Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Ukraine Official Says Terms Of Minerals Deal Agreed With U.S.; Starmer Announces Biggest Hike In Defense Spending Since Cold War; Funeral Of Israeli hostages Shiri, Kfir And Ariel After Hamas Released Bodies; Economic Uncertainty Rising Amid Shakeup In Washington; Pope Francis Remains In Critical But Stable Condition; British PM Announces Increases In Defense Spending; Funeral of Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas To Be Held Wednesday; AGTech Company Aims To Make Farming More Fruitful; Interview With Alpine Skier Mikaela Shiffrin. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired February 26, 2025 - 01:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:00:23]

JOHN VAUSE, CNN HOST: U.S. support for sale payable with rare earth minerals. Hello, I'm John Vause. Ahead on CNN Newsroom.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: It's a very big deal. It could be a trillion dollar deal. It could be whatever.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Donald Trump gets rights to Ukrainian mineral reserves. In return, Ukraine might not be wiped off the map by Russia. In the U.K. the high price of appeasing Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEIR STARMER, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Yes, it's true. President Trump thinks we should do more and I agree with it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: That means a big increase in the defense budget paid for in part by cutting foreign aid.

At a moment so many in Israel hope would never happen, the funeral of Shiri Bibas and her two little boys, all three killed in Gaza, will be held by Hamas.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From Atlanta. This is CNN Newsroom with John Vause.

VAUSE: The idea of exchanging Ukrainian mineral rights in return for U.S. security was first suggested by the Ukrainian president back in September. At the time it almost seemed to be a sidebar issue.

But now access to those rare earth minerals is at the very center of negotiations over future support for Ukraine. After a lot of back and forth, one Ukrainian official says an agreement is now done which includes a U.S. commitment to help fund Ukraine's reconstruction.

No mention of security guarantees which Volodymyr Zelenskyy had demanded. But still, he is expected to be in Washington Friday to sign that deal. Ukraine rejected an earlier offer put forward by the White House. One source telling CNN it was a one sided deal with no obligation on the United States for Ukraine's security. That same official says everything unacceptable has now been taken out with much greater clarity on the U.S. and its contribution to Ukraine's security and peace. Here's President Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I hear that he's coming on Friday. Certainly it's OK with me if he'd like to and he would like to sign it together with me. And I understand that's a big deal, very big deal. And I think the American people, even if you look at Poland, they're very happy because, you know, Biden was throwing money around like it's cotton candy. And it's a very big deal. It could be a trillion dollar deal. It could be whatever.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: From Kyiv, here's CNN's Nick Paton Walsh.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Increasingly positive signs that a deal will be signed between the United States and Ukraine in the coming days. A Ukrainian official saying that in their percept, United States and Ukraine have agreed terms for a deal over Ukraine's rare earth minerals and natural resources being used to pay back what the Trump administration says is debt over aid from the United States to Ukraine to help it defend itself after Russia's invasion.

Now, the deal apparently may end up being signed later this week in Washington. The official is saying that the White House has proposed a meeting on Friday between President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President Donald Trump, when asked about this, said that he'd heard Zelenskyy was coming to see him on Friday, said he was OK with that, and also suggested that Zelenskyy would like to sign the deal during that meeting.

That's not a full throated embrace of the deal by Trump or an official announcement from the White House that indeed they've agreed terms. But it's certainly significant progress after a week of intense acrimony between Trump and Zelenskyy in which Trump called Zelenskyy a dictator. Zelenskyy suggested that Trump was living in a disinformation circle and the relationship really appeared to be in freefall.

In terms of the deal's content what we understand from a Ukrainian official that some of the thornier items have been removed. Indeed, were told on Monday that it wouldn't have security guarantees in it that the Ukrainians had sought as the Americans had resisted. It appears, according to the Ukrainian official we spoke today, that some language pertaining to Ukrainian security may have been put back in. But this does seem to be a framework agreement. Talks about Ukrainian reconstruction, but may leave some of the uglier details for further discussions.

But what's really going to be important is whether or not Trump does indeed meet Zelenskyy on Friday and how they get along because it's their personal acrimony that's hung over bids by European leaders to try and get Trump to embrace the idea of Ukraine's support more fully and indeed to try and assist any European role in peacekeeping forces here. It's been a breakneck fortnight of the United States getting close to Russia in separate negotiations of acrimony between Ukraine and U.S. presidents.

