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Putin Unsure of the Ukraine Ceasefire; Duterte Now in ICC Custody; 350 Hostages Rescued in Deadly Pakistani Train Hijack; Pope Francis Marks 12 Years of His Papacy as His Condition Remains Stable. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired March 13, 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 everyone streaming us on CNN Max. I'm Rosemary Church.
Just ahead, Vladimir Putin visits Russia's Kursk region wearing a military uniform but says nothing about a proposed ceasefire with Ukraine.
Tariff turmoil. Economic uncertainty sets in for the U.S. as Canada and the E.U. retaliate against Donald Trump's steel and aluminum tariffs.
And a judge rules a prominent Palestinian activist will stay in immigration custody as the Trump administration revokes his green card status and tries to deport him.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Rosemary Church.
CHURCH: Good to have you with us.
Well the conflict in Ukraine looks set to dominate a busy day of international diplomacy. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte will visit the White House in the coming hours, while G7 foreign ministers continue their talks in Canada.
The U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in Quebec on Wednesday amid global uncertainty over U.S. President Donald Trump's upheavals in foreign and economic policy, as well as the changes he's made to U.S. policy on the conflict in Ukraine. These meetings come as Russia claims significant gains on the battlefield, both along the front lines in Ukraine and in the part of Russia invaded by Ukraine last year.
President Vladimir Putin made a surprise visit to the Kursk region on Wednesday. And now, according to Reuters, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has told Russian state news that the operation to push the remaining Ukrainian forces out of Kursk is in its final stage. Russia's top general claims hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers have been captured in the renewed offensive there, and President Putin believes victory is at hand.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): In the near future, the task is to finally defeat the enemy that is still engaged in combat operations, who has dug into the Kursk region as soon as possible and completely liberate the territory of the Kursk region.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: So far, Russia has not said whether it will agree to the U.S. proposed 30-day ceasefire, which Ukraine has accepted. President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the ball is now in Vladimir Putin's court.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: We had a great success yesterday. We have a full ceasefire when it -- if it kicks in, but we have to see. It's up to Russia now, but we've had a good relationship with both parties, actually, and we'll see.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: CNN senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen has the latest on the fighting in Ukraine and reaction inside Russia to the U.S. ceasefire proposal.
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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over0: A brazen attack. Russian troops sneaking through a gas pipeline to target Ukrainian positions.
The assault is starting, the soldier says. The Russians saying thanks to this assault, they've all but taken the town Sudzha, one of Ukraine's last footholds on Russian territory.
Kremlin-controlled T.V. in breaking news mode hailing the gains. This is what the most important victory of the Russian spirit and weapons looks like, the host says.
The Russians have been taking territory in multiple areas along the front line in recent days, leaving some in Moscow wondering why they should even bother with a Trump administration's ceasefire deal.
Now Trump, like an ultimatum, says, you stop the war because Ukraine is ready for a ceasefire, this man says. But what's the point? What ultimatum? We're dominating on the battlefield.
After the Ukrainians agreed to a 30-day ceasefire in meetings with the Trump administration's negotiators, the U.S. says now it's time for Moscow to do the same. MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: They're probably processing the
news the same as the rest of the world, so we hope to have a positive answer from them. The ball is truly in their court.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): But so far, the Kremlin hasn't even picked the ball up yet. Russian President Vladimir Putin silent on the issue and his spokesman saying they're waiting to hear from the U.S., while the foreign minister in an interview with U.S. bloggers merely stated what Russia isn't willing to allow, like tolerating NATO peacekeepers in Ukraine.
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SERGEY LAVROV, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: Under any conditions, nobody is talking to us. They keep saying nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine, but they do everything about Russia without Russia.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): This, as the Trump administration is saying, it's eagerly waiting to hear from the Russians, whose forces continue to grind down Ukraine's defenses.
Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Moscow.
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CHURCH: Ukraine's president says whenever Russia responds, he hopes the U.S. will take strong steps against Moscow if the answer is no. It's also making it clear that Ukraine is serious about peace.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We will not play with the narrative that we do not want the war to end, the narrative that Russia has and is spreading around the world. I'm very serious about this. It is important for me to end the war.
I want the president of the United States of America to see this. I want Americans to see and feel this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: President Zelenskyy says despite talk of a ceasefire, Russian drones and missiles still pummel Ukraine every night. And even if Moscow agrees to a pause in fighting, the White House is not saying if it has any way to enforce a ceasefire if Russia breaks the agreement.
