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Alexei Navalny's Funeral Begins as Some People are Planning to Sabotage the Solemn Ceremony; Biden, Trump Squared Off on Border Issues to Attract Voters. Putin Does Nuclear Saber-Rattling Over Ukraine; Reports: Massive Hike In Fuel Prices Hitting Cuba Friday. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired March 01, 2024 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[02:00:00]
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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to all of you watching us around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber, ahead on "CNN Newsroom." Welcome to all of you watching us around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber, ahead on CNN Newsroom.
A horrifying scene in Gaza. More than 100 people were killed in this chaos after trying to get access to desperately needed aid. But there are differing accounts of exactly what happened.
The funeral for outspoken Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny is set to begin in just a few hours. But even in death, there is no peace.
And dueling messages over immigration, the former and current U.S. presidents face off on a top issue for voters.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is CNN Newsroom with Kim Brunhuber.
BRUNHUBER: It's 9 a.m. in Gaza, where the Israeli government is promising an investigation into the deaths of dozens of civilians who simply wanted food. Now, we have to warn you, video from the scene is graphic.
It shows a huge crowd of desperate people swarming an aid convoy in Gaza City. Witnesses say Israeli forces opened fire, sending the crowd into a panic. The Gaza Health Ministry says 112 people were killed. Many were trampled or run over by the fleeing aid trucks.
The Israeli military has a different version of events, saying its forces fired warning shots to disperse the crowd, and some soldiers opened fire when they were threatened. The U.N. Secretary General is condemning the incident. Saudi Arabia denounced the targeting of defenseless civilians, and the United Arab Emirates is demanding punishment for those responsible.
Here is U.S. President Joe Biden.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: We're checking that out right now. There's two competing version of what happened. I don't have an answer yet.
REPORTER: Are you worried that that will complicate negotiations?
BIDEN: I know it will.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Now, from CNN's Jeremy Diamond, again, we just have to warn you that the video of the incident is graphic.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Around four in the morning, thousands of Palestinians are already camped out by the coastal road in western Gaza City. Humanitarian aid trucks are reportedly en route, a rarity in northern Gaza, where hundreds of thousands are now on the brink of famine.
As the convoy passes an Israeli military checkpoint and enters Gaza City, hundreds desperate for food swarm the trucks, as seen in this drone video released by the Israeli military. Many climb onto the trucks, grabbing what they can, when suddenly the Israeli military opens fire, killing and wounding about 20 people in the crowd, according to local journalist Khader Al-Zanoun, who was on the scene.
Pandemonium ensues. As people run away, eyewitnesses say the truck drivers speed off, killing dozens more people.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health says at least 112 people were killed altogether, and more than 760 injured. CNN cannot independently confirm those numbers.
The Israeli military acknowledges its troops shot people near the convoy, but says the gunfire was unrelated and came after people were already killed in a stampede.
LT. COL. PETER LERNER (RES.), ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES SPOKESPERSON: In a second event, in a short distance away, we also had a group of people that approached the military forces in a war zone. The forces opened fire in the air to distance them, warning fire, in order to get people out of harm's way. Unfortunately, they proceeded to advance, and indeed they were a perceived threat, and the forces opened fire. Of course, I will say we're continuing to investigate, continuing to inquire in our after-actions activities.
DIAMOND (voice-over): That account contradicted by eyewitnesses, who say Israeli gunfire triggered the mass panic.
NEMA ABU SULTAN, WITNESS (through translator): Our children die of hunger. They went to get a bag of flour in order to feed their children. Some were run over. Others were shot. So they send us the aid, so the Israelis can keep shooting at our children. This is wrong. This is not right. This is not right. DIAMOND (voice-over): The latest victims killed on a day when the death toll in Gaza surpassed 30,000, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, a majority of whom are women and children.
More may soon die of starvation, as the World Food Program warns that more than half a million Gazans are on the brink of famine.
[02:04:55]
PHILLIPE LAZZARINI, UNRWA COMMISSIONER GENERAL: We are talking about a man-made famine, because we have a kind of a total blockage for the people who are living in the north. There is not even enough of animal food, animal fodder, for people to eat or to do bread with animal fodder.
DIAMOND (voice-over): That desperation brought Tamer Atta al-Shimbari to that coastal road early Thursday morning.
He went to get a bit of bread, a bag of flour for his family, displaced at the schools in Jabalia camp.
Now he lies dead, killed while trying to survive.
Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Tel Aviv.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: All right, I want to bring in journalist Elliott Gotkine, live in London. So Elliott, is the picture any clearer? What's the latest?