[01:05:03]

And now it seems potentially this deal looking in better shape than it has for quite some time. If the two presidents meet on Friday and do heal that relationship, that will be an enormous relief for Ukrainians here who are desperately concerned that their main financial and military backer may be significantly less invested.

And potentially relief, too, for Europeans who've been in something of a scramble since the role in the United States, not only in Ukraine's security but that of Europe as a whole has been in doubt over the last fortnight. Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Kyiv, Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is heading to the White House, arriving Thursday and bearing gifts. Just what Donald Trump had asked for, a big increase in the defense budget in the U.K. with spending as a percentage of GDP up from 2.3 percent to 2.5 by 2027, then up to 2.6 percent the following year what Starmer says is the biggest sustained increase in defense spending since the end of the Cold War.

Last hour I asked Malcolm Davies -- Davis rather from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute if this increase in spending will be enough to rebuild Britain's military.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MALCOLM DAVIS, MILITARY ANALYST: I think the U.K. like the rest of Europe, needs to move into a pre-war period because what we're seeing is essentially a U.S. disengagement from Europe that potentially undermines the US's willingness to honor its obligations under Article 5 of NATO. That means that Europe, including the U.K. is on its own in terms of defending against a Russian menace that will extend beyond Ukraine against NATO in the coming years.

So I do think that the U.K. And Europe are correct to be boosting defense spending now, but they need to do it rapidly and they need to do it significantly and in a manner that gives them the effective capabilities they need as soon as possible. (END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Malcolm Davis there from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

Live to Israel now it's six minutes past eight and mourners are lining a route of the funeral procession for Hamas hostages Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Ariel and Kfir. The funeral will be held in the coming hours near the kibbutz where they were abducted October 7, 2023, during that surprise terror attack by Hamas militants.

Their story has gripped the nation, with many hoping this day would never actually happen. There was hopes that they may still somehow be alive in Gaza. Those hopes were dashed last week when the bodies of all three were returned from Gaza to Israel.

And now, after official identification of all three bodies, there is a funeral which is set for the coming hours. We'll continue to follow the story. We'll bring you the very latest as soon as we can.

Well, for those who can afford it, a new way to emigrate to the United States. $5 million. And those who've dreamed of working and living in the U.S. can buy a gold card. According to the Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, the gold card is aimed attracting wonderful world class global citizens. Here's President Trump on who would be seen as a wonderful world class global citizen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would a Russian oligarch be eligible for a gold card?

TRUMP: Yeah, possibly. Hey, I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people. It's possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: According to the administration, the gold card replaces the current immigrant investor visa program, which requires an investment of about $1 million.

Consumer confidence in the U.S. plummeted last month, its biggest decline in almost four years. One reason is high prices of the cost of living, especially record high prices for a dozen eggs. CNN's Brian Todd has more on the economic uncertainty across the United States.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sticker shock at the car dealership, a line down the street in New York for a free egg giveaway as prices for eggs continue to spike.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Time like this, we felt it was our duty and responsibility to just make eggs accessible.

TODD (voice-over): Meanwhile, Denny's has reportedly become the latest restaurant chain to impose a new surcharge to meals made with eggs. This all comes as more Americans are getting nervous about the economy. According to the nonpartisan research group the Conference Board, consumer confidence dropped for the third straight month in February and it's the largest monthly decline since August.

JOSEPH GAGNON, PETERSON INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS: Uncertainty is rising. People don't know if they'll have a job or if someone that they know will have a job.

TODD (voice-over): This is a sharp reversal from a short burst of consumer optimism that showed up after President Trump was elected in November. Some analysts believe the effort by Trump and Elon Musk to slash the ranks of the federal government, while it may cut waste and save money, is a big driver of the drop in consumer confidence because those job losses don't affect just the Washington, D.C. area.

MICHELLE SINGLETARY, PERSONAL FINANCE COLUMNIST, THE WASHINGTON POST: The majority of federal workers work across the country. And if you have a concentration of unemployment in these communities, if people can't pay their mortgages, that's going to hurt the lenders in that area, the businesses that cater to those people. You've got a house, you want to buy furniture, you want to improve it, you want to maybe upgrade your bathroom. Those businesses are going to be impacted.

[01:10:06]

So this is not a DC Problem. This is a U.S. problem.

TODD (voice-over): Another huge factor affecting consumer confidence, analysts say President Trump's plan to impose tariffs, taxes placed on imported goods and services. The president says his plan to levy tariffs on Canada and Mexico is moving forward.

