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Sweden Officially Joins NATO After Decades Of Neutrality; Pentagon Analyzing Possible Spy Balloon Discovered Off Alaskan Coast; Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) Discusses Israel-Gaza War, Sen. Menendez Facing More Corruption Charges; Scientists Say February Was Warmest On Record Globally. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired March 07, 2024 - 13:30   ET

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

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[13:30:24]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Some major news on the international front. Sweden just formally joined NATO, becoming the 32nd member of the Transatlantic military alliance and the second to join since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

CNN's Oren Liebermann is at the Pentagon for us.

Oren, this obviously ends decades of neutrality for Sweden.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: It does. And this process had been in the works for quite some time. Sweden and Finland had indicated over the course of the past year, year-and-a-half or so that they were looking to join NATO.

Finland was the first to join in April of last year. And now after there were some bumps along the road in the form of Hungary and Turkiye, Sweden now officially part of NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

At least ostensibly, this was what Russian President Vladimir Putin was trying to avoid. One of his stated reasons was that he claimed NATO was trying to encroach upon Russia.

And now he was trying to, what he said, head off essentially expansion of the alliance, but that's exactly a cause of his invasion of Ukraine.

As Sweden and Finland, of course, Finland joining a year ago, now becoming part of NATO. The U.S. has pointed out that Sweden has a very capable military that will now work, exercise and be allied with 31 other members of NATO.

As Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement, just a short time ago, "Sweden's decision is another reminder that Putin's war is not the result of NATO enlargement. It is the cause of NATO enlargement."

So a major accomplishment for the alliance. And certainly, a knock against Putin and the decision-making that lead for him to invade Ukraine here -- Boris?

SANCHEZ: Oren, you're also getting some new reporting about this suspicious piece of debris that was found floating off the coast of Alaska. What is the Pentagon saying about it?

LIEBERMANN: So CNN was first to report that this debris was found by fishermen off the coast of Alaska.

We now know that it has been brought to Joint Base Elmendorf- Richardson. This is right outside of Anchorage, Alaska, where the Defense Department is analyzing it to see if it is another spy balloon, as was picked up floating over the United States and ultimately shot down last year.

It's not definitive yet. DOD is working with other agencies to analyze this. They received it from the FBI. The FBI picked it up when the fishermen brought it into Alaska.

It is now in DOD custody at that base, just outside of Alaska, undergoing analysis.

Of course, Boris, the key question now, what exactly is it? Is it another spy balloon? And to whom does it belong?

SANCHEZ: Yes, some important questions to answer there.

Oren Liebermann, live from Pentagon. Thank you so much. Oren.

The hunger crisis in Gaza is worsening. Next, the growing pressure on Israel to allow in more aid.

And a long-awaited report on the Uvalde school shooting is set to be released this afternoon. What or who it could expose about what happened that day. And whether there was negligence on the part of law enforcement.

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[13:37:43]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: running out of time and hope. Today, we've learned that talks are stalled in efforts for Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal by Ramadan, the most sacred month for Muslims, which starts on Sunday.

A Hamas delegation left Egypt today with no clear breakthrough. President Biden recently warning that without a deal by Ramadan, the region could become, quote, "very, very dangerous."

Israel has threatened to launch a military offensive into Rafah in southern Gaza if its hostages are not home by the start of the holiday.

Rafah is where Israel told Gazans to go to avoid the violence of the war. And where nearly 1.5 million Palestinians are currently displaced. If Israel invades Rafah, there is quite literally nowhere else for

Palestinians to go.

The bombardments or not the only threats that Palestinians face, however. They are starving, some to death, as aid group struggle to send even the bare necessities in.

The U.N. says, last month, Israel blocked nearly half of its aid missions into Gaza and 75 percent of its mission specifically into northern Gaza, where the crisis is most severe.

But a senior administration official tells us that during the State of the Union tonight, President Biden will announce plans for the U.S. military to set up a port in Gaza for humanitarian aid. Of course, it will take weeks to do that.

I want to talk more now about all of this with Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland. He's a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Sir, first, this this port, can you tell us anything about that? It would take some time, where it would be, how this would work?

SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-MD): Well, Brianna, it's good to be with you.

First, we need a ceasefire and a release of the hostages. As you said, we have a desperate humanitarian situation in Gaza. Over 15 kids are not just on the verge of starvation but died of starvation.

So I applaud the president's decision to build this port. Many of us have been urging the administration to do more sea lift in terms of humanitarian aid.

