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More Than 100 Killed In Gaza While Waiting For Food; Putin Warns That Sending Western Troops To Ukraine Risks A Global Nuclear War; Ghana Anti-Gay Bill Draws Swift International Condemnation; Human Rights and Legal Consequences of Ghana's Anti-Gay Bill; Gaza Health Ministry: 100+ Killed While Waiting for Food; World Athletics President on Banning Russia and Belarus; U.S. Migrant Crisis; Massive Hike in Fuel Prices Hitting Cuba Friday; Smokehouse Creek Fires. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired March 01, 2024 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome everyone. I'm Michael Holmes, appreciate your company. Coming up here on CNN Newsroom. Chaos and death, as hundreds injured more than 100 killed as desperate people swarm and aid convoy in Gaza. Someone started shooting.
Vladimir Putin warns of a nuclear conflict of Western troops get involved in Ukraine. And Cubans will be waking up to a major pain at the pump as the government hats way back on fuel subsidies.
UNDIENTIFIED MALE: Live from Atlanta. This is CNN Newsroom with Michael Holmes.
HOLMES: Well we begin with one of the worst single tragedies in Israel's war with Hamas were simply trying to get food to stay alive became deadly. Video from the incident is graphic, we'll warn you of that. It shows hungry and desperate people swarming in a convoy in Gaza City when witnesses say Israeli forces started shooting.
The health ministry in Gaza reports at least 112 people were killed, close to 800 injured, many trampled in the chaos or even run over by the aid drugs. The Israeli military has its version of events saying it's tanks fired what they called warning shots to disperse the crowd. And Israeli soldiers only shot at Palestinians who approached them in what they called a threatening manner.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LT. COL. (RES.) PETER LERNER, ISRAELI DEFENSE FORCES SPOKESPERSON: Our posture across the mission, the operation was to secure the root, and indeed when our forces were under the perceived threat being approached in a combat zone. And after firing warning shots to those that were approaching them, we did engage and then later retreats.
The reality is one that our forces face a 360 degree threat when they're operating on the ground. Terrorists they don't wear uniforms. Hamas terrorists, they wear sandals, sneakers and sweatpants and they come up to our vehicles and they try and place explosive devices on them.
So anybody approaching those vehicles, those tanks or the armed personnel carriers that are operating in the Gaza Strip is a perceived threat.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: A senior Hamas leader has warned hostage and ceasefire talks are now in doubt. The Israeli government called the incident a tragedy and says it -- the circumstances are quote under review. CNN's Paula Hancocks with more now and again we warn you the video is graphic.
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PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Bodies piled on the back of donkey carts, dignity and death does not exist here. A day that started with hope of aid finally reaching this neighborhood of Gaza City ended in carnage.
Details of what happened and when they happened are contested. Eyewitnesses say Israeli tanks escorting humanitarian aid trucks open fire. One journalist tells CNN, some were shot but most of the casualties were from the following panic, a stampede and a trucks running over desperate residents as they fled.
This woman says our children are dying of hunger. They went to get a bag of flour to feed the children. Some were run over, others was shot.
The Israeli military, however, says there were two incidents, the first where residents rushed the trucks and a deadly stampede and shoot. The second when the Israeli military fired on a group of Palestinians who they claim posed a threat and did not move away from their military position came afterwards.
LERNER: We are operating in order to maintain operational activity and conduct our combat on one hand and maintain the going flow of humanitarian goods humanitarian supplies on the other.
HANCOCKS (voice-over): What cannot be disputed is the sheer desperation of people here. Aid rarely reaches northern Gaza fighting is never far away.
This man says of the body he is cradling. You just want to get a bit of bread, a bag of flour for his family. This placed at a school in Jabalya camp.
U.N. agencies warn of famine, saying this is the worst level of child malnutrition anywhere in the world. This health ministry claims at least half a dozen children have died in recent days of dehydration and malnutrition, UNICEF says it could only get worse.
[01:05:07] JAMES ELDER, UNICEF SPOKESPERSON: We're seeing a very dangerous form of malnutrition in the north, around 15 percent in children, three times what it is in Rafah in the south, again, clear evidence that when we're able when we are allowed to get in life saving aid, it's making a difference.
HANCOCKS (voice-over): Countries now resorting to air drops to get aid into Gaza, an imprecise and imperfect way to save lives. Paula Hancocks, CNN Abu Dhabi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Joining me now from Rafah Peter Walsh, team leader for Gaza Response with Save the Children. Thanks so much for doing so. So when one IDF spokesman said what happened in his words had very little or nothing to do with Israel, that the stampede caused the carnage, Palestinians say they were fired on, what is your reaction to what you've heard about what happened in the north of the strip?
