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Immigration Crackdown Ramps Up In Cities Across The U.S.; U.S., Colombia Reach Agreement On Deportation Flights; Chinese AI Startup "DeepSeek" Rattles Stock Market; Tens Of Thousands Of Palestinians Head Back To Northern Gaza. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired January 27, 2025 - 15:00   ET

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


[15:00:51]

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN HOST: I'm Rahel Solomon live in New York. Thanks so much for joining me today on CNN NEWSROOM.

Let's get right to the news.

President Donald Trump is golfing today at his Miami Doral Resort, but his administration is rapidly reshaping and harnessing the federal government one week into his return to power.

Today, he will sign executive orders barring trans people from serving in the military and reinstating with back pay service members who were discharged for refusing to get the COVID vaccine. He also aims to create an Iron Dome style missile defense system for the U.S.

At the same time, across the country, the raids have begun. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested nearly 1,000 people yesterday, including an enforcement blitz in Chicago that featured a ride along by reality TV star, Dr. Phil.

Let's get to Kevin Liptak, who is our senior White House reporter for CNN and joins me now.

Kevin, what's the very latest here?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah. You really do see now almost exactly one week into the Trump administration, the White House testing the bounds of executive authority in these key areas.

One on immigration. Obviously, this was the key issue for President Trump on the campaign trail. And you're starting to see these enforcement raids across the country bringing in multiple law enforcement agencies, including from the Justice Department, to go after what the administration says are undocumented immigrants with criminal records.

And you saw just yesterday, the White House immigration czar, Tom Homan, appear himself in Chicago to participate in some of these raids. And so what you're seeing here is essentially the administration carrying out exactly what Trump said he would do on the campaign trail. This has all been very carefully orchestrated by the president and his top aides, including Stephen Miller, the top policy aide inside the White House. And I think what you're seeing is a very intense focus on these immigration raids to try and send a message that the president is serious about what he said he would do as a candidate.

You have also seen within the last 24 hours this dustup between the U.S. and Colombia over accepting repatriation flights into that country. President Trump threatened tariffs after Colombia's president said that he wouldn't accept military planes of Colombians being repatriated back into Colombia. This back and forth, Colombia threatened its own tariffs and eventually relented and now says that it will send its own planes to collect its citizens.

And I think it all goes to show the world is still trying to figure out this new Trump era. The White House is trying to demonstrate that it's serious about its intentions, about what it plans to do. And you can all see this shaping up very specifically into what Trump said he would do as a candidate.

SOLOMON: And you have to wonder how other countries are watching this weekends spat between Colombia and the U.S. and sort of perhaps thinking about how they might respond.

Kevin Liptak, thank you.

All right. Let's talk more now about that brinkmanship between the U.S. and Colombia. This morning, Colombia sent two planes to the U.S. to retrieve Colombian migrants who recently crossed into the U.S. as we just heard from Kevin there, this is actually a sign of a trade war defused because over the weekend, President Gustavo Petro had denied two deportation flights, triggering a tariff standoff between the two nations. And that feud comes as we approach Trump's February 1st deadline for tariffs on two other key allies, Mexico and Canada.

A lot to discuss. So let's bring in CNN's Paula Newton to walk us through all of this.

Paula, always great to have you.

So, talk to us a little bit about we know the U.S. has a major trade relationship with Colombia, more than a $39 billion bilateral trade relationship in 2022. The impact now -- did American consumers just avoid a major hit to their wallets?

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In fact, they did, likely in the short term. But that is not something that is going to hold sway with the Trump administration. We just heard Kevin Liptak say that, look, the United States is just getting used to this new Trump administration. Well, you know, allies and enemies around the world need to get used to it as well.

The fault here, Rahel, was that it didn't matter how many times the United -- the Colombian government said to the United States government, look, this will hurt. It didn't matter. Hour after hour, as the hours ticked by, they understood they were in a weakened position. So whether were talking about crude oil or flowers or coffee, the cost to American consumers in this instance would have been marginal.

And, you know, I hate to use this analogy, but it is apt, Rahel. You do not bring spoons to a gunfight. At this point in time, the Colombian government had to understand what position they are in. They clearly understood it very quickly.