Some Ukrainians say they don't have much faith in Moscow's long-term commitment to peace.
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UNKNOWN (through translator): They have always taken revenge on us for the fact that we fought for independence. They will not change their doctrine. Even if the war ends, it will be temporary. They will use it to gather the arsenal and to make a blow, the same way they did in Grozny. They wiped it from the face of earth. UNKNOWN (through translator): If they agree to a 30-day ceasefire,
maybe Russia will stop shooting, but it will be specifically to build up more weapons, to get more weapons to use later, or to make some other provocation, like they did before, shelling their own city and saying that it was from our side.
UNKNOWN (through translator): When there was a kind of ceasefire before the full-scale war, we believed in it very strongly. But then we woke up in the morning to the sound of sirens and being hit from all sides.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Earlier, CNN spoke with Shashank Joshi. He is the defense editor for "The Economist" and a visiting fellow with the Department of War Studies at King's College London. He talked about the pressure Ukraine faced to come to the negotiating table and the concessions the country has likely had to make.
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SHASHANK JOSHI, DEFENSE EDITOR, "THE ECONOMIST", AND VISITING FELLOW, KING'S COLLEGE LONDON: he concessions were partly a sense of contrition, perhaps not amounting to a formal apology, but also a willingness to accelerate the minerals deal, which is no longer being negotiated with a framework agreement, a very rough preliminary agreement, but is being negotiated in full, running to hundreds of pages.
But in addition to that, I think we shouldn't forget Zelenskyy has also extracted some concessions here. That's very important to remember.
He has extracted concessions on America, emphasizing issues such as the forcible deportation of Ukrainian children. He also, I notice in the joint statement coming out of Saudi Arabia, said that the Europeans will be involved in any talks.
And of course, just a couple of weeks ago, the U.S. administration was working very hard to keep the Europeans out of those talks. So that's important to understand as well.
Now, you asked about the intelligence sharing. Yes, the intelligence is back on. Yes, the arms are back on.
But I just want to make two points. One of them is we don't yet know if the intelligence relationship is completely back to normal. Will this Trump administration assist Ukraine in conducting sensitive, high-value strikes inside Russia? We don't know the answer to that.
And the second question that is linked to this is even if the intelligence is back on, I'm afraid the genie is now out of the bottle. Trust has been broken.
And I think the Ukrainians will really profoundly distrust everything that is coming out of this administration henceforth, even, of course, if they have little choice but to pragmatically work with it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: And that was Shashank Joshi speaking earlier with CNN.
Now to escalating trade tensions between the U.S. and its allies after the European Union and Canada retaliated against President Donald Trump's tariffs on all steel and aluminum coming into the U.S. Europe was the first to strike back Wednesday with retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods, including boats, motorbikes and bourbon.
Canada is also taking action, announcing more than $20 billion in retaliatory measures on U.S. goods, including steel and computers. Mark Carney, who's set to be sworn in on Friday as Canada's next prime minister, says he's ready for talks with the U.S. president.
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MARK CARNEY, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER DESIGNATE: I'm ready to sit down with President Trump at the appropriate time under a position where there's respect for Canadian sovereignty and we're working for a common approach, a much more comprehensive approach for trade.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: The tit-for-tat trade moves have some U.S. companies bracing for economic pain and many Americans are feeling uneasy. A new CNN poll finds 56 percent disapprove of the president's handling of the economy so far.
CNN's Sherrell Hubbard has more on fears of an escalating trade war.
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SHERRELL HUBBARD, CNN CONTRIBUTOR (voice-over): Countries around the globe aren't backing down.
REPORTER: Will you respond to their retaliation?
TRUMP: Of course I'm going to respond.
HUBBARD (voice-over): But neither is President Donald Trump, and trade war fears have consumers and businesses caught in the crosshairs.
UNKNOWN: Who could blame them putting reciprocal tariffs on us? You know, it's just a (expletive) match, you know, and nobody's going to win.
HUBBARD (voice-over): Wednesday's U.S. tariffs were met with swift retaliation from Canada and Europe. Canada announced a series of measures.
DOMINIC LEBLANC, CANADIAN FINANCE MINISTER: So what we did is we matched dollar for dollar the American tariffs at the same percentage. The
HUBBARD (voice-over): European Union also swiftly retaliated, imposing tariffs on up to $28 billion worth of U.S. goods to exports.