PETER WALSH, TEAM LEADER FOR GAZA RESPONSE, SAVE THE CHILDREN: Thank you very much, Michael. And the images displayed by CNN and other news outlets are quite apparent. It's quite clearly communities who are desperate to try and feed their families have been killed.
This is completely unacceptable. We have children reportedly dying of malnutrition. And now we're hearing of families who are trying to get food for them also being killed.
HOLMES: Yes, yes. And yes, that's the point, isn't it? Because those people were only there because they're hungry. What does all of this say about the situation for Gazans, generally and particularly those in the north who aren't getting aid? Do you think this would have happened if enough aid was being allowed him by Israel?
WALSH: Well, despite all the huge efforts from the humanitarian community, time and time again, when we deconflict and notify of our intentions to deliver aid to the North of Gaza, it has been repeatedly denied time and time again, due to the ongoing conflict.
But we must, we must make an enormous efforts right now to try and get unfettered access. We need Israel to commit to allow us to get aid to the North. So we do not repeat scenes of what we saw yesterday.
HOLMES: Yes, as you pull out while trucks have actually been fired upon as they headed north, and many aid group say others are held up or turned away. Why do you think the trucks are even being forced to make the journey south to north what needs to change? I mean, should Israel for example, allow aid to come in from the north, which would be logistically far easier and more efficient for those in that part of the strip?
WALSH: Absolutely, the amount of trucks that are coming in for one or two checkpoints is just not enough. We need to get these border crossings open to allow eight particularly to get into the north, where there is the greatest need and the most underserved communities. As I have said there are children starving right now. 1.1 million
children in Gaza, face death through starvation disease. And if we don't get these other checkpoints open and get a flow into the North. Unfortunately, we're going to see many more deaths come.
HOLMES: Yes, we heard the United Nations aid chief warning on Thursday that life his quote, was life is draining out of Gaza at terrifying speed. Famine is still a real risk if it's not technically a famine already. And you point out these reports of death from starvation. I think it's up to 10 children have now died of malnutrition. How critical is the situation? People literally starving to death.
WALSH: They are and we've had reports of families having to resort to eating animal food and birdseed, you know, out of sheer desperation. But I'm going to bring this back. There have been 12,000 children killed since the start of this war. That's 1 percent of the entire child population of Gaza.
Children will be maimed and suffering physical injuries along the mental health burden. Children are being pushed to the absolute limits.
HOLMES: Yes, yes, the death toll now has passed 30,000. I think that that's one in 73 Palestinians in Gaza, have died, 70,000 wounded, thousands more missing under the rubble and the majority women and children and the elderly. I mean, do you see any light at the end of what has been a long, long tunnel with death and injury rates of that level?
WALSH: For any light to be realized we need an immediate definitive ceasefire. This is the only way that we can save lives in Gaza.
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And we call upon the International Committee, your viewers, we must do everything on our powers to stop the expansion of this military operation, particularly right now the people or Rafah are living under a fear and anxiety of a potential military intervention to the last geographical area that Israel has not occupied.
HOLMES: And just finally, I mean, Israeli forces did open fire on those people in the North today. Israel is controlling how many trucks get in some days, there have been none at the Karem Shalom, because settlers are blocking access. What do you want Israel to do? What would you say to them?
WALSH: Well, it's very -- authorities must give immediate and unfettered full humanitarian aid access. We must reopen all crossings and fully restore services that are critical to the survival of the civilian population, including water, electricity, children must get back to school where they can feel protected, and food must get where it is where the greatest need is, which is a garden city and north.
HOLMES: All right, Peter Walsh, really appreciate it. Thanks very much.
WALSH: Thanking you.
HOLMES: Russia's war on Ukraine intensifying both on the ground and in the skies. Ukraine's Air Force says it destroyed three Russian Su-34 fighter jets around Avdiivka and Mariupol in the past few hours. That brings the total to 15 Russian warplanes shot down so far this year.
Meanwhile, a police unit known as the White Angel says they're dealing with a surge in civilians, asking to be evacuated from the Avdiivka area ever since Russian forces seize control on February 17. Ukraine's top general says quote miscalculations in Avdiivka and Zaporizhzhia regions hampered their defense but he says he has taken steps to remedy the situation.
And the European Parliament is urging countries to actively support Russia's democratic opposition in this month's election. EU lawmakers passed a non-binding resolution on Thursday expressing their solidarity with ordinary Russians saying the people of Russia should not be confused with the quote, warmongering, autocratic and kleptocratic Kremlin regime unquote.
In response, the Russian envoy to the EU told European lawmakers to stop telling Russians how to vote. Russia's presidential election takes place from the 15th through 17th of March.
