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Olympic Competition Begins Thursday; Trey Gowdy: Nunes Memo Has No Impact on Russia Probe; Deadline Looms for Spending Bill and DACA Bill; Officials Focus on Rail Switch in Deadly Train Crash; Justin Timberlake Pays Tribute to Prince at Super Bowl Halftime. Aired 1- 1:30a ET

Aired February 05, 2018 - 01:00   ET

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

[01:00:00]

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CYRIL VANIER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): -- and Olympic diplomacy live from PyeongChang.

Plus dueling memos: Democrats want a right of rebuttal after the Republican memo that claimed the FBI abused its surveillance powers.

And all things Super Bowl: of course, the Philadelphia Eagles win their first championship as the halftime show pays tribute to Prince.

We'll be live from Minneapolis.

Thank you, everyone, I'm Cyril Vanier, joining you today from CNN Headquarters in Atlanta.

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VANIER: And you have the world's top athletes have made their way to PyeongChang, South Korea, for the opening of the Winter Olympics. But this edition as we know is as much about diplomacy as it is about athletics.

Case in point: the North Korean delegation led by this man, Kim Yong- nam. He is the country's ceremonial head of state. Also U.S. V.P. Mike Pence will be attending the opening ceremonies with Fred Warmbier, whose son, Otto, died after being released from a North Korean prison. The message being sent: don't forget about the North's oppression.

Paula Hancocks joins us from PyeongChang with the latest.

First of all, North Korea's sending its ceremonial head of state to the Olympics but we know the real leader is Kim Jong-un.

So how important is this move really?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is important, Cyril. The fact is you're not going to have Kim Jong-un coming down to PyeongChang to the opening ceremony. It's simply not going to happen. He is a leader who, as far as we know publicly hasn't even left his

own country since he took power. He hadn't even been to Beijing, to China, hasn't met the Chinese leader, who's obviously the main ally and the main trading partner of North Korea.

So the fact he is sending Kim Jong-nam is significant. He is a very high member of the regime. And quite frankly, when you look at other members of the regime that he could have sent, most of them are blacklisted. Most of them have heavy sanctions against them.

So Kim Jong-nam is really one of the very few that is able to come here. So it does show in some ways that North Korea is pretty important on the opening ceremony, to send someone as significant as him.

He often represents Kim Jong-un when it comes to overseas trips -- Cyril.

VANIER: Paula, I'm curious, your reported a few days ago that the snow cannons were busy spraying the slopes ahead of the Olympics. Now I'm watching the scene behind you. It looks kind of patchy, the snow does.

Do you have all the snow you need?

HANCOCKS: It is patchy where we are. This is PyeongChang and you can see behind me, the snow in the foreground, there simply isn't any.

On the slopes themselves, there is. This is where they have been focusing these snowmaking machines. I just spoke to one of the companies just about half an hour ago and he said that they had been going since the middle of November to try and make sure there was enough snow and they thought by mid-January they actually had enough, at least for those slopes that were going to be used for some of the races, the slopes behind me are the -- part of a ski resort, not the ones they'll be competing on.

So he thought that they would have enough snow. But of course many people are asking, what kind of quality is that snow going to be? It's obviously not natural. We don't have a lot of natural snow here.

But then also bear in mind the past couple of Winter Olympics, Sochi and Russia certainly didn't have an awful lot of natural snow if any. So it's almost as though it's not a requisite to hope -- to host the Winter Olympics at the moment or actually have proper snow.

VANIER: Paula, I'll just say you blew me away with the detail in that answer about the quantity and quality of the snow in PyeongChang. Always a pleasure speaking to you. We will be keeping you busy this week. Thank you.

Now the furor in Washington over that Republican memo critical of the FBI shows no signs of letting up. In fact, we could see another memo this week, this time from the Democrats' point of view.

The Republicans' version claims the FBI abused its surveillance authority to target a Trump campaign advisor. CNN's Boris Sanchez has the latest reaction.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: We heard from several Republican lawmakers, some of them on the House Intelligence Committee, contradicting the president outright over the weekend.

The president was active on Twitter, saying that the Nunes memo vindicates him and proves that the Russia investigation is nothing more than a witch hunt. On Saturday night, the president also tweeted portions of a "Wall Street Journal" editorial that supposed that there are political actors within the Department of Justice and the FBI.

We also heard from Donald Trump Jr. on Saturday night, who was on FOX News, saying the release of the Nunes memo is like sweet revenge for him and his family.

