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War between Ukraine and Russia Entering Second Year; Ukrainian President Zelenskyy Asking U.S. for F-16 Fighter Jets to Help with Battle against Russian Invasion; U.S. Warns China against Providing Lethal Aid to Russia in War against Ukraine. Aired 10-11a ET

Aired February 25, 2023 - 10:00   ET

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

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[10:00:34]

AMARA WALKER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. It is Saturday, February 25th. I'm Amara Walker.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Amara. I'm Boris Sanchez. We're grateful that you are starting your weekend with us. You are live in the CNN Newsroom. And despite those vicious lies you may be reading on social media, Amara and I didn't plan to coordinate our outfits. It just happened naturally because great minds think alike.

WALKER: Yes. And I think we're both ready to welcome spring officially when it does happen.

(LAUGHTER)

This morning, Ukraine enters its second year of war with Russia with a defiant message from its president and the world.

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WALKER: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledging the grim milestone, speaking before troops in Kyiv. He declared 2023 as the year of Ukraine's victory over Russia and expressed confidence in his country's ability to fend off attacks.

SANCHEZ: Meantime, Ukraine's international allies showed their solidarity with tributes and announcements of new weapons and funding heading to the region. The first shipment of heavy battle tanks arrived in Ukraine with much more advanced weaponry expected in the coming weeks. And just days after his historic visit to Ukraine, President Biden announced a $2 billion security package at the United Nations. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on the international community not to let Putin's crimes become the new normal.

Let's take you now live to Kyiv and CNN's Melissa Bell who has been reporting from Ukraine for us. Melissa, the war now entering a second year with more attacks just this morning in Ukraine.

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. All along the front line, Boris, things remaining extremely tense. There's been more violence, more exchanges of fire. There have been air strikes from the Russian side, and also, exchanges of --

WALKER: All right, I think we lost Melissa Bell's signal there.

Well, let's turn it over to CNN's Jasmine Wright who is live in Wilmington, Delaware. We know that the president has been -- or not the president -- yes, the president of Ukraine has been asking for particular weapons, especially F-16 jets. Is Jasmine Wright there at the White House? No --

SANCHEZ: It looks like we're plagued with technically difficulties to start this hour of the Newsroom.

But, fortunately, to discuss the war in Ukraine as the world is marking this one-year anniversary, we do have an expert to talk to specifically about this plan that China has put forth, a blueprint for how it thinks peace can be restored in eastern Europe. Some details on the plan before we get to our expert.

Chinese officials releasing a 12-point proposal that calls for a ceasefire and end to sanctions against Russia, and it outlines in very specific terms their opposition to the use of nuclear weapons. This is just the latest in a series of efforts by China to present itself as neutral even as critics point out just how economically dependent Russia has become on China, and as Beijing reportedly weighs potentially providing the Kremlin with lethal military aid.

So let's bring in our expert for some perspective now. The United States former ambassador to China, Gary Locke. Ambassador, we're grateful to have you sharing participant of Saturday with us. Do you trust that this Chinese plan is actually neutral?

AMB. GARY LOCKE, FORMER UNITED STATES AMBASSADOR TO CHINA: Well, obviously, China has not been neutral over the last year. They've been providing some sort of non-lethal aid, whether it's clothing for the troops, but also purchasing products and services from Russia, whether it's oil, natural gas, and of course, grain. That -- they're buying stuff from Russia, which helps the Russian economy and the Russian government get the money to pay for the conduct of its war. So they're clearly not neutral.

But the good point is they have not provided military assistance, direct military assistance, and we hope that the U.S. warning about providing lethal aid will have some impact and stop them from doing so.

[10:05:00]

Nonetheless, just calling for a seize fire without calling for Russia to withdrawal from its occupied territories within Ukraine really means nothing. SANCHEZ: Obviously, you pointed out the United States trying to

dissuade China from providing that lethal aid. How likely is it do you think Beijing will adhere to the warning?

