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The U.S. and Colombia Reaches Deal on Deportations; Trump Warns Global Firms to Manufacture in the U.S.; Trump Launches Immigration Raids Across the U.S.; Lukashenko Wins Belarus Presidential Election; U.N. Urges Rebels To Stop Hostility, Withdraw From Goma; Israel Allowing Palestinians To Return To North Gaza; World Leaders To Mark 80 Years Since Liberation Of Auschwitz. Aired 2-2:45a ET
Aired January 27, 2025 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN HOST: Hello and welcome to all of our viewers watching from around the world. I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong. You're watching "CNN Newsroom." And ahead, immigration crackdown. The Trump administration is wasting no time fulfilling a campaign promise to conduct arrests and deportations.
Europe's longest serving leader extends his presidency, but critics say it was neither free nor fair.
And rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo advanced toward Goma feeling concerns of a regional war.
This hour, U.S. deportation flights to Colombia have resumed after a dizzying turn of events. Late on Sunday, U.S. President Donald Trump imposed and then quickly suspended a 25 percent tariff on Colombia, as long as the country agrees to accept those flights. The Colombian foreign minister now says they have overcome the impasse with the United States.
The White House issued a statement saying this, quote, "The government of Columbia has agreed to all of President Trump's terms, including the unrestricted acceptance of all illegal aliens from Columbia returned from the United States, including on U.S. military aircraft without limitation or delay." The statement went on to say President Trump will continue to fiercely protect our nation's sovereignty.
This all came after President Trump launched an immigration enforcement blitz over the weekend. Almost a thousand arrests have been reported across the U.S., including in Colorado, Chicago and the Atlanta area. Now CNN contributor Stefano Pozzebon has more now on the brief rift between Colombia and the U.S.
STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, diplomacy has worked. Late on Sunday night, the Colombian government and the U.S. government announced that they had overcome the diplomatic row surrounding the deportation flights. Earlier on Sunday, Colombia had blocked two military flights carrying Colombian migrants being deported back from the United States, to which the U.S. President Donald Trump retaliated with the imposition of tariffs on Colombian imports.
For a few hours, it seemed that Trump and the Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, were just about to trigger a trade war by posting on each other's social media. But in the end, late on Sunday, it was the foreign minister, Luis Gilberto Murillo, announcing that the diplomatic impasse had been resolved. Colombia would still accept deportation flights back from the United States. And on the other hand, the United States would back off from imposing tariffs or sanctions on this key ally in Latin America.
Yet this impasse, however resolved, is a sign of the headwinds that the White House is facing as it tries to launch this new mass deportation plan, especially here in Latin America. And especially as this week the new Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, is preparing to tour the region by going to Panama, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic and El Salvador, all countries where the U.S. is planning to send the planes with migrants deported back to their home countries. For CNN, this is Stefano Pozzebon, Bogota.
LU STOUT: Okay, let's bring in Ryan Patel, senior fellow at the Drucker School of Management at Claremont Graduate University. He joins us live from Los Angeles. Thank you so much for joining us. It's good to see you again. What a turn of events in the last few hours. So, in the end, the United States and Columbia have managed to avoid escalating tit-for-tat tariffs for now, but tell us what would have happened if they went ahead?
RYAN PATEL, SENIOR FELLOW, DRUCKER SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT, CLAREMONT GRADUATE UNIVERSITY: Always great joining you, Kristie. And this is actually, even though it's been a whirl over the last couple hours, there was so much to unpack because in the future there's a bluepr1int here. So for Columbia and the U.S., you know, the key exports to the U.S. you think of coffee, flowers, oil and minerals. I mean, I had all these stats ready to go about flowers with the Colombian industry right around Valentine's Day.
You know, obviously who would have gotten hurt more? Would have been in Columbia, right? It's clear that U.S. is one of the Columbia's largest trading partners for the U.S. -- weaker bargaining power. I can go down the list, but really what this stood out to me was the U.S. using leverage in a specific industry with Colombia.