Despite that, these Republican lawmakers again are contradicting the president, saying that Nunes memo has nothing to do with the Russia investigation and should not prevent Robert Mueller from continuing his work.

I want to play some sound for you now from South Carolina representative Trey Gowdy. Listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The memo has no impact on the Russia probe?

REP. TREY GOWDY (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: Not to me, it doesn't. And I was --

[01:05:00]

GOWDY: -- pretty integrally involved in drafting it. There is a Russia investigation without a dossier.

So to the extent the memo deals with the dossier and the FISA process, the dossier has nothing to do with the meeting at Trump Tower. The dossier has nothing to do with an e-mail sent by Cambridge Analytica.

The dossier really has nothing to do with George Papadopoulos' meeting in Great Britain. It also doesn't have anything to do with obstruction of justice. So there's going to be a Russia probe even without a dossier.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Now that statement coming from Trey Gowdy is especially significant because even, according to Devin Nunes, he's the only Republican on the House Intelligence Committee that has actually seen the raw intelligence, the raw data that led a FISA court judge to allow the FBI to surveil Carter Page.

So if anyone knows of the validity of the Nunes memo and its implication on the Russia investigation, it would be a Trey Gowdy. Now Democrats are pushing for the release of the so-called shift memo, their rebuttal to the Nunes memo, which they say provides more information and more context and contradicts portions of the Nunes memo.

We could see a vote from the House Intelligence Committee as early as Monday for its declassification. What is unclear now is whether the president will allow for that memo to be declassified the way that he did for the Nunes memo -- Boris Sanchez, CNN, traveling with the president in West Palm Beach, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VANIER: With me now, Democratic political strategist Mac Zilber, a CNN NEWSROOM regular, and Charles Moran, a Republican strategist.

Charles, the Republicans got to tell the general public what they don't like about the FBI surveillance.

Should the Democrats now get a right of rebuttal?

CHARLES MORAN, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Thanks for having me on tonight. What we saw in the memo was the fact that an American citizen had his rights to privacy violently trampled on. The FISA memo -- the FISA court, the procedure that the Nunes memo went through in detail showed that the chain of command was broken down and that the Democrats' continued attempts to link Donald Trump into any kind of malfeasance with Russian obstruction in that is election is just not something that is accurate and it is not something that's factual.

Like Trey Gowdy said, this investigation is going to continue. So I don't necessarily think there is a right of Congressman Schiff or Democrats on the committee to have to refute or rebut anything because it's actually quite clear what's going on in where the breakdown was.

VANIER: Charles, I'm sorry, but, as a journalist, there's one thing that is certain is that not much here is clear. We do not know the full picture; the FBI says this is not accurate. Democrats have another reading of it. If anything is certain, it's that the clarity is lacking.

Who had his right to privacy trampled on?

MORAN: President Trump and there is actually --

(CROSSTALK)

VANIER: How?

MORAN: -- a very good article that came out this weekend, talking about the Woods procedures, that when the FBI needs to go to get a FISA warrant, before you got to that FISA court, they actually have to show explicit, detailed evidence --

(CROSSTALK)

VANIER: Charles, President Trump --

(CROSSTALK)

VANIER: -- Carter Page, a former Trump associate, who was spied on.

MORAN: It was -- we have a procedure here in place that has to show if we are going to violate an American citizen's right to privacy, there has got to be explicit --

(CROSSTALK)

VANIER: OK, but I just want to be clear. The citizen we're talking about is not President Trump, it's Carter Page.

MORAN: Once again, we have a procedure here, where the political agenda within the FBI -- and unfortunately their hierarchy -- American civil rights were trampled on.

VANIER: OK, but you made it sound like the president's right to privacy was not respected. We're actually talking about somebody else. I think our viewers need to know that.

Mac.

MAC ZILBER, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: So first of all, let's talk about when we're saying that the FBI has a partisan agenda, these were professional prosecutors, most of them happen to be registered Republicans. That shouldn't matter -- presenting a whole lot of evidence.

And we don't know what we presented to judges, primarily appointed by Republicans, Supreme Court justices, again, in the case of the FISA courts -- that according to Adam Schiff and those who have seen some of this intelligence, did actually disclose the fact that the Steele dossier had a politically link, did actually disclose the things that this partisan secret memo claims were not disclosed to the courts.

And frankly, I think that we should release this Democratic memo but regardless of whether it debunks the claims in this memo or not, this 3.5-page memo is not all that convincing as a reason to not believe that this investigation should go further.

Trey Gowdy himself said the memo has nothing to do with George Papadopoulos, with Michael Flynn, with Donald Trump Jr., with a host of other threads that this investigation is following.

