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U.S. Shoots Down Suspected Spy Balloon; Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf Dead at 79; Northeast U.S. Thaws Out after "Epic" Arctic Blast; Papal Visit to Africa. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired February 05, 2023 - 03:00   ET

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

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LAILA HARRAK, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome to viewers joining us from the United States and around the world, I'm Laila Harrak.

The suspected Chinese spy balloon's week long journey ends after the U.S. military shoots it down. We'll look at the job that lies ahead as crews work to recover the instruments carried by the balloon.

China reacts with anger, adding more tension to an already strained relationship between Washington and Beijing. We're live in Hong Kong.

And the political fall-out: Democrats defend the president against Republicans, who argued Biden waited too long.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Laila Harrak.

HARRAK: U.S. military salvage operations are underway right now in shallow waters off the coast of South Carolina, where a suspected Chinese spy balloon crashed after it was shot down by a fighter jet on Saturday.

A reaction from the Chinese government has been swift and angry. A foreign ministry statement accused Washington of overreacting to a civilian unmanned airship and the Chinese defense ministry warned it reserved the right to use, quote, "necessary means" to deal with similar situations.

But Washington has been skeptical and wary of China's claims from the start. U.S. President Joe Biden said he gave the go-ahead last Wednesday to shoot down the balloon as soon as possible. The Pentagon waited until it was out over the ocean to finally bring it down.

A Senior White House official is pushing back on China's claim the balloon was for civilian use, that official insisting it was seeking to monitor sensitive military sites and adding a second balloon spotted over Central and South America is also another Chinese surveillance balloon. They said, quote, "Both balloons also carry surveillance equipment not

usually associated with standard meteorological activities or civilian research --- collection pod equipment and solar panels located on the metal truss suspended below the balloon are a prominent feature of both balloons."

The White House affirmed that the president made the right call. President Biden says he issued the order last Wednesday to shoot down the balloon as soon as possible.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: On Wednesday, when I was briefed on the balloon, I ordered the Pentagon to shoot it down on Wednesday as soon as possible.

They decided -- without doing damage to anyone on the ground. They decided that the best time to do that was, as it got over water, outside -- within our -- within the 12-mile limit.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRAK: CNN's Oren Liebermann explains what the U.S. plans to do with the balloon's remnants.

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OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: What has been an effort to track this Chinese surveillance balloon for days, as it made its way across the United States and out over the ocean, is now a recovery effort to bring up the wreckage of the Chinese surveillance balloon and the payload it was carrying from the ocean floor.

Not all that deep, according to the Pentagon, a senior Defense official said the wreckage landed in 47 feet of water, so relatively shallow there. And there were Navy and Coast Guard assets onsite to begin establishing a perimeter and a salvage vessel on its way to start bringing up the wreckage.

It may be difficult to see what's left; it did fall from a height of 60,000 feet, nearly 12 miles, and impacted the water. That may have done serious damage to the technology on board.

That's what the Pentagon and the U.S. government will figure out, what condition it's in, what is salvageable, what can you learn from this and what can you glean about the state of Chinese technology and what they put on the surveillance balloon.

A senior Defense official said it didn't just start now; over the course of the last several day, the Pentagon made an effort to make sure this balloon couldn't gather as much information as they were looking for.

They wouldn't detail exactly what those efforts entailed; instead, they tried to flip the scrip, monitoring the balloon constantly and trying to learn what they could about it as it traversed the United States.

In terms of what went into this beforehand, there were days of planning to figure out what was the best time to shoot it down. In fact, it was decided not to shoot it down over the continental United States because of the risk to people and property.

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LIEBERMANN: Instead the decision was made to shoot it down over the water. The Pentagon and Northern Command launched F-22s from Langley Air Force Base as well as support aircraft, F-15s and tankers.

In the end, it was a single F-22 that fired a single AIM-9 Sidewinder, a short-range heat seeking missile, that pierces the balloon, one shot, one kill, bringing down the surveillance balloon as it made its way across the U.S.

That's the military side. The diplomatic side as well, the U.S. making it very clear they found this unacceptable and considered a violation of U.S. airspace and now we have seen the military's response -- Oren Liebermann, CNN, at the Pentagon.

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HARRAK: CNN's Ivan Watson is standing by in Hong Kong with latest from there.

China doubling down, issuing strong words after the U.S. downed the balloon.