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However, the tensions in Latin America with that, like Brazil stepping up to protect Colombia would have caused some issues in this. And I think why I think there's a blueprint here, President Trump has stated bilateral trade deals, right? I know it's tied to migration, but this is a step that shows the rest of the world that they're willing to do some type of deals in the future when it comes to economic pressures. And this is an example, and maybe it was on the list for the U.S., but an example where the leverage was obviously in the U.S. power to be able to, should they went down to the tariffs and play that 25 percent, 50 percent. Kristie, this would have not been pretty if both sides would have done this.
LU STOUT: No. You know, this flare up between the U.S. and Colombia has been resolved, but as you say, this leaves a blueprint. So let's pivot to Mexico and Canada and figure out what it means for them, because these tariffs on those two countries set to begin on Saturday. Could we see a scenario play out as it did with Colombia where Trump is using economic threats to negotiate something?
PATEL: I think we will, you know, I think so. I think the answer to the question is yes, but not to where we saw in Columbia, where it escalated so fast, right? I mean, this was going to cause supply chain disruption. Businesses weren't even prepared for those in the U.S. going to Columbia. How would they use for different ways to, you know, get that supply chain in. With Mexico and Canada, I think there's conversations -- nothing I know -- there's conversations behind the scenes on how to get there.
I think the rhetoric won't be as strong where, you know, if you're talking about 50 percent, Kristie. I mean, that changes a landscape of industries. And I think we are going to see it's a negotiation. He's been pretty clear. His blueprint from the last presidency has been that. And I think we're going to see more bilateral trade deals. And obviously, they're starting with what is closest to them, the biggest two partners they have. So it'll be very interesting to see what comes out of it and what industries get resolved and maybe others. Maybe we don't see a whole full trade deal and see certain industries get resolved.
LU STOUT: And can we talk about the overall economic impact of tariffs as Donald Trump is threatening them and linking them to an immigration deal with a variety of countries. You know, tariffs will make goods more expensive like as you mentioned, a B2Go, if it had gone forward with Colombia, it would make our coffee more expensive. It would make crude oil more expensive. In the case of Mexico, auto parts or even avocados for guacamole, et cetera. Donald Trump won the election on the issues of immigration and inflation, but could his immigration policy end up making inflation worse?
PATEL: I mean, yes, it could technically, right? If he would hold onto it, inflation would have gotten worse. Let's say, for example, if it was for Mexico, prices and the economy would rise their inflation, right? In Colombia, it was already 9 percent. It would have raised even more, which eventually would affect us too with consumer prices. But this is what I would say about tariffs. In the short term, it creates a win-lose dynamics in the short term. Easily you can see that.
In the long term, it becomes a lose-lose situation over time. And the question becomes, what is that time horizon to ensure that it is not a lose-lose, that it can be a win-win? And when you think of inflation on top of that, Kristie, it's a bad recipe for both countries that are involved.
LU STOUT: Yeah. And finally, Ryan, I wanted to get your thoughts about Donald Trump's recent comments at Davos when he encouraged companies to effectively -- to basically manufacture in the United States or else. And, you know, that's a threat, but what kind of leverage does he have? What kind of tools does Donald Trump have to get what he wants?
PATEL: Yeah, and to be very honest, I mean, I know it's a threat, but it's not something the U.S. businesses don't know, right? And this is something that build in the U.S. I think the leverage -- not the leverage, but things that he can do make it cheaper, right? You think of taxes is what he's run on it to make more money for these businesses to stay and build and produce here. You can't just use those words to say you have to build in the U.S.
So, he's got some tools to be able to make it more lucrative for a company to stay. And on the flip side, not to tie it back to tariffs, but if it's more expensive to build it outside of the country and the only other option is to build in the U.S. so you can have that, it creates a win-win for him too, but you know there's the other side of this, Kristie, that I have to mention like if you're talking about China you think about Europe. When you do have to sell as a U.S. company, you can't sell goods even more expensive when there's a 25 percent hit on the other side. So there's got to be some balance behind this.
And so obviously the incentives that President Trump can cause which they know with the U.S., for U.S. business scale is really important. And I think that'll be a focus of his in the next four years.
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LU STOUT: Ryan Patel, always appreciate your very clear analysis and context. Thank you so much, sir. Take care.
PATEL: Thank you.