The markets were mixed at close Wednesday, but some economists warn that the odds of a recession are rising.
MARK ZANDI, CHIEF ECONOMIST, MOODY'S ANALYTICS: The economy is strong. It came into the year doing very well, but it can't digest the kind of tariffs that we're talking about here.
HUBBARD (voice-over): The 25 percent toll on all U.S. imported steel and aluminum threatens to drive up prices on a broad range of consumer and industrial goods for Americans.
UNKNOWN: Houses and cars are bundles of steel and aluminum. He is imposing an onerous tax upon the middle class right now.
HUBBARD (voice-over): Democrats argue that Americans will be the ones picking up the tab for the president's policies.
UNKNOWN: Donald Trump and House Republicans are crashing the American economy in real time.
I'm Sherrell Hubbard reporting.
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CHURCH: Earlier, I spoke with Justin Wolfers, professor of economics and public policy at the University of Michigan, and asked him about the trade tensions and how he sees this playing out in the months ahead.
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JUSTIN WOLFERS, PROF. OF ECONOMICS AND PUBLIC POLICY, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: Let me give you the clearest reason for some optimism, even while I share a lot of pessimism.
The first thing is the economy, the U.S. economy right now, is really strong. President Trump inherited an economy that was growing well, that had inflation and had basically fallen back to normal, that had unemployment near a 50-year low. And so far, he hasn't been at the controls long enough for much of that to have changed.
The second thing is the single best indicator of how the economy is going to perform tomorrow is how it's performing today. So if I told you today is pretty good, then maybe your best forecast is if nothing goes wrong, then tomorrow is going to be pretty good too. That's the cause for optimism. Of course, I said if nothing goes wrong.
Normally with an economy, we think about external things that might lead things to go wrong, a financial crisis or a pandemic or an oil price hike. This time, the really scary stuff is coming from inside the House. It is a chaotic economic policy coming from the White House, and it's
one that is certainly leading many businesses and consumers to pause before spending. And that could, but by no means necessarily, could spark a recession.
CHURCH: Right, so U.S. inflation numbers cooled Wednesday, but markets ended mixed. And that was after they tumbled Monday and Tuesday, rattled by Trump's tariffs. So Trump believes his economic strategy will eventually bring wealth to this country and lower inflation, oil prices and the cost of living.
Essentially, Trump believes that this short term pain will equal long term gain. Is any part of what he is doing right now? Does it make economic sense to you at all?
WOLFERS: No, so look, if you were to pass a policy that involves short term pain and long term gain, think about what that would mean for stocks, because when you buy stock in a company, you're not buying it for tomorrow. You're buying it for the very long run.
Another way of saying that is the stock market is effectively a way of betting on not just the short run, but also the long run. And what we've seen is every time Trump has stepped forward with his agenda, stocks have tanked. So that's the market saying we don't believe in this agenda.
Look, the tariff agenda is one where he says, what I want to do is raise high tariffs and then force businesses to return to the United States. Fair enough.
It may or may not work. But think about a business trying to decide whether to build that next factory in the United States.
What matters is not the tariff rate today. What matters is what the tariff rate will be in three, four or five years that it takes to build the factory and then over the ensuing three, four or five decades in which the factory is open.
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And there's nothing Trump has done that has fundamentally changed businesses' views about the long term future of tariffs. Those who are in favor of free trade are still very much winning the war of ideas, even if they're sustaining a few losses inside the White House right now.
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CHURCH: Our thanks to Justin Wolfers for his perspective there.
With a Friday deadline looming to pass a government funding bill, U.S. lawmakers are facing the very real possibility of a shutdown. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says Democrats have enough votes to block the measure passed by House Republicans on Tuesday.
Their bill, which contains no Democratic concessions, would fund the government through September. Schumer, though, wants a shorter term measure that gives Congress time to work on a bipartisan agreement instead. But some Senate Democrats, like John Fetterman, say their one job is to keep the government open, not tempt fate with a plan that might not even work.
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SEN. JOHN FETTERMAN (D-PA): I was hoping we could at least have the vote tomorrow because, I mean, aren't we all sick of each all of us? Like, can't we just leave? If we have to bring this out to like, you know, 11:59 on Friday night, then that's really that would be really (expletive).