TRUMP: It'll be very good for our country. Our country will be extremely liquid and rich again.

TODD (voice-over): But it will likely also raise prices for big ticket items like cars. And that could be fueling the dip in consumer confidence.

GAGNON: The U.S. auto industry is incredibly integrated with Canada, Mexico. Tariffs, even 25 percent tariffs on products that go back and forth across the border multiple times as you make the car would add enormously to the price of cars made in North America.

TODD (voice-over): In 2022, even as consumer confidence was at record lows and inflation was its highest in four decades, Americans continued to spend money. Will they do that now?

SINGLETARY: What's different right now is that even if you are not impacted by the cuts in the federal government, it induces a lot of anxiety. And when people are anxious, they tend to pull back.

TODD: As for some practical advice for consumers regarding the drop in confidence, analyst Michelle Singletary says first, do the most thorough and honest assess you can of where your job stands. If your job is fairly secure, she says, and you're thinking about buying a car, try to do that soon before tariffs push car prices higher. But if your job is not quite as secure, you might want to hold off on those big purchases for a while. Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: To Ann Arbor, Michigan, now and Justin Wolfers, professor of economics and public policy at the University of Michigan, thank you for being with us.

JUSTIN WOLFERS, PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS AND PUBLIC POLICY, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: A pleasure.

VAUSE: So it wasn't a great day for U.S. stocks. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq both hitting a one month lows, with Reuters reporting it's because of a Dow consumer confidence report which put mounting economic uncertainties into sharp relief and prompted a sell off. The mood of the consumer has dimmed considerably in February.

So for those who believe maybe prices would fall, maybe not on day one of Trump's second term, but certainly within a month. Is this now a sort of a realization that prices are high and all indications are that they will possibly go even higher?

WOLFERS: There's actually been two really big pieces of news. The first is consumer sentiment. How optimistic do people feel about the future? And this is it plummeted. One of the biggest moves in the last few years, and I think there's so much chaos and so much madness and it looks so poorly planned and so poorly executed that consumers don't like chaos.

And so if they're just whining to pollsters, that's one thing, but if the other shoe drops and they really believe this and they pull back on their spending, then that could be the first real threat to this, what so far has been a very strong U.S. economic recovery. And then the other side of this report is it asked people about what they think is going to happen to inflation, and that number went up quite dramatically.

And you're looking at an administration that has talked very tough and very aggressive talk about tariffs. When you tell Americans that they're going to pay an import tax of 25 percent on everything that comes across the border from their two nearest neighbors, you don't need to know a lot of economics to know that means prices are going up.

VAUSE: Yes. And with regards to tariffs, we heard a little bit more about that on Tuesday. The Commerce Secretary reading a statement here he is on behalf of the U.S. president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOWARD LUTNICK, U.S. SECRETARY OF COMMERCE: Like our steel and aluminum industries, our great American copper industry has been decimated by global actors attacking our domestic production. To build back our copper industry, I have requested my Secretary of Commerce and USTR to study copper imports and end unfair trade putting Americans out of work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: It's a little awkward, but you get the idea. The head of Alcoa, one of the biggest producers of aluminum in the U.S. warned that Trump's proposed 25 percent tariff on imported aluminum would destroy about 20,000 direct U.S. aluminum industry jobs and could result in 80,000 indirect jobs being eliminated in the United States. And that's because a lot of alcohol's production is based in Canada, shipped into the United States.

There's been free trade between the U.S., Canada and Mexico since 1994. Some flight changes were made in 2020. But unwinding those trade ties will be difficult and painful and will come at huge costs. Is it actually worth it?

WOLFERS: The short answer is no. I'm coming to you from Michigan. I'm actually right near the U.S.-Canadian border, just outside Detroit, where autos are made. And when a car is made, various parts of that car will move back and forth across the border, just like they might move back and forth across a suburb or a city in some other part of the world between one supplier and another. And so those tariffs are going to be incredibly painful.

[01:15:00]

The tariffs in particular on aluminum, on steel, on copper, are based on a very faulty understanding of economics. There are interest groups representing, say, workers in the steel industry, but in fact, the steel industry is very small part of the United States. The same is true, by the way, for copper and aluminum. But the products that small number of workers make are used in an enormous array of other firms throughout the manufacturing sector.

