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Isa Soares Tonight
Can the U.S. copy Denmark's Vaccine Policy?; No Match in FBI Database for DNA Evidence in Guthrie Case; Cuba's Crippling Oil Crisis; Eight Dead in California Avalanche; Champions League Controversy. Israel Steps Up Its Military Preparations and Raises Its Alert Levels Over a Potential Joint U.S.-Israel Attack on Iran; Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg Takes the Stand in Landmark Trial that Claims Social Media is Deliberately Addictive to Children; Denmark Shows the World Why Its Vaccine Policy for Newborns is Worth Emulating. Aired 2:00-3p ET
Aired February 18, 2026 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[14:00:00]
ISA SOARES, HOST, ISA SOARES TONIGHT: A very warm welcome to the show, everyone, I'm Isa Soares. Tonight, uncertainty in the Middle East. Israel
steps up its military preparations and raises its alert levels, sparking concern over a potential joint U.S.-Israel attack on Iran.
Then could it be the start of online accountability? Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg takes the stand in landmark trial that claims social media is
deliberately addicted for children. We have the very latest. And why some Americans think Denmark's vaccine model is worth copying.
We'll have a special report from Copenhagen, we'll have that and much ahead for you. We do begin the hour with fears the Trump administration could be
moving closer to war with Iran. Two Israeli sources have told CNN that Israel is raising its alert level and stepping up military preparations
with growing indications of a potential joint U.S.-Israeli attack in the coming days.
The U.S. has been ramping up its military presence in the region with a second aircraft carrier headed to the Middle East right now. Indirect talks
between the U.S. and Iran which were mediated by Oman ended in uncertainty as we told you, in Geneva this week.
Tehran said a set of guiding principles was agreed on, their words. But the U.S. Vice President is warning that Iran's rulers have not acknowledged
certain red lines. Speaking in the past few minutes, the White House Press Secretary said Tehran would be wise to strike a deal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: There's many reasons and arguments that one could make for a strike against the -- against Iran. The
President had a very successful operation as commander-in-chief with Operation Midnight Hammer, as you know, as you just said, totally
obliterated Iran's nuclear facilities.
The President has always been very clear, though, with respect to Iran or any country around the world, diplomacy is always his first option, and
Iran would be very wise to make a deal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOARES: Well, Ukraine was also in focus in Geneva with two days of talks between Moscow, Kyiv and Washington wrapping up in the -- in the past few
hours. Russian state media says Moscow's top negotiator held a closed-door meeting with Ukrainian side after the end of official talks.
The former discussion were described by both Moscow and Kyiv as being difficult, though the Ukrainian side says progress was made. This, as
Ukraine's President says his country will reject any peace deal that involves handing the eastern Donbas region to Russia.
In an interview with "Axios", Volodymyr Zelenskyy says it's unfair that U.S. President Donald Trump is pressuring Kyiv to make a deal without
expecting concessions from Russia. So, a very busy couple of days on the diplomatic stage. Let's get more on the prospect of U.S. and military --
Israeli military action, to say, against Iran.
With Jeremy Diamond in Tel Aviv, and Jeremy, I'm just seeing and this is -- comes off the back of Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt who had just been
speaking. She has declined to commit to any firm timeline for diplomacy to proceed with Iran.
This is just the latest that we're hearing from the White House. So, then given -- put everything we have heard in the last 24 hours into context and
help us read between the lines because on one hand, the U.S., from what I understand, expects to receive proposals from Iran in the next two weeks.
On the other hand, Israel is raising its alert level. Does Israel believe diplomacy has run its close -- it's run its course here.
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly, there does seem to be a world before those meetings in Geneva yesterday and the world
after those meetings in Geneva, and following those meetings, despite the fact that he Iranian Foreign Minister came out and said that there was an
agreement on a set of guiding principles to reach a potential actual agreement there.
The United States publicly has been fairly quiet. You know, they acknowledge as Karoline Leavitt did today that the Iranians are supposed to
come back in a couple of weeks with detailed proposals to try and close the gaps with the United States.
[14:05:00]
But there does seem to be a sense that those gaps still remain quite large. And the sense that perhaps President Trump is losing his patience with that
diplomacy.
But it is important to note that in addition to kind of the diplomatic, you know, will they or won't they that is happening, we've also been witnessing
an enormous airlift effort by the United States to position assets in the Middle East as well as in bases, American military bases in Europe that
have traditionally been used to support military operations in the Middle East.
So, over the course of the last month, an effort that seems to have accelerated over the course of the last 24 hours with a number of
refueling planes potentially dragging along fighter jets as well, making the move from bases in the United States towards Europe and the Middle
East.
And over the course of the last month, even before yesterday, we had already seen some 250-plus cargo flights that came from the United States
to Europe and the Middle East, positioning everything from air defense assets to personnel and other heavy equipment, in addition, of course, to
some of those fighter jets that we know have been positioned.
