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Rare Minerals at Center of Ukraine Deal; Sen. Jeanne Shaheen is Interviewed about Talks with Ukraine; Tate Brothers Land in Florida; Federal Reserve's Inflation Gauge Cooled Last Month; Americans Frustrated by Rising Egg Prices. Aired 8:30-9a ET
Aired February 28, 2025 - 08:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[08:34:05]
OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back.
So, rare minerals could be crucial in helping ink a deal today to end Russia's war in Ukraine, but differing opinions on the specifics could also leave it in limbo. So, why are minerals like titanium, lithium and others so valuable? Well, that's why I've got CNN's Bill Weir here to explain why President Trump wants access to Ukraine.
So, what minerals are we even talking about here?
BILL WEIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's a bunch of different ones, but mostly the - they're coveted because in the age of electrification, as we move away from fuels that you pump out of the earth, you're going to need a lot more of the minerals we mine from the earth.
JIMENEZ: Yes.
WEIR: So, for a long time people looked at Ukraine and thought, oh, there are reserves of titanium and lithium and graphite all over the country here. But what are they important for? Well, titanium is super light and strong, so it's great for fighter jets, for example. Lithium, we know, of course, fuels our batteries and electric cars. Everything in between. Graphite is used to make steel.
[08:35:00]
It's pretty abundant around the world, but it's good for the automotive industry. And then nickel and cobalt, a lot of that is found in the Democratic Republic of Congo, at great cost to people and environments there. Another key component in electric vehicles, advanced electronics. And then there's rare earth minerals, which China absolutely dominates.
JIMENEZ: Wow.
WEIR: That's 17 different substances that you need in sort of chips and turbines and those sorts of things. And it's sort of spread out everywhere.
JIMENEZ: So, OK, you see the map here. We've got titanium, lithium, graphite, you name it.
WEIR: Yes.
JIMENEZ: It's nice to know that they're there or maybe there or we don't know how much is there. But - but then what does it take to actually get these minerals and use them?
WEIR: Here's the reality check.
JIMENEZ: Yes.
WEIR: Before Russia invaded, it was estimated that Ukraine had about 20,000 deposits. Only 15 percent of those were actually being worked, right?
JIMENEZ: Wow.
WEIR: And so stuff like titanium is abundant in the east. Probably easy to get at. But lithium, which is much more coveted, a lot of it is behind - almost half of it is behind Russian occupied lines right now. Same goes with nickel and cobalt. A lot of that is in - in Russian occupied territories. A lot of the rare earth minerals are there as well.
And then you've got to consider that this war has wiped out half of Ukraine's power capacity. Mining is one of the most intense demands of electricity. So, an investor thinking about going after any of this first would have to prop up a power plant to run the mine.
JIMENEZ: (INAUDIBLE), yes.
WEIR: Worried about security around it. And then when it comes to rare earths, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, zero percent confirmed finds. It's all speculation right now.
JIMENEZ: Wow. All of it on the table, though, apparently today as President Zelenskyy comes to visit the White House.
WEIR: (INAUDIBLE).
JIMENEZ: Bill Weir, really appreciate it. Thank you.
WEIR: You bet.
JIMENEZ: Sara.
SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, thank you, Omar.
Joining us now to talk about this high-stakes visit and deal, Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire. She is a Ranking Member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Thank you so much for being here with us this morning. First to you, Donald Trump says he trusts Russia and has a good relationship with Putin. Have you ever heard a U.S. president, or any U.S. lawmakers say that they trust Russia and Putin, who was a former KGB operative?
SEN. JEANNE SHAHEEN (D-NH), RANKING MEMBER, FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE: No, and it's clear that Vladimir Putin is manipulating Donald Trump, and it shows what a weak position he's in that he doesn't understand that he's being manipulated.
Vladimir Putin is a murderous dictator. He is a thug who understands one thing, and that is strength. And anytime he thinks he can get the better of Donald Trump, he is going to do that. So it's unfortunate that we have a president who doesn't understand that.