And Russian President Vladimir Putin drew a chilling line for the West in his annual State of the Nation speech. He said Western countries risk starting a nuclear conflict if they send troops to Ukraine. Mr. Putin also pointedly said Russia has weapons too, of course and can strike Western targets.
That appears to be a response to Monday's statement by the French president Emmanuel Macron. He said when it comes to sending troops, nothing should be off the table to prevent Ukraine from losing the war. On Thursday, Lithuania's Foreign Minister floated a similar idea in an interview with CNN.
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GABRIELIUS LANDSBERGIS, LITHUANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: The troops in in Ukraine, I don't think that this option should be off the table. Most likely, we're not talking about combat troops, but it could be training. It could be other sorts of assistance to Ukraine.
I have to stress here that we're not talking about NATO action, not EU action, but it could be a group of countries, group of allies who would think the same way, who would be ready to assist Ukraine in that matter in that way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Matthew Chance now with more on Mr. Putin's push back against the idea of Western troops in Ukraine.
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MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, this was a wide ranging to our state of the nation speech in which the Russian president made more nuclear threats, warning that Western rhetoric threatened a nuclear conflict and, quote, the destruction of civilization.
Vladimir Putin slammed the West for provoking conflicts around the world, and warned against any deployment of Western troops to Ukraine, where he said Russia had gained the military initiative. Take a listen.
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): They started talking about the possibility of sending NATO military contingency Ukraine. But we remember the fate of those who wants send their contingents to territory of our country. But now the consequences for possible interventionists will be much more tragic.
CHANCE: Will the address comes as the war Ukraine enters a third year and Putin praised Russians who are participating, insisting that the majority of Russian people support the conflict, which is estimated to have inflicted hundreds of thousands of casualties on both sides.
There were digs (ph) at the United States too with Putin accusing politicians in the U.S. of being insincere about wanting real talks with Moscow on things like strategic stability. Take a listen.
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PUTIN (through translator): On the eve of the U.S. presidential elections, they just want to show their citizens and everyone else that they still rule the world. They say that on those issues where it's beneficial for America to negotiate, they will have a conversation with the Russians, and where it is not beneficial for them. There is nothing to discuss, as they themselves say business as usual, and they will strike to the fetus.
CHANCE: Well, one thing that was conspicuous by its absence any reference to the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in an Arctic penal colony earlier this month, and whose public funeral in Moscow is being planned for Friday 1000s are expected to attend what could potentially become a major show of support for a figure who was one of the Kremlin's most vocal critics. Matthew Chance, CNN, Moscow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Aides for Alexei Navalny say someone is trying to sabotage his funeral. The service is expected to begin in about five hours in the Church of the Icon of the Mother in God before Navalny's burial at a nearby cemetery in Moscow, but his aides say they were first turned away by a number of other venues. They'd asked to host a funeral.
One venue reportedly said they were forbidden from working with Navalny's team. They also say they couldn't find a hearse or even grave diggers, saying some drivers claimed they received anonymous phone calls telling them not to take Navalny's body anywhere.
A U.S.-Russian dual citizen remains in jail after a Russian court denied her appeal on Thursday. Ksenia Karelina attended the hearing via video link with her attorney and father physically present in court. Her lawyer requested Karelina's detention be replaced with house arrest which the House rejected.
Karelina traveled to Russia from Los Angeles to visit family in January, when she was initially detained for alleged petty hooliganism. She was later charged with treason for allegedly donating $51.80 to a Ukrainian charity while in the U.S. Karelina will remain in custody until April 7 and could face up to 20 years in prison.
Still to come on the program, swift reaction coming from the U.S. and U.N. to Ghana's Parliament passing a strict anti-gay bill. We'll have a report and an interview in a few moments. Also, Biden and Trump facing off as they visit parts of the same southern border state on the same day, one seeking compromise, the other going on the attack.
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HOLMES: A spokesperson The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights is urging Ghana's president not to sign into law an anti-gay bill approved by the country's parliament.
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RAVINA SHAMDASANI, OFFICE OF THE U.N. HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS: We call for the bill not to become law. We urge the Ghanaian government to take steps to ensure that everyone can live free from violence, stigma and discrimination, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity. consensual same sex conduct should never be criminalized.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: The U.S. State Department issued a statement saying in part quote, The United States is deeply troubled by the Ghanaian Parliament's passage of legislation. This bill seeks to criminalize any person who simply identifies as LGBTQI plus as well as any friend, family or member of the community who doesn't report them. Limiting the rights of one group in a society undermines the rights of all.
Now there's huge political pressure in Ghana for the President to sign that bill. But if the measure becomes law, the U.S. and other countries could cut off aid. CNN's David McKenzie with more on what's at stake.