LOCKE: Well, really, it depends on having a united front among not just the United States but all of its allies. We need to make sure that if they were to provide some sort of lethal aid, that the international community will respond and basically retaliate economically against China, because China depends on selling all of its products to countries all around the world, especially to Europe and the United States. But if the United States acts unilaterally, if only we try to impose some sort of trade barriers, make it more expensive for Chinese goods to enter in the United States, but then they're able to sell those same products, whether it's clothing, whether it's tooling and supplies, things we take for granted in our daily lives, if they're able to sell that to Europe and the rest of the country, then our efforts will have little impact.

SANCHEZ: And that is a really fascinating point about unilateral action, specifically when it comes to China, because so much trade is done between China and the countries of Europe. And it was already kind of a difficult push to get many of these European powers to escalate their sanctions against Russia given the amount of energy that they get from Russia in the form of crude oil and natural gas. Do you suspect there would be some push back from European allies about punishing China for providing lethal aid if it gets there?

LOCKE: Well, the allies would probably impose tariffs on Chinese goods, and that would cut down on the production, the sale, the manufacturing of Chinese goods entering into the rest of the world. But then again, if all the countries of the world have no alternate suppliers, if all the shoes people buy only come from China, and the western countries raise the prices on these Chinese goods, consumers around the world have no choice but to pay the higher price. So we have got to be really strategic in terms of how we approach some sort of punishment sanctions against China were it to provide lethal aid to the Soviet Union.

SANCHEZ: Ambassador Locke, putting this plan forward implies that Beijing sees itself as a world power that can pull the levers of other nations interests and potentially steer the direction of global events. Obviously, China has been a rising power for some time. I've spoken to experts who believe that this is the start of a new cold war between the United States and China, and that that may be the best case scenario for the foreseeable future as opposed to actual combat. Where do you stand on that perception?

LOCKE: Well, China certainly wants to be perceived as a world power, certainly among the non-aligned countries and countries of Africa and Southeast Asia and other parts of the world. But western allies obviously know that China and Russia are very closely aligned. Given the tensions between the United States and China, China is drawing closer to Russia, and both countries resent the dominance of the United States and European allies in terms of the world order. All these rules of trade and international affairs have been set by the United States and European countries. And countries like Brazil, China, India, Russia who feel that they are on the rice also feel that they have no say in the rules of the game, the rules of conduct, of the country club, so to speak, the bylaws of the country club. And they resent that, and they want to be more independent of the United States and the west.

SANCHEZ: That is a fascinating perspective. I did want to ask you while we have you, Ambassador, sort of flipping things around, the U.S. is warning Beijing not to send lethal aid to the Russians. Meantime, there is this debate among western allies about what kind of aid to send to Ukraine, and specifically here in the United States a debate over these F-16 fighter jets. I've spoken to experts who say that even if they're sent today, they won't make much of a difference on the battlefield for some time. But part of the hesitation has to do with fear of escalating the conflict and fear of pushing Russia toward a larger response. How do you see that issue specifically with the fighter jets and the kind of weapons that the U.S. and the west are bringing into Ukraine? How do you see that playing out?

[10:09:57]

LOCKE: Well, obviously, these are very tense diplomatic issues between the countries, and then you have the military people who worry about the capability of the Ukrainian pilots to actually operate these highly sophisticated weapons. Whether it's even tanks, it takes months and months to train the Ukrainians on how to effectively use this advanced military hardware.

And the problem is that we know that Russia is planning a major offensive just within the next few weeks and months. So sending F-16s would not help in the immediate term. And there is a concern, of course, that Russia will respond even more ferociously. Right now they're just able to launch these long-range missiles from inside occupied territory or even from behind the Russian border and destroy and exact so much destruction and death on the Ukrainians from great distances.

And so there has really not been much of an ability to challenge the Russian forces with their long-range missiles. And of course, they're using drones to drop bombs on civilian areas. They're really trying to scare the Ukrainians and really decimate the country from afar. So we've got to figure out a way in which we can help Ukrainians fight back, defeat the Russian forces that are within the Ukrainian territory, and perhaps exact a psychological blow, make a huge statement to Putin, the Russian military, and certainly the Russian people that they will say enough is enough. We need to stop this war.