And so, high tariffs on what will be an input that other American firms use translates into a large cost disadvantage for American manufacturers. So it's a small subset of manufacturing that's going to gain, but actually much larger losses that we'll see throughout the rest of the manufacturing sector.

VAUSE: We'll finish up with the Department of Government Efficiency, which seems to be anything but. The AP reporting nearly 40 percent of the federal contracts that President Trump's administration claims to have canceled as part of its signature cost cutting program are not expected to save the government any money. The administration's own data shows.

This is, you know, shrinking the size of the federal government by swinging a meat axe. It might feel good to a lot of taxpayers, a lot of voters, but at this point, are many of the cuts which are being put in place by Elon Musk, simply counterproductive and they're doing more harm than good?

WOLFERS: Absolutely. This has been a fast from start to finish. The thing is, it's all actually just performance art. Elon says, I've saved us. I'm going to save $2 trillion. Think about that. That's 2,000 billion. Then he boasts on his website he saved 55 billion, which, by the way, means he's 95 percent short of the target.

But of that 55 billion, if you look on the website, he only has receipts for 7.3 billion. And it turns out most of those receipts are double counting, their miscounting, their programs that have already been cancelled. And by the Wall Street Journal's estimate, that's 2.3 billion.

So let's come back. Elon says he's after $2,000 billion of savings. He's at 2.3 right now. So if this were a football field 100 yards long, he's moved the ball forward exactly one yard.

There's no benefit whatsoever to what he's doing in terms of putting our fiscal house in order. And along the way, he's caused all sorts of disruption through the U.S. government, firing and then unfiring workers, telling them they have to email, telling them they don't have to. And the serious work of government isn't getting done because of this distraction, this clown show frankly.

VAUSE: Justin a good point to end on. Thank you being with us.

WOLFERS: A pleasure.

VAUSE: Still to come on CNN, the ongoing vigil for Pope Francis in hospital for almost two weeks with double pneumonia. The very latest when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:22:18]

VAUSE: Around the world, and especially at the Vatican, prayers continue for Pope Francis in hospital now for almost two weeks with double pneumonia. Vatican officials say the Pope remains in a critical but stable condition, continues to work despite his ill health. CNN's Christopher Lamb has the very latest. Now reporting in from Rome, Pope Francis.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTOPHER LAMB, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: Pope Francis condition remains critical but stable, according to the Vatican. A statement from the Vatican saying that the Pope has had no more acute respiratory episodes. Of course, he had a prolonged one last Saturday. And the Vatican saying there was a CT scan carried out to monitor the pneumonia that he has in both lungs.

The prognosis for the 88-year-old pontiff remains reserved. That means it's too soon to tell. The Vatican also saying the pope received the Eucharist today and resumed some work. Now, were also told on Tuesday that the pope the day before Monday had received Archbishop Pena Para, the papal chief of staff, and Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the secretary of state, two top Vatican officials, and he had promulgated some decrees for the causes of saints. We also told the pope appointed bishops on Tuesday.

Now, the message coming from the Vatican or from the pope, in fact, is that he's at work, that he's still leading the church. However, he remains in this critical condition. On Tuesday evening, a prayer service took place behind me in St. Peter's Square for the pope's health.

Of course, there was one on Monday evening led by Cardinal Parolin. On Tuesday, it was led by Cardinal Tagle. Hundreds have been gathering to pray for the pope as he continues to battle pneumonia in both of his lungs. The Vatican is expected to provide a further update on the pope's condition on Wednesday. Christopher Lamb, CNN, Rome.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: In a moment here on CNN, on Tuesday, the British prime minister announced a big increase in defense spending. On Thursday, he'll be at the White House with Donald Trump. And the timing is not a coincidence.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:28:47]

VAUSE: Welcome back, everyone. You're watching CNN Newsroom. I'm John Vause. Britain's prime minister has announced big increases in defense spending, which in part is meant to appease the U.S. President ahead of their meeting at the White House Thursday and to pay for what the prime minister described as the biggest boost to the defense budget since the end of the Cold War. The government plans significant cuts to international aid move. Charity groups are already condemning more now from CNN's Nic Robertson reporting in from London.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: This was an absolute pinch to the British public putting the story in their living rooms, beginning by saying, imagine this scenario. You're walking your child to school. You're on the way to work. You hear the crashing of the bombs and the missiles. And it's not in the distance. It's not on the television, but it's actually close to you. It's affecting your lives.