LU STOUT: Now with the Trump ordered immigration raids underway across the United States, the fear is spreading quickly in the country's third largest city, Chicago. The Democratic governor of Illinois says he supports the U.S. government deporting dangerous criminals, but JB Pritzker tells CNN immigration officials are also rounding up productive community members and that does more harm than good.
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JB PRITZKER, GOVERNOR OF ILLINOIS: When we're talking about violent criminals who've been convicted and who are undocumented, we don't want them in our state, we want them out of the country. We hope they do get deported and if that's who they're picking up, we're all for it. They show up with a warrant and we're going to hand over people who are in our prisons or in our jails who fit that description.
Now, what they're also doing though, and it's quite disturbing, is they're going after people who are law-abiding, who are holding down jobs, who have families here, who may have been here for a decade or two decades and they're often our neighbors and our friends and why are we going after them? These are not people who are causing problems in our country. What we need is a path to citizenship for them. (END VIDEO CLIP)
LU STOUT: Now, President Trump's flurry of executive orders in just his first week in office has caused uncertainty, fear, and emotional whiplash for many Americans. And earlier, I spoke with CNN's senior political analyst Ron Brownstein, and I asked him what he made of Donald Trump's rapid assertion of power.
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RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I really have two big takeaways in my mind from the first week. One is that Trump is going to push until he is stopped. I mean, he is making very clear that he is willing to push way beyond traditional boundaries of the usage of presidential power, talking about impounding funds that are appropriated by Congress. Ignoring a law that required him to give 30- day notice before firing the inspector generals at departments, and, you know, in a variety of other ways, signaling that unless he is stopped, he is basically going to make pretty much untrammeled assertions of executive power.
And that leads me to my second conclusion, which is that really the locus, the focus of activity over the next four years is going to be the executive branch, much more than the Congress. I mean, there is the one big bill that Trump wants the Republicans in Congress to pass that will have his tax cuts, the extension of his tax cuts, that will have spending cuts, that will have some more funding for his deportation agenda. But by and large, most of what he wants to do, as he demonstrated very clearly in the first week, is going to be through executive action, unilateral executive branch action, regulatory action, executive orders, spending decisions, enforcement tariffs, and so forth.
It doesn't seem like there's a lot of stomach among Republicans in Congress to confront him. And what that means is that how far he goes in transforming America over these next four years is really, I think, going to be determined by how far the court's letting him go.
LU STOUT: Yeah, and we have certainly seen him exert his executive power when it comes to immigration. How far is he going to go on that front?
BROWNSTEIN: Yeah, you know, immigration and tariffs were probably his two biggest domestic policy proposals during the campaign, and he has enormous leeway on both of them. The courts historically have been very deferential to presidential power in managing the immigration system. The court might not go as far as he wants. It would be unlikely, I think, in terms of ending birthright citizenship, which is something that was put in our Constitution after the Civil War and the 14th Amendment.
I don't think the court is going to let him undo that with just an executive order, not inconceivable, but unlikely. But pretty broadly beyond that, he has a lot of executive leeway here. And you can see on all of these different ways, from threatening to prosecute local officials in blue states and cities who don't fully cooperate, to setting new quotas for immigrations officers for catching and deporting people, you know, on every -- and all sorts of other legal changes and undoing what Biden did, every front, he was signaling that this is going to be a major focus and a major escalation of attempts that we've seen in the past to remove people who are here illegally.
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LU STOUT: Ron Brownstein there. You're watching "CNN Newsroom" coming to you live from Hong Kong and still ahead. Few, if any, surprises in Belarus's presidential election as Alexander Lukashenko heads toward a seventh term, the latest when we come back.
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LU STOUT: Welcome back. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has easily won a seventh straight term in office. That's according to the country's election commission. Officials say the close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin received nearly 87 percent of the vote and critics have called it a sham. European politicians complained that this was not a fair vote because independent media are banned in Belarus and leading opposition figures have been detained or driven into exile.
Now the country's 2020 election resulted in mass protests after opponents accused the government of cheating in Mr. Lukashenko's favor. Now for more on this, we're joined by Katia Glod. She is a Russia-West Policy Fellow at the European Leadership Network, and she joins us now live from London.
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Katia, thank you so much for joining us here in CNN. Lukashenko, inevitability, as expected, has won re-election. The outcome really was never in doubt, was it?