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DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ghanaian artist Angel Maxine fought her homophobic bill with what she knew best. Now as Ghana's most famous trans singer, she says she lives in fear, get death threats from the public.
MAXINE ANGEL OPOKU, GHANAIAN ARTIST: I am scared. I'm really scared. MCKENZIE (voice-over): Ghana's parliament has unanimously passed a draconian anti-LGBT bill. It calls for jail time for Ghanaians identifying as gay or trans, criminalizes those who support them, require citizens to turn them in.
OPOKU: I'm half broken. I feel so bad. I feel bad because we have a weak so hard to speak up against it.
MCKENZIE (voice-over): Since 2021, the so called Family Values Bill has been pushed by a coalition of politicians and faith leaders in Ghana with support from U.S. conservative groups. It's just one of several homophobic bills emerging in Africa.
CNN has tracked a severe spike in the abuse of LGBTQ Africans, often put on social media and epidemic of hate, inspired by the laws.
SAM GEORGE, GHANA OPPOSITION LAWMAKER: There is nothing that deals with LGBTQ better than this deal that has just been passed by Parliament. We expect the President to walk his talk and be a man of his words.
MCKENZIE (voice-over): After the unanimous vote, President Nana Akufo- Addo, a former human rights lawyer will be under enormous political pressure to sign the bill. But his government is a significant recipient of U.S. and European foreign aid.
And Ghana has been on a push to draw foreign tourists to its shores with flashy advertising like this.
It's been a hugely successful campaign, especially with Americans, but it could all be under threat. And Maxine says she's almost out of hope for the future.
OPOKU: I won't allow my identity to be criminalized, and I will still speak against it.
MCKENZIE: But you could be sent to prison.
OPOKU: Yes, I could be sent to prison. There's little time that we have right now. We have to speak against it.
MCKENZIE (voice-over): Otherwise, Maxine, and many others will be silenced. David McKenzie, CNN Johannesburg.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Joining me now Neela Ghoshal, Senior Director of Law Policy and Research at Outright International. Thanks so much for your time.
Just first of all, just give us a sense of how far this bill goes how it will impact not just members of Ghana's LGBTQ community, but those who love and support them as well.
NEELA GHOSHAL, SENIOR DIRECTOR OF LAW, POLICY AND RESEARCH, OUTRIGHT INTERNATIONAL: Yes, this bill is extreme. And there are some provisions of this bill that are absolutely unprecedented compared to all the other anti-homosexuality bills that we've seen in the world. For instance, there are many bills many laws around the world that make it criminal to engage in same sex acts. Although many of those laws are not enforced.
Ghana's law would make it a criminal offence to simply exist as a lesbian, gay, transsexual, transgender, non-binary person or even as an ally. The law literally punishes, quote, unquote, holding out as LGBTQ, or as an ally with up to three years in prison, which means that mentioning your sexual orientation is illegal, mentioning that you support LGBT LGBTQ people is illegal.
[01:25:00]
So, very unprecedented, very preposterous. And the bill goes further by requiring citizens and people in Ghana to report people who are LGBTQ or who are allies under this law. So everybody's expected to turn into a part of a police state that would go out looking for and tracking down and turning in queer people something that is absolutely bizarre for a country like Ghana, that until recently was seen as kind of democracy.
HOLMES: Yes, just extraordinary. And Ghana is, of course, it's a member of the Human Rights Council. And as you just alluded to, in the past, it's been seen as fighting inequality, having made great strides combating HIV/AIDS, and so on, yet these arguments put forward by supporters of the bill. I mean, things like having to report people. I mean, you know, what changed in Ghana, and how do you combat it?
GHOSHAL: Yes, there's been a lot of changes in the last five years or so in Ghana. Five, 10 years ago, it was one of the countries in which LGBTQ people could be a bit more open in Africa than they could in many other countries. There were some refugees from neighboring countries who would go to Ghana because it was seen as a safe space.
And I think a few different things happen. But one critical thing that happened in 2019 was that a right wing fundamentalist Christian, U.S. based organization called the World Congress of Families, held its annual meeting in Ghana. And this is one of these organizations that has spent many years in the U.S. fighting against equality and inclusion for LGBTQ people, and in the last decade or so has become increasingly involved in Africa.
And so this group held a meeting in Ghana, bringing together people from Ghana, from other countries in Africa, who also opposed LGBTQ equality. But it was kind of a moment in which these extreme conservative forces from different parts of the world met in Ghana and discussed taking forward their anti LGBTQ agenda together.
HOLMES: Right.