SANCHEZ: Ambassador Gary Locke, we very much appreciate your perspective and the time. Thanks for sticking with us through the technical difficulties.

LOCKE: My pleasure.

SANCHEZ: Of course.

WALKER: So as you heard in the conversation there, as China is drawing closer to Russia and as Russia faces a new round of attacks, President Biden -- or sanctions I should say -- President Biden is ruling out providing a critical weapon to Ukraine, as you heard, these F-16 jets.

CNN's Jasmine Wright is live in Wilmington, Delaware, where President Biden is spending the weekend. And this is something that the president of Ukraine is lobbying for for quite some time, right, Jasmine? But President Biden saying nope, not right now.

JASMINE WRIGHT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Look, those F-16s were noticeably absent from the series of actions that President Biden unveiled yesterday to mark the first year anniversary of the war in Ukraine. President Biden started his day out in D.C., not here in Wilmington, at a meeting virtually with G-7 leaders, that group of western allies who have worked really hard to keep supporting Ukraine, whether it be ammunition, weaponry, or finance as well as put those sanctions on Russia trying to punish them.

Also, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy was also at that meeting, so President Biden pledged his enduring support, and he announced that very large $2 billion security assistance package. That contained a lot of what Ukraine has been asking for, specifically that ammunitions part. He included in that package was HIMARS rocket launchers as well as additional artillery shells, drones, counter drone activity. But one thing that was not included, of course, was those F-16 fighter jets.

Now, President Biden, we know has been lobbied directly by President Zelenskyy, including on Monday when he made that unprecedented trip to Ukraine. But President Biden on Friday in an interview with ABC was very clear that he was ruling it out for now. Take a listen.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Zelenskyy continues to say what he really needs are F-16s. Will you send F-16s?

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Look, we're sending him what our seasoned military thinks he needs now. He needs tanks. He needs artillery. He needs air defense, including another HIMARS. There are things he needs now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You don't think he needs F-16s no?

BIDEN: No, he doesn't need F-16s now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WRIGHT: So, of course, we're waiting to hear how President Zelenskyy responds and whether they'll be additional requests for those fighter jets in the future. Now, of course, President Biden announced a new effort on sanctions, what the administration one of its most significant packages so far, really trying to nail down ways and companies and entities that have been helping Russia really evade these American and western sanctions. Boris, Amara?

WALKER: Jasmine Wright, appreciate your reporting, as always. Thank you. We're also following this morning the latest in the Alex Murdaugh

double-murder trial. The disgraced former South Carolina attorney taking the stand for a second day Friday and admitting to telling multiple lies to investigators.

SANCHEZ: Not something you typically see defendants do. Most significantly, he admitted that he had lied about being at the scene of his wife and son's murder. But Murdaugh continues to insist that he did not kill them.

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Let's go to CNN's Dianne Gallagher who has the very latest for us.

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CREIGHTON WATERS, LEAD PROSECUTOR: So you, like you've done so many times over the course of your life, had to back up and make a new story to kind of fit with the facts --

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Alex Murdaugh under cross-examination for a second day, several times getting heated.

MURDAUGH: You're dang right I'm consistent about that, because a very short time before that, David Owens is asking me questions and telling me I'm a suspect in the murder of my wife and my child and asking me about my clothes, you're dang right it was important.

WATERS: Because the only thing you're concerned is yourself. You're not concerned about giving accurate information to law enforcement.

GALLAGHER: As he tries to convince the jury he did not kill his wife Maggie and son Paul.

MURDAUGH: You mean, like, did I shoot my wife and my son?

WATERS: Yes.

MURDAUGH: No.

GALLAGHER: Prosecutor Creighton Waters pushing Murdaugh hard over his admission about lying about being at the family dog kennels where the bodies were found the night of the murders.