SIDNER: Donald Trump literally said he's going to send U.S. personnel, not U.S. military personnel, but U.S. personnel into Ukraine to help dig out its rare minerals. Many of those resources, as we just heard from Bill Weir, they're in the eastern part of the country where the fighting and landmines exist. Do you think this mineral deal is a bit of a sham deal, where the president has a way to say, hey, look, I made this big deal, but it won't actually amount to much?
SHAHEEN: Well, from my perspective, anything that helps give Ukraine a stronger position at the negotiating table is a good thing. So from that perspective, I think a deal that has Donald Trump and the administration on the side of Ukraine is positive.
What happens -- I mean, the framework that has been released so far is very sketchy, and the devil is really in the details, and there are a lot of details that need to be worked out.
SIDNER: He's not offering security assurances so far. Do you see that being a possibility at all? Because he's really kind of -- Donald Trump is kind of -- you know, gone everywhere but there, saying that there will be security assurances, which is what Zelenskyy is hoping for.
SHAHEEN: Well, what we've heard from the Europeans is that they're happy to provide some of those security assurances, but they need a backstop from the United States. And I think it doesn't -- there's not going to be a peace deal without those security assurances, because we have seen what Russia has been willing to do. In 2008, they went into Georgia, and when nobody stopped them in 2014, they went into Crimea. Then in 2022, they went into Ukraine.
The only thing that's going to stop Vladimir Putin is a security agreement that ensures that he can't go back into Ukraine or any other Eastern European country in the future.
SIDNER: I've talked to some Georgia journalists, some of the journalists there are being attacked as well by Russian thugs there.
SHAHEEN: You and Republican Thom Tillis lead a bipartisan --
SHAHEEN: Well, that's right, because what Russia has done is installed a puppet state in Georgia.
SIDNER: And that is what your concern is going forward in Ukraine.
[08:40:00]
And the Russian president has said that he is not willing to negotiate giving back any territory, saying that that stuff is going to stay as part of Russia that he has taken from Ukraine. So this will be a very complex deal that has to be made, if one is made at all.
I want to ask you about this bipartisan resolution that you came up with, with one of your Republican colleagues, Thom Tillis, on the third anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion. You both agreed in a bipartisan way that they had to be recognized, that Russia invaded Ukraine. What did you think, and why did you think the Trump administration would not sign on to a simple U.N. declaration condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine and recognizing that it was a third anniversary of its aggression into Ukraine?
SHAHEEN: Well, our resolution, as you point out, is bipartisan. We have 10 Democrats and 10 Republicans, a fifth of the Senate on that resolution, because there is bipartisan support in the United States Senate for Ukraine. And it is -- I think most of us were horrified when we saw what the United States did at the U.N. We were on the not just of Russia, but of North Korea, of Sudan, of countries that don't believe in democracy and don't support peaceful solutions and the international rules-based world order.
And to have the United States on that side at the U.N. is a travesty. It has never happened before. And again, it shows Vladimir Putin's ability to manipulate our president to his own ends. And that, in the end, is a weak position for Donald Trump and for the United States.
SIDNER: What is Congress going to do about any and all of this? It does still have some power, as I understand it, Senator.
SHAHEEN: Well, I hope that we are going to be able to move our resolution. We are going to be trying to do that by unanimous consent. I hope that we will -- our Republican colleagues will wake up and say, this is not the direction that we should be heading in. They will put a check on the president, which is the responsibility of Congress. That's what we're supposed to do.
We have three branches of government. So we have checks and balances. So we have oversight authority. And we need our Republican colleagues to step up and say in public what they've been willing to say privately, which is the president has gone too far.
SIDNER: You're hearing that privately from Republicans, that the president has gone too far when it comes to Ukraine.
SHAHEEN: Yes.
SIDNER: Senator Jeanne Shaheen, thank you so much for being here this morning and have a great weekend.
SHAHEEN: Thank you.
SIDNER: Appreciate you coming on.
Omar.