But I will also say there is a short game and a long game here. Strategically, allies and enemies of the United States are going to be able to learn in the coming months and even years what their key strengths are and how they get a better deal from a Trump administration on that going forward. Certainly, doing any of this by posting on social media or, you know, these kind of displays of defiance that don't really do much for consumers in either country, leads nowhere. And that's exactly what you saw given what's happened in the last 24 hours.

SOLOMON: Yeah. Some wondering if he tried to out-Trump Trump with the social media of it all.

Paula, you have to wonder how Mexico and Canada are viewing this. I mean and the threats there. I mean, is there hope of negotiation, averting trade wars there? And I would argue, Paula, and certainly you can correct me if I'm wrong. It would be not a marginal impact if we had a trade war with one of those nations.

NEWTON: Not at all. You have to talk about the U.S. largest trading partners on either side of their borders. And one thing I will say as well, even going back to Colombia, right? You need allies in the United States. You do need them, whether you're talking about drug trafficking or migrant flows, you need those allies.

But keeping that in mind, look, again, if we talk about the short game and the long game, both Mexico and Canada right now are deciding what they do if those tariffs are imposed. There is a debate, Rahel, a debate as to whether you hit back immediately and you hit back strongly, or whether you kind of retaliate a bit and continue to warn them that you, those Trump administration officials, that you will continue to escalate and that that will bring pain to the American consumer.

Listen, the one thing this does, though, Rachel, is that if you're talking about businesses, whether it's Mexico, the United States or Canada, keeping in mind, Rachel, there is already a trade deal on the table between these three countries. Yes, there are trade irritants, but there is already a very lucrative trade deal that's on the table that's been functioning quite well.

The issue is businesses are reacting. There are orders not being placed. There is long term investment not being done. Everyone wants to see where this is going to land.

And this is part of the negotiation. I will also mention that especially in Mexico, Rachel, a lot of them are looking at this and saying to the United States, look, you are supposed to be our closest ally. Maybe not in a few months, but in a few years. Do we then pivot, in fact, to China? That has shown an increasing interest in continuing to invest in

Mexico. And that is also one of the things that will come to the table in the Trump administration as they go forward in the coming days and months about those 25 percent tariffs. I'm not saying its not going to happen. I'm just saying, look, there's a long game and there's a short game.

SOLOMON: And there are people waiting in the wings. To your point, I mean, that is a fascinating point, Paula. That is a whole another conversation. It's a whole another segment. But great to have you today. Thank you.

On Wall Street, meantime, today's shock and awe as tech stocks take a huge hit. The cause was a new player called DeepSeek. That's a Chinese A.I. startup that has already demonstrated stunning A.I. capabilities at what they say is a fraction of the cost that U.S. companies have been spending on their technologies. Only developed just a year ago, DeepSeek is already being hailed by one of the worlds leading tech investors as, quote, one of the most amazing and impressive breakthroughs.

For more on this, I want to bring in the director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies at the Wadhwani AI Center in Washington, Gregory C. Allen.

Gregory, great to have you today.

GREGORY C. ALLEN, DIRECTOR, WADHWANI AI CENTER, CSIS: It's a pleasure to be here.

SOLOMON: I want to get your reaction to this announcement. But first, I want to just start with the reported cost, because there does seem to be some skepticism, some debate about the true cost here. DeepSeek says it was just less than $6 million, which is part of the reason we've been seeing this panic. Do you believe that figure? The $6 million figure.

ALLEN: Yes. I think that figure is credible. And, you know, its credible because there's already individuals and companies and academic researchers in the West who are working to replicate those same research results using the same approach that DeepSeek did and getting the exact same sort of promising early indications that suggest this is what happened. But it's really important to specify that even DeepSeek acknowledge that this is the cost of that one individual training run, and in the exact same way that the cost of a prescription drug development is not the one clinical trial that worked. It's also all the clinical trials that didn't work.

And so what DeepSeek has disclosed here is the cost of the training run that did work. It was not the entire cost of the entire research agenda that resulted in this breakthrough.

[15:10:02]

SOLOMON: Okay. That's a very important distinction. Thank you for explaining that. So now to your reaction to this news as someone who lives and breathes

A.I., its uses, its implications -- your reaction to the news this weekend?

ALLEN: I think some of the debate that's going on in Wall Street is, in a certain sense, overblown. The reason for that is the Jevons Paradox, which points out that as something becomes cheaper, you might think that the revenue to be earned by selling it goes down. But oftentimes it's the exact opposite. It goes up.