WATERS: Pretty much all of that was lies, wasn't it?

MURDAUGH: Everything about me not going to the kennel was a lie.

WATERS: You're able to just do that so easily and so convincingly and so naturally, don't you?

GALLAGHER: And hammering Murdaugh on what the prosecution is calling his new story.

WATERS: You also looked at this jury and tried to tell them that you have been cooperative in this investigation? MURDAUGH: Other than lying to them about going to the kennel, I was cooperative in every aspect of this investigation.

WATERS: Very cooperative except for maybe the most important fact of all, that you were at the murder scene with the victims just minutes before they died.

MURDAUGH: Also revealed, astonishing details we've never heard about just how serious Murdaugh says his opioid addiction was.

WATERS: So you're taking 60 a day or something like that?

MURDAUGH: There were days where I took more than that.

GALLAGHER: But the majority of the cross-examination Friday focused on what happened June 7th, 2021.

WATERS: So what you're telling this jury is that it's a random vigilante --

MURDAUGH: That's your term.

WATERS: The 12-year-old 5'2" people that just happen to know that Paul and Maggie were both at Moselle on June 7th, that knew that they would be at the kennels alone on June 7th, that knew that you would be not there but only between the times of 8:49 and 09:02, that they show up without a weapon, assuming that they're going to find weapons and ammunition there, that they commit this crime during that short time window, and then they travel the same exact route that you do around the same time to Alameda. That's what you're trying to tell this jury?

MURDAUGH: You got a lot of factors in there, Mr. Waters, all of which I do not agree with, but some of which I do.

GALLAGHER: After more than a dozen hours on the stand, Alex Murdaugh is done with his testimony. But the trial continues. In fact, the defense has yet to rest its case. We're told they plan to call additional witnesses on Monday when court resumes.

Dianne Gallagher, CNN, Walterboro, South Carolina.

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WALKER: Dianne, thank you.

And earlier this morning I spoke with civil rights attorney Areva Martin about the case and whether it was a good idea for Murdaugh to testify in his own defense.

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AREVA MARTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, it definitely, Amara, was a calculated risk. And I think he had no choice. Once 10 or so witnesses came forward and said that was definitely his voice on that TikTok video that was filmed right before Paul and Maggie were killed, he had to explain how it is that his voice is on a video at the kennel when he had told the police for months that he was not at the kennel, that he was at home taking a nap around the murder time.

So I don't think he had a choice if he wanted to be acquitted, he wanted to have a reasonable chance of being acquitted. But it's always risky when a defendant takes the witness stand because what happened over the last two days is what we expected to happen, which was a grilling, a really difficult and harsh grilling by the prosecutors over and over again, telling the jury that Alex Murdaugh is a liar and that he lied to police about being at the murder scene, and he's basically lying on the witness stand about not killing his wife and his son.

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WALKER: All right, the first ever blizzard warning in effect for parts of southern California with up to five feet of snow possible in some places. The impacts and a look at the forecast is next.

SANCHEZ: Plus, the NTSB issuing its preliminary report on that toxic train derailment in Ohio. Why investigators say the accident was 100 percent preventable, coming up.

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WALKER: So listen to this. A slow-moving winter storm is bringing blizzard-like conditions up and down, not the east coast, not the Midwest, we're talking the California coast. The first ever blizzard warning is in effect for the San Bernardino County mountains in southern California, and residents there could see up to five feet of snow.

SANCHEZ: And while folks there might be thrilled about getting that much powder in the valley, there is a real flooding risk. New video showing a helicopter rescue after a driver got stranded on the road, what flood waters left behind. Parts of the Midwest are also digging out following their own brutal winter storm. CNN's Camila Bernal has been following the latest for us.

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CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Coast-to-coast storms across the country, impacting more than 15 million people from New England where winter weather alerts are finally easing to the west coast where storm conditions are now ramping up again.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have never seen it like this in California.

BERNAL: Snarling transit and stranding travelers.