Remember what you were voting for. You were voting to shut the government down. And that will absolutely punish millions, millions of Americans.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: One day after President Trump held an apparent electric vehicle auto show in front of the White House with Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced plans to undo climate policies that would have pushed power plants and carmakers to use cleaner forms of energy.
The EPA also plans to roll back rules on soot, mercury and coal ash pollution and eliminate programs overseeing environmental justice and diversity. The administration is also preparing to strip the EPA's authority to manage pollution that causes global warming.
Critics say these actions would sacrifice human health to benefit private industry. Climate and environmental groups are vowing to challenge the EPA's moves in court.
Still to come, the Palestinian activist and U.S. resident arrested by the Trump administration is still in immigration detention. A look at why his case is raising questions about free speech in the United States.
Plus, he was called the punisher, now, Rodrigo Duterte is behind bars at the International Criminal Court. Ahead, the message the former Philippine leader had for his supporters.
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CHURCH: A prominent Palestinian activist who lives in the U.S. will remain in immigration detention for now as his case plays out in court. But a New York federal judge says Mahmoud Khalil must be allowed more access to his attorneys as the Trump administration seeks to deport him.
CNN's Gloria Pazmino has the latest from New York. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we expected the judge to stick to strictly procedural parameters on Wednesday, and that's exactly what happened. He directed the parties to file motions by the end of the week. And we learned from the government that they plan to argue that there is a jurisdictional issue and that New York should not have jurisdiction over this case.
As you remember, Mahmoud Khalil was detained here in New York City, but he was transferred to a detention facility in New Jersey, and then transferred again to another facility in Louisiana, where he is currently in custody. So they have to resolve that jurisdiction issue before the case can proceed.
Now, the judge did agree with Khalil's attorneys that they need more access to their client. They complained during the hearing on Wednesday that they have not been able to have privileged conversations with him since he has been in detention. So the judge directed the government to make sure that Khalil can have that access.
In the meantime, lawyers for Khalil continue to argue that this is not a question of public safety or alleged support to a terrorist organization, but rather a question of the right to free speech and political activism in the United States. Take a listen to lawyers after the hearing on Wednesday.
BAHER AZMY, MAHMOUD KHALIL'S ATTORNEY: Mr. Khalil's detention has nothing to do with security. It is only about repression. United States government has taken the position that it can arrest, detain, and seek to deport a lawful permanent resident exclusively because of his peaceful, constitutionally protected activism.
PAZMINO: During Wednesday's hearing, the government did not mention any evidence about alleged crimes against Khalil or provide any justification so far as to why he is being detained. More motions are expected to be filed by the end of the week.
Gloria Pazmino, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is now in the custody of the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
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A group of his supporters showed up outside a detention facility in the Netherlands. As he arrived Wednesday, Duterte is facing murder charges related to his ruthless and deadly war on drugs.
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Hours earlier, he released this video from the plane that flew him there. He said he'll take responsibility, quote, "for everything and protect the Philippine police and the military." Melissa Bell has our report.
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MELISSA BELL, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Far from the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, the country's former president, now in The Hague, and accused of crimes against humanity.
His dramatic arrest in Manila on Tuesday, the result of an International Criminal Court warrant only served after a U-turn by the country's current president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
RODRIGO DUTERTE, FORMER PHILIPPINE PRESIDENT (through translator): My order to them was that if they're holding a gun, kill them immediately so there will be one less criminal.
BELL (voice-over): Dubbed the Punisher, Duterte oversaw a brutal, years-long crackdown on drug pushers that allegedly left thousands dead.
More than 6,000 people were killed, according to police data, but independent monitors believe that the number could be into the tens of thousands, including bystanders caught in the crossfire.
DUTERTE: What is the crime that I committed?
BELL (voice-over): Duterte has repeatedly denied the extrajudicial killing of alleged drug suspects, and although the verdict could take years, his arrest is significant.
First, because the former Filipino president will be one of a very small number of former leaders to have ever been taken to trial. But also because the Philippines had actually withdrawn from the ICC under Duterte in 2019. The court argues, however, that the crimes were allegedly committed when it did have jurisdiction.
And the ICC has plans for other world leaders too, though it relies on the cooperation of national governments to execute its warrants. It's seeking the arrest of both Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for Israel's actions in Gaza, and Russian President Vladimir Putin for his invasion of Ukraine.