And so, it's clear that a lot of preparations are being made for this, and now, the Israelis are also stepping up their military preparations and
signaling a higher level of alertness. And also, one Israeli source signaling that Israel would join strikes with the United States should
President Trump give that green light.
SOARES: Right, so when Israel says it raises its alert level, what does that mean in real terms, in terms of preparedness here?
DIAMOND: Well, it has to do with everything from military preparedness all the way down to the civilian side, rescue organizations, et cetera in
Israel being kind of on a higher level of alertness for the potential of any military action. It's important to note that last time, of course, you
know, Israel really had much more of an element of surprise when it struck Iran.
But Iranian retaliation followed, you know, several hours later, the same day really, as those initial Israeli strikes against Iran. And Iran has, of
course, warned that even if Israel doesn't outwardly join with fighter jets or, you know, or some other military equipment, those U.S. strikes on Iran,
Iran has said that it would retaliate not only against U.S. bases in the region, but also against Israel itself.
So, the Israelis, whether or not they join this attack -- if this attack actually materializes, certainly do expect Iranian missiles to strike right
here in Tel Aviv and other sites across Israel. And so, we see those preparations both for defensive measures, but also for offensive measures
now very much underway in Israel. Isa?
SOARES: Jeremy Diamond for us in Tel Aviv this hour. Thank you Jeremy. Let's stay on this story and get more on the fears, really, of a regional
conflict in the Middle East and exactly what the ramifications could be. Colin Clarke is the Executive Director of The Soufan Center and joins me
now.
Colin, good to have you back on the show. We have been hearing for the last several days plenty of posturing, plenty of grandstanding from both sides.
But now we're hearing diplomatically from both sides that progress has been made. How then, do you assess where we are right now, given all the latest
lines that we have been hearing? Do you think that we are heading towards a war here?
COLIN CLARKE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, THE SOUFAN CENTER: Thanks for having me, Isa. I do think we're heading toward war. An unnamed official in the Trump
administration put the likelihood of a kinetic attack at 90 percent.
SOARES: Wow --
CLARKE: Take that for what it's worth. But if you look at just the massive amount of hardware that's in the region, I mean, you're talking about two
aircraft carriers, missile defense systems, dozens of warships, F-35s, F- 22s, F-16s, you know, part of this is the coercive and coercive diplomacy, right?
Massing all this force to really make the Iranians feel the pressure of the current negotiations. But that's a lot of resources to put in the region
with no plans to actually use them. I also think that the Trump administration is growing impatient as Jeremy referenced.
And so, this could go down anywhere from within the next few days to the next few weeks. And if it does, it's likely to last a long time.
SOARES: Yes, let's dig further on that, because Barak Ravid writing for "Axios" says the U.S. administration is closer to a major war and would
begin very soon, he says. Quoting sources, he says "it will likely be a joint U.S.-Israeli campaign weeks long, that it's much broader in scope and
more existential for the regime than the Israel -- Israeli-led 12-day war last June.
I wonder what that would look like? Because the reason I'm asking you this, in the last -- just before we came on air, in the last ten minutes,
President Trump has taken to social media, started talking about the Chagos Islands, talking about Prime Minister Starmer.
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And in part of that statement, he wrote what he put on social media, he said, "should Iran decide not to make a deal, it may be necessary for the
United States to use Diego Garcia and the airfield located in Fairford in order to eradicate a potential attack by a highly unstable and dangerous
regime.
An attack that would potentially be made on the United Kingdom as well as other friendly countries. Prime Minister Starmer would not lose control for
any reason. Diego Garcia, by entering a tenuous, at best, a 100-year lease." This was about the Diego -- about, of course, the lease for it.
Diego Garcia, I thought Diego Garcia was already a U.K. and joint military base. So, what is the meaning of this? What does this suggest to you?
CLARKE: It's hard to say. I mean, it worries me in the sense that U.S. foreign policy during this administration has been very erratic. You know,
one day it's about Venezuela, the next, Greenland. He -- the President's been, you know, somewhat obsessed with Diego Garcia as well.
SOARES: Yes --
CLARKE: You know, I think, again, some of this is posturing, right, some of this is pressuring, but the lack of focus, the mercurial nature of the
President himself gives some cause for concern. But to go back to, you know, what you -- what you alluded to, there's a lot of targets in Iran.
I think the U.S. is -- and the Israelis are certainly pressuring the Trump administration to go for a more full-throated --
SOARES: Yes --
CLARKE: Campaign beyond operation midnight hammer. You have the IRGC Navy, you have leadership targets, obviously, the nuclear sites, there's a whole
range and Iranian missile defense systems that the U.S. could look to attack with the help of the Israelis.