This is about Carter Page, who I think we all agree has been a kind of ancillary character to this whole thing, who is being investigated since 2013 long before he joined the Trump campaign.

VANIER: Charles, just to be clear --

[01:10:00]

VANIER: -- as a Republican strategist, would you advise House Republicans and the president to release the Democrats' memo or not? MORAN: I don't necessarily think that adding a Democrat slant to this memo is going to do anything.

(CROSSTALK)

VANIER: So the Republicans get to release theirs but not the Democrats?

MORAN: -- the Congress -- the redaction process has to go through and, again, President Trump makes that decision. He is the commander in chief. He made the decision. I think that if Congressman Schiff wants to call President Trump and explain to him why he thinks that his memo contains additional information, he has all the right to do that instead of just cross-talking in the media.

But you know when it comes down to the line, we have a situation where the information that was presented clearly shows the partisan leaning here and Trey Gowdy did enunciate this correctly.

There are a lot of different facets to this investigation. The investigation will continue. But continuing to associate President Trump with the ancillary actions of the Russian government to try to disrupt the information in this election is just a false corollary.

VANIER: All right --

(CROSSTALK)

VANIER: -- to not make this partisan is to have both sides, give both sides an opportunity to air their views and --

(CROSSTALK)

MORAN: -- Adam Schiff, what --

(CROSSTALK)

MORAN: -- what Devin Nunes did in changing the final edits, he actually responded to the Democrats and the FBI when there was a few more tweaks made.

So Congressman Nunes actually has listed and taken input from the FBI and from the Democrat minority on the committee to make any changes needed.

VANIER: Let me just get back to Mac. And by the way, we both know that Adam Schiff does not have the power to release the memo, otherwise he would have done so. He needs Republican support to do that. He was blocked by Nunes.

Mac, listen to what Don Jr. said this weekend when asked his reaction to the publication of the Republican memo.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP JR., PRESIDENT TRUMP'S SON: There is a little bit of sweet revenge in it for me and certainly probably the family in the sense that if they wouldn't have done this, this stuff would be going on. This going on at the highest levels of government.

They'd be continuing to do it to my father, trying to undermine his actions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VANIER: So, Mac, as a Democrat, do you want sweet revenge now against the Republican memo, revenge against the revenge?

ZILBER: Don Jr. is the gift that keeps on giving revenge. But this is not about revenge and this is not about Democrats and Republicans. This is about -- we have a law enforcement process that is being carried out by a very respected prosecutor in Bob Mueller.

Let's let him carry out his process and stop smearing everybody who's involved in the investigation. Stop putting out rumors that we're going to fire people who have the ability to fire him so that we can get rid of him.

Let's let him investigate. If Donald Trump is innocent, then he probably shouldn't be spending all this time smearing the good name of all the people who are just trying to find out the truth on this, who are professional, career law enforcement agents.

VANIER: All right, Mac, Charles, I have to thank you both, by the way. And I should have done at the very beginning because you're coming to this just hours after the end of the Super Bowl. That shows commitment to your craft. So thank you, both of you.

ZILBER: Go Eagles.

VANIER: Thank you.

The clock is once again ticking on a funding bill for the U.S. government and an agreement to protect young undocumented immigrants. Aides say the House will vote on another temporary spending measure this week to give lawmakers more time to reach agreement on immigration.

About 700,000 so-called DREAMers, people who came to the U.S. illegally as children, are at risk of deportation when DACA ends. And that is on March 5th. As part of a DACA deal, President Trump wants beefed-up border security, including a wall, the end of the diversity visa lottery program and an end to visas for immigrants' parents and siblings.

On Friday he blamed Democrats for putting a deal at risk.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I really am not happy with the way it's going from the standpoint of the Democrats' negotiating. DACA is something that should absolutely be easy to do. And I don't think the Democrats want to take care of the DACA recipients. I don't think they want to take care.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VANIER: Now one Democratic leader predicts that there won't be a DACA deal this week but he remains optimistic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. DICK DURBIN (D-ILL.), DEMOCRATIC WHIP: There's not likely to be a DACA deal, though we're working every single day, on telephone calls and person-to-person, to reach this bipartisan agreement. I think we're making real progress.

I want to salute the moderates in both the Republican and Democratic caucuses in the Senate. They have really been a positive voice. Democrats and Republicans, sitting in the same room, working to try to solve this problem.

I don't see a government shutdown coming but I do see a promise by Senator McConnell to finally bring this critical issue, that affects the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in America, finally bringing it to a full debate in the Senate.

