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Body Handed Over by Hamas is Not Shiri Bibas; Growing Tension Between U.S. and Ukraine; Trump Parrots Kremlin's Talking Points on Ukraine; Argentina's Javier Milei Gives Elon Must a Chainsaw at CPAC; Voters in Germany Head to Polls Sunday to Choose New Government. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired February 21, 2025 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The tragic homecoming of the bodies of three members of the Bibas family was hard enough. Now comes word that Hamas wrongfully identified one of the bodies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In an unimaginable syndical move, they didn't return Shiri.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Trump remains very frustrated.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some of the rhetoric coming out of Kyiv to President Trump were unacceptable.

ELON MUSK, DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY: This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president of Argentina, Javier Milei, brought a chainsaw as a present for Elon Musk.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Max Foster and Christina Macfarlane.

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and a warm welcome to our viewers joining us from around the world. I'm Max Foster. It's Friday, February 21st, 9 a.m. here in London, 11 a.m. in Israel, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is vowing to make Hamas pay the full price for not returning the body of hostage Shiri Bibas, as promised.

Mr. Netanyahu says it was an unimaginable and cynical move for the group to put the body of a Gazan woman inside the casket instead. The 32-year-old Shiri, mother of two, was supposed to be among four bodies handed over on Thursday. Israel says the remains don't match any known hostages.

Authorities did confirm the identities of four-year-old Ariel Bibas and nine-month-old Kfir Bibas, as well as a 83-year-old Oded Lifshitz. Now Israel says evidence suggests they were murdered. Hamas claims they were killed in Israeli strikes. Meanwhile, Hamas is expected to release six more hostages this weekend. Four of the men were kidnapped during the October 7th terror attacks. Two others, who reportedly suffer from mental illness, were captured when they crossed into Gaza in 2014 and 2015.

Prime Minister Netanyahu ordered Israel's military to conduct an operation in the occupied West Bank, deploying three additional battalions. It comes after Israeli authorities say bombs on at least three buses exploded in a suspected terror attack on Thursday night. They say the bombs were put on the buses whilst they were empty. No injuries have been reported.

Officials ordered all buses and trains to stop running across the country, with the incident prompting a massive security response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HAIM ZARGAROV, DISTRICT COMMANDER, TEL AVIV POLICE (through translator): We received several reports on incidents from the terminal here at the Bat Yam station about an explosion. When we arrived at the scene, we detected explosions in two buses. At the same time, we received reports of several additional incidents, with scenes both in the city of Hollande and the city of Bat Yam.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Israeli police say they are searching other buses to rule out any further threats.

Let's bring in CNN's Paul Hancocks live from Abu Dhabi. First of all, if we could just talk about this body that was returned to the Israelis. I mean, what more do we know about what happened here? Is Hamas saying anything?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Max, at this point, we haven't had a statement from Hamas. We have reached out to them for comment. It was always going to be a somber day in Israel with the remains being brought back to the country. But sadness has really turned to anger for many in that country because of what has happened.

Now, we've had a response from the Israeli military. I'll read you part of their statement.

The IDF saying, quote, This is a violation of the utmost severity by the Hamas terrorist organization, which is obligated under the agreement to return four deceased hostages. We demand that Hamas return Shiri along with all of our hostages.

Now, we've also had a response from the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Let's listen to part of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): In an unimaginable cynical move, they didn't return Shiri by her little children, little angels and put the body of a Gazan woman inside a casket. We will operate determinedly to bring Shiri home along with our hostages, both the living and the dead, and ensure that Hamas pays the full price for this cruel and vicious violation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[04:05:00]

HANCOCKS: So at this point, as we understand it from the Prime Minister, the handover and the release of six more hostages will be going ahead on Saturday in return there will be a number of Palestian prisoners released from Israeli jails as well. So there is no short term impact on the cease fire hostage talks.

It appears at this point, though, there are increasing calls for Hamas to release the body of Shiri Bibas. Now, we also heard from the IDF. They say they have forensic evidence.

Now we also heard from the IDF. They says they have forensic evidence. They say they have intelligence that they believe that these two boys that have been identified where murdered. That's different to what we heard from Hamas, who claimed that it was an Israeli airstrike that had killed the three members of that family. Now, we've also been hearing a very strong response from those within the Trump administration as well.