KIRSTYN STAFFORD, CALIFORNIA RESIDENT: Semis were starting to go backwards going up the grapevine, going up through the mountains. And it's not safe to drive.

[10:25:00] BERNAL: More than 1,100 flights have been cancelled with thousands more delays on Friday, and nearly 1 million customers are suffering power outages nationwide, primarily in Michigan and other parts of the Midwest, where freezing rain and ice have knocked out power lines and damaged trees.

Minnesota is now facing the twin hazards of snow and ice. Minneapolis under a snow emergency buried under more than 13 inches of snow in the last several days. In southern California, extremely rare blizzard warnings, including the first ever blizzard warning for the San Bernardino County mountains, coming on top of flooding, mudslides, power outages, and high winds.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That was crazy. They were like full branches falling down on the roof.

BERNAL: Residents in northern California stunned by snowfall and sightings of snow on top of sand at local beaches.

MARC MATTOX, PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR, TOWN OF PARADISE: We just want to be ready for again, kind of worst-case scenarios.

BERNAL: The gusts in some parts of southern California are expected to reach 75 miles per hour, and for Californians looking for a bright spot in the middle of back to back storms, a bald eagle sheltering its eggs from the snowstorms in Big Bear is streaming to thousands of viewers, waiting for two eggs to hatch. And some residents from Washington D.C. to Jacksonville, Florida, are watching winter around the country while basking in the sun.

Camila Bernal, CNN, Lebec, California.

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WALKER: All right, let's get right to CNN's Britley Ritz now for the latest on the weather conditions in California. So how much longer are these blizzard condition expected to last along with that flooding threat we're seeing?

BRITLEY RITZ, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right, just for the rest of today, Amara. And of course, it will linger through Sunday with the rainfall and the snow, but at least the advisories and the winter alerts all together will start to expire today. Taking a look at that area of low pressure spinning along the California coastline, rather impressive as it moves south and brings in all that moisture. Not so impressive when it comes down to traveling. So that's one of the bigger concerns here. It's probably best that we just stay indoors if we can. Snow falling through the Sierra Mountain range all the way down into southern California's higher elevations, over 4,000 feet. We're talking about picking up five feet of snow, but heavy rain continues to filter in. San Diego, L.A., you're dealing with that now. And these are areas that are still dealing with that flooding concern.

There are the winter weather alerts across the southwest, but this continues to hold through the rest of the morning into the afternoon and tapering back as we roll into Sunday as that whole system takes its track as it pushes further east into the plains. Again, pulling in quite a bit of snowfall to the higher elevations, an additional two to three inches of rain expected across southern California. Boris?

SANCHEZ: All right, Britley Ritz, thank you so much.

And three weeks after the toxic train wreck in East Palestine, Ohio, federal investigators have released an initial report saying the derailment and chemical spill was 100 percent preventable.

SANCHEZ: That report coming from the National Transportation Safety Board also concluded that the train's crew wasn't at fault, but we still won't actually know what caused the incident for another 12 to 18 months. Let's bring in CNN's Polo Sandoval. He's been following the latest details on this for us. Polo, walk us through what the report said.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So in short, Boris and Amara, NTSB investigators saying at this point in this investigation, they suspect that it was a wheel bearing failure that led to that devastating derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, on February 3rd.

What does that mean? So we read the report, it basically states that one of the trains cars carrying plastic pellets was heated by a hot axle that sparked an initial fire. As the temperature of the bearing got hotter, the train passed two wayside defect detectors which are basically these devices that are supposed to detect axle problems on any trains that pass on the rails. That did not trigger an alarm because the heat threshold was not met at that point. However, it wasn't until the train passed a third detector down track that the temperatures were so hot, hot enough that that set off the alarm. But by then, it was too late. So the devastating chain of events was already set in motion. A total of 38 cars derailed there near the Pennsylvania state line, and that included 11 tank cars that were carrying hazardous materials that ignited, fueling these fires, five of those carrying about 115,000 gallons of vinyl chloride, which is what's fueling those concerns three weeks later in that community about potential cancer risk.