GHOSHAL: Now, we know exactly how much the World Congress of Families or organizations like that have been involved in this bill. But we do know that the kind of rhetoric that they promote around supposedly protecting children or fighting against so called recruitment into homosexuality has created a sort of moral panic in Ghana, where Ghanaians believe that there is a sort of conspiracy to recruit children to destroy the traditional family. And that's one of the --
HOLMES: Yes, and to that point, what then literal real world risks will the community potentially face under this bill and the mood at creating Ghana? I mean, could it cost lives?
GHOSHAL: This bill could absolutely cost lives. And we started to see the risk of this bill, from the moment that it was first introduced in parliament in 2021. When the bill was introduced, there was a lot of publicity around it. And organizations in Ghana, which up until then had been able to work pretty peacefully, working with LGBTQ communities came under threat themselves. So their workshops were shut down by the police. Activists were arrested and taken to prison. Some of them were tortured in prison. And they continue to do their work.
And one of the things they did was document the human rights violations that were taking place around them. And so they started to notice that there had been a pretty severe uptick in incidents of violence by members of the public mob violence, violence by neighbors who would attack someone walking down the street, because the person appeared to be gender non-conforming, and say to them things like, you're not you're not legal anymore in our country.
HOLMES: Wow.
GHOSHAL: Simply from the bill having introduced.
HOLMES: Yes.
GHOSHAL: So if this bill is, yeah, jail time.
HOLMES: No, no, I'm sorry. Yes, no, it clearly has that potential. Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. We're almost out of time. Opponents do point out, it violates the African Commission on Human and People's Rights.
What do African nations and other nations need to do to pressure Ghana and will Ghana listen, bearing in mind, of course, Ghana isn't the only African country where the gay community faces a threat?
GHOSHAL: Well, first of all, I think that human rights supporters within Ghana need to speak up. And there have been a number of lawyers, human rights advocates who've been extremely vocal pointing out that this violates not only the African Charter on Human and People's Rights, but also gone as own constitution and this constitutional protections, so that's important to elevate those voices from within Ghana that are opposing the bill. There are also some politicians who are opposing the bill. They clearly need support, they need to be supportive.
[01:29:40]
I think the international community needs to make clear that Ghana will no longer be accepted in the international community as a democratic nation if it passes a bill that has such egregious provisions that strip people of all of their rights, including the right simply to be themselves and the right to advocate for changing unjust laws. That needs to be clear.
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. Yes, very, very concerning legislation. We'll see where it goes.
Neela Ghoshal, thank you so much for speaking with us.
GHOSHAL: Thank you very much.
HOLMES: Now CNN's Fred Pleitgen was there a short time ago as Iran's Supreme leader voted in Friday's nationwide legislative elections.
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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The supreme leader is traditionally the first person to cast his ballot in Iranian elections and he has been urging the population here to come out and vote to ensure that there's high participation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: The incoming assembly of experts could select his successor if he dies during the body's eight-year term, and a new parliament is being chosen as well with some 15,000 candidates competing for 290 seats.
Voter turnout is expected to be at record lows as the government has disqualified opponents and cracked down on any dissent.
Still to come here on the program, dozens of civilians killed swarming that aid convoy in Gaza, but witnesses and the Israeli military have very different versions of what happened.
We'll be right back
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HOLMES: All right, let's get you updated now on our top story.
The Palestinian health ministry says at least 112 civilians were killed as they gathered trying to get food around an aid convoy in Gaza. But witnesses and the Israeli military disagree on what happened.
A warning, our report from Jenn Sullivan contains some graphic video.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JENN SULLIVAN, CNN PRODUCER: As dozens of hungry Palestinians desperately wait for food, chaos breaks out early Thursday morning.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's become normal because we have reached the level of famine.
SULLIVAN: An Israel Defense Forces spokesperson says aid trucks delivering food were rushed by crowds with trucks running over people.
Then he says a group of Palestinians approached Israeli forces who then opened fire.
LT. COL. PETER LERNER, IDF SPOKESPERSON: You see the trucks moving and the people swarming the truckloads, stampeding, trying to take the goods and loot the goods off of the trucks.
SULLIVAN: But witnesses say it was the Israeli military opening fire on people near the trucks that caused the drivers to pull away in panic, accidentally ramming people in the crowd, causing further deaths and injuries.
[01:34:47]
SULLIVAN: These are the graphic images of wounded people arriving at local hospitals for care. The incident drawing criticism from U.S. officials.
MATTHEW MILLER, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON: Far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed over the course of this conflict.
SULLIVAN: Some members of Congress are concerned President Joe Biden isn't taking a hard enough stance against Israeli actions in Gaza.
REP. ILHAN OMAR (D-MN): Despite the clarity surrounding Gaza's despair, the response from political leaders have been nothing short of callous inaction.