So Jevons was working in the steam engine era, and he was pointing out that everything keeps getting more energy efficient. And yet Britain's usage of coal keeps going up because as we get more efficient, it becomes attractive for implementation in many more parts of the economy. In the exact same thing has been true for computers for the past eight decades, as it gets cheaper and cheaper to do more with computers to computer companies, earn less money? No, they earn more because more and more of the world becomes computerized. And the exact same thing is going to be true of A.I.

SOLOMON: In other words, there is more demand. You may see less use, but more demand.

ALLEN: Exactly. And in aggregate, that's going to result in a lot more money for a lot more companies.

SOLOMON: So the reaction we're seeing in Wall Street, for example, let's talk about Nvidia. I mean that is really the story right there. Shares tumbling at one point as much as 15 percent. You believe that is an overreaction considering your understanding of what's happening in the trial and the company and the money behind it.

ALLEN: Nvidia has been here many, many times before. If you were the owner of Nvidia computing, sorry, computer chips, and you find out, you can now do a lot more with those chips for the same amount of chips. That makes your chips more valuable, not less valuable. So what DeepSeek has done is essentially they're able to extract more intelligence from the same amount of computer chip input. That's great news for the people who sell computer chips, because it means that whereas previously it might have been cost prohibitive or too complicated to integrate A.I. into various parts of the economy or the workforce, now its going to be economically attractive.

I think in the short term, yes, this is going to result in some pain as people adjust to this new order, this new reality. But the long term future is exceedingly bright.

SOLOMON: And speaking of pain, I mean, any sense of, you know, I mean, especially with the last administration, we saw sort of this effort to sanction its way to dominance in the artificial intelligence industry. I'm curious if DeepSeek teaches us anything about whether that was and is an effective method. What do you think?

ALLEN: Well, export controls are always a lagging measure. Just because you stop selling something to a given country doesn't mean that everything they've already bought for you stops working. Nvidia had already sold a lot of these chips to DeepSeek before the export controls took effect, and also before they took their maximum strength and effect.

DeepSeek claims that they trained this model using the H-800 chip. That was a chip that Nvidia specifically designed after the first package of Biden administration export controls in 2022 to comply with those regulations while minimizing the performance degradation to their customers in China. The Biden administration responded with a strengthened version of those export controls with tighter technological performance specifications in October of 2023.

Well, as I said, export controls take effect only on a lagging basis. So DeepSeek achievement really represents the failure of that first package of Biden administration export controls. But the Biden administration already knew that. That's why they updated the export controls in October 2023.

So next year, were going to be living through the lagging impact of that far more successful package of controls.

SOLOMON: Well, that's an interesting point.

ALLEN: And I should point out that DeepSeek is currently experiencing a computer outage. They are no longer accepting new signups for customers outside of China. And that's not an accident. There's a big difference in the type of computing workload that is required to train a model one time, or to serve a model to one customer, and to do what ChatGPT does, which is to serve that model to 300 million customers every single week.

So DeepSeek had a really good generated a lot of excitement, generated a lot of customer signups, and now, surprise, surprise, they don't have enough computer chips to meet all that demand. That's exactly what the export controls wanted to happen.

SOLOMON: And let me ask. I mean, were running out of time here, so I'm going to sort of combine my next two thoughts into one. You know, a lot of people, myself included, are trying to understand, get their arms around this technology better. So if you might answer this next question in terms of how you might respond at a cocktail party. So folks who are not in the same space as you at all, when you think about the race for A.I. dominance, it's a marathon, right? It's not a sprint.

[15:15:01]

So -- so what happens now? What are you expecting? How would you answer that question at a cocktail party?

ALLEN: Sure. I think you should think about what is the floor of A.I. performance and what is the ceiling of A.I. performance. What DeepSeek most clearly represents is a raising of the floor. When you don't have a lot of money, when you don't have a lot of computing resources, how much can you accomplish?

It turns out you can accomplish a lot, but then the question still remains what happens if you have a lot of money and a lot of computing resources? Well, it's going to be a lot, lot more.