SOARES: Right, let me get my producer, Laura, just to bring a graphic up for our viewers to get a sense of just how significant, Colin, this air and
Naval build-up in the region is. Because we know that the USS Gerald R. Ford is also the world's largest aircraft carrier, is also en route, right?
So, if we're talking about some sort of attack or you know, either kinetic attack, what would make sense to you?
CLARKE: Yes, certainly, taking out, you know, leadership targets --
SOARES: Yes --
CLARKE: IRGC, including potentially the supreme leader air defense systems, the nuclear sites, this is going to be a combination of offensive
and defensive capabilities, also looking at, you know, various other ballistic missile sites in Iran. You know, it's not that the United States
--
SOARES: But this is costly, right, Colin? This is costly, is it not?
CLARKE: Oh, it's very costly. It's very costly in terms of treasure, it could be costly in terms of personnel depending on, you know, the Iranian
response as well.
SOARES: Yes --
CLARKE: So, we can't -- you know, undercount that. And my question is, after all is said and done, if this lasts for weeks, what happens next?
Because then you're dealing with a power vacuum, then you're dealing with the potential for insurgency. And, you know, there's a range of states and
non-state actors that would look to exploit that.
SOARES: Yes, one would assume that whatever action it takes militarily, they would have a political, right, or a strategy too alongside that for
the vacuum. But, you know, we'll see. Colin, thank you very much, lots of moving lines this hour. Thank you for staying across them for all of -- for
our viewers.
Colin Clarke there from The Soufan Group. Well, the founder of Facebook is in California court today testifying in a landmark social media trial. Mark
Zuckerberg took the stand just a short while ago to answer questions about whether his company, Meta, designed features to be intentionally addictive,
and knew about the negative impact.
The suit was brought by a young woman who says she was hooked on social media as a child and has suffered mental health problems as a result. There
have been around 1,500 similar lawsuits filed, but this is the first one in fact, to go to trial. Clare Duffy is tracking all of this for us. So,
Clare, just bring us up to date, have we heard from Mark Zuckerberg? What has he said so far?
CLARE DUFFY, CNN TECH REPORTER: Yes, Isa, we just got our first update from the courtroom. And interestingly, I'll tell you that the plaintiff who
filed this lawsuit, Kaley, she is in court to listen to Mark Zuckerberg's testimony today. This is the first time that she has actually been in court
as this trial has gone on.
Mark Zuckerberg did take the stand this morning, and so far, he has been questioned essentially around this core point of whether the company has
prioritized profits over safety. He was asked by the plaintiff's lawyer, Mark Lanier, about whether there are children that are younger than 13 on
the platform and what Meta has done to prevent that.
Technically, the company says you have to be 13 to sign up. But Lanier brought in internal documents that suggested that potentially millions of
10 to 12-year-olds were on Instagram as of 2015. He pointed out the fact that Meta only started asking users to add their birth date when they sign
up in 2019.
Two years later, in 2021, it started going back and asking existing users how old they were. And Zuckerberg said that the company had some privacy
concerns before it started implementing those age verification policies.
[14:15:00]
But he ultimately feels like he ended -- they ended up in a good place here. He was also asked whether Meta had goals to maximize time spent on
Instagram, Zuckerberg conceded that earlier on in the company, they may have had those kinds of goals, but now the company is really focused on
providing value to its users.
And again, all of this really trying to get at the reasonableness of the actions that Meta has taken to protect young users. It has talked
throughout this trial about safety features like parental oversight controls, default privacy settings for young users, and the jury is really
going to have to decide whether Meta did enough to protect kids on the app. Isa.
SOARES: Yes, look, many families and we've heard from some on CNN, clearly looking, Clare, for accountability, looking for transparency, but it's also
fair to say that we have known for many years from very brave whistleblowers, that Meta was aware of these addictive issues, right? I
want to play a little clip from one of those whistleblowers. Have a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FRANCES HAUGEN, FACEBOOK WHISTLEBLOWER: It's a classic blaming the victim. We saw this in the tobacco lawsuits. They say things like, you made all
these other choices in your life, and that's why you got cancer, not our cigarettes. So, we should expect to hear this time and time again, they'll
find anything they can point at other than taking responsibility for their own actions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOARES: I know it's early on. I don't know if this has been addressed, but it's this addictive nature, right? These features whether they've got to
that point in the discussion yet to the questioning
DUFFY: Yes, Isa, that is the line that Meta is trying to walk here. The -- Meta's lawyers have essentially argued that this young woman, Kaley
experienced mental health challenges because she had a difficult childhood and not because of Instagram and social media.
Ahead of Mark Zuckerberg's testimony today, a Meta spokesperson told me quote, "the question for the jury in Los Angeles is whether Instagram was a
substantial factor in the plaintiff's mental health struggles. The evidence will show that she faced many significant, difficult challenges well before
she ever used social media.