He wanted to make this real. He wanted people to understand why he feels that the country has come to this point, a decision three years in the making, he said.

[01:29:49]

And what really turned him about journalists sort of trying to have him say that. This was under pressure of President Trump, in effect, to have him appear as if he's on the back foot, as if he is weak, as if the decision has been taken out of his hands, as if it's President Trump that's dictating how the British government's budget should be divvied up.

That's -- that's, in essence, the thrust of it. And his push back on that was very clear. War has changed. Russia is acting in British skies, in British seas, in British cyberspace and on British soil. The Novichok poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury in 2017.

The point that he made was I have been there to Ukraine. I've seen it with my eyes. This is different. This is not the war of 2022. This has changed.

I see the reality. I have made the decision. It's a decision that's been coming over a long period of time. And this is not the pressure of Donald Trump.

Keir Starmer here is doing something that is huge, in essence, in a way telling the country that it is sort of going to a more serious war footing. We need to take money from other places. It's a serious, big decision.

It is very hard for governments in an incremental war, like the three- year war in Ukraine, to explain to people why they are making such a significant change.

That's what he's doing here right now. That's the thrust, not to show weakness in the face of President Trump. These are decisions he has come to in national security interest.

There must be benefits. He played up how, for example, this could benefit the economy, benefit jobs. He would make sure that this defense spend is money spent in the U.K.

These are important sells. This is not going to be easy for him to push this concept over the line with the British public. They're receptive to it.

But he's politician making tough choices, taking a step -- signaling a step change from the end of the Cold War, saying we must do this if we want our children to have the peace and stability we have had over the past 80 years, since World War II.

This is a significant speech. He is saying we now need to step back to a time past. We didn't have to expect to do.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Nick Dearden is the director of Global Justice Now. He joins us live now from London. Nick, thank you for being with us.

NICK DEARDEN, DIRECTOR, GLOBAL JUSTICE NOW: Thank you.

VAUSE: So in the lead up to announcing this big increase in the defense budget, the prime minister talked to parliament. He talked about the need for courage. Here's part of it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEIR STARMER, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: We must find courage in our history, courage in who we are as a nation because courage is what our own era now demands of us.

So starting today I can announce this government will begin the biggest sustained increase in defense spending since the end of the Cold War.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: And the courage it seems to fund that increase is by cutting assistance for the most vulnerable and the most in need. He said it was a decision that was painful and difficult.

What were the alternatives here? Where else could the money have come from?

DEARDEN: Yes. Thank you.

So I mean, as you say, this is for me one of the most cynical and crass decisions I've seen the British prime minister make for a very long time. And to increase defense spending is one thing but when he talks about courage and the courage should come by funding that from a wealth tax, say, on the super-rich -- a tiny wealth tax on the -- on the super-rich could have funded this increase in defense spending.

Instead of which he has decided to fund it off the backs of some of the poorest people on the planet, removing their access to health care, to education, to future prospects that are actually going to make the world more unsafe, that are going to undermine the root causes of conflict.

And he's done that in order to appease a foreign leader, in order to appease President Trump, who he's on his way to see in D.C. I find that absolutely extraordinary.

And there's been an incredible furor about it in -- in the last 12 hours since we heard this announcement.

VAUSE: Your foreign aid in good times and bad, is often a target for politicians. It's an easy target in many ways. So will British voters be ok with these cuts in return for the increase in defense spending? Is there a political danger here for the prime minister?

DEARDEN: I think there's a huge danger for him. I mean, first of all, remember he was elected on a platform of increasing the international development budget. So he's broken an election promise here.

He's done it without a vote in parliament. He's done it without asking the British public.

And I think there is a real demand in this country and around the world at the moment for change. It's incredible, incredibly unequal world we live in.

[01:34:46]

DEARDEN: And instead of making those with the broadest shoulders, those who've done so well out of globalization over the last 30 years pay for this, he's essentially letting them off scot-free. And he is making the world more unequal.

And I don't think that people -- I don't think people voted for that. And I don't think people are just going to accept that.

And particularly not to, you know, appease, as I said, a foreign leader President Trump, who only days ago voted in the United Nations with Russia and North Korea.

I mean, is this really the path to a safer and more secure world that the prime minister claims he wants? I don't think it is.

VAUSE: He did make a promise that as soon as fiscal circumstance allowed, the cuts to foreign aid will be reversed. Is that likely especially when you look at how this is playing out? You know, the budget will be increased every year for, you know, who knows how long. A return to business as usual seems quite a ways off.