All of DeepSeek technological innovations are on the algorithmic side and on the architectural side, 100 percent of those innovations are now available to American companies identically. But the American companies advantage in computing resources that's not available to Chinese companies. And while China continues to raise the floor, America is exploring the new ceiling of performance, which could be A.I. systems that are as smart as the smartest human on Planet Earth, or far, far beyond that. When you think about what you can accomplish with a laptop, which is what DeepSeek proves, ask yourself the question what can you accomplish with a monstrous supercomputer? We're talking about a revolution in ai performance happening in just the next handful of years. It's a very exciting time.

SOLOMON: And I think I got that. Gregory C. Allen, I appreciate that. Well said. Great conversation. Good to have you today. Thank you.

ALLEN: Thank you.

SOLOMON: All right. And still ahead, tens of thousands of Gazans are now returning to what's left of their homes after Israel reopened a corridor into the north of the strip. This coming as President Trump hints at a new plan to, quote, clean out Gaza. That's coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SOLOMON: Welcome back.

A moment many dare to dream. Patiently waiting and hoping for the opportunity to return home. Today, after a 48 hour delay, tens of thousands of Palestinians were allowed to return to northern Gaza for the first time in months.

[15:20:01]

Families who were separated by Israel's blockade reunited in the streets, hugging their loved ones. But this is what they're returning home to -- 16 months of Israeli airstrikes have reduced the north to rubble, shells of their houses beyond recognition and perhaps a significant shift in U.S. policy. President Trump suggested that, quote, cleaning out Gaza, moving Palestinians to neighboring Egypt and Jordan.

Now this breaks with the long standing American belief that Gaza should be part of a future Palestinian state. Jordanian and Egyptian authorities swiftly rejected the idea, while far right Israeli ministers endorsed Trump's proposal.

Let's get to CNN's Jeremy Diamond, who is in Tel Aviv.

So, Jeremy, talk to us a little bit about how those in Gaza returning to the rubble of their homes are now reacting to President Trump's proposal.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, listen, today, we saw startling scenes in Gaza as tens of thousands of people began to make their way home to northern Gaza, many of them having been displaced for months, some for over a year even.

And we saw as not only these crowds of people snaked up to northern Gaza, you know, in these extraordinary scenes, but also the emotional reunions that happened on the other side as family members who've been separated for months finally reunited.

We heard people, of course, expressing their desire for safety going forward. But there is a lot of uncertainty about whether or not the six -- the ceasefire will be extended beyond six weeks, and what they've been returning to in northern Gaza, of course, are scenes of absolute destruction. Many of the people who spoke to our teams in Gaza today said that they were returning, but they didn't know if their homes were still standing, but they wanted to go and see it with their own eyes.

And what we heard above all was a determination from these people to return home, despite that destruction. And that, of course, brings us to these comments by President Trump, where he is suggesting that Palestinians should be relocated outside of Gaza. He said, perhaps temporarily, but perhaps even in terms of a longer term solution to this conflict, that kind of mass displacement is obviously resoundingly rejected by Palestinians who said that they will not leave Gaza, even as it is in its war torn state currently.

We also heard Jordan and Egypt, the two countries that Trump mentioned in terms of moving this -- in terms of moving Palestinians to those countries, they also rejected that notion with the Jordanian foreign minister, for example, saying Palestine is for Palestinians and Jordan is for Jordanians -- Rahel.

SOLOMON: Okay. Jeremy Diamond, live for us there in Tel Aviv -- Jeremy, thank you.

And here to discuss further, Gershon Baskin, a former Israeli hostage negotiator and also Middle East director at the international communities organization, we also have Beth Sanner, who is a former deputy director of national intelligence.

Great to have you both.

Gershon, let me start with you and President Trump's comments. This idea was also embraced by far right Israeli ministers, as we just said there. We also heard last week at her confirmation hearing, Elise Stefanik, Trump's pick for U.N. ambassador, say that she believes Israel has a biblical right to annex the West Bank.

Does this relationship between the Trump administration and the far right and Israel's government concern you?

GERSHON BASKIN, MIDDLE EAST DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITIES ORGANIZATION: It is concerning. But we also heard President Trump speak on election night, and in his inauguration that he was going to make peace. He was going to end wars.