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Beijing is saying that if the U.S., essentially, if the U.S. flies balloon over China, it will probably shoot it down.

Look at the statement coming from the Chinese defense ministry, quote, "The U.S. used force to attack our civilian unmanned airship, which is an obvious overreaction. We express solemn protest against this move by the U.S. side and reserve the right to use necessary means to deal with similar situations."

There has been a shift in the tone from Beijing; on Friday evening, the Chinese foreign ministry expressed regret, saying that its airship, as it described it, used primarily for research purposes, had blown off course, over the U.S.

And now, the Chinese government, different ministries are protesting the fact that this U.S. fighter jet shot the balloon down.

The damage on the diplomatic front has already been visible, with the U.S. secretary of state Antony Blinken postponing a trip he was supposed to make this weekend to Beijing over this balloon scandal and calling the existence of this balloon over U.S. airspace a violation of U.S. sovereignty and international law.

The Chinese response has been, hey, this is due to weather, it's out of our control, they have been communicating with their U.S. counterparts.

But clearly done some damage to what was an effort that began in November between President Biden and the Chinese leader Xi Jinping when they met face-to-face at the G20 summit in Bali to try to put a stop to the downward spiraling relations between the world's two largest economies.

We'll have to see whether there can be efforts to revive diplomacy in the wake of this, I would argue, a growing crisis.

HARRAK: How is this incident seen in the region?

WATSON: Well, look, it is creating repercussions elsewhere. The Canadian government came out over the weekend, saying that this balloon had been seen in Canadian airspace. It summoned China's ambassador to Ottawa then.

And now we're getting reports of a second object flying over Central and Latin America that looks remarkably similar to the balloon that was just shot down over the U.S. It was seen over Costa Rica, according to officials, on Thursday.

And on Friday the Colombian air force put out a statement, saying this object was seen at an altitude of above 55,000 feet, roughly the same altitude as the balloon seen over the U.S., that it was monitored and it was moving at a speed of 25 knots.

And then the Colombians followed it until it left Colombian airspace. A U.S. official telling CNN they believe this also is, as they put it, a Chinese surveillance balloon.

We have put a question in to the Chinese government, asking whether or not this is, in fact, a Chinese airship, as they put it, about the previous balloon seen over U.S. airspace.

And also, U.S. officials have said that they have also seen similar Chinese, as they put it, surveillance balloons three times over U.S. airspace, during the Trump administration and at least once over the U.S. earlier during the Biden administration.

Why has this -- sorry to do this -- why has this blown up this time?

Well, U.S. officials say they haven't seen it loitering over U.S. airspace for such a duration of time in the past. And we don't know that ordinary citizens have been able to see this kind of balloon with their own eyes, with the naked eye, and take pictures of it before. And that's part of what's adding to the alarm here.

HARRAK: Ivan Watson, reporting from Hong Kong, thanks so much, Ivan.

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HARRAK: Mary Schiavo is a CNN transportation analyst. She joins us now from Anchorage, Alaska.

The balloon, we understand, was first detected last Saturday over Alaska. It's now in the Atlantic Ocean somewhere after quite a journey.

How long do we expect the salvage operation to take?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, actually, the United States and several other countries are very experienced in these underwater salvage operations because of downed aircraft over, you know, the past and for many years and other underwater operations.

So it will really depend upon how lucky they are at finding the payload package, the debris, if you will, the equipment or whatever fell from the balloon and without what they call a pinger.

Many times there are devices that help you locate, for example, black boxes on downed planes. But here, they don't expect to find that, so they will just have to literally scour the ocean floor. But many of the world's nation are quite experienced in underwater recovery operations.

HARRAK: Once the parts are salvaged, will it be obvious whether investigators are dealing with a spying contraption or weather tracker?

Will it be obvious right away?

SCHIAVO: It should be obvious but -- and there's a big if here -- that depends on how well the equipment survived the fall. Now people think water breaks your fall but literally, from falling from that height, it's like hitting concrete.

So they will have to see what is left and what's there to determine -- of course the possible they will have the equipment but they can't recover data from it because of exposure to salt water or the impact.

But yes, the, you know, the United States and other countries that have had experience in underwater recovery of aircraft parts and black boxes and equipment are pretty good at downloading information and putting it back together, because of investigations from prior aviation accidents.