ELLIOTT GOTKINE, JOURNALIST: It's not much clearer, Kim. The facts, as far as we know them, are that there was this aid convoy of about 30 trucks carrying Egyptian aid heading towards Gaza City. And this was in the early hours of Thursday morning local time, just before 5 a.m., that it was swarmed by people desperate to get hold of that aid.
And then at some point there was a stampede that in the panic, the trucks tried to escape, that many people were run over or crushed. And also some of those trucks rammed into other trucks, which then caused additional casualties.
But for now, there are still conflicting reports as to the exact chronology of events and exactly what provoked this stampede.
The Israelis are adamant that they didn't fire on the people directly, but they did fire warning shots to try to disperse the crowd.
And as far as the actual firing on one group of Palestinians, the IDF says that it did. It said that because it felt that there was a potential perceived threat.
And this is the take, at least, that Peter Lerner, the IDF spokesman, gave us earlier.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) LERNER: 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 on-personnel carriers that are operating in the Gaza Strip is a perceived threat.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GOTKINE: But local officials in the Hamas-run enclave and also eyewitnesses claim that it was the IDF shots which provoked this panic and caused this stampede.
And we've seen, you know, different reactions, but certainly condemnation for this tragedy that has resulted in, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, more than 100 deaths and many more injuries as well.
The United Arab Emirates has called for an investigation. The United Nations secretary general has called for an investigation and reiterated his call for an immediate ceasefire.
The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, has, if you like, doubled down on the Brazilian president Lula da Silva's assertion that what Israel is doing in the Gaza Strip is reminiscent of the Holocaust, something that no doubt Israel will respond to as well. But for now, Kim, the facts as we know them are still a little unclear. Israel says it is investigating what went on and there have been calls for a thorough and independent investigation. And at some point we will hopefully have all the facts to hand.
BRUNHUBER: And Elliott, you talked about the international reaction to this. We heard President Biden say this incident might complicate the talks over hostages and a ceasefire. So where do those talks stand at the moment?
GOTKINE: Well, that's a very good question, Kim, for the simple reason that President Biden himself, you'll recall when he was munching on that ice cream in Michigan, was saying that he was hopeful that a ceasefire could come into effect as early as Monday.
Well, we're now on Friday and there are still no signs that that ceasefire is going to come into effect, with the basic parameters being a 40-day truce with 40 Israeli hostages freed in exchange for something like 400 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails and, of course, a surge in humanitarian aid going into the Gaza Strip.
There's no sign of that happening. But we should also be clear that negotiations are not happening out in the open. They are happening behind closed doors. It may well be that things are better or worse than we think they are. And I suppose the Qataris summed it up by saying that they are hopeful, but not necessarily optimistic that this ceasefire can come into place.
And I suppose that the new deadline or the overall deadline that people are kind of looking at, rather than the Monday that President Biden said he was hopeful things would fall into place by, but the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which starts around March the 10th, there will be redoubled efforts to try to ensure that this ceasefire, that this truce can come into place before Ramadan, which is always a time of additional tensions in Israel and particularly in Jerusalem. Kim?
BRUNHUBER: All right, I appreciate that. Elliott Gotkine in London.
[02:10:01]
In Russia, the funeral of opposition leader Alexei Navalny is set to begin just a few hours from now. The ceremony is scheduled in this church in Moscow near the area where he lived. The Church of the Icon of Mother of God is located in the southeastern part of the city, as is a cemetery where Navalny will be later laid to rest.
But Navalny's aides say someone is still trying to sabotage his farewell events, and his widow is concerned the people who show up for the events could end up behind bars.
For more, we go to Sebastian Shukla, who joins us now from Berlin. So, Seb, what more are we learning and expecting in the hours ahead?
SEBASTIAN SHUKLA, CNN PRODUCER: Yeah, good morning, Kim. It's been 14 days since Alexei Navalny died in that Arctic penal colony just inside the Arctic Circle. And since that time, his family have faced hurdles of all kinds just to be able to get to this moment.
We remember we saw his mother Lyudmila Navalnaya up there in that Arctic city trying to get the body back where she wasn't denied being able to even see it.
We then heard allegations from her and Navalny's team that there were problems surrounding blackmail, issues about how the body could be transported and even where he would be able to be laid to rest.
And then more recently, as they have managed to get the body back, issues surrounding just the funeral service itself. Where can it take place? Who would be able to help? They haven't been able to secure a hall to be able to hold any remembrance services. And we've even learned yesterday that hearse and funeral directors were discouraged from collaborating in any way with the Navalny team.