But the argument from Kaley's lawyers is that she was a more vulnerable target for these addictive features on Instagram that made her yet more
vulnerable to the spending more time on these platforms, and to experiencing mental health challenges because of them.
So, going to be very interesting to watch how Mark Zuckerberg continues to address this as his testimony goes on today --
SOARES: Yes, a landmark trial indeed. Thank you very much, Clare Duffy for us in New York. Well, behind closed doors today, U.S. lawmakers are
grilling a billionaire who played a key role in Jeffrey Epstein's rise to extreme riches. One congresswoman attending Leslie Wexner's deposition
says, quote, "we're going to follow the money, ask the hard questions and keep pushing until the full truth of Epstein's network is exposed."
Wexner is the former owner of Victoria's Secret, who gave Epstein power of attorney over his vast finances. The Epstein files shows Wexner was once
viewed by prosecutors as a possible co-conspirator, but they never followed up or accused him of wrongdoing.
Wexner says he was conned by the late sex offender, denying knowledge of his trafficking operation. And just appearing in the Epstein files doesn't
indicate a crime, but it's costing a growing number of U.S. business leaders their careers.
Billionaire Tom Pritzker joined the list yesterday. We told you about him, the Executive Chairman of Hyatt Hotels blamed terrible judgment for his
ties to Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Last week, if you remember, top Goldman Sachs lawyer, Kathryn Ruemmler resigned after facing scrutiny over
personal messages with Epstein and gifts he had given her.
The scandal is even ensnaring the chair of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, entertainment and sports agent Casey Wasserman put his talent agency up for
sale on Friday. The files show he rode on Epstein's plane and exchanged suggestive messages with Maxwell.
Let's get more now from CNN's Stephen Collinson. So, Stephen, according to the Epstein files, Les Wexner, for many people who don't know, he seemed to
have been the money, right? So, what have we heard from him so far or from his attorneys?
STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS SENIOR REPORTER: Well, before he sat down for this testimony, he released a statement basically saying that he was
conned by Epstein, that he personally had not done anything wrong. And he's one of the -- some of these major figures who have been caught up in this
have almost been arguing that they themselves have been victims of Epstein.
But the case of Wexner is so interesting because he basically turned over his massive private fortune to Epstein to manage it. It was, you know, in a
way, it looks like this may have fueled a lot of the wealth in Epstein's lifestyle that we've all been puzzling about how he got so rich.
So, this part of the case could actually be starting to provide some answers to that question. So that's why it's so important. Then there's the
issue of Mr. Wexner himself. As I say, he said he didn't do anything wrong.
[14:20:00]
But as with all of these people, and some of them you saw there that were starting to pay consequences for this. The question is how could people not
have had a better idea about what was going on in Jeffrey Epstein's life when they were so close to him?
SOARES: Yes, and let's go back a bit because I just saw comments by Republican Congressman Thomas Massie, who basically is calling this a
cover-up, Stephen, and bigger, he says, than Watergate. Also suggesting the DOJ was trying to shield him, shield Wexner, with the FBI listing him when
we mentioned that as a co-conspirator in 2019. What happened then? Why wasn't this taken seriously back then?
COLLINSON: We don't know, basically because generally, when a case is not pushed against somebody, you don't get an explanation as to why? In most
cases, you don't even get to see the files like we're seeing here that were compelled to be released by law with this Justice Department.
It's very difficult to tell whether there was indeed a cover-up in the earlier redacting of his name, Mr. Wexler's name, or whether it was just
incompetence. We've seen a lot of that in the way that these files have been released. You have to say that Pam Bondi; the Attorney General's
appearance in Congress last week, doesn't give anybody any confidence that the Justice Department is not up to something nefarious with this release
of these files.
And there are still millions of files that we haven't seen. So, it's going to raise more questions about that. And it does get to something which --
the story seems to be developing now into a question of, are we going to get accountability rather than just prosecutions for this vast trafficking
network?
SOARES: Stephen Collinson, thanks, Stephen, appreciate it. Still to come tonight, why is the U.S. attempting to copy this? European countries
vaccine policy and will it work? Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta travels to Copenhagen to find out. And severe food and fuel shortages and notorious.
Cuba is running out of oil, and it's ordinary Cubans who are suffering the most. We'll have a special report for you from Havana.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SOARES: A measles outbreak in the U.S. is raising alarm bells amongst public health experts as vaccinations amongst children are lagging. U.S.
cases surged to a record high last year, as you can see there.
[14:25:00]
A new CDC data reveals that as of this week, there have been nearly 500 more cases than average for the -- for the time of the year. Because
measles is so contagious, health authorities have a 95 percent vaccination target, but rates in the U.S. have now slipped below that amid a global
rise in vaccine skepticism.