Let's listen to the special envoy for hostage affairs of the U.S. president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADAM BOEHLER, U.S. ENVOY FOR HOSTAGE AFFAIRS: It's horrific. It's a clear violation. And if I have one piece of advice for Hamas now, it's not only do you need to release her body immediately, but we have the bodies of four Americans that are still there.

And we have one American, Edan Alexander. I think you know his family well. And you've done a great job reporting on it.

He needs to come home. And if I were them, I'd release everybody or they're going to face total annihilation right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANCOCKS: Now, there was also condemnation from the U.N. Secretary- General when it came to the way that the bodies were handed to the Red Cross and then on to the Israeli military. The fact that Hamas used the opportunity for propaganda purposes, that has been roundly condemned as well. And we've also heard from the forum that represents the families of the hostages, and they spoke of their profound sorrow and unbearable pain -- Max.

FOSTER: In terms of these bus attacks, thankfully, no casualties because the buses were empty at the time. But there has been a response to that. HANCOCKS: That's right. Yes, we're waiting to hear if there's any claim of responsibility, which there isn't at this point. The Israelis say they're treating it as a terrorist attack.

As you say, there were no casualties. Two of the buses were in an empty -- were in a bus depot and they were empty at the time. This just this happened just south of Tel Aviv.

But there has been a response, a fairly swift response from the Israeli authorities saying that the prime minister has authorized three more battalions to go into the occupied West Bank and to carry out military actions. Now, since last month, we have seen a significant uptick in the operations that the Israeli military is carrying out there. They say it is to suppress terrorist activities.

We have seen, though, some 40,000 people being displaced in the in the West Bank since that operation began, which has been raised concerns among UNRWA, one of the U.N. agencies which deals with the Palestinian refugees, saying that there are an increasing number of Palestinians there that have been displaced -- Max.

FOSTER: OK, Paula in Abu Dhabi, thank you.

This tragedy comes at a crucial time amid uncertainty about the phase two of the deal, the peace deal. Israeli President Isaac Herzog spoke to CNN's Dana Bash about it, saying he doesn't want to repeat this cycle of war.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ISAAC HERZOG, ISRAELI PRESIDENT: We have to get to the second stage of the deal and complete it and bring them back home whilst making sure that Hamas cannot reign Gaza the day after because we want to change the trajectory. We want to change the history. We cannot repeat time and again the same paradigm of terror attack, war, pain, bloodshed and et cetera, et cetera. We have to change it.

That is why we have to think with new plans and new ideas. We do expect our Arab neighbors and partners for peace, both Jordan, Egypt and the Abraham Accords countries, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, others, and hopefully even Saudi Arabia to come forward with a major plan that will be a basis for a dialogue to see how we make sure that Hamas is out and the people of Gaza have a better future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: President Herzog went on to say that the most important thing is bringing the remaining hostages back home.

Now we are getting a new barrage of Russian strikes in Ukraine. Ukraine's air force says Russia has launched more than 160 drones and missiles across the country overnight.

[04:10:00]

The targets included the capital Kyiv as well as Kharkiv, Odessa and other cities. So far no word on casualties. That's happening as officials say the U.S. is now opposed to calling the war a Russian aggression in the upcoming G7 statement marking the war's third anniversary. That's after U.S. President Donald Trump blamed Ukraine for the war and started talks with Russia.

But Western intelligence says there's no evidence that Russian President Vladimir Putin is even ready for serious peace talks. That is as long as he believes he can get what he wants on the battlefield according to sources familiar with intelligence reports.

Now in the midst of the rift with Mr. Trump Ukrainian President Zelenskyy met U.S. envoy Keith Kellogg in Kyiv on Thursday. The Ukrainian leader said he was encouraged by their talks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): General Kellogg, our talks restore hope. We need strong agreements with America. Agreements that will really work. I give instructions to work fast and very much even-handedly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Meanwhile Ukraine's president says he rejected a proposal that would give the U.S. access to half of his country's rare earth minerals. He says the proposal does include any future -- or it needs to include any future security guarantees for Ukraine. As Jeff Zeleny reports the Trump administration isn't happy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF ZELENY, CHIEF U.S. NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: President Trump remains very frustrated in the words of one of his top advisers with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy over Zelenskyy's refusal to accept a deal the U.S. is offering in exchange for peace negotiations. That deal would be having access to some of the rare earth minerals found in Ukraine as a payback for some of the foreign assistance that's been given over the last three years.