KATIA GLOD, RUSSIA-WEST POLICY FELLOW, EUROPEAN LEADERSHIP NETWORK: No, indeed, it was never in doubt. Lukashenko has been in power more than 30 years. And after the 2020 presidential election, the level of repression that Lukashenko unleashed then, it was very clear that he would not allow anyone to step in instead of him. So therefore, in this election, indeed, we swore that all opposition political parties had been banned.
There wasn't really a genuine choice during the election. We had four candidates who are all pro-government. So there was really no opportunity for people to go and vote for someone they wanted to. But nevertheless, we saw a very high percent, 87 percent higher than the previous round. And that just shows that Lukashenko and the authorities think that they are in control inside the country.
LU STOUT: And now he has won his seventh term. Lukashenko has ruled with an iron fist for more than 30 years. He is a close ally of Vladimir Putin. And yet, Mr. Lukashenko has been making these signs of reaching out to the West. How so, and why is he doing this? GLOD: Well, there were some very small signs. We cannot really call
them proper attempts to talk to the West. Some 200 political prisoners indeed have been released, but there are still around 1,200 more who remain behind the bars. People who were released, they were really ill and they were not really proper political opponents. What is happening is that Lukashenko really hopes that he can be part of the negotiation process between potentially Russia and Ukraine, which might happen this year, and he really hopes that within this negotiation he can also negotiate for his legitimacy and for lifting off the sanctions that are hitting the Belarusian economy quite bad.
LU STOUT: And meanwhile, the status of the opposition. You know, we know, as we said at the top, scores of people have been jailed or have fled in exile. How are they watching and regarding Lukashenko at this very moment?
GLOD: Well, the opposition are indeed either in exile or in prison. The two most -- the strongest opponents, Oleg Kishenko (ph), they are in prison, have been in prison since 2020. And Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who won the 2020 presidential election, is in exile. The opposition made a statement saying that they would not consider this election as representing the choice of Belarusian people, that the elections had taken place in the atmosphere of fear and intimidation.
But they continue to work from exile. They try to build civil society outside of the country. They try to build their opposition ranks outside of the country, and nonetheless they try to reach out to the people inside, but that is very difficult because basically all the communication channels that had existed by social media, they have been banned. However, public opinion remains the same. Lukashenko was not popular back in 2020. He had about 30 percent popularity and his rating remains around the same figure, quite low.
LU STOUT: So what should we expect from Mr. Lukashenko during his seventh term. He has low approval ratings among his people in Belarus. He does have this strong relationship with Russia's Vladimir Putin. He has made this gesture to the West, which you say is inadequate, releasing political prisoners as perhaps an attempt to soften economic sanctions. Where could this take him next during his latest term?
GLOD: Well, he will try to distance himself a little bit from Vladimir Putin. He's never liked to be completely reliant on Russia. He would like maybe to strike a deal with President Trump if the sanctions were lifted and he were to be recognized as a legitimate president. We might expect there might be a very soft, small thaw (ph) inside the country when some more people would be released on humanitarian reasons, but we should not expect any change in his policy course.
We won't expect any major distancing from Russia and probably the level of repression nonetheless will remain very high with media being banned from Belarus and people being arrested.
[02:24:59] Still even today if you're subscribed to any of the independent media, social media channels, that's called extremist and you can go to prison for that and indeed many people have been take into prison.
LU STOUT: Yeah, yeah, because he controls all lovers of power in Belarus, including the media. Katia Glod, we thank you for your insight. Thank you for joining us.
GLOD: Thank you.
LU STOUT: Now, the United Nations is currently sounding the alarm over a growing humanitarian crisis as rebel forces make gains in the Democratic Republic of Congo. We have that story next.
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LU STOUT: Welcome back.
Now, the United Nations is urging Congolese rebels and allied Rwandan forces operating in the Democratic Republic of Congo to halt all hostile action immediately. The M23 rebel group has entered the outskirts of Goma, near the Rwandan border surrounding the city and closing its airspace. The U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting on Sunday and the secretary general, Antonio Guterres, reiterated his, quote, strongest condemnation of the M23 offensive, which is wreaking havoc among the civilian population.
CNN's Ben Hunte has this report.