JIMENEZ: A right-wing influencer and his brother charged with rape and human trafficking in Romania, are now back in the United States. Andrew and Tristan Tate were banned from leaving Romania after being charged with human trafficking, sex with a minor and money laundering. Now they've denied all wrongdoing, but their return after authorities lifted that ban is now raising questions.
CNN's Randi Kaye is following this story.
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ANDREW TATE: We live in a democratic society where it's innocent until proven guilty. And I think my brother and I are largely misunderstood.
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Right-wing influencer Andrew Tate, and his brother Tristan, moments after landing in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, from Romania, telling reporters they are, quote, "largely misunderstood."
The brothers, along with two Romanian citizens, were arrested just after Christmas in 2022 and formally indicted months later on charges of rape, human trafficking and setting up a criminal gang. The brothers have denied all allegations of wrongdoing.
TATE: It's about the fact that she belongs to him, and the intimate parts of her body belong to him, because they're in a relationship. And if she wants to sell those, he has a stake in those - in parts of her body.
KAYE (voice over): Besides suggesting men own women, Andrew Tate has often referred to women on social media as sex workers. Despite his comments, Andrew Tate hasn't taken a clear position on whether or not he's misogynistic.
TATE: I have nothing against women at all. I'm not sexist on any regard. I'm not misogynist either.
I will state right now that I am absolutely sexist and I'm absolutely a misogynist.
KAYE (voice over): Romanian prosecutors allege the Tates seduced victims by falsely claiming they wanted a relationship or planned to marry them. Andrew Tate's controversial comments have attracted billions of views online. He was banned from Twitter in 2017 for saying women should, quote, "bear responsibility for being sexually assaulted." In 2022, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube also banned him.
Elon Musk allowed Tate to return to Twitter, now X, in 2022, where Tate has more than 10 million followers.
Critics and advocacy groups have voiced concern over his impact on young and vulnerable audiences, and have accused him of peddling his rants about female submission and male dominance to them.
[08:45:03]
TATE: I believe the woman is given to the man. I believe she's given away by the father. I believe she belongs to the man. And she belongs to the man.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you do - so fundamentally - all right, so fundamentally you do believe that a woman becomes a man's property at marriage.
TATE: I believe she belongs to the man in marriage, correct.
KAYE (voice over): So, how did the Tate brothers end up in the sunshine state? Perhaps flattery played a role.
TATE: Trump's saving the world.
KAYE (voice over): A Romanian official told CNN that earlier this month Trump's special envoy, Ric Grenell, raised their case with Romania's foreign minister. White House officials have said there was no direct U.S. government role in this.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said he doesn't know who was behind this.
GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): No, Florida is not a place where - where you're welcome with that - with those - that type of conduct in the air. And I don't know how it came to this. We were not involved. We were not notified. I found out through the media.
KAYE (voice over): The first criminal case against the Tate brothers failed in December 2024, after a Bucharest court noted flaws in the indictment. In January, the court lifted the house arrest order. The pair had previously been banned from leaving Romania while the investigation continued.
A lawyer representing alleged victims of Andrew Tate in the United Kingdom told CNN that any suggestion that the Tates will now face justice in Romania is fanciful.
Randi Kaye, CNN, West Palm Beach, Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIDNER: Coming up, the sky high cost of eggs has our Harry Enten trying to buy just a couple of eggs at a time. And it's a trend. We'll explain.
And a bad idea made worse. Police say a teenager takes out her revenge on an ex, but she didn't do it to the correct car. This went wrong.
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[08:51:08] SIDNER: OK, this broke just moments ago. New data showing the Federal Reserves preferred inflation gauge, the personal consumption expenditures price index - that's a mouthful - it cooled, as expected, last month. A good sign for price wary Americans.
CNN's Matt Egan joins me now with more.
What does this mean?
MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, Sara, this is some good news on this Friday morning about the number one problem in the economy, inflation. So we're talking about the Fed's go-to inflation metric. The big number here is 2.5 percent. That's how much prices were up in January from the year before.