If President Trump is serious about that, he has to understand that the Palestinians will never agree to what they call ethnic cleansing, which is how they perceive what President Trump said about them leaving Gaza. That's not a solution for the Palestinians. The Palestinians are here to stay. There are 7 million Palestinians between the river and the sea, along with 7 million Israeli Jews. And the solution to this conflict has to be made here, between the river and the sea, between these two people who both have a right to be here.

SOLOMON: Beth, let me ask. Hours after taking the oath of office last week, Trump with his real estate developer hat on, had this take on rebuilding Gaza. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Gaza is interesting. It's a phenomenal location, on the sea, the best weather. You know, everything's good. Its like some beautiful things could be done with it. But it's very interesting. But some fantastic things could be done with Gaza.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: And to be clear, its not an off the cuff comment. Trump's son in law and former White House adviser Jared Kushner, has suggested that Israel should move Palestinians out of Gaza and clean it up, quote, because Gaza's waterfront property is very valuable.

Beth, your thoughts and is it a matter of time from your perspective of when, not if, Trump makes this official policy? What do you think?

BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, I hope not, because I think that it undermines President Trump's broader strategic goals which I think all of us can get on board with which is to have a more stable and prosperous Middle East because a policy like this absolutely undermines Israeli stability.

[15:25:02]

It supercharges the settlers who are embracing this, who want to resettle Gaza and take over the West Bank. We're going to see a lot of violence is Iran is currently involving itself in spinning that up. And it would absolutely destabilize Jordan, where 65 percent of the population, more of that probably, is Palestinian, as well as Egypt, which is quite fragile these days with a very bad economy and a very weak president.

And more importantly, the Saudi Israeli normalization would just be totally dead on arrival because Saudi Arabia would never agree to this without some path to a two state solution. So, I mean, it just really it's like 180 for the big picture things that he wants.

SOLOMON: Uh-huh.

Yeah. Gershon, I mean, to that point and to Beth's point, I mean, how much of it is a setback to his larger sort of goals and his larger sort of peace goals and normalization goals between Saudi Arabia and Israel when he makes comments like this that you have to sort of wonder whether Egypt, whether Jordan, whether Saudi Arabia would ever agree to something like this.

BASKIN: Well, obviously, the Arab states are never going to agree to it, not the Saudis, the Egyptians or the Jordanians. We know that President Trump is completely unpredictable. We also know he has the ability to contradict himself from one day to another. Speaking about making peace, ending wars, and then speaking about this kind of transference of the -- they don't go together.

I hope that the wise counsel that President Trump will find amongst the Arab neighbors and Saudi Arabia, in Egypt and in Jordan, together with Steve Witkoff, who's very heavily invested in these Gulf countries, will make a President Trump understand that we need to get back to serious peacemaking on the basis of the two-state solution.

There is no other viable solution to this conflict. We need to learn the lessons of the failed process for 30 years and to move forward steadily, understanding also that we're going to need a change of leadership, both here in Israel and amongst the Palestinians.

SOLOMON: Gershon, on the ceasefire deal, you criticized the deal because it's being carried out over a long period of time. On his first day in office, Trump said that he was not confident that the ceasefire would hold.

From your perspective, was he giving Netanyahu an out?

BASKIN: I hope not. I mean, Netanyahu is going to face a coalition that could break up if he moves ahead to phase two of the deal. That would lead to the end of the war. There has to be a strong Trump administration statement that they expect this deal to be completed that will definitely cause problems for Netanyahu.

My fear is that Netanyahu will do something provocative to ensure that Hamas violates the deal, and they will. Then Israel will have the pretext for breaching the deal itself, with the backing of the United States. That seems to me to be a very possible scenario, and a very bad one for the fate of the Israeli hostages and, of course, for the millions of people living in Gaza.

SOLOMON: Yeah. And, Beth, your thoughts. I mean, what do you expect next week when negotiations for phase two begin, which, you know, obviously the hope is that it will bring a permanent end to the war and that that is the operative word, the hope.

SANNER: Exactly. I personally am not at all hopeful. I think that this deal will at best end at the six-week mark. And I don't say that with any, you know, joy in my heart at all. It is very sad, but I think that that's inevitable because Netanyahu's government will fall if he agrees to phase two. He's made that public promise to his far right members of the government. And I believe that Trump supports him in this.