HARRAK: This isn't the first time something like this happened. I understand other suspected spy balloons have transited across the continental U.S.

SCHIAVO: That's right, they're reporting now -- and I think the public side can play a big role in what's happened this time because now the government is saying this has been happening for as long as five or more years.

There was one sighted over Hawaii in February of 2022, just a year ago; now the Costa Rica sighting, the Colombia sighting. So it's difficult to find that with the story that it was just one balloon that escaped from China. So I think that's part of problem, there's just too many to believe the explanation.

HARRAK: If it turns out to be a spying balloon, this still needs to be determined, why use a balloon for spying when you can use satellites?

Are they more effective?

Because they're certainly not subtle.

SCHIAVO: Well, and the speculation in the U.S. and other circles and other places is, of course, they're searching for something satellites can't pick up, other kinds of detection -- communication signals, radiation signatures, other kinds of things that the satellites can't possibly pick up.

So this would be a different kind of sensing equipment most likely, because if you're looking for a visual sighting, obviously satellite technology is so great you can get pictures down to a few feet; in some cases, a few inches.

So the technology on a satellite, if it's a visual sense, it's amazingly good. Some people speculate they were looking to locate U.S. missile silos; yes, probably not. I'm sure they already know that.

So this would be other kind of sensing equipment and the speculation is most likely some kind of communication sensing, radiation, microwaves, other things that you could not readily sense from a satellite.

HARRAK: Final thought from you, Mary.

Could Beijing ask to have the wreckage returned?

What's the protocol in these situations if there is a protocol?

SCHIAVO: Well, yes, that kind of thing is, that's a very interesting question, that has happened in the past and the U.S. has been in similar situations, where they have had equipment, ships, planes, you name it, returned.

Many, many years ago, before many probably listening were even born, the U.S. had a spyplane shot down and the U.S. asked to have it returned. They could ask to have it returned but when the shoe was on the other foot and other countries, China, et cetera, got equipment from the United States, they didn't return it.

And they certainly didn't return it until they saw what was on it. And because it did traverse U.S. airspace, they say, you shot down a civilian aircraft. Not exactly. When you traverse the airspace of other countries.

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SCHIAVO: There are treaties in place that govern that. You have to give voice, permission, et cetera. And we don't have those same treaties in place, with China, by the way.

So they're not the same for all countries in the world. So it did invade the airspace without permission. And of course, the advisory that came, too little, too late, doesn't explain it. So I think the U.S. will keep it.

HARRAK: Mary Schiavo, thank you so much, greatly appreciate you.

SCHIAVO: Thank you.

HARRAK: And let's continue on our top story on the shooting down of the suspected Chinese spy balloon. Coming up what lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are saying about President Biden's handling of the situation.

Plus, one of Pakistan's most controversial leaders passes. We'll take you to Islamabad with a look at how people there are reacting.

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HARRAK: Salvage efforts are underway off the coast of South Carolina after a U.S. fighter jet successfully shot the balloon down on Saturday.

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HARRAK: China's defense ministry lashed out after warning it reserved the right to use necessary means to deal with similar situations. U.S. lawmakers, meanwhile, have been weighing in on this saga since it began, with many Republicans critical of the president's response.

Republican senator Roger Wicker wrote, "Allowing a spy balloon from the Communist Party of China to travel across the entire continental United States before contesting its presence is a disastrous projection of weakness by the White House."

Republican Elise Stefanik said, "Joe Biden was tested on the world stage and abysmally failed."

But some members of Biden's own party thought he handled it just right.

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REP. ADAM SMITH (D-WA): We're looking for allies and friends across the world as we try to figure out how to deal with the threat that China is increasingly posing. We don't want look like we're the "shoot first, ask questions later" approach.

So I think the president handled this correctly. He protected the interests of the U.S. and we're in a position to gather that intelligence from the balloon. I think it was the right decision.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. MIKE QUIGLEY (D-IL): It's very likely that there's a lot of very heavy equipment in this. So I think what you do, the proper course of action was to mitigate against the surveillance that was taking place.

The Department of Defense talked about doing that and they're quite capable of doing that. They've got a lot of experience. And once it gets into an area where it doesn't endanger Americans, you shoot it down, collect it and learn what you possibly can.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRAK: A South Carolina man witnessed the moment the balloon was shot down near Myrtle Beach on Saturday afternoon. Local photographer Travis Huffstetler said he saw what appeared to be a missile strike the balloon from the 15th floor of a hotel. Here's more.