Now, this is a step in the right direction. It's an improvement from what we saw in December. And it is a step closer to the Fed's 2 percent goal. Month over month we saw prices up by 0.3 percent. That was exactly as expected.
SIDNER: OK.
EGAN: Now, this is important because this is the metric that the Fed uses when it decides to raise or lower interest rates. Remember, the Fed's been on hold for a bit. I think that the people at the Fed are going to be happy about this number. Digging in, core inflation, which excludes food and energy, we saw an improvement there. In fact, it slowed to the coolest pace since June of 2024. That's important because the core inflation, it's seen as a better sign of underlying inflation.
Now, I know when we're talking about prices going up and down, what our viewers really care about is the level of prices. And look, it's true, people are still spending a lot more obviously at the grocery store. You think about eggs and everything else. And you look, the average family right now is spending $1,300 more per month than they did back in the beginning of 2021 to buy the same basket of goods and services, all because of higher prices.
So, yes, it's still painful out there, the cost of living.
SIDNER: Yes.
EGAN: But this is a positive sign.
SIDNER: OK. So, with these numbers coming down a bit and looking - trending in the right direction, are consumers responding? Are they - are they starting to spend more?
EGAN: So, actually, the bad news in today's report is the spending numbers that came out, because we were expecting a slowdown in spending. And we got a pretty significant one.
So, in December, spending was up by almost 1 percent month over month. That's a big increase. It slowed to a - actually a negative number here. This is a decline. This was not expected. This was worse than we had been anticipating. And this doesn't even factor in prices. So, adjusting for prices, real spending fell by the most since February of 2021. Now, it's not unusual in January to see a post-holiday hangover, right, as people try to pay off debt and save some money after the holidays.
SIDNER: Right.
EGAN: But this is coming at a time when there's been these growing concerns about a possible growth slowdown in the economy. There's a lot of uncertainty over tariffs and all the other policy changes here. So, I think that's a number we're going to have to pay really close attention to because, look, consumer spending, it's the engine that drives this economy. And if people slow their spending, that's going to have a real impact on the economy.
SIDNER: Yes, slowing it with worry about a lot of the different changes, including all these hundreds and hundreds of federal workers that have been fired or laid off. That is another thing sort of in the minds of Americans as they're watching their wallets.
EGAN: Absolutely.
SIDNER: Matt Egan, it is always a pleasure. Thank you so much.
EGAN: Thank you, Sara.
SIDNER: All right, over to you, Omar.
JIMENEZ: All right, the price of eggs is still on the rise. The Department of Agriculture has blamed soaring prices on bird flu, and is rolling out a plan of action to try and get prices down. Now, some businesses are taking matters into their own hands, including local bodegas selling eggs, not by the dozen, but in singles. Yes, come up and get your own single egg.
Our very own chief data analyst, Harry Enten, saw it himself.
Harry, OK, first of all, tell me what you saw there. You said you saw it yourself. But also, I mean, how are people feeling about eggs? What are the prices of eggs looking like?
[08:55:01]
Just bring me into the egg world.
HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Yes, I'm going to bring you into the egg world. You know, I went up to the Bronx, which is actually where I'm from. And it was so weird because the bodega that we went to was just a few blocks from where my father worked. And so I had this real feeling of nostalgia. But egg prices are out of control, OK, Omar. They're out of control. What are we talking about? I mean in January the price for a dozen eggs reached a record high. We're talking like $4.95 per dozen eggs. And eggs are - prices are only expected to rise this year even further. We're talking about more north of a 40 percent rise after about a 95, 96 percent rise from last year to this year. And, of course, eggs are such a staple of the American diet. That is
what's so important to keep in mind on, right? You know, we talk about ways that people might feel the economy. You know, we talk about the stock market. But, you know, only about 60 percent of Americans own stock. We're talking about 80 percent of Americans who eat eggs weekly, at least once a week.
JIMENEZ: Wow.
ENTEN: And then even more will eat it more occasionally than that. That's a real way that people can feel the pain of this economy right now. And so, folks are trying to find a way to afford eggs. And so it was very interesting. I went up to this bodega in the Bronx to see how folks are dealing with it and I have a little thing that I think I can throw at right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ENTEN (voice over): In the Bronx, the borough where I grew up, we headed to Pamela's Green Deli.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good to see you.