That's what we were looking for when there was a shutdown. We have achieved that goal. We're moving forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VANIER: OK. Another deadly train crash in the U.S. is raising --

[01:15:00]

VANIER: -- concerns about the safety of traveling by rail. An Amtrak train collided with a freight train in South Carolina. That happened early on Sunday. Two train employees were killed; 116 people were injured.

Emergency responders worked quickly to get everyone off the train.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You go car by car. You mark the cars that you've been through and you do your best to find every patient that you possibly can, every victim. You put the right number of resources on the scene to handle the situation. And that is something that was very amazing for this particular one.

We had so many resources on the ground that allowed us to effect the operation seamlessly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VANIER: And investigators now have a clue as to what apparently caused that crash. CNN's Kaylee Hartung explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) KAYLEE HARTUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The chairman of the NTSB brought out a whiteboard to diagram the fatal mistake that led to this crash. As he explained it, a switch on the track was locked with a padlock in the wrong direction, diverting that Amtrak passenger train from the main track onto a siding track and squarely into the freight train.

Now, NTSB investigators have to figure out why -- why that switch was left locked in the wrong position when the trains like Amtrak train 91 travels along that path every day. This is a question that the CSX Corporation will have to try to help some answer.

CSX is the railroad group that owns, operates and maintains the stretch of track where this crash occurred. So they are responsible for the signaling, the switching and the dispatching in the area.

CSX offered out a statement with their condolences to the families of the two victims of this crash, the Conductor and engineer of that train.

While they did that, they did not acknowledge any wrongdoing of their own other than to say they would be cooperating fully with the NTSB investigation.

Another key piece of evidence in this investigation, that would be a forward-facing camera on the Amtrak train that the investigators already have being analyzed in a lab in D.C.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VANIER: Still to come -- and that'll be after the break -- the NFL's biggest game did not disappoint. The Patriots and Eagles battled for the championship in a thrilling record-breaking Super Bowl.

Plus Justin Timberlake rocked the halftime show. Everyone is talking about his tribute to music legend Prince. Stay with us.

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VANIER: And at last we get to what is arguably the news of the day here in this country. The Super Bowl. Some people watch it for the football, some for the advertisements, others yet for the halftime show.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE, MUSICIAN AND PERFORMER: Minneapolis, Minnesota, this one's for you.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

VANIER (voice-over): That's Justin Timberlake, paying tribute to rock legend Prince on Sunday night. The halftime show is one of the biggest stages that you can imagine for a musician in the U.S.

Timberlake performed a medley of his classic hits but it is that Prince tribute that had everyone talking. Some loved it, some didn't course.

Of course, all of this took place in Prince's home state of Minnesota. Now to the game, it was a shootout and a nailbiter but, in the end, the Philadelphia Eagles, yes, dethroned the defending champion, New England Patriots 41 to 33.

This is the Eagles' first ever Bowl title ever.

Andy Scholes is with us.

Andy, tell us about the game.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Cyril, this is one of the best football games you'll ever see. Super Bowl LII was an epic offensive shootout between the Patriots and the Eagles. The Philadelphia Eagles pulling out all the stops in this game.

They led for the majority of it and, when they needed a play, they really came up with a fancy one at the end of the second quarter. They ran a little trickery with quarterback Nick Foles, the receiver on this play.

He caught that touchdown, put the Eagles up at the half. Now Tom Brady did lead the Patriots back in the fourth quarter to take the lead. But Foles answered right there with a touchdown pass to Zach Ertz. That gave the Eagles the lead for good.

Tom Brady did have one last chance on a Hail Mary but it was no good and the Eagles escaped with the win 41 to 33 to win their first ever Super Bowl and Nick Foles, the backup quarterback, who never thought he'd be playing in the Super Bowl, is your Super Bowl MVP.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICK FOLES, EAGLES QB: It hasn't sunk in. So much is going on right now but this just being in this moment, being with these guys, it will soak in when I get to be with my teammates and family and just to be a part of this, to be a part of Philadelphia Eagles' organization and to be a part of the first world championship. We're very blessed. It's an unbelievable feeling and -- I mean, honestly, right now, it's just -- it's all soaking in. It's unbelievable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM BRADY, PATRIOTS QB: Losing sucks but that's part of it. You show up and you try to win and sometimes you lose. And that's the way it goes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Now all kinds of records fell by the wayside in Super Bowl LII. There were 1,151 yards of offense in this game. That's the most in the history of any game in the NFL regular season or playoffs.