SULLIVAN: Since Hamas first attacked Israel in October, more than 30,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the enclave health ministry.
I'm Jenn Sullivan, reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: World Athletics, the governing body of track and running events has banned Russian and Belarusian athletes from competition due to the war in Ukraine. And now some are asking whether a similar ban should be in place over the war in Gaza.
CNN's Amanda Davies spoke with World Athletics president Sebastian Coe ahead of the start of the World Indoor Athletics Championships in Glasgow.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AMANDA DAVIES, CNN WORLD SPORT: Was the political situation in the Middle East and what it means for the athletes raised at the council meeting?
SEBASTIAN COE, PRESIDENT, WORLD ATHLETICS: No, it wasn't. But I am in constant contact with both the Track and Field Federation in Israel, its president, the Track and Field Federation in Palestine and really it was probably one of the more uplifting moments of the year. And on this awful situation that when I do sit and talk to those federation presidents, we're not talking about politics. DAVIES: But should you in this situation be talking about politics? We had just last week a group of French lawmakers calling for a ban of Israel and sanctions in an athletic, sporting sense, as we have seen with Russia.
COE: Look, we're not the United Nations. We're not a political body. We're an international federation for sport. My responsibility is to make sure our sport remains global where we possible can -- it is always possible, but where we possibly can, we remain politically neutral. But then we do take stands. We've taken a stand over Russia, Belarus.
So what our focus on this current situation is primarily to make sure that where possible were keeping the sport active, particularly where infrastructure has been badly damaged or completely destroyed.
DAVIES: But when you have President Zelenskyy saying over two years 31,000 soldiers have died in Ukraine. And then you have figures released from Gaza from the ministry of health saying, in four months 30,000 people have been killed.
You say you're unable to be neutral about Russia. How can you be neutral in this situation?
COE: Russia is a slightly different situation because, of course, they were suspended in 2015. The issue --
DAVIES: But they were suspended for doping.
COE: -- they were suspended for doping. And then --
DAVIES: And that is now being carried on to the council.
COE: And the council decided that because of the integrity of competition, it was impossible to have Ukraine athletes being able to train properly. There's many of them were actually fighting on the front and most of them were not able to compete or train in their own country.
It was a very different situation, but look --
DAVIES: Is it not similar for athletes in Palestine?
COE: You do have to deal with what is in front of you. And at this moment, it's for other organizations to make some judgments.
DAVIES: Is it an issue of now? There are more Ukrainian athlete that we're talking about. There was only one Palestinian athlete at the world championships in Budapest.
COE: It really isn't. And look, I'm not one -- I'm not the great one for well, what about-type arguments? We recognize that whenever you make a judgment politically, you are setting a precedent.
In the Russian situation we did try to normalize the situation. We did hope that things would move quickly and particularly on doping it was a seven-year journey.
So none of these things we make knee jerk reactions about.
DAVIES: I know you've said with the situation with the Russian and Belarusian athletes it will be revisited at the right time. What for you will be that right time?
COE: The issue around the integrity of competition hasn't altered. In fact, if any anything, it's got worse. So were not closing the door. We never do that.
DAVIES: How disappointing has it been for you, the IOCs stance and not taking a harder line?
[01:39:42]
COE: You know, I've never predicated what we've chosen to do in our sport against your benchmark did against other international federations. The position we've taken, we believe, is in the best interests of our sport.
I'm not criticizing other federations any more than I would accept -- any more than they are really criticizing us for the position we've taken.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Our thanks to Amanda Davies for that interview.
And now to the southern U.S. border where Donald Trump and Joe Biden made dueling visits on Thursday. Trump travel to Eagle Pass, Texas considered the epicenter of the migrant crisis. Joe Biden while in Brownsville, Texas stressed the need for new bipartisan border policies already before Congress saying, let's work together.
CNN's Rosa Flores with the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Eagle Pass resident Enriqueta Diza couldn't be more pleased with the dueling border appearances from both President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump.
That's your reaction?
ENRIQUETA DIAZ, EAGLE PASS RESIDENT: Yes. Yes.
FLORES: She says she's voting for Trump this election and hopes the former president's visit to her hometown sends a much-needed message.
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Texas is very secured.
FLORES: Eagle Pass is where Texas Governor Greg Abbott deployed the controversial border buoys and took over a public park by putting up razor wire, guarding it with armed Texas National Guard soldiers and kicking out border patrol.
It's the park Trump toured and where he was briefed by Texas authorities.
TRUMP: The United States is being overrun by the Biden migrant crime, it's a new form of vicious violation to our country. It's migrant crime.