Cases of measles have also been spiking in Europe, and last month, the U.K., Spain and Austria were amongst the countries to lose their measles
elimination status. Measles is entirely preventable by vaccination, but highly contagious, so it's one of those first illnesses to rebound when
vaccination rates decline.
Well, in a controversial shift earlier this year, U.S. health officials slashed the childhood vaccine schedule from 17 vaccines to just 11. They
are taking inspiration from Denmark's approach. Our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta went to Copenhagen to find out why some
Americans think Denmark's model is worth following.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Denmark has long recommended fewer childhood vaccines than the United States. Babies here
leave the hospital without any shots. By the time they're 12 years old, most Danish children have received vaccines against ten diseases.
Now, compare that to the United States, until recently, American officials recommended children get vaccinated for 17 diseases. Now, six of those are
still available but no longer recommended. Hepatitis A and B, meningitis, rotavirus, flu and COVID 19.
Some of those, like Hepatitis B are still a serious threat in certain parts of the United States, but not so much in Denmark. About 6 in every 100,000
Americans are diagnosed every year with chronic Hepatitis B, compare that to less than 2 per 100,000 in Denmark.
That means around 18,000 Americans diagnosed every year, compared to about a 100 in Denmark.
(on camera): So, this is a referral hospital?
JENS LUNDGREN, PROFESSOR OF VIRAL DISEASES, UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN: That's right.
GUPTA: Dr. Jens Lundgren(ph) is a specialist in infectious diseases. He sits on the panel that decides which vaccines to give Denmark's children.
Did it surprise you when you heard that the United States is trying to emulate their vaccine schedule on Denmark?
LUNDGREN: Yes, I certainly didn't see that coming. You cannot just take what has been carefully thought through in one geographical location and
just extrapolate that and generalize that.
GUPTA: I think part of the reason that they emulate Denmark is because Denmark has the fewest vaccines on the schedule.
LUNDGREN: But you see, that's not a good argument, right? So, why do you want to condense your vaccine program against the fewest vaccine? You want
to have the right vaccines for the public health that you have in your population.
GUPTA: You believe these vaccines that we're talking about on the childhood vaccine schedule, you believe they are safe and effective.
LUNDGREN: Correct.
GUPTA: That's not -- that's not the concern here --
LUNDGREN: That's not the debate here.
GUPTA: So, what is it fundamentally about?
LUNDGREN: We have come to realize after have made some mistakes also early on in how the vaccine program that it's entirely based on trust. The trust.
The trust parents need to trust when we come with a new vaccine into the program, they need to trust that that's very sensible to do. And they would
therefore adhere to that.
GUPTA (voice-over): Lundgren and his colleagues are now considering adding another vaccine, the one for chickenpox. Most Danes trust their government.
Of the world's most advanced economies, it ranks near the top, and here's the United States, dead last.
Just 28 percent of Americans trust the government. Danish trust in government goes far beyond vaccines, even after parents leave the hospital,
child rearing looks a whole lot different here.
(on camera): I want to show you something pretty extraordinary. We've come to visit two-and-a-half month old Esther. Of course, we expected to find
her inside the house given how cold it is, but instead, here she is in a stroller outside freezing cold temperatures.
(voice-over): You'll see this everywhere in Denmark. Parents swear by the fresh air for their heavily-swaddled babies. The family is waiting for a
home health nurse to arrive, who will come free of charge, 5 to 6 times during the baby's first year of life.
(FEMALE KNOCKS ON DOOR)
EDITH MARIE NIELSEN, MOTHER OF THREE: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
GUPTA: What I'm struck by is Denmark is so different than the United States. You're here, parental leave --
KENNETH SEJR HANSEN, FATHER OF THREE: Yes --
GUPTA: Nationalized healthcare system.
HANSEN: Obviously, there's a lot of people in the U.S. who are not that fond of the government actually running anything at all.
NIELSEN: It's two completely different countries, right? And it's run differently, and politically, governmentally. But I would want for the
people in U.S. to have some of the benefits that we experience, because I do believe it benefits me as a parent. I believe it works. So, I basically
trust the system, right? That they have decided it for me and it works.
GUPTA (voice-over): Vaccination isn't the only reason that outbreaks are less common here in Denmark. The National Serum Institute, or SSI, here in
Copenhagen, keeps meticulous medical records of all Danish citizens, helping them track illnesses to help predict and even prevent outbreaks.
DR. GUPTA: What makes Denmark's superpower this data tracking?
LONE SIMONSEN, PROFESSOR OF POPULATION HEALTH SCIENCES, ROSKILDE UNIVERSITY: Whenever someone is tested for something, it goes into one
database. Whenever someone is vaccinated, it goes into one database. It doesn't go to all kinds of places. It's one place. And then it's quite
doable to link all this together.