DEARDEN: It's incredibly unlikely. Incredibly unlikely. It was already unlikely that it was going to increase above the very low level that he already had already set it at.

Remember, this is the lowest level of international development spending in a generation for the U.K.

Now, in a world which is increasingly crisis-ridden, you know, where we've got to deal with environmental catastrophes. We've got to deal with the causes of conflict and the after effects of conflict. And we've got to deal with an increasing poverty, both in this country and around the world.

I cannot see him possibly reversing the cuts to this budget in this parliament or, to be honest, as long as he's in office. Because he said, and, you know, let's be really, really clear about this, there was no financial necessity to make these cuts.

He could easily have found this money elsewhere. He could easily have found this money by taxing those able to pay for it. He wasn't prepared to do that. So this -- this is a political choice, not a financial necessity.

And I think a prime minister who makes a political choice to remove money from the mouths of the hungry at a time like this is extremely unlikely, without enormous political pressure, which we will now try to build, to reverse those cuts.

VAUSE: Yes. Of course, this all comes on top of the foreign aid freeze by the United States, which is making a dire situation even worse.

Nick, thank you for being with us. We appreciate your time.

DEARDEN: Pleasure. Thank you.

VAUSE: Well, the saddest of goodbyes has now -- is now underway in Israel with the funeral of three Hamas hostages -- Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Ariel and Kfir. On Tuesday, the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, was lit up in the color orange in their memory.

These are images now of the funeral procession, which is there -- which has been underway. That's the Knesset from last night. The orange was there to honor these three hostages that were taken by Hamas October 7th.

They were kidnapped from their kibbutz. They became a symbol of the plight of all hostages being held in Gaza.

Hamas says Bibas and her two sons were killed by an Israeli airstrike in 2023. Israeli officials say there is evidence they were murdered while in captivity. Shiri's husband, we should note, Yarden Bibas was released earlier this month as part of an Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal.

Let's go live to CNN's Jeremy Diamond. He's in Ashdod, Israel.

And Jeremy, when we look at these images, it's what -- 8:37 there on a Wednesday morning. This is a time that normally Israelis would be getting ready. There'd be peak hour traffic, people were going to work. But it seems a lot of people are stopping to pay their respects along this funeral procession of the Bibas family.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right.

Amid the rush hour traffic, there are scenes of sadness and solidarity here in Israel. Thousands of Israelis have chosen to get up this morning and lined the route along the highways, along the roads leading from Rishon LeZion in central Israel, all the way to southern Israel, where Kfir, Ariel and Shiri Bibas will be laid to rest near Kibbutz Nir Oz, from which they were taken hostage on October 7th.

You can see behind me here as my cameraman pans over the crowds that have lined this road here hundreds of people in this location alone. And this scene is being replicated along the route for miles and miles as Israelis have come out with both Israeli flags, but also those orange balloons, a symbol of the Bibas family.

Of course, Kfir who was four years old, Ariel who was nine months old at the time that they were taken captive. Their red hair as they were being taken captive became a symbol of the hostages who were taken on October 7th. And of course, since then of the tragedy that has befallen them.

The Israeli government, of course, has said that Hamas murdered them in captivity. Hamas, for its part, has claimed that they were killed in an Israeli airstrike. Neither side so far has provided verifiable evidence of either claim.

[01:39:39]

DIAMOND: What is clear though, is that the Bibas family in recent days has grown incredibly frustrated with the Israeli government, believing that the government, including the Israeli prime minister, has been using the narrative about how they were killed for propaganda purposes, something that they wish that was not happening.

That's why you won't be seeing any government ministers, any lawmakers attending this funeral procession, nor the funeral itself.

Instead, what you are seeing are ordinary Israelis who have come out to express their sadness, to express their solidarity, and to express really just what a -- what an awful, awful tragedy it is that Kfir, Ariel and Shiri did not emerge from Gaza alive.

VAUSE: And Jeremy, if you look at the crowd there, you can see some people are in tears. Obviously, this is an emotional day for many in Israel, a day which they had hoped almost against hope that it would not be, that this would not be a funeral, that somehow the Bibas family would be released alive. That seems unlikely.

And then that bad news last week, when the bodies were returned to Israel.

DIAMOND: No doubt about it. For 16 months, so many here in Israel held out hope that perhaps the Bibas family would emerge alive.