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TRAVIS HUFFSTETLER, PHOTOGRAPHER: I come out to get video and photos of it and I didn't realize that they were going to shoot it down until almost right before it happened. And you could see the rocket or whatever it was that they shot from the plane.

You could see it start to separate from the plane and, as soon as it hit the balloon, you could hear a pop. I couldn't get it on video. I can't catch it actually hitting it. But you just seen the balloon just kind of explode. And you know, it just popped.

And like above, it was like confetti. I mean it just looked like confetti and the rest of it just collapsed and just started like floating down. I'm not sure how fast it went. But it looked like it was falling pretty slow, honestly.

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HARRAK: Former Pakistani president General Pervez Musharraf has died at the age of 79. According to a statement from Pakistan's military, he died after a prolonged illness. He was in Dubai, where he lived several years in self imposed exile.

CNN's Sophia Saifi joins us now from Islamabad with more.

He'll perhaps be best remembered for his complicated relationship that he had with the U.S. during the war on terror.

What can you tell us about the legacy he leaves?

SOPHIA SAIFI, CNN PRODUCER: He came to power -- 9/11 happened quite soon after he came to power in 1999. He was a very powerful ally of D.C. (ph). He allowed, controversially, drone strikes to take place within the country, which made him immensely unpopular with a lot of people in the northern areas of Pakistan.

He leaves behind a legacy which some say within Pakistan in support of enlightened moderation. There was a lot of arts and culture that thrived during his time. He did receive an immense amount of aid from the United States in order to go after the militants in the north of this country.

And with that there was a memo published by Musharraf, in which he said he was told by U.S. authorities that unless Pakistan aided the United States in their war on terror in the region, they would bomb Pakistan into the Stone Age.

That is why he decided to ally himself with the United States after 9/11. There was a controversial period -- I mean, he had a long reign as a military dictator, the president of this country, the current prime minister is the brother of former prime minister, who Musharraf ousted in that coup during his time.

The iconic leader of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto, died by an assassination in 2007 and his son still blames Musharraf for her death.

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SAIFI: There has been -- there was an attempt by Musharraf to come back to Pakistan. He had treason charges against him. He left in 2016 and hadn't come back since, so a complicated legacy. Many adore him; many do not -- Laila.

HARRAK: How has the news been received in Pakistan, Sophia?

SAIFI: Well, the prime minister has sent out a statement sharing his condolences with Musharraf's family. Imran Khan, the most prominent opposition leader, who had many opinions of his own with regard to Musharraf, has not made any statement yet.

It's been more of a muted response here in Pakistan. He died in Dubai, so there's questions about where his funeral will take place. In Islam, a funeral has to take place within 24 hours after the person's passing.

So there are questions raised about whether the funeral will take place in the Middle East or whether that will happen in Pakistan.

When will his body come back?

Again, lots of people, we have to understand, who adore Musharraf and his legacy, but many who do not, he leaves behind a very bloody legacy. There are concerns that there will be a push back to his funeral taking place in Pakistan. But those are questions that we're still waiting for answers to.

HARRAK: Sophia Saifi in Islamabad, thank you.

A recovery mission is underway as the U.S. Navy looks for debris from downed Chinese spy balloon, suspected spy balloon. We'll have a detailed report next.

Plus diplomatic fallout from the balloon incident, a former U.S. Defense official weighs in on the long-term impact this could have on U.S.-China relations.

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HARRAK: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. More now on our top story this hour.

The U.S. shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon over the Atlantic Ocean. Witnesses captured the moment it was struck by a single missile from a fighter jet. It happened off the South Carolina coast on Saturday, a week after it was first detected over Alaska and days after the balloon gained public attention over Montana.

Chinese officials deny it was a spy balloon, condemning the U.S. for using force to bring it down

Divers from the U.S. Navy are working to recover the balloon and its payload from the Atlantic Ocean. Sources tell CNN it will then be taken to the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia, for analysis. CNN's Tom Foreman has more on the challenges ahead.

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TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is the portion of this balloon investigators want to get their hands on, the payload, central core and what looked like a couple of solar arrays on either side.

When the balloon was destroyed, you could clearly see it falling away below. Now if this had the mass of a human, like a sky diver, it might be falling at 100-150 miles an hour, something like that.