Outside the ICC, it's celebrations of a step that some say means that justice will at last be done.
Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.
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CHURCH: Still to come, hundreds of passengers are safe after a deadly train hijacking in Pakistan. We'll have the latest on the incident after a short break. Stay with us.
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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to "CNN Newsroom." I'm Rosemary Church. Let's check today's top stories for you.
The European Union and Canada are hitting back against tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on oils, all steel and aluminum coming into the U.S. Both have announced retaliatory tariffs on billions of dollars' worth of U.S. goods. Mr. Trump is now threatening to take further action in response.
Russia is claiming significant gains on the battlefield in the Kursk region, which was invaded by Ukraine last August. According to state media, the Kremlin spokesperson says Russia's operation to oust the remaining Ukrainian forces from Kursk is now in the final stage.
Vladimir Putin says his goal is to finish the operation in Kursk as soon as possible. While visiting there on Wednesday, the Russian president said his country needs a buffer zone along its border with Ukraine. He spoke as the U.S. waits for Moscow's response to a ceasefire plan that Ukraine has accepted.
Anna Borshchevskaya is a Russian expert and senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. She is also the author of "Putin's War in Syria: Russian Foreign Policy and the Price of America's Absence." She joins me now from Washington, appreciate you being with us.
ANNA BORSHCHEVSKAYA, RUSSIA EXPERT AND SR. FELLOW, WASHINGTON INSTITUTE FOR NEAR EAST POLICY: Thanks so much for having me, Rosemary.
CHURCH: So the ball is firmly in Russia's court as we wait on Moscow for a response to the 30 day ceasefire proposed by the U.S. and accepted by Ukraine. While President Putin hasn't responded yet, he did meet with his generals on the frontline in Kursk Wednesday in military uniform and said his goal is to completely liberate Kursk and then create a border buffer zone. Now, if actions speak louder than words, what message was he sending on the ceasefire proposal do you think?
BORSHCHEVSKAYA: Well, I think the message he was sending is that whether he does or does not accept a ceasefire, it really does not matter.
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First, the fact of the matter is Russia has a history of breaking ceasefire agreements when they do accept them. But second, the question is whether or not it will really make any difference.
Because Putin's goals have not fundamentally changed. And those are to destabilize Ukraine and to potentially look beyond Ukraine towards other territories in Europe.
CHURCH: So as we wait for an actual firm response, what are some of the options available to President Putin, do you think? And how is he likely to play this out?
BORSHCHEVSKAYA: Well, he is, he seems to be taking his time. He likely will take his time before giving an answer. But the real question is, again, whether or not it really matters.
He could very well accept a ceasefire and really, those are his options. His options are to accept a ceasefire or to reject it. And as you said earlier, Rosemary, the ball really is in his court.
But the question is, fundamentally, have his goals really changed? And the answer seems to be unlikely.
CHURCH: And why are you saying, does it matter? Does it even matter whether he accepts this? What do you mean by that exactly?
BORSHCHEVSKAYA: Well, what I mean by that is, even if there is a pause in the fighting, which is what a ceasefire is, it doesn't give us any clear answer on what the bigger questions are about how the war is going to end. And one of the fundamental questions about that is whether or not Ukraine is going to get any real security guarantees.
The fact of the matter is, Putin has already said earlier he opposes NATO membership for Ukraine, something that Trump agrees with. And Putin also said he opposes European peacekeepers.
So the question is, what do genuine security guarantees for Ukraine look like? And the bigger picture here, Rosemary, is that Putin is looking beyond Ukraine.
This is about more than just Ukraine. And if Ukraine does not get security guarantees that are credible, he may very well attack Ukraine again, but also look towards other countries in Europe. And that's why Poland, for one, is looking for nuclear arms and to train all of its males to prepare them for potential war.
CHURCH: And when it comes to this particular ceasefire, Putin's past actions, of course, have made it clear to Ukraine and Europe that he can't be trusted to fulfil the terms of any ceasefire, a point apparently lost on the Trump administration. So how careful should the U.S. be at this juncture, do you think?
BORSHCHEVSKAYA: Well, Rosemary, first, you're absolutely right. Putin has shown time and time again that he cannot be trusted. Whether it's Ukraine or, frankly, other places like Syria, there's a string of broken ceasefires on Russia's watch that went on.