And then also what you mentioned at the beginning, too, that investigators at this point suspected the crew did nothing wrong. In fact, the engineer had already began to apply the brakes for a train ahead of it, and they simply increased the brake -- at least the brake rate once that initial alarm went off, but that deceleration portion, Amara, that's what then caused the problems with the wheels.

[10:30:05]

So investigators saying that this is 100 percent preventable, but the NTSB stopping short of exactly what could have been done to prevent it. They say that answer may come in the coming months.

WALKER: Yes, while that investigation is underway, so many people concerned about the potential impacts on their health. Polo Sandoval, thank you very much.

Well, still ahead, a Georgia judge oversaw the special grand jury investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 election says jurors are free to discuss the final report. Much more on that, next.

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WALKER: This morning a Georgia judge who oversaw the special grand jury in the Trump probe is clarifying what jurors can and cannot say.

SANCHEZ: Yes, it comes after a bit of an awkward moment for the foreperson in the case after she went public about the report.

[10:35:00]

CNN's Sara Murray explains this decision.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Boris and Amara, it has been an eventful week in the saga of the special grand jury here in Georgia investigating efforts by Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election. The foreperson Emily Kohrs went on a media blitz with CNN and others, suggesting the special grand jury recommended roughly a dozen people for indictments, although she didn't name names.

But her disclosures caused some backlash, particularly among Donald Trump's attorneys. We sat down with the Judge Robert McBurney who was overseeing the special grand jury, and he made clear the grand jury complied with its charter and abided by Georgia's laws. As for whether Kohrs may have stepped over the line of what special grand jurors are allowed to divulge, McBurney said it was not up to him to assess. He made clear the grand jurors were not allowed to talk about deliberations, discussions they had in private, but they were free to talk about essentially anything that happened in the room when witnesses were present or when prosecutors or the district attorney were present.

Ultimately what happens next is up to District Attorney Fani Willis. She decides whether she is going to go to a regular grand jury and pursue charges against the former president or any of his allies. Back to you guys.

WALKER: Sara Murray, thank you.

The Pentagon is investigating how internal emails were leaked for two weeks without its knowledge. U.S. Special Operations Command has confirmed the service, though, was not hacked.

SANCHEZ: Yes, the cybersecurity researcher who detected the leak, though, says anyone who knew the server's I.P. address could access that data. It's an example of how a powerful agency could unwittingly expose sensitive documents. CNN's Sean Lyngaas takes a closer look at what happened.

SEAN LYNGAAS, CNN CYBERSECURITY REPORTER: Boris and Amara, the Pentagon has confirmed to CNN that it should have known about a data leak coming from one of its email servers well before it did. It took two weeks for the Department of Defense to realize that a trove of unclassified emails were sitting on the open Internet. And when a cybersecurity researcher came to the Pentagon to alert them to that, that's only when they found out about that. Now, it's not that uncommon for computer servers to be exposing data

at big organizations, but this is the U.S. military, and this server had emails that had sometimes sensitive information about discussions about procurement equipment and that sort of thing. So this is something that the Pentagon has been investigating the last several days, but it's really the first time Thursday night where they admitted to CNN that they should have known about this earlier and they're figuring out what they have to do in terms of changing their cybersecurity protocols to not let this happen again, Boris and Amara.

SANCHEZ: Sean Lyngaas, thank you so much for that report.

Still ahead, after thousands of families were separated following that chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, a lot of folks are still trying to reunite with their loved ones even today. CNN has one family's story when we come back.

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WALKER: This morning, polling locations in Nigeria are still open amid widespread delays in voting for the country's next leader. Roughly 93 million Nigerians were eligible to vote in the tightly contested race among three presidential frontrunners.

SANCHEZ: And in hopes to keep the election safe, armed guards and police were stationed at polling stations across the country.

Let's take you now live to Lagos, Nigeria, with CNN's Larry Madowo who has been tracking the election. Larry, there have been some reports of isolated incidents of violence.

LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's correct. We've seen some isolated incidents of violence in parts of Lagos, which is the place with the highest number of registered voters, 7 million. And we don't think this is a pardon. We haven't seen any widespread instances of violence across the nation, but still notable because an election in a country this big, any of these, there's things to talk about.

We're at a polling station where they're now counting the votes. Polls closed about two hours ago, and what you see there is, for transparency, they go through every ballot one by one, show it to everyone, and they count that.

However, in this wider location there are at least two other polling stations over the other side where there was no voting at all that took place. There are more than several hundred angry people here, upset that they didn't get a chance to vote. But when you run an election for 93 million people it's a logistical nightmare and you don't always get it right.

I want to speak to Ken (ph) here. You've been waiting nine hours to vote. What happened?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely. When we got here, I picked a number, number 112 at about 7:30. But up until now --

MADOWO: It's 4:45 still no sign. Why is it important for you to vote today?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's so important to me because I wanted to make a huge statement. We are so tired of the existing order. So --

MADOWO: They're tired because President Muhammadu Buhari is term limited. He's leaving, and by many accounts, people feel that Nigeria is worse off than eight years ago when they took power, and that's why so many people are voting, Boris and Amara, in this election.

WALKER: It's incredible how engaged some of those people are. Nine hours to vote? That's just incredible. Thank you so much for giving us that perspective, Larry Madowo.

So the U.S. immigration system never easy to navigate, but for some Afghan families separated after the U.S. military's chaotic withdrawal from Kabul in 2021, it has been an 18-month long wait to be reunited with their loved ones.

SANCHEZ: Advocacy groups say that these families often face a lack of reliable information about the process even as they approach critical deadlines for staying in the country. CNN Natasha Chen spoke with one family that is living this awful waiting game. Game.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

NATASHA CHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A daily video call is the only way Ahmad Roman can connect with his wife and daughter in Kabul.

AHMAD ROMAN, HUMANITARIAN PAROLEE FROM AFGHANISTAN: It's my daughter.

CHEN: We're keeping his wife and daughter's faces concealed for their safety.

[10:45:00]

They're in the dark with electricity for only a few hours each day when they could have been here in this small, light filled apartment in California. Their family's sudden separation happened at the Kabul airport during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. And after a year- and-a-half, Roman is no closer to getting his wife and daughter here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Someone asks me about that day, my hands just shake.

CHEN: In mid-August 2021, the family and their relatives headed to the airport, knowing their safety would be at risk under Taliban rule. But when they boarded the crowded cargo planes, they suddenly could not find their older son, Uzair (ph). His parents came out of the plane searching for him amidst the chaos.

ROMAN: Just thousands of people on the ground.

CHEN: They finally realized Uzair (ph) was already with another relative on a different plane. But by that point, his mother and sister had been pushed beyond the airport gates.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I cried a lot to them. Please let me go inside. My kids, my family had entered the plane, but they didn't let me.

CHEN: Roman waited and was one of the last to board his plane. He is now a single parent raising Uzair and little Rahman who has now spent half of his young life in the U.S.

ROMAN: I ask him, "Rahman, who is she?" He tells me, it's mom. But I know Rahman don't know what's "mom" meaning.

CHEN: Roman's wife said the Taliban requires male supervision for her to go anywhere, including the store, and their daughter may not be able to continue school.

ROMAN: I'm just worried about my daughter's future.

CHEN: It wasn't until January when the U.S. State Department published a form for humanitarian parolees like Roman to apply for reunification assistance. Several advocacy groups across the U.S. each tell CNN they're working with dozens of families in the same situation, with one group, Women for Afghan Women, trying to help 400 separated families.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When I see my kids on camera but I cannot touch them, it's so difficult for me.

CHEN: We asked the State Department how many Afghan families are still waiting for reunification, but their press office says the number is fluid and that they have, quote, "already resettled thousands of Afghans, reunited families, and welcomed them into our communities across the country."

You have filled out every form that you could, but nobody is telling you how long this could take.