Now National Security Advisor Mike Waltz is telling reporters on Thursday the president remains defiant.

MIKE WALTZ, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: His frustration with President Zelenskyy is that you've heard is multifold. One, there needs to be a deep appreciation for what the American people, what the American taxpayer, what President Trump did in his first term and what we've done since. So some of the rhetoric coming out of Kyiv frankly and insults to President Trump were unacceptable.

ZELENY: But that rhetoric certainly has been going both ways with President Trump calling Zelenskyy a dictator. Of course that would be Putin. Zelenskyy was elected by a popular vote.

Now there is no question as the first month of this Trump administration ends this Russia-U.S. relationship has been reset. The question is for what and how. Leaders still would like to meet at some point. We shall see if that happens in the future.

But there is no doubt the relations between the United States and Ukraine certainly fraught. President Trump is playing hardball.

Jeff Zeleny, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Earlier CNN's Kim Brunhuber spoke with Vladimir Milov, a former Russian Deputy Energy Minister. He also advised late opposition leader Alexei Navalny. And we asked him if he was surprised by President Trump's verbal attacks on Mr. Zelenskyy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VLADIMIR MILOV, FORMER RUSSIAN DEPUTY ENERGY MINISTER: This obviously reflects Trump's total lack of interest in this war and actually in this part of the world in Eastern Hemisphere. He clearly during his inaugural address he clearly was looking like he's back 200 years from now. And he was speaking something more resemblance of a Monroe Doctrine where U.S. is focusing on Western Hemisphere and embracing this whole idea of dividing the world into zones of influence of great powers which is an idea very familiar and very dear to Vladimir Putin.

So I think that was all in the making that was visible that some major concessions on Trump's part to Putin are coming and Trump's really not interested in getting involved in the in the worlds of former U.K. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain back in 1938.

So why should we care about the quarrel in the faraway land between the people who we know nothing of.

Russia generally expected that Trump would come up with a certain set of demands. This is what the commentators and pundits been saying all along that before giving concessions Trump will demand something from Russia and Russians were preparing sort of some offers here and there to make what they call a deal.

I see that everybody in Moscow is totally astonished by now that they were given all the concessions they wanted even before the negotiations started. This is a shocking result even by Vladimir Putin's standards and you see Moscow demands accelerating in the past few days. They now demanding that all the NATO troops being pulled out of the new member states that have joined in the past quarter of a century joined the NATO alliance. These demands already go well beyond just Ukraine and so on.

[04:15:00]

So Moscow is clearly encouraged by Trump's lack of willingness to impose any conditions on Russia.

There could not have been a more unfortunate moment to give away all these major concessions to Putin because Putin's budget deficits are exploding because of extreme rise in military spending. He's almost out of money in the government's rainy day fund. He cannot count down inflation, which is one of the worst in the world and is a product of Western sanctions. And his military factories are running in three shifts and at their, you know, hundred percent production capacity they cannot expand.

So I can go on but clearly we see that Putin has reached many limits on different fronts and at the very same time he had been receiving this major gift from Trump.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Now German voters will soon choose a new government and the nation's far-right parties picking up more support. Where that's coming from and how it could impact the country.

Plus Elon Musk appears at the Conservative Political Action Conference and shows off his chainsaw. We'll explain why.

And in the battle over foreign aid the judge says the White House is violating a court order. We'll have more after the break.

[04:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: Billionaire and Trump adviser Elon Musk received a rock stars welcome on Thursday at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELON MUSK, DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY: This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy. Chainsaw.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Musk bragged about his efforts to shrink the federal workforce and breezily defended steep cuts that have been criticized by Democrats and some Republicans.

Argentina's president was there at CPAC cheering on the South African billionaire. In fact it was Javier Milei who gave Elon Musk the chainsaw that you saw there him waving on stage.

Stefano Pozzebon has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: The president of Argentina Javier Milei brought a chainsaw as a present for Elon Musk as the two men met on Thursday afternoon in Washington DC. A sign of the close alignment between the two. Musk has praised Milei's policies in the past.

These policies include laying off more than 30,000 public workers and freezing the salaries of public workforce in general in Argentina.

But you can see from he posted that were later released on social media that Musk has shown his appreciation for the chainsaw approach which is how Milei calls his crusade to slash public spending in his own country.

The Argentinian president is in the U.S. until the end of the weekend and is expected to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference or CPAC on Saturday.