FLORES: Some Eagle Pass residents gathered in protest asking that Trump leave their town.
JESSIE FUENTES, EAGLE PASS BORDER COALITION: I hate that you're going to (INAUDIBLE) today. You're not welcome in this community.
FLORES: Several hundred miles downriver, President Joe Biden in Brownsville today. Biden meeting with border patrol agents, law enforcement, and local leaders as he pushes for a bipartisan immigration deal.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's time to step up. Provide them with significantly more personnel and capability. We'll also need more immigration judges.
FLORES: The last time a Biden visited the Brownsville area, it was elections season 2019. At the time Jill Biden visited a migrant camp across the border in Matamoros, Mexico as her husband promised humane border policies.
Some in Brownsville took to the streets today to remind them of those promises. Biden's job on the border could get exponentially more complicated.
The plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit are asking a judge to rule that migrant children and their families who have just crossed the border into southern California and are waiting in makeshift camps to be transported for immigration processing are actually in federal custody.
Attorney Neha Desai says the conditions are deplorable. Some migrant children have waited outside for days in the cold with no food.
NEHA DESAI, ATTORNEY: Children have had no choice but to take refuge in overflowing porta-potties, to sleep in tarps littered with trash, all to just avoid the freezing rain.
FLORES: CNN reached out to U.S. Customs and Border Protection for comment.
Back in Eagle Pass, Diaz, the hardcore Trump supporter -- tell me how you really feel about it, says that like Trump, Biden is also politicking on the border.
DIAZ: I don't like your policies, but I respect them. It's an honor to have the president of United States visit your community. I don't care what party you are. FLORES: The irony of it all is that neither President Biden or former
president Trump actually visited the busiest part of the border where the most migrant apprehensions are happening right now. That's actually in another state, in the state of Arizona.
Now, you got a glimpse of this in our story but this border battle between the state of Texas and the federal government has really changed this community where I am here in Eagle Pass. And I don't mean just physically, yes. A lot of razor wire has gone up. There's razor wire around the public park and around the golf course.
I mean, the people of this community, it's dividing them along lines that were invisible before.
Rosa Flores, CNN -- Eagle Pass, Texas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Still to come on the program, pain at the gas pump coming in Cuba. A price increase about to be the largest fare in decades.
We'll tell you all about it after the break.
[01:44:24]
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HOLMES: The U.S. Air National Guardsman accused of posting classified documents online, is now expected to plead guilty on Monday, according to a source. Massachusetts native Jack Teixeira is charged with six counts of retaining and transmitting classified material relating to National Defense.
In a court filing Thursday, Boston prosecutors asked for a special hearing to discuss a plea change. Teixeira pleaded not guilty after he was arrested last April. It's not clear yet what charge or charges he plans to plead guilty to, or whether he struck a deal with prosecutors.
A former U.S. diplomat accused of spying for Cuba says he plans to plead guilty, a court record is showing Manuel Rocha (ph) served as the U.S. ambassador to Bolivia under then president George W. Bush.
He's accused of acting as a covert agent of Cuba's intelligence services for decades, among other charges. Rocha pleaded not guilty earlier this month, but changed his plea during Thursday's hearing according to his court docket. It's unclear what charges Rocha plans to plead guilty to.
Cubans will wake up in a few hours to a staggering case of sticker shock at the fuel pump as the largest increase in decades goes into effect, the country's finance minister says Cubans who are used to heavy fuel subsidies are in for a surprise.
CNN's Patrick Oppmann with more from Havana.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Even before the sun comes up, people line up for hours in Havana to pump gas. The Cuban government owns every gas station on this island. It says that starting March, it will raise prices at the pump more than an eyewatering 500 percent
The increase was supposed to have taken place in February but was delayed after the government here said that their system suffered a cyberattack in late January.
News of the massive hike triggered a run on fuel. A tank of gas will now cost more than what many Cubans earn each month. It is expected to further batter an already (INAUDIBLE) economy.
"You don't need to have three neurons, one is enough to know this will be a disaster," he tells me. To fill up a car with 40 liters will cost 6,000 pesos. Most people don't earn that much in a month."
For decades, Cuba receive oil donations from political allies in Venezuela and Russia which it then sold to its citizens at rock-bottom prices. But as the communist-run island, weathers the worst economic crisis in decades, Cuban officials say subsidies on gas are a luxury the government can no longer afford.
We're a country without fuel, he says. And we sell fuel (INAUDIBLE) the cheapest prices in the region. Some of the cheapest in the world.
But when we raise the price of fuel it's going to increase the cost of some services and the price of things.
Already as fuel supplies dwindle people wait for hours to hitchhike and more and more commuters returned to riding bicycles. Others pushed to get onto the ever scarcer public transportation.