As we showed you, Nick Foles, the first-ever throw and gets a touchdown in the Super Bowl. And Tom Brady, he had himself a game, 500 yards, three touchdowns, zero interceptions but he lost, first player in the history to ever do that in a game.

VANIER: Andy, I commend you. You are a courageous man. You look absolutely freezing. I looked up the temperature where you are --

(CROSSTALK)

SCHOLES: It's very cold.

VANIER: -- I know. It is -3 degrees Fahrenheit where you are, I just looked it up, sorry -19 Fahrenheit, -3 degrees Celsius. You are a brave, brave man. Thank you for being with us.

And the temperatures actually were another record, almost a record at the Super Bowl, the freezing temperatures. But Minnesota isn't the only one out in the cold.

(WEATHER REPORT)

[01:25:00]

VANIER: Now to the crucial negotiations in Germany to form a governing coalition. The Conservatives of Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Social Democrats were not able to finalize the deal by their deadline on Sunday.

They will continue talks in a few hours. There are two major sticking points: healthcare and labor issues. At stake is the political future of Europe's largest economy. Here is the leader of the Social Democratic Party.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARTIN SCHULZ, LEADER, SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY (through translator): We are approaching a final round of the coalition talks. I would love to tell you that this is the last day of coalition talks today.

But we will only see in the course of the day whether that is the case. The three parties have agreed on many things over the last three days. They came closer together but especially on social issues there are still some issues open.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(WEATHER REPORT)

VANIER: We're back right after this. Stay with us.

[01:30:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CYRIL VANIER, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: It's good to have you back with us. I'm Cyril Vanier. Let's take a quick look at your headlines.

Mexican authorities say that they found a nearly 200 Central American migrants including 24 unaccompanied children headed for the U.S. border on Saturday. They were in poorly ventilated trucks with no food or water. Police arrested three people suspected of human trafficking.

The Winter Olympics kick off later this week in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Athletes from North and South Korea will compete under one flag, the North is sending its ceremonial head of state while the U.S. vice president will also be attending the opening ceremony.

Turkish prime minister says Kurdish forces will pay twice as much after the death of seven Turkish troops on Saturday. Five of those soldiers were killed in a missile strike on a tank in Syria's Afrin region. The Kurdish YPG says this video shows the attack, however, CNN cannot independently confirm that.

And staying in Syria, Russia is ramping up attacks on Idlib after the loss of one of its warplanes. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says several people were killed on Sunday. A volunteer rescue group says airstrikes even hit a hospital. Russia says it's killed more than 20 militants since the death of a Russian pilot whose plane was shut down on Saturday.

Now security will be extremely heavy when the last surviving suspect in the Paris terror attacks goes on trial in Brussels later Monday. Salah Abdeslam is being tried for a shootout with Brussels police before he was arrested. He was spotted in surveillance video returning France after a gun and bomb attack in 2015 that killed 130 people. He avoided capture for four months before he was arrested in a raid in the Molenbeek district of Brussels. He will be held in a prison across the Belgian border in France and will make daily trips to the courthouse in Brussels. He will also be tried but at a later date for the Paris attacks.

Italian police say a shooting attack that injured six African migrants was racially motivated. The suspect, 28-year-old, Luca Traini made a fascist salute as he was arrested. This is surveillance video from Saturday showing what appears to be the suspect shooting from a car. Anti-immigrant views are becoming more widespread in Italy and the prime minister is now calling for unity.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAOLO GENTILONI, ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER (through translator): The state will be particularly severe towards anyone thinking of fueling a spiral of violence. Let's stop this risk. Let's stop it right away. Let's stop it together. Hatred and violence will not be able to divide us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VANIER: Israel is once again putting more pressure on African asylum seekers to leave the country. On Sunday, authorities began handing out letters to illegal immigrants telling them they have 60 days to voluntarily leave the country before deportations begin.

This is part of a growing crackdown on nearly 40,000 African migrants in the country. Israel has rejected 14,000 asylum requests over the last decade while accepting only 33 according to the government which says, "Most are just job seekers." Tens of thousands of requests have not been answered. A job of Israeli law experts sent a letter to the Attorney General saying, Israel's deportation policy violates international norms. CNN's Oren Liebermann takes us into the public battle for Israel's streets.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The map of Johnny Goitom's journey is drawn in scars. The marks when he left Eritrea, the beatings in Sinai, and the wounds when he crossed into Israel where he's lived since 2009.