DR. GUPTA (voice-over): Americans might be uncomfortable with that level of tracking, but it is one of the many factors that makes the Danish system
work. It's easy to see reflections of the MAHA movement here. Danes emphasize personal health to ward off disease, and they are skeptical of
too much medical intervention. But the success of the Danish system is based on so much more than the number of vaccines parents give their
children. Nationalized health care, high trust, and a lot of strong codependence on one another.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Copenhagen, Denmark.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ISA SOARES, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: Thanks to Dr. Sanjay Gupta for that report. And we want to bring you the latest on the week's long search for
84-year-old Nancy Guthrie. We are learning that DNA found at a glove near Nancy Guthrie's Arizona home, as well as inside her residence, did not
produce a match in the FBI's database. Investigators are still looking into other options to check for DNA matches.
Meantime, NBC reports that Google is attempting to recover more footage from the surveillance cameras at Guthrie's home. Authorities say it will be
hard to do because the videos were recorded over. We'll stay across that story for you.
And still to come tonight, as the U.S. shuts Cuba's oil tap, our Patrick Oppmann takes us on a ride in Havana to understand how life is grinding to
a halt there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:35:00]
SOARES: Welcome back, everyone. As Cuba runs out of oil under a crippling U.S. blockade, the Kremlin is extending a helping hand, hosting his Cuban
counterpart, Bruno Rodriguez, in Moscow. Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, you can see there, stress they will continue to support the island.
Just have a listen to what was said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SERGEY LAVROV, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): We know that our Cuban friends are always ready for such honest negotiations. And we, in
turn, will consistently continue to support Cuba and the Cuban people in defending the country's sovereignty and security.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOARES: Well, through military action in Venezuela and tariff threats on Mexico, the Trump administration has isolated Cuba from some of its key
allies in the Western Hemisphere. And it hopes to force the communist government there to adopt significant political as well as economic
reforms.
But as U.S.-Cuba talks grind ahead, it's ordinary Cubans who are, quite frankly, suffering the most. Crucial revenue from tourism is drying up,
blackouts are a nearly daily occurrence, and schools are closing to save energy. Our Patrick Oppmann is giving us a closer look at the worsening
fuel crisis from the streets of Havana for you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Owning a classic car in Cuba used to be a gold mine. Until recently, Mandy Pruna (ph) earned more
from one hour driving tourists in his vintage 1957 Chevrolet than most Cubans do in a month. But he's no longer able to make a living. Just before
taking me out for a spin, Mandy canceled his permit to work as a chauffeur.
Everything is uncertain at the moment, he says. There's no fuel. We don't know if there will be any and how we will pay for it. There's no tourism.
Cuba is becoming an increasingly paralyzed country as the Trump administration's policy of blocking oil shipments from abroad cripples an
already ailing economy, where just weeks ago, cars lined up for hours at the pump. Now, there's no one because there's no longer any gas. Each day,
public transportation is harder to find, many switch to bicycles.
OPPMANN: When I first came to Cuba, the Soviet Union had just fallen into more bikes on the road than there were cars. As this crisis goes on, it
feels more and more like we're returning to those times.
OPPMANN (voice-over): The White House is strong arming Cuba's communist- run government to open politically and economically in exchange for the fuel shipments to resume. Cubans are seeing food prices soar as the crisis
drags on.
We are paying two, three times as much to restock and keep people happy, a vendor tells me. There's no food. And there's no immediate solution in
sight.
OPPMANN: This is the kind of place that I buy vegetables for my family, and most of the products are coming from outside of Havana. Transporting
them from the countryside is going to get more difficult, if not impossible. Cuban officials have responded by saying people need to start
growing their own food.
OPPMANN (voice-over): Cuba may just be weeks or perhaps days away from running out of fuel. A humanitarian disaster could be on the horizon.
Already, many fishing boats sit idle.
One can't work. The country is stuck. There's no industry. Nothing is happening, this fisherman tells me. And we'll see how this ends.
Until then, the best many Cubans can hope for is to stay afloat as their country goes under.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SOARES: It doesn't look very good for Cuba right now. Patrick Oppmann joins me now live from Havana. Patrick, good to see you. Before we came to
you, we were just showing a video of Dmitry Peskov meeting with his Cuban counterpart in Moscow. And Peskov said in one of the clips that we didn't
play, but he said that Russia will, quote, "provide appropriate assistance." Do we know, Lavrov, pardon me here, do we know what that
appropriate assistance may look like?
OPPMANN (on camera): We don't because, of course, Mexico, under threat from Donald Trump of tariffs, has stopped sending oil, oil that Cuba
desperately needs, has sent food, tons of food, which is certainly very useful, but is not going to power the Cuban economy.