If it had the mass of a couple of cars, its terminal velocity might have been more like 500 miles an hour or up from that. What that means is, when it got to this area just off Myrtle Beach, the water would be essentially like concrete.

It would hit it with tremendous force and be absolutely misshapen, torn apart and broken up by this impact.

What does that mean to recovery?

What it means is the first thing they have to do when they get settled out there, to get divers down, 47 feet down, that's good. That's a good, workable depth. There they have to look at this, figure out how many pieces it's in, where they are, assess it, figure out if some of it is buried down in the muck below.

And then come up with a list of priorities.

What do they want to bring up first?

How do they want to bring it up to protect all of this as much as they can? And how long will it take?

These operations typically are longer than most people expect, even though they believe this one could be pretty fast. Think of it this way: this is like an underwater crime scene now and they have to protect their evidence as best they can if they want to learn all they can about this balloon.

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HARRAK: Taking you now to Singapore, to Drew Thompson. He's a former U.S. Department of Defense official, who focused on China, Taiwan and Mongolia; currently a visiting senior research fellow at the School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore.

Thank you so much for joining us.

This very public diplomatic breakdown, how damaging has this been?

And what do you think the long-term impact will be?

DREW THOMPSON. FORMER U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE OFFICIAL: I think the impact is definitely not good. But it is limited in a way. It's not a sustained crisis. The balloon has been downed, so it actually has an end.

And that opens the door for discussions and the two sides to move ahead. And it's important to remember this isn't the first crisis in the relationship and it's not going to be the last one.

So it underscores the deep levels of distrust. The U.S. doesn't believe what China says but Beijing has a long history of not believing what the U.S. says, either. Neither side has credibility with the other and I think that's the bigger, longer-term problem toward the relationship.

HARRAK: What we understand, this isn't the first time something like this happened.

Is this incident isolated or confined to the U.S.?

Or do similar incidents occur in the region where you are?

THOMPSON: (INAUDIBLE) yes, these balloons are being spotted in other places. They have apparently happened in the past in India. Remember, this balloon left China to head eastward toward the United States, approaching from the west.

It probably passed over Japan and possibly South Korea as well. So there's certainly a major impact and -- on China's bilateral relations with more than just the United States.

I think here in Asia, countries are particularly concerned about sovereignty.

A lot of the discussion I think in Washington right now is over whether it was harming U.S. security, whether it was dangerous, whether the president should have moved faster, slower or -- but at the end of the day, in Asia, the real concern is about sovereignty and about the violation of airspace, which is the major concern.

And I think that reflects a different culture in the U.S. in terms of strategic outlook.

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THOMPSON: So I think China has got a real problem on its hands and it's going to have to manage its relations with its neighbors, because they're now acutely aware of this violation of their own sovereignty

HARRAK: This all comes as the U.S. is strengthening military ties to counter China.

How is this playing out where you are in terms of regional powers?

Are they worried about this diplomatic crisis between the U.S. and China?

THOMPSON: I think there's deep concern about heightened competition between the U.S. and China. The refrain here is countries don't want to be forced to choose sides. They don't want to be in one camp or the other.

They want to be able to have autonomy, agency, economic relations with China, security relations with the U.S.

So what they're telling both Beijing and Washington is to give them space. They want to benefit from the relationship. What they're also doing is hedging, hedging against U.S. policies that could shift or change with different administrations.

And they're hedging against China being aggressive or hegemonic. So looking for economic and security benefits from both parties so they can retain their autonomy.

HARRAK: Let's get the final thought. The United States and China have a rocky diplomatic history.

But as the world's two top economic powers, are they doomed to each other, you know, in other words, they have to engage, whether they like it or not?

THOMPSON: Yes, they have to engage and I think both sides realize that. Secretary Blinken's trip being postponed is unfortunate because the objective is to engage.

But the question is to engage to what end?

The Biden administration has, I think, set a fairly low bar and low objectives for the relationship, that they're looking to prevent the relationship from spiraling into conflict or outright confrontation.

So they're trying to achieve what they call guardrails. They're trying to create stability in the relationship and ultimately find the floor. We're not there yet, clearly.

And I think the relationship is going to get worse before it gets better. We're looking at some politically sensitive periods coming up. You have the two congress meetings in China in March, the National People's Congress and the People's Consultative Congress.

