used to send safety alerts to pilots in real time experienced an outage.
Here's CNN's Pete Muntean.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Some pretty big questions about what DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, will do to the Federal Aviation Administration because so far the impermoder (ph) of DOGE has been to cut, cut, cut.
And air traffic controllers in the United States will tell you that is exactly not what they need right now. There's a nationwide shortage of air traffic controllers at facilities nationwide.
The infrastructure at the FAA is aging and many controllers in the United States are working mandatory overtime, six-day weeks of 10-hour shifts.
This whole debate was really kicked off by a tweet from Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who said that DOGE was going to plug in to the aviation system to make some upgrades. And then Elon Musk tweeted on X that DOGE was going to make rapid safety upgrades after the notification system at the FAA failed over the weekend.
On Saturday, the NOTAM system failed, or Notices to Air Missions. Thankfully, a backup system worked, no real major impact on flights in the U.S.
But remember, a failure of this system caused the first nationwide grand stop in the U.S. back on January 11, 2023. You have to set all of this against the backdrop of what is happening in aviation in the United States.
There was just the midair collision over the Potomac River that killed 67 people in total, the worst air disaster in the U.S. in more than 20 years. And also the feuds that Elon Musk has had with the FAA.
Remember, SpaceX is licensed by the FAA. It oversees commercial space. And Musk tweeted some time ago that the head of the FAA should resign. That ultimately led to the head of the FAA, Mike Whitaker, resigning on January 20th, Inauguration Day.
But still a lot of big questions here about what DOGE will do. The one thing that DOGE and the FAA does have going for it is that Elon Musk is a licensed private pilot.
Pete Muntean, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Thanks for spending part of your day with me. I'm Rosemary Church. "CNN Newsroom" continues next with Max Foster and Christina Macfarlane in London after a short break.
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