[01:35: 20]

JOHNNY GOITOM, ASYLUM SEEKER (through translator): I feel like I belong here because this is where I am. I placed my foot here, I am here.

LIEBERMANN: Goitom has built a life here but his family like thousands of others here face deportation. He speaks to me in fluent Hebrew.

GOITOM (through translator): They don't want refugees here. They kill you, you're not a refugee, you just came for work. They just don't believe you.

LIEBERMANN: Israel has vowed to remove some 38,000 illegal immigrants within months offering to pay them to leave. Most are from Eritrea and Sudan, two of the biggest sources of refugees in the world.

Fleeing war and poverty, they traveled north through Egypt turning east to pass through Sinai. More than a thousand cross the border into Israel each month until Israeli army sealed the route with a fence in 2013. The immigration authority here says it has received more than 50,000 asylum requests in the last decade. Some 3,600 from Eritrea have been rejected, just eight have been accepted. Less than one percent among the lowest rates in the western world. Israel calls them infiltrators.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAEL PRIME MINISTER (through translator): We are not acting against refugees, we're acting against illegal migrants who come here not as refugees but for work needs. Israel will continue to offer asylum for genuine refugees and will remove illegal migrants from its mist. LIEBERMANN: South Tel Aviv is ground zero for this fight and Sheffi

Paz, a grassroots activities is on the front line.

SHAFFI PAZ, GRASSROOT ACTIVIST: We're still here completely, completely standing. And it began of like kind of occupation or invasion or --

LIEBERMANN: We stroll around her neighborhood at night, the polished shine of the tech hub glimmers in the distance. She says this no longer feels like Israel and once the CD's recent arrivals return to their countries, the vast majority from country's U.S. labels human rights violators.

PAZ: I really need a Jewish country and I'm -- my parents were holocaust survivors, that's my conclusion from the holocaust. Know that they have to give home for the world but that I need to fight for my country.

LIEBERMANN: Others draw a different lesson from the holocaust. Raul Michaeli works to help Africans apply for asylum. Her parents entered British mandate Palestine in 1941 illegally. She says, a nation built by Jewish refugees cannot turn away others.

RAUL MICHAELI, ACTIVIST FOR MIGRANTS AND REFUGEES: Israel was one of the initiators of the refugee convention and the fact that Israel will deport people to a third country without taking even a little, little piece of responsibility is not moral, not to mention that it's against our Jewish values as a refugee nation.

LIEBERMANN: A nearby Levinsky Park, I meet Awat Ashebar from Eritrea. This is where Israel first brought many of those fleeing Eritrea and Sudan. Even after 10 years in Israel, Ashbebar's goal has never changed.

AWAT ASHEBAR, ASYLUM SEEKER (through translator): Tomorrow, the next day, it doesn't matter when, the day our country has peace, we will go back. That's what we're waiting for but no one is going to bring us these.

LIEBERMANN: As Israel has pressured these families to leave, peace has been hard to find here, the promise land. It just wasn't promised until then. Oren Liebermann, CNN Tel Aviv.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VANIER: After almost a week, the Kenyan government is still refusing to allow three TV stations back on the air. And activists are warning the country's democracy is in danger.

Also call it sports, call it diplomacy, call it a gimmick, either way, the unified Korean women's hockey team has much more than Olympic medals at stake. Stay tuned.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:40:17] VANIER: Just two days after an arbitration court lifted a lifetime ban on 15 Russian Olympic team members. The 15 were told that they could not compete in this year's Winter Games. Here's what happened, the invitation review panel says the court did not lift the suspicion of doping accusation. Therefore, the 13 athletes and 2 coaches were still ineligible. A 169 Russian athletes will still compete in the games but under a neutral flag.

The Olympic games don't kick off until Thursday but the Korean unified women's hockey team got a jump on things, they've played a friendly warm-up match against Sweden over the weekend. And things were friendly on the ice but outside the venue, it was a very different story. Ivan Watson has this story from Pyeongchang.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dancing for joy outside a women's ice hockey game just days before the Winter Olympics. Some supporters delighted about the joint team from Korea playing what supposed to be a friendly match against Sweden.

But others not feeling so friendly. Souffle erupt between police and the small crowd of anti-North Korean demonstrators, they call North Korea's leader a dog. And they ridiculed the Winter Games calling them the "Pyeongyang" not "Pyeongchang Olympics." A flurry of diplomacy last month resulted in a last minute decision to create the first-ever joint north and South Korean women's Olympic ice hockey team.