I think you'll also have the potential flashpoint when Speaker McCarthy travels to Taiwan, possibly in April. And that will be another hurdle the two countries will have to overcome.

HARRAK: Drew Thompson joining us from Singapore, thank you.

THOMPSON: My pleasure.

HARRAK: The northeastern U.S. is thawing out from a deep freeze that brought bone chilling and life threatening temperatures. The wind chill alerts have largely ended. The coldest place during the arctic blast was at the Mt. Washington Observatory in New Hampshire.

They recorded a new U.S. national wind chill record of -108 degrees Fahrenheit. While temperatures are expected to rebound 5-10 degrees above normal in the coming hours but on Saturday Boston dropped to a low temperature of -10 degrees Fahrenheit. That's -23 degrees Celsius.

And parts of New York City hit 5 degrees Fahrenheit on Saturday. As CNN's Gloria Pazmino reports, the brutal cold forcing many to stay home and off the streets.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Record low temperatures across the region. But here in New York City, right outside of Central Park, people have been doing what they do best here in New York: they have been braving the elements.

All day I've been speaking with tourists and New Yorkers who are unfazed by the cold temperatures. All day, I've been watching my friend here, Jamal (ph), who is running this hot dog cart here. He had a hard time this morning trying to get it set up because his generator had actually frozen. The oil and gas inside of it.

He had a hard time getting it set up. And he told me that business is a little bit slow today.

Right?

Not so good. Not many people out here in these cold temperatures. And just take a look. This bottle of water frozen solid. It has been frozen all day. That should give you an idea of just how cold it is here. But as I said New Yorkers, those who are visiting, for the most part, taking it in stride, out for a jog, walking the dog and just enjoying the weather.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just ran around the park. PAZMINO: Just ran around the park?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

PAZMINO: 12 degrees?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not bad when the wind is not blowing.

PAZMINO: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It feels good.

PAZMINO: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It feels really refreshing.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A lot of people here and they're like, oh, my God, it's like fashionable. And I'm like yes, but it's also function. Like the hat to make sure ears are warm, like her face is warm, her head and the shoes because it's like New York and there's gloves and like all these other stuff, so yes.

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PAZMINO: I also spoke to a man who was visiting New York City from Chicago. He told me this is nothing. He was perfectly comfortable because he was dressed for the elements.

That is one of the most important things; if you are going to go outside in these very cold temperatures, do dress appropriately. Wear you layers. And if you don't need to, it's probably best to stay home -- I'm Gloria Pazmino, in New York, CNN

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRAK: Evacuation orders are in effect after a train derailed in Ohio near the Pennsylvania border. It sparked a massive fire and concerns about air quality. The National Transportation Safety Board says around 20 cars were carrying a hazardous material, 10 of which went off the rails.

They say the cars were carrying the chemical vinyl chloride (ph), which has been linked to cancer. Officials say though some of it was released in the environment but they have not detected any harmful levels in the air. The cause of the derailment is still not clear. No one was injured in accident.

Ukraine's second largest city takes Russian missile fire just as heavy weapons from the West head Ukraine's way. These stories straight ahead.

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HARRAK: The U.S. military right now is working to salvage the suspected Chinese spy balloon after it was shot down over the Atlantic. President Biden gave the go-ahead to shoot it down several days ago. And the Pentagon waited until it was out over water on Saturday to bring it safely down.

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HARRAK: China accuses the U.S. of shooting down a quote, "civilian unmanned airship" and the Chinese defense ministry warned it reserves the right to use necessary means to deal with a similar situation.

Democratic Congress man Raja Krishnamoorthi is the ranking member of the new China select committee in the U.S. House of Representatives. He said the balloon incident is a stark reminder of China's growing determination to challenge the U.S. on the global stage. Here he is on CNN earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI (D-IL), OVERSIGHT AND INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEES: I think that it just reminds us of the threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party. Basically we know that their military technological national security threats and, of course, this particular balloon, the balloon reminded us that these threats exist, that the Chinese Communist Party is aggressive.

And unfortunately, they're committing surveillance in violations of our own national sovereignty, not to mention violations of the national sovereignty of so many of their neighbors, including Taiwan and others.

We're going to find out very soon the nature of this spy balloon. We'll know the who, what, when, where and how, hopefully, related to that balloon, once we salvage the technology.