And indeed, Yarden Bibas, the father of those two little boys, he was released from Hamas captivity in recent weeks. But sadly, Shiri, Kfir and Ariel were not.

Hamas did claim early last year that they had been killed in captivity, claiming that it was an Israeli airstrike. The Israeli government for months said that they could not verify whether or not they were in fact killed during their time in captivity.

And it was only after the bodies of Kfir and Ariel, and then nearly two days later, the body of Shiri were returned to Israel, that then the Israeli government made its claim saying that Hamas killed them, saying that they were killed with their -- with, quote, "bare hands".

The Israeli prime minister even going as far as saying that they were strangled, Kfir and Ariel, those two little boys in captivity. That last claim is not something that the family had authorized for publication. And that is what has sparked quite a row between the Bibas family and the Israeli prime minister at this very, very sensitive time.

But for this moment, they are putting that aside, certainly. The focus will be on these two young lives lost with so much promise ahead of them, cut short brutally on October 7th and in the ensuing months of captivity in Gaza.

VAUSE: It is a sad day. It has been many, many sad days there and in Israel, as well as in Gaza. This is perhaps the saddest of all for many in Israel.

But Jeremy, thank you for the report. We appreciate it.

We'll take a short break right now. You're watching CNN. Back in a moment.

[01:42:18]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: The night the lights went out in Chile, with most of the country now in darkness after a massive power outage. Around 8 million homes have been affected. Metro services in Santiago have been suspended. Without electricity, the Internet is down. So too, mobile phone

services.

Officials say the blackout was caused by the disconnection of a transmission line. But the power, they say, should be back on maybe in the coming hours.

Cape Town-based company Aerobotics aims to make farming more fruitful building drones, which fly over farmland and drop insects which help control pests alongside an A.I. mapping tool to improve yields and fruit quality.

On this edition of "Africa Insider", how drones and artificial intelligence have emerged as game changing tech innovations with the potential to transform not only farmers' harvests but agriculture across the continent.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LIAAN JANSE VAN VUUREN, GLOBAL HEAD AGRONOMIST, AEROBOTICS: We're currently in quite a unique, beautiful, beautiful position where we're a sector that's providing food to a lot of people, jobs to a lot of people, bringing a lot of income into South Africa.

And of course, with that comes the challenge of making sure that every square inch that you farm is optimized and that's where the technology plays a massive role.

JAMES PATERSON, CEO AND COFOUNDER, AEROBOTICS: Aerobotics is a computer vision and A.I. company for agriculture. We use drones and smartphone technology to collect imagery across the farm, and then turn that into actionable data and insights for the farmer to optimize their crop.

So we started the Sky Bugs part of our business, which uses drones to actually drop beneficial insects into the crop, which then eat the bad insects that are damaging the crop but without using any -- any hard pesticides.

SAADIQ JACOBS, DRONE SPECIALIST, AEROBOTICS: The drone can release about 20 hectares worth of beneficial insects in about 12 to 13 minutes. It flies at an altitude between 20 and 30 meters, and it can fly up to four meters per second wind speeds. The purpose is for the control of mealybug, which is a pest found in grapes.

PATERSON: Traditionally, a farmer would use calipers or go and have a look at the fruit to try and measure it. Now we're able to scale that out across big areas and also standardize it.

So the same technology is used to measure across many different farms. And there's no bias in the collection.

ANTON VILJOEN, MANAGING DIRECTOR, VILLION FARMS: Now every year, the technology is playing a bigger role but for me, the most important thing is as long as we can do it on our smartphones. If we need to go to a computer or office, for me as a farmer, it is wasting time. So with an app, that's what we as growers are looking for.

VAN VUUREN: I think the biggest role technology plays is most of our growers are faced with the challenge of how do they use what they have and make more of it.

[01:49:42]

PATERSON: I'm always most excited when we speak to a customer and we just hear what impact its making on the farm and how things have changed for them, and obviously how they're getting more fruit from the farm through to the table.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: With that, we'll take a short break. We'll be back in a moment.

You're watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: For lovers of books, take note, the International Booker Prize Longlist for this year has been announced.

A little bit of cool guitar music there while we go through this. It celebrates the best works of long form fiction or collections of short stories translated into English and published in the U.K. or Ireland.