Playing under a unification flag, they stand for a Korean folk song instead of their country's national anthem. Twenty-three South Korean players stayed alongside 12 North Korean players under the leadership of South Korea's Canadian coach.

The North and South Korean players only at a few days to train together and in the end, Sweden soundly defeated them. Sweden ranked 5th in the world easily beat the Koreans 3-1. After the game, a North Korean coach and player briefly sat alongside South Korean counterparts to make a short statement about unity. But then in a surreal twist, the North Koreans walked off stage to avoid answering questions from journalists. The team that's supposed to be a symbol of unity isn't even allowed to live together.

SARAH MURRAY, COACH, UNITED Korea WOMEN'S HOCKEY TEAM: North Korea is not going to be staying with us in the same building in the Olympic village. They have their own building. So all the North Korean athletes will be together. In an ideal world, yes, we would be in the same building and we would stay together because we need to do team meetings, we need to be together, we're one team. So -- but unfortunately, it didn't' work out that way, so we're just going to deal with it.

[01:45:12]

WATSON: Due to a political decision, these athletes and coaches been given very little time to overcome deep cultural and even linguistic differences. That doesn't sound like a strategy to winning at the Olympics. Ivan Watson, CNN Pyeongchang, South Korea.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VANIER: Let's go over to Africa, activists fear Kenya's democracy is in danger as the government is cracking down on media outlets. In a few hours, three Kenyan broadcast journalists could find out whether authorities are charging them.

The government forced their station and two others off the air almost a week ago. The reporters say sources told them officers were planning to arrest them, so they hid in their newsroom overnight and then went to a safe house. The journalists say they have nothing wrong. Meanwhile, the Kenyan government is defying a court order to put the free networks back on the air, the U.S. State Department is concerned about this TV blackout, it started when the Kenyan oppositions swore in its leader as an alternative president. CNN's Farai Sevenzo has this story from Nairobi.

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FARAI SEVENZO, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is the moment when Kenyan opposition leader, Ralia Odinga defied police to call off the swearing-in at the people's (INAUDIBLE)

It was a mock ceremony with some authorities deemed treason as against President Uhuru Kenyatta who was declared winner in October's election. It was a state of a chain of events which included the closure of some media networks and a new fiercer move for the country's media practitioners.

The Kenyan government turned off three of the country's largest television stations and began to broadcast the event saying, "Some elements in the media fraternity participated in the (INAUDIBLE) of this illegal act. Their complicity would have led to thousands of death of innocent Kenyans." But the government offered no evidence when how thousands would have died after covers of Mr. Odinga's performance in Uhuru Park.

And now, days later, the channels remained off. Here, in a typical Nairobi electrical shop, the TVs now for sale, it's February (INAUDIBLE) and if you look down here, Kenyans are able to watch international channels but go to KTN, scrambled signal. Are you missing KTN and Citizen and all these things?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Of course yes. Even the (INAUDIBLE) we only get to watch international television yet we can't get our own channel.

LARRY MADOWO, KENYAN BROADCASTER: The atmosphere between the state and the media in Kenya has become very antagonistic.

SEVENZO: Prominent broadcaster, Larry Madowo's workplace, NTV, was turned off on Tuesday. He spent two days in hiding, fearing government arrest. MADOWO: I have seen a lot of discomfort with any critical reporting.

I have seen a lot of city government officials, people who walk at State House telling us, "Tone down. No, you can't say this." Which is a space we haven't been in more than two decades.

OKAYA OMATATAH, KENYAN ACTIVIST: Each TV channel --

SEVENZO: It took a private citizen, activist Okaya Omatatah to challenge the shutdown of the country's biggest TV stations. He filed a petition at Kenya's high court. But despite a court order demanding that the government restore the signals, the stations remained switched off. These are dangerous times, they must be for you, right?

OMATATAH: There are certain times, (INAUDIBLE) who wants to live in dull times? I think to live at a (INAUDIBLE) to stand up what we believe in is the best (INAUDIBLE)

SEVENZO: Farai Sevenzo, CNN Nairobi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VANIER: Something different after the break, keeping this ceiling clean is critical. Coming up, the risky and herculean task of cleaning 500-year-old masterpieces not as easy as it might look. Stay with us.

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[01:50:17]

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well it's time to weather across the Americas, I'm meteorologist, Pedram Javaheri and the big story is the Arctic here across the Midwestern United States, a cold air filtering in across the Southeastern U.S. and there is some snow pushing through it as well. Very short-lived, small duration event there but places such as Chicago certainly could see some disruptions going into early Monday and eventually into Tuesday as well.