And frankly, the way that Hamas has just absolutely shown themselves this as a force on the ground, they have armed people out on the streets today and now, since the hostage releases, and they are showing that Netanyahu's goal of complete destruction of Hamas has not been achieved. And that is, to me, probably enough for Netanyahu to go back to war.

SOLOMON: Gershon, in Lebanon, the ceasefire has been extended -- extended by three weeks, despite the fact that Israeli troops failed to withdraw from southern Lebanon and kill 22 people in the region, returning home. How do they come to an agreement to permanently end this war?

BASKIN: I think there is an interest in both Israel and Lebanon to find a modus vivendi that will end the war. It all depends whether or not the new Lebanese president can form a government that's strong enough to move the Lebanese army south of the Litani River along the Israeli border. So far, the mechanism that's been put in place to deal with breaches of the agreement has been much more effective than was back in 2006, when U.N. resolution 1701 was passed.

So there's more hope, I think, for this holding on the Lebanese border.

[15:30:03]

And the Israelis want to get back to their communities in the north of Israel and, and build those communities again and get back to life. And I think that the weakening of Hezbollah is quite significant in Lebanon now, to enable Israel to actually move forward with the ceasefire.

SOLOMON: We'll leave it here. Gershon Baskin, appreciate you. Beth Sanner, I appreciate you as well. Thank you both.

Coming up, it is Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's first day in office. How he and President Trump are already working to reshape the U.S. military, when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SOLOMON: Welcome back.

After being narrowly confirmed by the Senate on Friday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth reported for duty at the Pentagon for his first day of work, vowing to waste no time enacting President Trump's policies.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Today, there are more executive -- executive orders coming that we fully support on removing DEI inside the Pentagon, reinstating troops who were pushed out because of COVID mandates, Iron Dome for America. This is happening quickly. And as the secretary of defense, it's an honor to salute smartly as I did as a junior officer and now as the secretary of defense to ensure these orders are complied with rapidly and quickly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: And his first day on the job comes as Trump will sign a number of executive orders that will reshape the military, including banning transgender members from the military.

Let's go to CNN's Oren Liebermann, who is at the Pentagon.

Oren, talk to us about what more you're learning about these executive orders that Trump is expected to sign.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Banning transgender service members from the military is likely to be one of the more impactful ones. This is something we have seen before. President Donald Trump, back in his first administration in 2017, banned transgender members of the military.

[15:35:05]

President Joe Biden revoked that, and it was Trump again within hours of taking office who revoked that revocation? So transgender members of the military are again banned. But we have spoken with officials who say this ban is expected to go farther in removing and prohibiting transgender members of the military, and it's expected to have fewer exceptions. So we're waiting to find out the details there.

We are also expecting an executive order banning or prohibiting DEI, diversity, equity and inclusion programs, in the military. It's worth noting that in Hegseth's confirmation hearing just a couple of weeks ago, one of the senators pointed out that this was a $114 million in terms of the budget in one year. Now, of course, that sounds like a big number, but it is less than one tenth of 1 percent of the DOD budget. So there's a lot more that the new secretary of defense has to work with.

And then, of course, there's reinstating members of the military who were booted for refusing the COVID vaccine. That was about 8,000 during the Biden administration, crucially, though, only about 100 or so wanted back in. The rest remained out when the door was open to them back in 2023.

Now, however, they're being offered back pay, so perhaps that will entice others to come back in. That's one of the key questions we'll be watching as this policy is rolled out here.

SOLOMON: Yeah. Is that enough to sweeten the deal?

Oren, we're also expecting Trump to sign an executive order to create an Iron Dome for the U.S. What's that about?

LIEBERMANN: So Iron Dome is Israel's vaunted short range air defense system, intercepting rockets and drones, mortars coming from Gaza. This is a -- borrows the name, but it is a very different plan for a system. This is supposed to be advanced next generation space based to be able to detect and destroy ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, hypersonic missiles, sort of the advanced threats that the Trump administration, in this executive order that we have seen is calling a catastrophic threat to the United States.

Now, the question, of course, is how much of a priority is this for the Trump administration? This is billions and billions of dollars in investment to create a space based system capable of knocking out these threats. So we have seen a copy of the executive order, the text there. Now it's a function of how much money are they willing to put behind the words.

SOLOMON: All right. Oren Liebermann, keep us posted. We know you will. Thank you.