But, but, crucially for the Navalny team and for Alexei Navalny himself, he will now be able to be laid to rest at the Berezovsky Cemetery. The ceremony and processions will start at around 6 a.m. Eastern time. There will be a -- there's almost a 30-minute walk between the church and where he will finally be laid to rest.
And it is the numbers, Kim, it's the -- it's the turnout that will be drawing attention here as well, because the Kremlin have done their best to try to dampen and try to assuage people from attending en masse to pay their final respects to Alexei Navalny.
But Navalny's team have gone out of their way to ensure that people are able, whether they knew him personally or whether they just knew of Alexei Navalny through his anti-corruption videos and investigations, are able to come and say goodbye to the opposition leader.
But it is the one thing that the Kremlin will be aware of. And we have seen at the church this morning and over the past few days increased security measures. And with that, obviously Kim, brings the risk of potential arrests and detentions.
BRUNHUBER: All right. We'll be watching as this unfolds. Sebastian Shukla in Berlin. Thank you so much.
And also in Berlin, we're joined by Nigel Gould-Davies. He's a senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Thanks so much for joining us here again. So we're hearing of a heavy police presence, warnings of pro-government agents, agent provocateurs, I guess. What are you expecting to see unfold in the hours ahead?
NIGEL GOULD-DAVIES, SR. FELLOW, INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR STRATEGIC STUDIES: Yes, well, as your correspondent was saying just a moment ago, this has in effect been a macabre game of cat-and-mouse ever since Navalny died or was killed a couple of weeks ago. And the authorities in various ways have made it as difficult and as threatening as possible for anyone to express public sympathy for Navalny.
So I think we can expect a very strong police presence, intimidation of those who wish to attend. There are reports that potentially only Navalny's relatives might be allowed to attend. We know there have been several hundred arrests in many cities across Russia of those who demonstrated against Navalny's death.
So the authorities sort of realize that they cannot entirely deny Navalny a funeral, but they are going to make it as difficult and as threatening as possible for anyone who actually wishes to attend it or express support for it.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah, you know, in March of 2015, we saw thousands of people lining the streets to mourn the assassinated opposition politician Boris Nemtsov. We're unlikely to see that this time, right? I mean, the circumstances seem -- seem quite different.
GOULD-DAVIES: Indeed, that's a very good point of reference, I think. And it is a measure of how much Russia has changed even then that these funeral arrangements are being handled in a totally different way.
[03:15:08]
As you say, Nemtsov's funeral was a substantial public occasion. There was an open coffin and a very long line of supporters. It took many hours for them to file past.
Lots of prominent opposition figures were able to attend and to give speeches. Bizarrely, you might think in retrospect today, Putin even sent a representative to that funeral. So the fact that the Kremlin is at its most grudging, reluctant and repressive in respect of today's arrangements suggests how much more nervous, vindictive and frankly repressive it's become.
BRUNHUBER: Now, yesterday, members of the European Parliament passed a resolution calling for the E.U. and European countries to actively support independent Russian civil society and democratic opposition. You know, in the context of all of this, of what we're seeing here, is that just symbolic or could that actually help at all, do you think?
GOULD-DAVIES: Symbols matter. There is a limit, of course, to what the European Parliament can do in practice in supporting Russia's opposition. Although there are various forms of resources and other means of support that European and other countries can offer to help keep this flame alive in exceptionally dark times.
But it is important, even these words are important. It's important for Russians who take a different view from the authorities about so much that's going on at the moment. It's important, I think, for them to understand that there is another way of thinking about everything that's going on in Russia, that they have sympathy and support from others.
Again, these are dark times. We've been here before. In Soviet times, we know that the dissident movement took real comfort from the fact that there were supporters abroad that were able and willing in various ways to offer the sympathy and in the limited but real ways that they could to help that. So, no, these things do matter. It's important that they be backed up by concrete measures of support there.
BRUNHUBER: All right, we'll have to leave it there. I really appreciate your analysis, Nigel Gould-Davies. Thanks so much.
GOULD-DAVIES: Thank you.
BRUNHUBER: Voting is underway in Iran's legislative elections. Voters will be choosing the next Parliament with some 15,000 candidates competing for its 290 seats. Iran's Supreme Leader voted a short time ago.
CNN's Fred Pleitgen was there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SR. 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)
BRUNHUBER: Despite the government's efforts, turnout is expected to be at record lows as the government has disqualified opponents and cracked down on any dissent. Bickering along the border, Donald Trump and Joe Biden pitch very different plans for solving the migrant crisis during dueling visits to Texas.