ENTEN (voice over): Where the price of eggs is a red hot topic.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now it's eight, nine, ten, 11, 12. It's horrible.
ENTEN: What are you thinking about egg prices these days?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're so expensive. I haven't eaten eggs in about a month.
ENTEN: OK, that's incredible. Did you used to eat a lot of eggs?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Every day. Every day. My children, too. Not anymore.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, it's crazy that we can't afford eggs. It's a good thing that the owners doing, though. He's selling eggs loose so that the community have access to them.
ENTEN (voice over): Selling eggs loose, three at a time, instead of a dozen.
ENTEN: So, I heard you're doing something special here. Something a little bit different so that people can actually get the eggs that they need to.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I started selling dozen for $12, $11. We decided to sell loose - loose eggs, you know, like this package, three - three -- $2.99 for these three eggs. Sometime the people only have probably $20, $25. If they - they're spending $12 just in eggs. So, it's going to be difficult for them to buy the rest of the stuff, you know, like bread, butter, oil, all the things that they need to - to cook.
ENTEN: Are people telling you that they really like - UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They buying. They buying. They buying. A lot of people coming and they buy and they happy because we did that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JIMENEZ: All right, Harry, obviously a great journey there. Thanks for bringing us into that world because now we get to see sort of the macro what people are feeling. I mean it - the Trump White House does seem to be worried about the prices here, right?
ENTEN: Yes, they absolutely do seem to be worried. And I'll give you a reason why that they're worried.
You know, we look at the polling data, Trump's push to drop the goods - the prices of daily goods. I mean the key number here is 62 percent. Sixty-two percent of Americans believe that Trump has not gone far enough to drop the prices of daily goods. And when you're dealing with 80 percent of people eating eggs at least once a week, I think that is a real part of this sort of phenomenon of the fact that Donald Trump was put in the White House to lower prices. And simply put, when it comes to the thing that Americans deal with most on a daily basis, he has not done so, Omar. This, I think, is a very troubling number for the White House.
JIMENEZ: And as we go, can you just pull up that number one more time about how many people actually get eggs?
ENTEN: Eighty percent.
JIMENEZ: This - this is the population that is going to be affected, 80 percent. Harry Enten, always appreciate you putting it in perspective for us. Thanks -
ENTEN: Omar, it was a pleasure to do it with you.
JIMENEZ: Always. Appreciate it, chief.
Sara.
SIDNER: Oh, he says that to everybody.
ENTEN: No, I do not, Sara.
SIDNER: Whatever.
JIMENEZ: He only says it to me, Sara.
SIDNER: You know what I want to ask, did you bring us some freaking eggs? You went to the store.
ENTEN: No, but, you know, I would just say, if you have a problem, do what a lot of people are doing, and that is buy your own chicken. That has reached a Google high this month in order to substitute for the fact that eggs are so expensive.
JIMENEZ: There you go. That's the advice right there. SIDNER: They will look great in your upper west apartment, a couple of chickens. Smart.
ENTEN: A couple of chickens. I'm a little nuts.
SIDNER: All right, thank you, guys.
Speaking of eating, when you think of a panda's favorite food, you likely think of bamboo. I know I do. But scientists say pandas could actually be eating a meat-based diet. So, why don't they? Researchers in China say the answer lies in the bamboo itself. As pandas gnaw on the plant, they absorb genetic material from the plant. Those nutrients start to influence the panda's senses of smell and taste, and make it easier for them to find the freshest and most nutritious bamboo.
All right, a huge mile marker. Five months after Hurricane Helene, Interstate 40 connecting Tennessee and North Carolina reopens finally tomorrow. It has been a long time. It's been really difficult in the region to be able to cross between the two states since the devastating floods and landslides from last September.
[09:00:02]
And officials do warn excited drivers be patient. It's one lane both ways and the speed limit.