And there is an event where U.S. President Donald Trump is also expected to attend. The same time Milie's trip comes at a moment when he's facing a mounting scandal over his involvement in the promotion of a meme coin in his native country. Shortly after Milei posted about this meme coin on Friday evening last week the value of this cryptocurrency crashed causing considerable losses for thousands if not tens of thousands of investors.

Milei has defended himself for saying that he did not intend to promote the cryptocurrency as a stable asset and at the same time saying that people who invest in crypto should know the risk.

For CNN this is Stefano Pozzebon, Bogota.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Mexico's president is calling for constitutional reforms to protect our nation's sovereignty as the Trump administration targets cartels in Mexican territory. The U.S. designated several Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations on Thursday. Following through on one of President Trump's many executive orders. The designation could potentially lay the groundwork for direct U.S. strikes inside Mexican territory.

President Claudia Sheinbaum says Washington didn't consult her or her government. The reforms to Mexico's constitution would ban the foreign intervention without the permission of the Mexican government.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLAUDIA SHEINBAUM. MEXICAN PRESIDENT (through translator): What we want to make clear in the face of this designation is that we do not negotiate sovereignty. As I said yesterday this cannot be an opportunity for the United States to invade our sovereignty so they can name them however they want to. But with Mexico it is a collaboration and coordination never subordination, non-interference and even less invasion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: The U.S. has been covertly flying MQ-9 Reaper drones inside Mexican airspace to spy on drug cartels as part of President Trump's overhaul of national security resources to the southern U.S. border with Mexico.

Now Germans head to the polls on Sunday to choose new government. The country's far-right party is growing in strength and picking up support amongst Germany's young people. Despite being under surveillance from Germany's intelligence service the AfD is expected to win about 20 percent of the vote making it the country's second most popular party. But polls show the center-right CDU is on track to be the largest group in parliament which could make its leader Friedrich Merz the new Chancellor. Merz says Germany and Europe must be ready to step up and defend themselves in case the U.S. slides into an authoritarian populist system.

[04:25:00]

The election comes as Germany's economy is struggling to rebound after its GDP shrunk for two years straight. The IMF predicts it'll grow by a paltry 0.3 percent this year. CNN's Anna Stewart shows us how Germany is trying to sweeten the future of its economy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From chocolate to popcorn, and even a flavor of algae ice cream.

STEWART: It's green!

STEWART: Cologne has been taken over by sweets and snack firms from across the world. It's a chance to talk, to sell, and to try.

STEWART: This isn't just a feast for the taste buds. It's a snapshot of global competition. And while chocolate and sweets may take center stage at this fair, underneath the sugar coating lies something more serious. Two years into a recession and German businesses are craving change.

GUNNAR MUHLSTADT, CTO, ALGENWERK: I'm really struggling with the situation because I'm not happy with the situation.

SARA MARQUART, CEO, CHOVIVA: Like you, I've notice the regulations, the bureaucracy, like energy prices are high, it's very difficult to innovate as well because there's a lot of hurdles.

GUIDO HENTSCHKE, DIRECTOR, PSKIROSWEETS: It's really a German thing, regulations, and it must stop. Come on, it must stop.

STEWART (voice-over): A lack of investment, competition from China, and rising energy prices have hit the famed German manufacturing industry particularly hard.

CARSTEN BRZESKI, GLOBAL HEAD OF MACRO, ING RESEARCH: I think the economy needs is a complete overhaul. And the answer might be that it's no longer the traditional industrial powerhouses that we knew from the past.

STEWART (voice-over): And with a new threat of tariffs coming from the U.S., change is needed quickly.

BRZESKI: If they do not manage to get growth back, if they mess it up once again, they know who's going to win the next elections. And this would be the far-right AfD. And I think this scenario alone could be actually the glue that brings together all parties involved and that could also be the motivation for the parties to think a bit bolder.

STEWART (voice-over): Expectations for change are high at the Cologne Sweet Fair.

HENTSCHKE: I think it will change. The thing is how quick you can change things.

STEWART (voice-over): And change is what's needed to win the hearts of German business.

Anna Stewart, CNN, Cologne.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Despite controversy, the U.S. Senate confirmed a new FBI director, the latest in U.S. politics, next.

Plus, President Donald Trump is enjoying his highest favorability rating as president. But he's still unpopular with the majority of Americans, it seems.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)