Notice the accumulation is minimal but still, disruption is possible out of a major hub like O'Hare across Chicago or even midway as well but notice the cold air wants to linger across the northern states, the southern half of the country really begins to moderate out the next several days to the forecast there. Here's are other night, 11:00 in Atlanta looking at temps at around two in New York City, different story there across Chicago, high as minus eight with evening snow showers in-store.

Notice, it wants to stay cold for another day or so and then we finally see a little bit of a break there especially through midweek, New York City up to six degrees with dry conditions expected as we go in towards Tuesday and Wednesday. How about to the Caribbean we go, Kingston, Jamaica upper 20s, Belize City looking at 28 with some showers possible, mainly in the afternoon, hours across that region.

Warm spot here will be Paranam at 31 degrees, Lima, a beautiful day, some clouds working their way through the region but 23 or so degrees is what we're looking at and, of course, the heat of summer in Santiago, up to 31 looking at (INAUDIBLE) even in (INAUDIBLE) into the upper teens.

VANIER: Breaking news, CNN has just learned that a South Korean Appeals Court has suspended the sentence of Samsung Heir Jay Y. Lee. Lee was convicted of corruption in a case that eventually led to the South Korean president's impeachment. The case also highlighted very lucrative deals between private companies and the South Korean government.

Now you probably don't realize this but you can cause real damage to the century's old artworks in the Sistine Chapel just by being there, just by being in the room. Now, however, that's not going to stop anybody from traveling to the Vatican to see Michael Angelo's masterpieces. So CNN's Delia Gallagher got an exclusive look at how the experts are keeping the priceless art intact.

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DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The Sistine Chapel is getting a checkup. For a whole month each year from 5:30 to midnight when all the tourists are gone, a team from the Vatican comes in to clean it, check for damage, and report on the health of some of the world's most treasured art.

It's a painstaking process, scaffolding must be erected and taken down each night and cannot be attached to the walls to avoid damaging the paintings. One of the biggest problems of the Sistine Chapel is humidity, 25,000 visitors a day post a risk for the painting.

FRANCESCA PARSEGATI, CHIEF RESEARCHER, VATICAN MUSEUM: Our bodies are made of water, so when we visit the Sistine Chapel, we bring in humidity and we heat. Everybody heat the environment like a bulb we say, 80-watt bulb.

GALLAGHER: Humidity causes condensation and a veil of salt forms on the famous brass post painted in the 1400 and 1500 which damages the color and the plaster its painted on.

A laborious technique brushing distilled water onto thin Japanese paper removes the salt layer. To combat humidity, there are 30 hidden sensors measuring temperature, air circulation, and number of visitors in the chapel. Dr. Victoria Cimino the Vatican's conservationist monitors the air quality in the chapel.

VICTORIA CIMINO, CONSERVATIONIST, VATICAN (through translator): The temperature must be between 22 to 24 degree Celsius. Humidity must be medium-high, they are very precise markets and we have to verify that the system respects them.

GALLAGHER: The frescos in this chapel are over 500 years old. Now back then, there was no artificial lighting. The only light that came in was daylight through these upper windows and, of course, being the Pope's private chapel, far fewer people came through here as well. So cleaning and restoration wasn't really a priority then. Today, with new technology and lighting, not only is there better cleaning but it has revealed to restores the original colors used by Michael Angelo. The world was shocked after a cleaning and restoring in the 1990s to discover the Michael Angelo actually used vivid greens, purples, and reds because for centuries it was assumed that he painted in dark subdued tones. But that was only the accumulation of dirt and grime.

[01:55: 05]

The next time you're in the Sistine Chapel, look out for this, little black marks, squares, and triangles on some of the paintings. They're called witnesses deliberately left as evidence for future restorers to give an idea of just how dark the paintings were before.

To make sure the colors stay vibrant, a color team measures any changes to tone by taking pictures of the frescos with a multi- wavelength camera which is then analyzed by a computer. Dr. Fabio Morresi is in-charge of color analysis.

DR. FABIO MORRESI, VATICAN SCIENTIFIC LABORATORY (through translator): We can see the color of every single pixel and compare it throughout the years. It's important because we can detect any changes even before they are visible to the human eye.

GALLAGHER: A behind the scenes labor of love so that the past may continue to brighten our future. Delia Gallagher, CNN Rome.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VANIER: And that does it for me this hour. I'm Cyril Vanier, stay tuned you've got more world news coming up on CNN. Rosemary Church and George Howell are with you at the top of the hour, you're in good hands, have a great day.

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