You could do more at scale. The air drops are -- are good. I'm glad they're doing them. But we need to do a lot more.

And as you indicated, the president really needs to push the Netanyahu government to stop restricting aid coming into Gaza when you have so many people on the verge of starvation and some already having died of starvation.

[13:40:03]

KEILAR: You've seen this with your own eyes, how it works. Last month, you accused Israel of deliberately withholding food from Gaza's children. You called it a war crime.

And you have gone to see how aid gets into Gaza. I know this was -- this was some time ago, but we understand the exact same problems persist.

So tell us what you saw.

VAN HOLLEN: Well, the same problems do persist. And the situation has only gotten worse since I visited Rafah weeks and weeks ago. What we saw there was just the arbitrariness and irrationality of the screening process that had been set up by the Netanyahu government at crossing points.

We visited a warehouse in Rafah, Egypt, that was just filled with items that had been rejected by the Israelis at these checkpoints.

Some of the examples of the goods rejected, maternity kits, water purifiers, all sorts of things for which real plausible justification that they could be used as a weapon.

I mean, maternity kits have this teeny, little scalpel that may have to be used in the event of emergency during delivery of a baby. So it's just one example.

And I should say that when a truck has one of those items that's rejected, the entire truck with all the other goods on it is rejected, has to turn around and go to the beginning of the line. And that takes weeks and weeks now for trucks to cross.

So this is just one example among many of the unnecessary restrictions on lifesaving aid to starving people in Gaza.

KEILAR: Yes, look, those are necessary medical tools. We know that women are giving birth in latrines when they don't have room for them in hospitals in Gaza.

The ceasefire key here, as you say, what can the administration Do? What do they need to do to push forward?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, they are doing what they can., and in Cairo, most recently, trying to facilitate a ceasefire and release of the hostages.

And we, of course, wanted to see this get done before Ramadan. I understand that people haven't given up. That, obviously, is the best way forward.

In the meantime, though, we have this crisis going on. I'm glad that the president is going to be building this port. That does take 45 days or so. So that will be important for the longer-term.

But we have people starving to death day. And the only way to address that is to insist and use more of the levers of U.S. influence to demand that the Netanyahu government open up for these crossings.

Do a better job on de-conflicting, because we have aid workers and others who are -- and their protection, their security protection ,trying to deliver aid, but being targeted and killed in many instances.

And obviously, that's a great deterrent to people getting the aid that they need.

KEILAR: In the absence of a temporary ceasefire, Israel's warning that it will begin a military offensive in Rafah, which is where you went to the border crossing that services that area where all of these people, more than 1.5 million, have gone to escape the violence.

If there is no ceasefire deal in place, if that happens before -- if that doesn't happen before Ramadan starts, sundown Sunday, what happens to the humanitarian crisis in -- if Israel goes through with that?

VAN HOLLEN: Oh, a -- already desperate humanitarian situation will get much worse. And 1.3 million of those people who are in Rafah today came from other parts of Gaza. They were displaced from their homes. And they went to Rafah because they were told it was a safe place to be.

If -- if the Netanyahu government decides to go into Rafah, the current humanitarian situation, as awful as it is, will actually get a whole lot worse.

Which is why many of us have been -- have been very clear that the president needs to make -- say to the Prime Minister Netanyahu that that's just unacceptable to do that at this point.

Look, I'm sure the president tonight will and he should talk about the horrors of the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7th. We can have no more October 7ths.

But that does not justify the humanitarian disaster that's affecting over two million innocent Gazan civilians right now.

And so it's really important that we address all those issues immediately. And the president needs to communicate the urgency of that.

KEILAR: I do have to ask you while I have you, key to these talks, of course, you -- yes, Israel, Hamas, the U.S. But also Qatar and Egypt.

[13:45:01]

And you have Senator Menendez, who is accused of bribery and acting as a foreign agent for various actions that he took on behalf of Qatar and Egypt. Some as recently as just this past year. And he faced a second superseding indictment of a dozen more related charges this week.

At a certain point, does it make sense with this broadening -- these broadening allegations against him that are very clearly laid out in these indictments, does it make sense for him to continue getting classified briefings on these issues and other issues?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, Brianna, look, I urged Senator Menendez to step down upon the original allegations. Obviously, he is no longer the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.

And so how he proceeds while he's here will be a decision for the chairman of the committee and others.