And up next, dozens are dead after a building fire in Bangladesh's capital. We'll bring you the latest after the break. Please stay with us.
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[02:20:00]
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BRUNHUBER: In Bangladesh, dozens are dead and at least 22 are in critical condition after a fire that started in a restaurant raced through a multi-story building in the capital of Dhaka on Thursday night.
The Bangladesh Fire Service director says the blaze could have originated from a gas leak or stove and described the building as dangerous with gas cylinders on every floor, even on the staircases. Now fires are common in the densely populated capital, which has experienced a boom in new construction, often without proper safety measures.
The U.S. Congress passed a stopgap spending measure late Thursday that averts a partial government shutdown for now. U.S. President Joe Biden called the passage of the bill good news, but warned that it's only a short-term fix. It extends government funding on a short-term basis and sets two new deadlines to pass a series of full year-end appropriation bills next Friday, March 8th and March 22nd, three weeks from now.
Right now to the showdown over immigration. On Thursday, we heard two very different messages along the U.S.-Mexico border, just hundreds of kilometers apart from the two likely finalists in this year's race for the White House.
The U.S. president, knowing the migrant crisis could hurt him in the general election, offered to work together with his rivals. But Donald Trump opted for fear-mongering, warning the U.S. is being overrun by what he called Biden migrant crime. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: These are the people that are coming into our country and they're coming from jails and they're coming from prisons and they're coming from mental institutions and they're coming from insane asylums and they're terrorists. They're being led into our country and it's horrible.
BIDEN: Here's what I would say to Mr. Trump. Instead of playing politics with this issue, instead of telling members of Congress to block this legislation, join me or I'll join you in telling the Congress to pass this bipartisan border security bill. We can do it together.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: President Biden also implored Republicans to show a little spine in his words, but a truce seems unlikely. Trump has been urging party members to oppose any border compromise so he can keep campaigning on the issue and deny the U.S. president a victory.
CNN's Rosa Flores reports from the southern border.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Eagle Pass resident Enriqueta Diaz couldn't be more pleased with the dueling border appearances from both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
ENRIQUETA DIAZ, EAGLE PASS RESIDENT: Yes.
FLORES: That's your reaction?
DIAZ: Yes.
FLORES (voice-over): She says she's voting for Trump this election and hopes the former president's visit to her hometown sends a much needed message.
TRUMP: Texas is very secure.
FLORES (voice-over): 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 (voice-over): Some Eagle Pass residents gathered in protest asking that Trump leave their town.
JESSIE FUENTES, EAGLE PASS BORDER COALITION: The hate that you're going to spew today, you're not welcome in this community.
FLORES (voice-over): 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.
BIDEN: It's time to step up, provide them with significantly more personnel and capability. We also need more immigration judges.
FLORES (voice-over): The last time a Biden visited the Brownsville area, it was election 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 him of those promises. Biden's job on the border could get exponentially more complicated.
[02:25:02]
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 (voice-over): CNN reached out to U.S. Customs and Border Protection for comment.
Back in Eagle Pass, Diaz, the hardcore Trump supporter.
FLORES: Tell me how you really feel about it.
FLORES (voice-over): Says that like Trump, Biden is also politicking on the border.
DIAZ: I don't like his policies, but I respect them. It's an honor to have the president of the United States visit your community. I don't care what party you are.
FLORES: The irony of it all is that neither President Biden nor 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)
BRUNHUBER: Special Counsel Jack Smith and attorneys for former President Donald Trump have both asked to push back the start of Trump's classified documents trial.
In court filings Thursday, the special counsel asked that Trump go on trial on July 8th. Attorneys for Trump want the case to start on August 12th. Trump faces dozens of charges related to allege mishandling of classified documents. The case is currently scheduled to go to trial in May, but a hearing to address the date will take place in Florida in the coming hours.
A chilling warning for the West from Russia's President Vladimir Putin. What he said about the nuclear risk of deploying troops to Ukraine. That's just ahead.
And in Cuba, pain at the gas pump. A price increase is about to be the largest there in decades. We'll tell you why, next.
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[02:30:26]
KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to all you watching us around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.
Russia's war on Ukraine is 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. And that brings the total to 15 Russian warplanes in shot down this year.
Meanwhile, police unit known as the white angels, say they're dealing with a surge in civilians asking to be evacuated from Avdiivka areas since Russia's 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's taken steps to remedy the situation.