Panel judges selected 13 books from 154 submitted by publishers. That's the most since 2016. They include "A Leopard Skin Hat" translated from French; "On a Woman's Madness translated from Dutch; and "Eurotrash" translated from the German, about a Swiss writer who embarks on a dubious road trip with his wealthy elderly mother.

In many different ways, the stories are about survival and remarkable human experiences, real or imagined.

A shortlist of six books will be announced in April. The winner will be -- will be announced the month after that.

American alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin is still processing her 100th World Cup victory this past Sunday. Her historic win comes as the two- time Olympic gold medalist continues to recover after a crash in November. and she spoke to CNN's Coy Wire.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COY WIRE, CNN WORLD SPORT: Mikaela, the first downhill skier to reach 100 wins, the tears were flowing. What sort of things were racing through your mind after you raced into the history books?

MIKAELA SHIFFRIN, ALPINE SKIER: Oh, man. Well, immediately, and this is me being just a little too literal, but I was immediately just trying to find where my time was, and I couldn't actually see the scoreboard, which is, you would think after, yes, 100 times doing it I would think to know where the scoreboard is. But anyway, I thought I was in fourth for a second. I was like is that

first or fourth? And that is pretty radical (ph). Didn't really want to celebrate if it wasn't. That would be really insensitive.

Anyway, that's me being literal, but yes, overall it's been quite a journey this season after the crash in Killington and the injury and working back to getting my oblique to be functioning and work through the wound care and the whole puncture situation was that's been wild over the last few months. And then just to work to get back into the start gate and back on skis.

So it all kind of came bubbling to the surface. And I was yes, no shortage of tears on Sunday, that's for sure.

WIRE: Now some of the greatest athletes ever -- Novak Djokovic, Simone Biles, Katie Ledecky, Lebron. Mikaela Shiffrin, that is you. You are in that company.

Is that something you envisioned and manifested? And I know you're one of the most humble superstars I've ever met, but what's it like knowing that you're one of the greatest of all time?

SHIFFRIN: I think it's a little bit too overwhelming to process. You know, even 100 victories, it's been hard enough to process just, you know, skiing these last few weeks.

The overall number is a symbol of just a lot of work and a lot of team work and a lot of effort from my coaches. And, you know, my ski technicians and physical therapists and medical staff and the whole U.S. ski team.

[01:54:51]

SHIFFRIN: It's kind of a symbol of a bigger picture that's like, take care of the details and stay true to how you feel. You need to do things in order to be the best you can be.

WIRE: What else is next? Are there just a few seasons left? Is there another ultimate goal you have in mind before all is said and done?

SHIFFRIN: It feels like I have more in me. But with this latest injury, there's also a part of me that wonders if I'm going to be able to get back to that level.

So right now, probably my biggest goal has nothing to do with results and not about milestones. It's really just about kind of diving within myself to see what's now possible.

After everything else that's happened, there's this feeling of 100 almost being like resetting to zero. And yes, this idea of resetting the sport. I feel like I'm resetting myself a little bit. And I'm hoping to, I guess, ride that wave and see where it goes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Well, police in the U.K. have released surveillance video of a 2019 heist of a $6 million, 18-karat gold toilet from Blenheim Palace. The images shows cars arriving at the palace before a number of men with tools run into the entrance, and then they come out with parts of the golden toilet.

They stashed something in the trunk of a car and before you know it, they're off, gone into the distance. Three men now on trial for what prosecutors have labeled an audacious raid.

So what are the chances two thieves break into a car in Toulouse, France? They steal the owner's credit card, which they then use to buy a lottery ticket. And yes, you guessed it, it was a winning ticket. More than half a million dollars.

A lawyer for the car's owner says he doesn't want to press charges, but instead he wants to split the jackpot 50-50.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PIERRE DEBUISSON, ATTORNEY REPRESENTING JEAN-DAVIDE ESTELE: These two guys, the thieves would be the best friends of my client if they accept the deal.

And splitting the money 50 percent each would be a good thing for them. A miracle because they seem to have financial problems. And for my client, it would be a wonderful gift too.

So I think it's from a legal and a moral point of view, Splitting equally would be a good thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: I agree. Police are yet to identify the thieves, and France's lottery operator says there has been no request to pay out the winning ticket, at least not yet.

Thank you for watching. I'm John Vause.

Please stay with us. CNN NEWSROOM continues with my colleague and friend, Rosemary Church after a short break.

See you back here tomorrow.

[01:57:19]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)