But as I said, I thought the right thing to do would be to -- to step down amid these very, very serious charges. I do want to take this opportunity to thank both the Egyptians and

Qatar for the role they are playing in trying to facilitate the ceasefire and the release of hostages. They are playing a constructive role.

KEILAR: Yes, these are critical talks and the world is watching.

Senator Van Hollen, thank you so much for your time.

VAN HOLLEN: Thank you, Brianna.

KEILAR: Boris?

SANCHEZ: Now, to some of the other headlines were watching this hour.

Researchers say the Army vet who shot and killed 18 people at a Maine bowling alley last year before taking his own life showed signs of traumatic brain injury, but not the neurological disorder, CTE.

A post-mortem study of Robert Card's brain reveals he may have been exposed to thousands of low-level blasts during his military training.

The blasts are linked as symptoms associated with traumatic brain injury and typically come from a blow to the head or severe shaking that's strong enough to affect the brain.

We're going to speak to a doctor who has studied concussions in the next hour. So stay tuned for that.

Also, the head of the NTSB now admits that the controlled burn that sent toxic chemicals spewing into the air after the East Palestine train derailment was unnecessary.

At the time, officials said the burning was imperative, fearing that some of the chemicals could trigger explosions and they only had minutes to decide. But during a Senate hearing yesterday, Jennifer Homendy said that there was another option, to simply let the chemicals cool down.

Since this disaster, East Palestine residents have reported a number of symptoms, including burning eyes and heaviness in their chests.

And a new report found that unacceptably high levels of benzene, a known carcinogen, can form in certain acne products with benzoyl peroxide.

The independent lab behind the report says that the levels could be more than 800 times the FDA's limit in both prescription and over-the- counter brands.

The testing suggests that when products are stored or handled at high temperatures, they can generate high levels of benzene. The lab is asking the FDA to now suspend sales and issue a recall. The FDA is now reviewing that request.

You're watching CNN NEWS CENTRAL. We're back in just moments. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:52:58]

SANCHEZ: Sadly, it feels like we cover this exact benchmark over and over and over again. You've probably heard it before. It makes it no less important though.

Scientists say that last month was the hottest on record globally. Also making it the nine -- ninth month in a row with record temperatures for this time of year.

Even in the context of back-to-back records, Februarys' temperatures were unprecedented.

KEILAR: They're also a grim reminder about the ongoing impacts of human-caused climate change.

We have CNN's Bill Weir, who's with us now.

Put this into perspective. Bill. I mean, I -- I'll tell you I love 68 degrees in February, but I know it's bad when it's happening and that this new data is really significant.

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: It absolutely is, Brianna. And we're hearing from scientists like Brian McNoldy down at the University of Miami, who says these numbers are statistically impossible. They're so off the charts.

As Boris mentioned there, apologies for sounding like a broken record, but we are breaking records again and again and again.

February now, 1.77 degrees Celsius warmer than before. That's over three degrees Fahrenheit. And the last 12 months, the warmest in at least 120,000 years or so, or something.

We saw the line chart comparing all of the Februarys of years past going back to the 1940s. Freakishly warm there.

But look at the list of cities that had record temperatures shattered in -- there's -- there's the line chart that shows Februarys through history.

But we also have this list of cities that were shattered in this month. Austin, Texas, 72 degrees, Baton Rouge, Burlington. So from the north to the south. The Midwest has been ice-free. The Great Lakes region there as well.

And this has so many knockoff effects that you don't really think about. The governor of Louisiana just declared a state of emergency for the crawfish industry because they've had a record drought in Louisiana.

Those -- those little critters that go in so many Poor Boys during Mardi Gras, they weren't able to dig and lay their eggs. And that's just one little sample of what's happening. [13:54:58]

SANCHEZ: So, Bill, this data, what does it tell us about what we can expect for the rest of the year?

WEIR: Well, this -- some of this is due to the natural El Nino warming pattern that happens in the Pacific. But that is sort of winding down now. We should be heading into La Nina and cooling.

But the oceans are so hot-tub warm right now, Boris. The last record was broken in March of 2023. A year ago, we set a new record for ocean surface temperatures in the North Atlantic.

It has been broken every day since, over a year now. And this means bigger hurricanes. It means more coral reef die offs.

Yet, another blinking red light on the dashboard of planet earth here that were overheating fast.

KEILAR: Yes, another season of pink dolphins maybe.

Bill Weir, thank you so much for that.

So he'll have the country's attention and one chance to speak to voters. Inside the White House strategy for tonight's State of the Union where President Biden will make his case for reelection.

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