ROMAN: Actually, no one told me we can help you. They told me we don't have any answer for this.

CHEN: He says a team at the State Department is in contact with him to try to help, but both he and his lawyers say there is no information about next steps.

ROMAN: We have one thing that makes me strong, that's hope.

CHEN: Not only are many families desperately trying to bring their loved ones here to the U.S., some of them are looking at an expiration date soon for their humanitarian parole status. For Ahmad Roman, that will happen in September. So he's also applying for asylum and temporary protected status, but he doesn't know how long that could take. He tells me he feels it could be years.

Natasha Chen, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

SANCHEZ: Natasha, thank you so much for bringing us their story.

Still ahead this morning, there is a shortage nationwide of auto mechanics, but soon V.R. could be a solution. We're going to explain when Newsroom returns.

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[14:52:52]

WALKER: Getting an oil change or a tire fixed could prove to take a lot longer than normal.

SANCHEZ: Yes, because there is this nationwide mechanic shortage leaving thousands of jobs open across the industry. But now CNN's Pete Muntean has a look at how some are innovating the training of mechanics.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is the newest fix for a vocation in short supply -- virtual reality.

GEOFF CRAWFORD, VICE PRESIDENT OF VIRTUAL REALITY, VEHICLES FOR CHANGE: She is replacing the tire.

MUNTEAN: Here at Maryland nonprofit, Vehicles for Change, the first tool training mechanics use is a pair of oculus V.R. goggles. The simulated shop floor has it all, from the lift to the quintessential impact wrench.

CRAWFORD: It is going to expedite the process of getting folks entry level ready to come into the garages.

MUNTEAN: The latest industry forecast says retirements from dealerships and repair shops will rise nationwide. There are 76,000 new openings for trained auto technicians each year, but 37,000 of those jobs go unfilled.

CRAWFORD: We did a search the other day, and indeed, just in the state of Maryland for auto technicians locally, and it was over 2,600 technician.

MUNTEAN: That's a lot.

CRAWFORD: That's a lot.

MUNTEAN: After a little bit of instruction, I was ready to give it a try.

Is my hair OK?

Lesson one, changing the oil.

The cool thing about this is you can move around the shop but also interact with the world around you. I'm taking the controller and grabbing the lift handle here and moving it up, and up goes the car. MARTIN SCHWARTZ, PRESIDENT, VEHICLES FOR CHANGE: The V.R. is really, as you saw, almost as real you can get without having your hands on a car.

MUNTEAN: Martin Schwartz came up with this idea to supplement his charity. It's given out $7,500 donated cars to low-income families. But it's also his mechanics getting a second chance. The shop here is an internship for prisoners re-entering society.

SCHWARTZ: It's a field that's a little bit more lenient and is willing to hire people with a criminal background, and you can make quite a living.

MUNTEAN: Terence Grandy says his life was the streets of Baltimore's drug trade. Now he's putting cars back on the street.

TERENCE GRANDY, MECHANIC, VEHICLES FOR CHANGE: For someone that's incarcerated that comes home to a stable financial situation, that enables not to go back and do the same thing that led them to prison.

[10:55:08]

MUNTEAN: The goal here is to spread this technology across the country, even teaching prisoners still behind bars. Marcus Butler started his virtual reality training as part of a work release program. He is days away from the end of his prison sentence and the start of a new career.

MARCUS BUTLER, MECHANIC, VEHICLES FOR CHANGE: I have a trade, a skill, that is with me, I learnt it, I know it. And no matter where I go, there's always cars. There's cars everywhere. So I'll always have a job.

MUNTEAN: Pete Muntean, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALKER: That's so heartwarming. I love the rehabilitative aspect of this training. It's so cool.

SANCHEZ: Absolutely.

WALKER: Oh, my God, it's over. That was quick, Boris. Thanks for watching, everyone.

(LAUGHTER)

SANCHEZ: Still much more ahead in the next hour of CNN Newsroom. Fredricka Whitfield is up next.

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