Russia has oil. They've sent oil to the past to Cuba, but that's oil that largely has not been paid for by the Cuban government because they don't
have the ability to do so. So, at this point, Russia knows that they send more oil, that that's just going to add to the debts, the enormous debts
that Cuba has to the Russian government.
One of the reasons the Soviet Union went bankrupt was because they had sent so much aid up until the 1990s to Cuba. It supported the government here
until the point that it helped bankrupt the Soviet state. So, the Russians remember that, and, of course, they know if they were to send a shipment of
oil, that it could be stopped by the U.S.
[14:40:00]
So, it would be a lot easier for the U.S. to stop a shipment of oil so close to their borders, and that would put them in direct confrontation
with the United States at a very delicate time. So, we have heard over the years lots of promises of Russia -- of aid coming here, but the reality has
been not much has actually happened.
SOARES: You have covered Cuba for so long, Patrick, as our viewers will know. Is this one of the worst moments you've seen in the last 10, 15 years
or so for Cuba? How do you define this moment that we are seeing right now?
OPPMANN: I think it's the worst moment, and I came here for the first time in 1994, and as bad as things were then, Cuba was completely isolated.
There was still hope. People, perhaps ignorance is bliss, were not connected to the outside world, but as well there have been 30 more years
of economic sanctions and, frankly, misrule by the Cuban government, economic misrule, and so people are just exhausted.
They have had their friends and relatives leave. They -- if you're here, you've probably thought about leaving, and you've passed up that
opportunity, which at this point you regret not leaving. That's what many Cubans tell me, is that if they could have left, they wish they had. And
so, I think it's just the exhaustion.
But in terms of the blackouts, you know, 12, 16, 8, 10 hours a day, some days in the neighborhood where I live, in the countryside it's much, much
worse. Maybe you get two hours of power per day, and that just wears you down. People are cooking with charcoal. They are eating once a day. You see
people that you haven't seen in a few weeks, and they are thinner, so it is having a real impact on people, and whatever the Cuban government says
about resisting, I think people are having trouble actually doing that, what it means that the power is off at their house and their fridges are
empty.
SOARES: Absolutely. Patrick, grateful that you are covering this story for us. Patrick Oppmann for us in Havana. Good to see you. Thank you, Patrick.
And some news just coming in to us. An epic ski trip ending in tragedy after an avalanche and blizzard in California. At least eight dead. The
story after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SOARES: Breaking news just in to CNN. Eight of nine back-country skiers buried in an avalanche in Northern California have died. Authorities just
made the announcement amid the ongoing rescue operations to find the ninth person. The effort is proving to be difficult due to the blizzard around
Lake Tahoe. Six survivors were pulled from the wave of ice, rocks and debris that came crashing down on Tuesday.
[14:45:00]
The group of skiers won a guided off-trail trip through steep terrain. Stephanie Elam joins us now with more just heartbreaking news for those
eight families. What more do we know, Stephanie?
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's just crushing news to hear what has happened up on the mountain. What we've now understood is that
last night, about 11 hours after officials were alerted to this avalanche, they were able to make their way in the darkness to rescue the six that
they were able to communicate with.
During the press conference that's still going on right now, they said that they were using the iPhone SOS feature. Someone was able to communicate
with these responders to let them know where they were. They were able to get up to them and rescue those six. When they got there, they were able to
discern from those six that they had, on their own, found three of the people who were part of their group who were dead.
Afterwards, they were able to go back after they got those six people out. I can tell you of those, two people did need to go to the hospital. One was
treated last night and was released. The other one is expected to be released, so not life-threatening there. But still, when they did go back,
they discovered that there were eight found dead. One is still missing. They said that the eight that were found dead, seven were female, and two
were men.
They said that they were fairly close together and that they were not far away from where the others who were rescued, where they were. So, this was
some information that they were able to get from the people who were recovered to help them.
The problem is, the weather is still really bad. In fact, take a listen to one of the chiefs here as he is explaining. OK. This is the Tahoe Force
supervisor saying that basically the weather is just so bad that they can't go in there right now to get to the bodies. They are still working on it.
They still have their incident command center set up. But the weather is so treacherous that it's very hard to get in there.
Remember, this is not a place where there's a road. They were in backcountry, which is just rugged, off-the-grid terrain where people like
to go. These people were on a three-day trip. They were coming back from -- They left out on Sunday and were coming back yesterday, but the snow that
was falling was just immense. It really was falling -- they were saying that we were expecting feet of snow before the storm even started, not just
inches. And it's still falling right now, and that is what's making this so hard, why it was so treacherous.
And even still, because it hasn't stopped snowing, even though it's slowed down, that avalanche area is now getting more snow on it, and so it's still
precarious, so much so that they even had to ski in after they took their snowmobile out a bit. Then they had to ski in to get to them because they
didn't want the snowmobile to trigger more snowfall. So, just a very sad update coming out of this Lake Tahoe area.