But at the end of the day I think that probably there were actors within the Chinese Communist Party who continued with their aggressive surveillance. And it's not even clear whether the left and the right hands knew what they were doing in terms of the Chinese foreign ministry and others knowing about this.

Of course, if they did, it would really question the sincerity of their diplomatic overtures. I think that chairman Xi would -- we would just have to really question, you know, how eager he is to solve our diplomatic issues and to do so in a responsible way.

I particularly think that the Chinese will have some explaining to do. And they will have to own up to it. But regardless, it doesn't decrease tensions; if anything, it just keeps them at the state they are at and maybe worsens them.

But for the sake of all of us, we're going to continue to undercover the facts behind the CCP's threats to us on the committee, counter them and then, hopefully, come back another day to diplomatically resolve our disputes with the CCP, even as we work with our friends and allies and partners in the region on our collective mutual defense.

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HARRAK: Ukraine says a search and rescue operation is underway after Russian missile strikes on the city of Kharkiv. Officials say two missiles hit the city on Sunday, leaving at least three people wounded.

The strike reportedly caused a fire at a residential building earlier. Ukraine's president warned the grueling war against Russia is not getting any easier.

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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Over the 346 days of this war, I have often said the situation at the front is tough and that the situation is getting tougher. Now it is such a time again, the time when the occupier is throwing more and more of its forces at breaking down our defense.

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HARRAK: Meanwhile, Mr. Zelenskyy thanked British prime minister Rishi Sunak for training Ukrainian tank crews. Some of them are in the U.K. learning the ropes on the Challenger tanks, which Britain plans to send to Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Canada said the tanks it promised to Ukraine are already on the way. Canada's defense ministry posted this video of the Leopard tanks being loaded on transport planes.

On Saturday, Portugal became the latest country to pledge Leopards to Ukraine, while France and Italy are now promising a new air defense system to be delivered this spring.

Britain and the European Union are hoping to inflict more economic pain on Russia with new sanctions going into effect today. The E.U. is introducing a ban on imports of Russian diesel while the U.K. is slapping a ban on insurance and other services affecting maritime transport of Russia's refined oil products.

Pope Francis meets with internally displaced people in South Sudan and gives the country's children a special blessing. This story ahead in a live report.

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HARRAK: Pope Francis is preparing for his departure from South Sudan. He just celebrated mass in the capital, Juba. After a farewell ceremony, he heads back to Rome. On Saturday the pope met with some of South Sudan's millions of internally displaced people as he's done throughout the trip.

He called for a rejection of violence and all conflict. The pontiff and two other religious leaders in the country with him said a special blessing for South Sudan's children.

And the pope is accompanied by the heads of the Anglican Church and the Church of Scotland, representing the Christian denominations to which most South Sudanese belong.

John Allen is CNN's senior Vatican analyst and joins us live from Rome.

How did the visit go?

JOHN ALLEN, CNN SR. VATICAN ANALYST: Hi, there. Well, I mean, in terms of whether Pope Francis achieved what he set out to achieve, that is, promoting peace, reconciliation and healing from one of the most wartorn countries on the planet, that we don't know.

What we can say is that the pope drew large and enthusiastic crowds everywhere he went. The country's political leadership, both the faction in power and also the opposition.

[03:55:00]

ALLEN: Both went out of their way to roll out a red carpet for the pope. And most Sudanese on ground said the visit left them with greater hope than they had before, that something positive might happen.

HARRAK: Put this in perspective; in terms of the church's role, what role does it play in people's lives in South Sudan and what kind of influence does it have?

ALLEN: Well, South Sudan is one of those sort of corners on the map, where the Catholic Church is extraordinarily consequential. During the independence movement, which led to independence in 2011, Catholic radio was basically the communications network of the independence movement.

Of course, civil war erupted two years later in 2013. The road map for a peace deal that was signed in 2018 was signed in Rome under the aegis of a Catholic organization close to the Vatican. Some two-thirds of the population in South Sudan is Catholic.

So the pope almost uniquely in South Sudan can mobilize great deal of social and political capital. And that is why there is such a hopeful atmosphere that maybe this visit will mark a turning of the page.

HARRAK: John Allen, thank you so much, greatly appreciate it. That wraps up this hour of CNN NEWSROOM, I'm Laila Harrak. Kim

Brunhuber continues after a short break. Keep it here.