And so the real question for the Trump administration is, first, does Russia have any real reason to accept a ceasefire? Is Russia under pressure to accept a ceasefire? Does it have any incentive to do so? And beyond that, really, what does a just end to this war look like?
And again, that moves beyond the ceasefire. That really is looking towards a bigger resolution. And if we know Putin cannot be trusted, we have to look for ways to create deterrence to put pressure on him. We cannot simply take him at his word. CHURCH: And as you have pointed out, it seems clear that any peace
deal will happen on Moscow's timeframe, not on America's. How long do you think it will take President Trump to realize he's being played by Putin? And what happens then?
BORSHCHEVSKAYA: That's a great question, Rosemary. It's hard to say. It's really hard to say how long it's going to take him to come to that.
The fact of the matter is Putin is going to take his time to respond. One potential scenario is he accepts a ceasefire and then breaks it. And maybe that will be that realization.
But really, I think the ball really is in Russia's court and we just have to wait and see.
CHURCH: Anna Borshchevskaya, thank you so much for talking with us. I appreciate it.
BORSHCHEVSKAYA: Thanks for having me.
CHURCH: European defense ministers are calling for greater defense spending for the continent. Officials from the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Poland and other E.U. representatives met in Paris on Wednesday, a day after dozens of army chiefs held similar talks without the U.S.
Germany's defense minister warned the continent cannot afford to let bureaucracy get in the way of ramping up defense spending. The group also discussed providing security guarantees for Ukraine. And the British defense secretary urged countries to join a coalition to support Kyiv.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN HEALEY, BRITISH DEFENSE SECRETARY: We know our responsibility. We know we must step up on Ukraine, on defense spending, on European security. So today in Paris we have agreed we must rearm, we must spend more, we must work together to strengthen our industrial base.
Our industry must be capable of innovating at wartime pace and must make defense an engine for economic growth in each of our nations.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Senior Arab diplomats met with America's Middle East envoy in Qatar as they push an alternative proposal to U.S. President Donald Trump's vision of Gaza's future. According to Qatar's foreign ministry, they presented a unified Arab plan for Gaza's reconstruction. The $53 billion proposal calls for rebuilding Gaza by 2030.
Mr. Trump has floated the idea of the U.S. taking over the enclave, permanently relocating Palestinians who live in Gaza and turning the area into what he calls a quote, "Middle East Riviera." The proposal has been met with widespread international condemnation.
The wave of violence that has swept through Syria has left close to 900 people dead. That's from a U.K.-based Syrian monitoring group which blames the death toll on both pro-government forces and the supporters of ousted President Bashar al-Assad. The operation against them is over but it resulted in some of the worst violence since Assad was ousted, with clashes between the two sides spiralling into sectarian killings over the weekend.
Well nearly 350 hostages have been rescued after a deadly train hijacking in southwest Pakistan Tuesday, sources tell CNN. CNN's Sophia Saifi has more details from Islamabad.
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SOPHIA SAIFI, CNN PRODUCER: A train hostage crisis that had gripped Pakistan for the past 24 hours has finally come to an end on late Wednesday.
On Tuesday morning, a train that was travelling from Pakistan's southwestern city of Quetta on the way to the northwestern city of Peshawar carrying many military personnel was apprehended, attacked and then kept hostage for many, many hours by the Baloch Liberation Army, a separatist movement, a separatist group that's been operating in the province of Balochistan for many, many years. It's a dramatic escalation to that insurgency.
We've seen the BLA amp up their attacks in that province on military installation over the past couple of months. It's finally come to an end after a slow trickling of information that had been coming in from security sources since Tuesday morning.
We've also been told by security sources that the people, that the militants who were responsible for this attack, the BLA, were constantly in touch with their handlers in neighboring Afghanistan, according to these security sources.
Now, at the moment there are coffins that have been sent to the location of where the attack and the hostage crisis took place. We've been waiting for those coffins to return with the dead bodies and at the moment it is a very tragic day in Pakistan.
A lot of questions are going to be asked about what caused such a massive failure of security to happen in this country. We're going to have to wait and see what the connotations of this attack are going to be to Pakistan's future security policies. But at the moment it is a country that is in mourning.
Sophia Saifi, CNN, Islamabad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: New video shows the moment a fuel tanker and container ship collided on Monday off the British coast near Grimsby.
The video was captured by a lookout unit on another ship and uploaded to social media. One person is believed dead after the cargo ship ran into the anchored tanker, setting fire to both ships.