And European officials are trying to combat a rash of what appears to be sabotage on undersea fiber optic cables. On Sunday, a cable between Sweden and Latvia was damaged. Latvian officials say that some external force likely caused the damage.

Today, Swedish authorities confirmed that they have seized a bulk carrier that was passing over the cable around the time that it was damaged, and it comes as NATO and Baltic countries have stepped up patrols in the Baltic Sea.

CNN's Nic Robertson went along on one of these missions aimed at protecting an underwater target.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice-over): Sunrise around 100 miles from Russia, on the near freezing Baltic Sea, tension mounts.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a NATO warship, A03, over.

ROBERTSON: NATO is retooling for a new war -- a hybrid war.

Ultra modern, sophisticated tech is being prepped for underwater action. Specialized subsea drones designed to dive deep below the surface.

This is the sharp end of the mission, protecting our Internet is not up there in the sky. It's under the sea.

NATO's mission Baltic Century is a rapid response to an escalating new threat. Multiple cables cut in recent months.

And this is what the undersea internet cables look like, this size -- they're tiny, they're vulnerable. They're easily cut.

In these waters between Estonia and Finland and beyond, an unseen enemy is believed to have been targeting Internet and power cables. The subsea drones and the battleships getting eyes on the threat.

COMMANDER ARJEN WARNAAR, NATO MARITIME GROUP 1: A lot of the ships that we found are acting strangely originate in a Russian port, or are going to a Russian port.

ROBERTSON: This ship anchor, suspected of being dragged on the seabed, intentionally damaging cables Christmas Day.

How far are these anchors being dragged into the sea?

WARNAAR: I understand a couple of hundred miles.

ROBERTSON: Is that normal?

WARNAAR: No.

ROBERTSON: How does that happen? Can a captain not notice?

WARNAAR: Very good question.

And my guess is no, a captain does know that. And that's probably intentional.

ROBERTSON: Repairs can be complicated, costly, and take months. Worst case, an entire nation can be cut off from the Internet.

[15:40:05]

Under the sea here, there are multiple cables linking Estonia with Finland. In the Baltic Sea, dozens more, the numbers keep growing across the globe. There are hundreds of cables.

According to NATO more than 800,000 miles of cable carrying $10 trillion of international trade. The mission, critical enough to have expensive fighter jets on tap. Conditions at sea level, though the biggest challenge, as we saw on a relatively calm day.

Each NATO warship bringing its own specialty. This one sonar. Less than two weeks into the mission, commanders at sea increasingly confident who is responsible.

And who is the threat here?

CMDR. ERIK KOCKX, NATO MINE COUNTERMEASURES GROUP 2: Russia. That's for -- that's quite clear.

ROBERTSON: Russia denies any role. But by this day's end, more NATO nations committing forces to Baltic Century. The flotilla growing.

NATO HQ commanders facing tough choices.

CAPTAIN NIELS MARKUSSEN, DIRECTOR, NATO SHIPPING CENTRE: The proof, the smoking gun, it's very, very difficult. We have to balance between this moving into something that can become very ugly. And what I mean by that is warfare.

ROBERTSON: Nic Robertson, CNN, in the Gulf of Finland, the Baltic Sea.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLOMON: And our thanks to Nic Robertson there.

And coming up next for us, marking Holocaust Remembrance Day, in the 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:45:56]

SOLOMON: Welcome back.

World leaders and Holocaust survivors mark the somber anniversary today at the scene of one of the darkest chapters in human history. They're in Poland for Holocaust Remembrance Day, and to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz Nazi concentration camp. That's the site where more than 1 million people were murdered during world war two.

Those who survived Auschwitz shared their stories and gave a warning about the rise in antisemitism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOVA FRIEDMNA, AUSCHWITZ SURVIVOR: We are also here to proclaim and to pledge that we will never, never, ever allow history to repeat itself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: And speaking there and around the world, some of the remaining holocaust survivors are working to share their stories with younger generations.

CNN's Isa Soares visited one school in north London, where survivor Jackie Young gives his testimony to students reflecting on the hard learned lessons that the world should never forget.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JACKIE YOUNG, HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR: What I'm about to tell you now I had absolutely no knowledge of myself.

ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For the last 13 years, Jackie Young has been taking teenagers beyond the history books.

YOUNG: The war has been on already two -- over two years.