[01:49:44]
OPPMANN: With out-of-control inflation and the gas price hike Cubans who only earned the equivalent of a few dollars a day, may find themselves unable to afford a ride.
Some Cubans say as transportation becomes more and more expensive here it could actually cost more to get to and from work each day on the salary they bring home.
An increase in fuel prices will also make it more expensive to transport food from the countryside to cities. A potentially precarious situation says this man who resells fruit and vegetables from his small carts.
"Look how we are right now, he says. "People are being impacted if it increases 1 percent more, people will go crazy in the streets."
Cuba's socialist government has long said it protects the most vulnerable here. But a stagnant centralized economy, stalled reforms, increased U.S. sanctions are forcing more and more into extreme poverty. The government has warned additional price hikes and cuts in services
are in store. Many hope to be gone by the time that happens.
Lines outside foreign embassies grew longer by the day as more Cubans trying to immigrate before the island's economy hits rock-bottom.
Patrick Oppmann, CNN -- Havana
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: When we come back after the break, snow blast in the desert, the Middle Eastern kingdom hoping to cash in on winter sports.
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HOLMES: Texas officials say the Smokehouse Creek fire is now the largest in state history. In all more than 400,000 hectares have burned so far, and it's only 3 percent contained. This is what it looks like from the air.
CNN's Lucy Kafanov shows us what it's like on the ground.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Just to start off, the areas is still thick and full of smoke. The wind picking up and I want to give you a sense of what residents here in Fritch, Texas are dealing with.
That fire came incredibly fast. I mean, it swept through here on Tuesday with very little warning. This is one of the structures. We spoke to the owner, her name is Janice, completely destroyed. No time to save anything.
And you could see the wind blowing against the group (ph) that is not only dangerous for structures like this, but it also means that, that unhealthy smoke, the unhealthy particulates in the air enveloping this area.
Now the weather that we've been experiencing -- snow, some rain, even hail, is going to help dampen the fires a little bit. It's going to be helpful in terms of containing these fires.
But unfortunately, this area is not in the clear and that is because disruption like this could be happening this weekend.
We are expecting the wind gusts to rise to 30 miles an hour, temperatures to soar to 70 degrees by Saturday. And that is going to be really dangerous in terms of the firefighting efforts because if some of those blazes are not going to be out and with more than a million acres burning, we are not expecting that to be contained before this weather storm front moves away, that means those increased winds could spread the fire. And that is a very pretty dangerous situation.
Now we did also speak to some of the residents who are trying to pick the pieces of their life back together. We were in a separate neighborhood where we met Danny Williams and he
described the moments when the fire tore through his neighborhood.
[01:54:52]
KAFANOV: He jumped into action. He ran across the street, he started pounding on his friend, his neighbor's door to get him out of the house, to get him to safety. He saved his neighbor's life, but that neighbor's home was completely destroyed. Take a listen.
DANNY WILLIAMS, FRITCH RESIDENT: It came this way really fast and the authorities were trying to evacuate everybody and smoke was everywhere.
He just barely got out. Je only had the shirt on his back and his dogs. He lost everything.
KAFANOV: Now, this fire so far has burned an area that is more than five times the size of Manhattan.
And thank God, it is not as densely populated because then we would have seen many more lives lost right now. It's largely structures like this that are taking the brunt.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Lucy Kafanov there.
Now a rare sight in Saudi Arabia, snow but we hasten to add the white powder did not fall from the sky. That would be just weird.
It's all part of the country's first ever skiing competition. Snow blast (INAUDIBLE) hosted world renowned skiers and snowboarders at a three-day event, bringing a winter wonderland to Riyadh with more than 500 tons of manufactured snow.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LUKE WINKELMANN, AMERICAN SNOWBOARDER: Snowboarding can happen anywhere if you make it happen, you know, so as you see here in Saudi Arabia, they made it happen in a warm place. So it's interesting, but it will work out. It'll be good.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: The country is set to host the 2029 Asian Winter Games and is reportedly eyeing a Winter Olympics bid.
Well, this parting shot from the first American spacecraft to touch down on the moon in more than half a century. An image from a week ago was the last one fed back by Odysseus, nicknamed Odie.
As expected Odysseus lost power when the sunlight disappeared from the southern pole of the moon. It will come back eventually. It's not clear whether Odie's equipment can survive the deep cold temperatures that are going to be lasting for a few weeks. But the company is hopeful. It posted goodnight Odie. We hope to hear from you.
Thanks for spending part of your day with me. I'm Michael Holmes.
CNN NEWSROOM continues with my friend and colleague Kim Brunhuber, ok?
[01:57:19]
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