On Wednesday, the owner of the cargo ship said that the captain is a Russian national. The captain was arrested after British police opened a criminal investigation into the crash.
It has been exactly 12 years since the election of Pope Francis, but this year the Pope will mark this anniversary in hospital. Just ahead, we will get a live update on the pontiff's condition.
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CHURCH: Today is the 12th anniversary of the election of Pope Francis to the papacy, but the occasion is tempered by the fact the pontiff remains in hospital. So let's get more now from senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman, who joins us live from Rome.
Good to see you Ben. So what is the latest on the Pope's health and how will the Vatican be marking this anniversary while he remains in hospital?
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SR, INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well we just got the statement from the Vatican this morning that the Pope slept tranquilly overnight.
[03:50:01]
Yesterday a more detailed statement from the Vatican press office came out saying that chest x-rays have shown that indeed he is improving -- has been improving over the last few days. They say his situation remains stable, stable but still complex. So there's no indication at this point, Rosemary, when Pope Francis is going to get out of this Rome's Gemelli hospital.
Now to the best of our knowledge there are no events marking 12 years since a conclave in its fifth ballot selected him as Pope, but certainly he is a Pope who has had a real impact on the Vatican.
Now I remember I was in St. Peter's Square with cameraman Alessandro Gentile and producer Caroline Patterson when it was announced that Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio had been chosen by the Cardinals in that conclave that was formed after the surprise resignation of Pope Benedict XVI.
Everybody was surprised. We certainly looked at one another and asked who's that? He was not considered at the time one of the papable, as they say in Italian, papable so to say, but nonetheless since then he has had a real impact in terms of modernizing the rather dusty old Vatican bureaucracy, in fact the world's oldest still functioning bureaucracy.
He has made 47 trips despite his age to 65 countries. He's named more than 900 saints and he is somebody who for instance has in a sense dragged the Vatican kicking and screaming into the modern world.
He's the first Pope to appoint a woman -- women to offices within the Vatican. This has been against a certain amount of resistance from conservative elements within the Catholic Church. Nonetheless he is considered to be a Pope who has had a real impact on the Church. Rosemary.
CHURCH: All right, our thanks to Ben Wedeman, joining us live there from Rome. I appreciate it.
Well chances are you know someone who looks like their dog or maybe you look like your pup. We will tell you what science has to say about your pet preferences. Stay with us.
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[03:55:04]
CHURCH: Welcome back everyone.
Doctors in Switzerland are prescribing visits to public gardens and museums for some patients with mental health conditions. Under a pilot project launched last month, doctors are offering the prescriptions just like those for medications to 500 people for free visits to museums and gardens. The therapist says the program demonstrated how access to culture is essential for one's well-being.
Okay, so if your dog looks like you it might be more than just a coincidence. It could be psychological. A growing body of research finds a scientific reason why many people really do look like their pets.
CNN health reporter Jacqueline Howard has more.
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JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: I've talked with several experts about this and psychologically it comes down to how many of us gravitate toward things that feel and look familiar. Even feel and look like ourselves and some experts call this the mere exposure effect.
That we prefer things we have been exposed to like our own faces. After all many of us are exposed to our own faces daily when looking in the mirror. So on a subconscious level we may gravitate toward a dog or a pet that resembles what we see in ourselves.
And there's even research showing this. One study asked more than 200 women to use a nine-point scale to rate their preferences for choosing certain types of dogs.
Researchers found that women with short hairstyles on average had a higher preference for short pointy-eared dogs that kind of looked like themselves. Giving them a preference rating of seven compared with giving long lop-eared dogs a preference rating of about five. But women with long hairstyles on average gave the lop-eared dogs a
preference of almost eight on that nine-point scale while giving prick-eared dogs a preference of almost five.
This tells us that familiarity and the mere exposure effect may play a role in how we select our own pets. It's interesting though this effect essentially disappears when selecting a dog for work purposes like a police dog or herding dog.
This might be because for decisions related to occupation more time and research is put into that selection process instead of making a choice based on emotion or gut feelings, which is what we tend to do when choosing a dog to be a part of our own family. Back to you.
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CHURCH: All right, well thank you so much for your company. I'm Rosemary Church. Have yourselves a wonderful day.
"The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper" is coming up next. Then stay tuned for "Early Start" with Rahel Solomon.
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