SOARES: Educating them about the Holocaust by retelling his harrowing story as a baby sent to a Nazi concentration camp.

YOUNG: How and why I survived two years, eight months as a nine- month-old baby, I still do not know.

SOARES: It was 1945 when Jackie in the U.K. on a British Royal Air Force plane. His adoptive parents never told Jackie he was a Holocaust survivor, keeping his early life secret for years.

YOUNG: Any little piece of the puzzle of my past would be than welcome.

SOARES: It's a puzzle that he is yet to complete. But with each piece, a moment of clarity for 83-year-old Jackie.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is something you haven't found out yet but you'd like to see?

SOARES: And an awakening of the minds for this younger generation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How did the whole process change your identity and the way you see the world today?

YOUNG: It's what I call cathartic.

SOARES: With each passing year, some fear this generation could be the last to hear from Holocaust survivors. Their testimonies consigned to footnotes in history books.

SOARES: Given what we heard from Jackie and the lessons from history and what is playing out in the world right now, how does his story shape all of you who are the future?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel that it really highlights the importance and the need to stand up to, you know, prejudice and stand up for those who are vulnerable. And I thought that it's -- it reminds us of the importance of teaching and educating younger generations to really combat prejudice and promote peace.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I agree. And that kind of story kind of leaves you wondering, what about the other children that had this same story? What happened to them? Do they know what happened? Do they not know?

SOARES: Jackie says he has found peace that the puzzle of his life may never be complete.

YOUNG: I'm visioning myself to the fact that the pieces are smaller by the day.

SOARES: The reception you get from the teenagers, many of them study this, which as I heard today, is quite -- it's quite another story hearing it directly from someone who lived it and breathed it.

What do you think they take away from it?

YOUNG: I'd like to think that they have opened their eyes a bit to what can happen with humanity. I mean, we've got no other gaining (ph) on this world.

SOARES: Life lessons from a Holocaust survivor whose story of trauma and resilience will hopefully reverberate beyond these school walls.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:53:41] SOLOMON: All right. The game is set. We now know which teams will be playing in the upcoming Super Bowl. The Philadelphia Eagles -- go Birds! -- will take on the reigning champs, the Kansas City Chiefs, in New Orleans on Sunday. The Chiefs found themselves in a tight back and forth contest against the Buffalo Bills, but Kansas City held on, winning 32-29. And now, the Chiefs and their star quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, have a chance to make history as the first team ever to win three straight Super Bowls, a three peat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PATRICK MAHOMES, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS QUARTERBACK: I'm just so proud of my teammates, man, how they responded. That was a great football team and I'm just -- I'm just lost for words. I'm excited for New Orleans.

TRAVIS KELCE, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS TIGHT END: Never satisfied, baby. When you play in front of Arrowhead Stadium like this, every single AFC championship, are you kidding me? Kansas City?

And before you guys get out of here, just do a little dance. Make a little love. Yeah. Get down tonight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: Taylor Swift cheering on her man. But standing in the Chiefs way is the Philadelphia Eagles. Did I say "go birds"?

Facing the Washington Commanders, the Eagles were dominant with quarterback Jalen Hurts and running back Saquon Barkley each rushing for three touchdowns in Philly wins big 55 to 23.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[15:55:01]

SAQUON BARKLEY, PHILADELPHIA EAGLES RUNNING BACK: This is amazing, man. It's amazing. We're here, Super Bowl.

But the goal wasn't just getting there. The goal is to win. And we're going to celebrate and enjoy this and get right back to work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: That's what we love to hear, Saquon. Get back to work.

The Eagles and the Chiefs you might remember face off in Super Bowl LVII two years ago. Kansas City won that game on a field goal with just eight seconds to play. It was one of the most dramatic finishes in Super Bowl history.

But this is a new year. It's a new team. So we'll see. We'll see in two weeks.

All right. And finally, a movie theater in Paris just hosted a special dog-friendly screening of a Disney classic, 18 dogs arrived at the cinema to see "Lady and the Tramp". Some sat in the aisles, some in their owners' laps and some on their own red chair. The theaters director says that the event went so well that they are now planning a showing of "Beethoven" coming up next.

This is so doggone cute. Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

Thank you for joining me today. I'm Rahel Solomon, live in New York.

"QUEST MEANS BUSINESS" is coming up next.