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BEN HUNTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Civilians hurried towards Goma with everything they can carry on their backs. The fighting between the M23 rebel group and the army of the Democratic Republic of Congo, hot on their heels as panicked residents flee outlying areas to seek shelter. The U.N. says the encroaching violence has already displaced some 400,000 people in the region since the beginning of the year, and there are fears as the clashes continue, there'll be many more.
MARCELINE KACHARANGA, DISPLACED BY FIGHTING: We are fleeing without knowing where were going, as if we have nowhere to return. Look, my older sister, she gave birth yesterday. She has a baby and we don't know what to do.
HUNTE: After a lightning offensive that began just weeks ago, M23 rebels have made significant territorial gains and have encircled Goma, which is located near the border with Rwanda. Flights from the city's airport have been grounded and gunfire and artillery fire can be heard across the city. South African and U.N. authorities say at least 13 peacekeepers from the U.N. and other international forces have been killed, and the U.N. says it's temporarily relocating non- essential staff out of the area. Medical staff in a hospital in Goma say they're overwhelmed with
patients and have had to set up emergency tents to treat the wounded. Some, who say they narrowly escaped the fighting.
JEANNETTE NEEMA MATONDO, WOUNDED IN FIGHTING: We packed our bags, took our children and left. When we reached the checkpoint, a bomb fell on us. I was thrown backward in the direction I had come from. I still had my baby on my back and my belongings were next to me, but everyone around me was dead.
HUNTE: International groups warn that the violence could escalate into a wider regional conflict. The DRC recently severed diplomatic ties with Rwanda, which it says funds and supports M23 rebels. Rwanda denies this, but says it does have troops and missile systems in the eastern DRC for its own security. For decades, the eastern part of the DRC has been infiltrated by militias and armed groups, many stemming from Rwanda's 1994 genocide and lingering hostilities between Hutu and Tutsi groups.
Aid agencies say many people in this area have been displaced before by ongoing conflicts, and with the pitched fighting, uprooting them once again. The humanitarian crisis in the DRC can only get worse for those surrounded by fighting with no place left to go.
Ben Hunte, CNN.
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STOUT: Let's bring it up for you. You're looking at live pictures out of Southern Gaza, where Israel is allowing thousands of Palestinians to finally return home to the north. Tens of thousands of Palestinians waited for two days at roadblocks after Israel accused Hamas of breaching a ceasefire deal and refused to open crossing points. This comes after Hamas agreed to release Israeli hostage Arbel Yehud, soldier Agam Berger and one other hostage on Thursday and free another three more hostages on Saturday.
Now, you're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
And up next, they just can't seem to catch a break. Southern California still is battling wildfires, and now the region is facing a new threat. We have the details, next.
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STOUT: Welcome back. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
And in the next hour, world leaders will begin gathering in Poland to mark 80 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Nazis murdered more than 1 million people at the camp over the course of five years. Part of the 6 million Jews killed during the Holocaust, when Soviet troops arrived at the gates of Auschwitz in 1945, they found and liberated some 7,000 weak and emaciated prisoners. And this years commemoration comes as the number of survivors is
rapidly dwindling and antisemitism is on the rise across Europe and the Middle East.
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AGNES DARVAS, HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR (through translator): People think if they remember these, then such will not happen again. But it has not happened day by day. Perhaps it happens not to Jews, but some other ethnicity. The world had not seen so much cruelty as in the 20th century.
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STOUT: Now, most victims of the Holocaust were Jews, but the Nazis also targeted Poles, the Roma, gays and Soviet prisoners of war, all under Hitler's direction.
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Now, many of the wildfires in southern California are close to containment, but now those scorched areas are facing a new threat flash flooding and mudslides. Flood watches are now in effect until Monday afternoon, local time. Rain moving through right now may be good for battling fires, but too much of it on dry, hardened soil can trigger mudslides as well as debris flow.
Now, several road closures have already been reported, and places like Los Angeles County could see between half an inch and one inch of rainfall, while higher elevations could get as much as three inches.
Well, thank you so much for joining us. I'm Kristie Lu Stout. I will be back in 15 minutes with more CNN NEWSROOM.
"WORLD SPORT" is next.
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