Japan is slapping new sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, include a number of Russian companies, individuals, and one bank and they prohibit exports to more than two dozen Russian entities.
Now, it's after Russian President Vladimir Putin did some new nuclear saber-rattling in his state of the nation speech.
CNN's Matthew Chance reports from Moscow
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, this was a wide ranging two-hour state of the nation speech in which the Russian president made more nuclear threats, warning that Western rhetoric threatened 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 to Ukraine. But we remember that fate of those who want send their contingents to the territory of our country. But now, the consequences for possible interventionists will be much more tragic.
CHANCE: Well, the address comes as the war in 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 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.
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 ruled 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 try to defeat us.
CHANCE: But 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, thousands 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)
BRUNHUBER: Cubans are set to wake up in the coming hours to a staggering case of sticker shock in fuel prices as the largest increase in decades goes into effect. The country's finance minister admitted Cubans used to heavy subsidies to gas up their aging cars are about to get a taste of real fuel costs.
CNN's Patrick Oppmann has more from Havana.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): 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 eye-watering 500 percent. Increase was supposed to take in place in February, but was delayed after the government here said that their system suffered a cyber attack 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 dwindling (ph) 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, Cubans receive oil donations from political allies in Venezuela and Russia, which would then sold to its citizens at rock bottom prices.
[02:35:02]
But as a communist-run island weathers the worst economic crisis in decades, Cuban officials say subsidies on gas are a luxury the government can do longer afford.
We are a country without fuel, he says, and we sell fuel at perhaps 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 hitch and more and more commuters returned to riding bicycles.
Others pushed to get onto the ever scarcer public transportation. 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, you could actually cost more to get to and from work each day.
And 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 results fruit and vegetables from his small carts.
Look how we are right now, he says. People are being impacted itself. But if it increases 1 percent more, people 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 hoped 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)
BRUNHUBER: A former U.S. diplomat accused of spying for Cuba says he plans to plead guilty, court record shows.
Manuel Rocha 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 pled not guilty earlier this month, but changed his plea during the Thursday's hearing according to his court docket. It's not clear what charges Rocha plans to plead guilty to.
Former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney has died at the age of 84, according to Canadian media reports, citing his daughter's social media post. It said Mulroney died, quote, peacefully surrounded by family. Mulroney was Canada's 18th prime minister and served from 1984 to 1993 as leader of the progressive conservative party. He negotiated the North American free trade agreement with the U.S. and Mexico.
Current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, quote, he exemplified Canadian values, standing up against apartheid in South Africa. After leaving office, Mr. Mulroney never stopped working for Canadians, and he always sought to make this country an even better place to call home.
All right. Still to come, the lunar lander that made space history runs out of power, but not before sending one vital farewell.
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[02:40:25]
BRUNHUBER: Now, parting shot from the first American spacecraft to touch down on the moon in more than half a century. Have a look here. This image from a week ago was the last one fed back by Odysseus, nicknamed Odie. The private company behind the mission Intuitive Machines called it a fitting farewell transmission.
As expected, Odysseus lost power when the sunlight disappeared from the southern pole of the moon and the landers solar panels couldn't receive energy. Now it's not clear whether Odie's equipment can survive the deep cold temperatures that will last for a few weeks.
But the company remaining hopeful, posted, Goodnight, Odie. We hope to hear from you.
A new study is highlighting the extent of obesity around the world. It finds that more than 1 billion children, adolescents, and adults are living with the disease. The research published in the journal, the Lancet chose obesity rates among kids and adolescents, quadrupled between 1990, 2022 its as the rates among adults more than doubled.
The island nation of Tonga, American Samoa, and now expected the highest percentage of obesity in 2022, with more than 60 percent of their adults living with the condition and no industrialized, wealthy nation except for the United States was at the top of the list for the highest prevalence of obesity that year.
World Health Organization leaders say the epidemic has grown so quickly because policies around food and the environment had been insufficient, and that more than 3 billion people can't afford a healthy diet.
Nepal says all climbers trying to scale Mount Everest this year must rent and used tracking chips on their journey. Nepal's director of tourism says, climbers will pay anywhere from $10 to $15 for the chips, which will be sewn into their jackets and removed upon the climber's return. It's hoped that will cut down on search and rescue time in the event of an accident.
Last year, Nepal gave out a record, 478 climbing permits, 12 climbers were confirmed to have died on the mountain, and another five remain missing.
That wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber.
"WORLD SPORT" is next. I'll be back about 50 minutes with more news.
(WORLD SPORT)