SOARES: Yes, and they're still looking for one of the members at this time. And remember, like you said, Stephanie, conditions incredibly
challenging. Thanks very much, Stephanie, for the breaking news there, the latest on that breaking news. We'll stay across this for our viewers.
And still to come tonight, accusations of racism after a Real Madrid goal and celebration against Benfica. World Sports Don Riddell will help us
explain exactly what happened.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:50:00]
SOARES: Well, controversy following Tuesday's Champions League football game between Real Madrid and Benfica. The game was halted following this
goal and celebration by forward Vinicius Jr. Benfica fans did not like his celebratory dance by the corner flag. Gianluca Prestianni then confronted
Vinicius and appeared to say something while covering his mouth with his jersey. The French referee then signaled that an accusation of racism had
been made.
Our World Sport's Don Rodel joins us now. Don, good to see you. I mean, this is, unfortunately, a too familiar scene, right? You and I remember us
doing a documentary on racism in sport almost 15 years ago, Don. Bring us up to date with the very latest about this incident. What are you learning?
DON RIDDELL, CNN WORLD SPORTS: Yes, nothing new here, sadly. Nothing new here for Vinicius Jr. either, Isa. I think it's now 20 times he's been on
the receiving end of alleged racism like this and he decided some time ago that he would speak out about it every single time and it's a real shame
because we just saw that extraordinary goal.
I'm sure he would have preferred to be talking about that at the end of the game. Instead, he was making statements like this. This is what he said on
social media. To explain his perspective, he said, racists are, above all, cowards. They need to put their shirts in their mouths to show how weak
they are, but they have the protection of others who theoretically have an obligation to punish them. Nothing that happened today is new in my life or
in my team's life.
Vinicius Jr.'s Real Madrid teammate, Kylian Mbappe, spoke out as well. He said that he heard this player call Vinicius Jr. a monkey five times.
SOARES: Where are we then on the investigation? Have we heard from UEFA? What are they saying? Because I saw Gianluca Prestianni, the Benfica
player, he denied it, right?
RIDDELL: Yes. So, UEFA have not said very much, but they have opened an investigation. Prestianni has denied it, as you say -- let's just look at
what he said on social media. He said, at no point did I direct racist insults at the player Vinicius Jr., who unfortunately misinterpreted what
he thought he heard. I've never been racist towards anyone and I regret the threats I received from Real Madrid players. And everyone pointing fingers
at me for covering up with my shirt when they know that all soccer players cover their mouths to talk. Don't try to make up more. Prestianni, if found
guilty here by UEFA, could be looking at a 10-game ban.
SOARES: And I was reading what Benfica had to say because they have been doubling down, haven't they? They even suggested, Don, that Prestianni was
on the receiving end of the defamation campaign. And then we had some really staggering comments from Jose Mourinho.
RIDDELL: Yes. Mourinho, who of course used to be the manager at Real Madrid, he is now in charge of Benfica. There seemed to be an element of
victim-blaming from Mourinho, basically saying that you should celebrate respectfully, almost suggesting that Vinicius Jr. brought this upon
himself.
But he also said something quite remarkable, which was that Benfica are the club of Eusebio, one of the greatest players of all time. He of course
famously was a Benfica player. The suggestion there, well, Eusebio was one of ours, so Benfica couldn't possibly be a racist club. I mean, to so many
people, that will make just absolutely no sense. And Eusebio played for Benfica a very long time ago. Isa.
SOARES: Yes, I shall say no more. But it's a bit like saying I've got a black friend so I'm not racist, right? It's within that. Thank you very
much, Don. Appreciate it.
[14:55:00]
Well, a sighing of relief at the Olympics today as Mikaela Shiffrin finally, finally won her gold medal. Shiffrin blew away the field in the
women's slalom, winning by a stunning one-and-a-half seconds in a sport where results often come down to the hundredth of a second. Shiffrin struck
out at the Olympics four years ago, if you remember, and had raced poorly thus far in these games.
Meanwhile, Norway's Johannes Hosflot Klaebo is cementing his name as one of the greatest Olympians in history. The cross-country superstar won his
fifth gold of these games and his tenth overall in the team sprint. He is the only winter sports athlete with ten career gold medals.
And finally, tonight, scientists are expressing shock at a video of a sleeper shark from deep in the Antarctic Ocean. The video was shot almost
500 meters below the surface in waters that are barely a degree or two above freezing. Scientists had not known sharks lived in these waters. The
shark is estimated to be about three to four meters in length. And as you can see there on your screen, it looked quite muscular. One scientist
described it as a tank.
That does it for us. Do stay right here. "What We Know" with my colleague Max Foster is up next. I shall see you tomorrow. Have a wonderful day.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:00:00]
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