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Israel And Hamas Agree On New Exchange; Funeral Of Shiri, Ariel And Kfir Bibas To Be Held Today; Ukraine And U.S. Agree On Natural Resources Deal; 21 Federal Employees Resign In Protest Over DOGE Actions; Pentagon Chief Pete Hegseth Visits Guntanamo Bay Naval Base; Trump Administration Moves Ahead With Migrant Crackdown, ICE Facilities Out Of Space; Nations Taking In Migrants Under Threat Of Tariffs; Southwest Airlines Plane Avoids Collision With Private Jet; Blue Origin Launches Tenth Space Tourism Mission; Maha Kumbh Mela, World's Largest Religious Festival, Wraps Up In India. Aired 2-2:45a ET

Aired February 26, 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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[02:00:38]

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN HOST: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world, and to everyone streaming us on CNN Max. I'm Rosemary Church.

Just ahead, a final goodbye, mourners line the streets of southern Israel to pay their respects to three slain hostages. We'll have a live report.

The Ukrainian president is expected to visit Washington within days, after agreeing to a minerals deal with the U.S.

And another close call on a U.S. runway, leaving some airline passengers on edge.

ANNOUNCER: Live from Atlanta. This is CNN NEWSROOM with Rosemary Church.

CHURCH: And this just in to CNN, Israel and Hamas have reached an agreement to exchange the bodies of four Israeli hostages for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, possibly as early as Wednesday evening. That is, according to an Israeli source, and it indicates that the Gaza cease fire deal remains intact for now.

Paula Hancocks joins us now live from Abu Dhabi. Good to see you, Paula. So, what more are you learning about this?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rosemary, as you say, it appears that the two sides have reached a deal, which means that there will be the bodies of hostages being held in Hamas -- in Gaza, being handed over by Hamas, and then, in exchange, hundreds of Palestinian prisoners will be released from Israeli jails.

It is part of the phase one of this cease fire hostage deal that was supposed to have taken place on Saturday, at least the Palestinian prisoner release was supposed to have taken place then.

Israel, though, had delayed it because of what they called repeated violations and humiliating ceremonies.

Now, we did see six live hostages being released on Saturday, and we did see ceremonies that Hamas had set up with stages, and in some cases, the hostages being told to make some kind of a speech. And this is what Israel was rejecting to also, a video that was released after a propaganda video showing two of the as yet unreleased Israeli hostages watching the release from a vehicle.

And these are the sorts of things that Israel says are unacceptable, and that is why they decided to delay the release of the prisoners.

There were supposed to be about 620 Palestinian prisoners released on Saturday. Among them, there were some 23 children and one woman.

So, what we heard from Hamas is that they believe that Israel had reneged on the deal, that they had violated the cease fire because they haven't released these prisoners and that they weren't going to talk about phase two of the deal until they were released.

So, it appears as though the cease fire is intact, as you say at this point, it is very fragile, though, especially given the fact that this phase of the cease fire is set to end on this weekend. This is when there was supposed to be an agreement on phase two, which is when more hostages were released, more prisoners released, and the Israeli military pulling back from Gaza and a permanent cease fire taking place.

But we appear to be a long way from an agreement on phase two, which was always going to be the more difficult negotiation, indirectly, between Hamas and Israel.

So, as far as we know at this point, those negotiations have not started. In earnest, they were supposed to start early February.

So, while we do see that the cease fire is intact at this point, there are some frantic negotiations that do need to take place in the very near future, or the cease fire needs to be extended, Rosemary.

CHURCH: Paula Hancocks is bringing us that live report. Many thanks.

Well, mourners are lining the route of the funeral possession for Hamas hostage, Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Ariel and Kfir, their funeral will be held in the coming hours near the kibbutz they were abducted from during Hamas' October 7th attacks.

[02:05:01]

We go live now to CNN Jeremy Diamond in Ashdod, Israel. So, Jeremy, clearly a somber day for Israel. What is the scene there today?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, amid rush hour traffic here, scenes of sadness and solidarity. Thousands of Israelis have come out along the highway, along the roads leading to the final resting place for Kfir, Ariel and Shiri Bibas, in order to show their solidarity with that family, in order to mourn collectively this terrible, terrible loss of in particular, for this 4-year-old boy and 9-month-old boy who really both with their striking red hair, became a symbol for so many Israelis of the horrors of October 7th, of the hostages who were and remain in captivity, and of course, now, of the terrible tragedy that befell them as the Israeli government accuses Hamas of murdering them in captivity, killing them with their bare hands.

Hamas, for its part, has said that they were killed in an Israeli air strike. Neither side so far has offered verifiable evidence for their claims.

But I want to walk a little bit here along this route. As you can see, there are so many people who have come out here we are in the city of Ashdod, and you can see people, young and old, who have come out, not just with Israeli flags, but also with orange flags, orange balloons, which became the color symbolizing the Bibas family as they were held in captivity for 16 months.

We expect that that funeral procession will come down from this road over here as they move south towards Kibbutz Nir Oz, where they were taken hostage on October 7th, they will be laid to rest near that kibbutz, alongside the parents of Shiri Bibas, who were also killed on October 7th.

CHURCH: And Jeremy, as we look at these pictures, how will this day likely pan out for Israel as they mark this final journey back to their kibbutz?

DIAMOND: Well, it will be a very somber day. We've been speaking with people out here who explain to us that even as Hamas had claimed early last year that they had been killed in captivity. So many here had held out hope for 16 months that perhaps those two little boys Kfir, Ariel and their mother, Shiri, would indeed emerge alive.

And last week, of course, they got the terrible confirmation that they had in fact been killed during their time in captivity.

Again, we expect that funeral procession, which is making its way from Central Israel has already begun to be greeted by crowds further north up this road, to come through here in the coming minutes, and to be greeted by people bowing their heads in a solemn gesture of respect. And of course, of the kind of common sadness that has befallen Israel on this day and since October 7th.

Yarden Bibas, the father of those two little boys, the husband of Shiri Bibas, he was released from Hamas captivity in the last couple of weeks. And of course, so many here are thinking of him as well on this terribly somber day.

What you will not see, however, will be Israeli government ministers, Israeli government lawmakers. They will not be attending the funeral at the family's request.

Following what has been a little bit of a row between the Bibas family and the Israeli government, the government has been releasing more and more details about how the Bibas children were killed in captivity. That is something that Yarden Bibas did not want to see at this moment. He wanted to be able to get the final pathologist report to review that himself before any of that information was released.

And so, you won't be seeing any Israeli government presence here. Instead the Bibas family asking ordinary Israelis from all across the country to line this route in order to say a final goodbye to Kfir, Ariel and Shiri.

CHURCH: Jeremy Diamond, there are many thanks for that live report.

Well, for weeks, Donald Trump has been signaling his intention to scale back U.S. support for Ukraine, repeatedly criticizing the country's president.

Now, a Ukrainian official says there's agreement on a new deal granting the U.S. access to Ukraine's valuable rare earth minerals in exchange for a U.S. commitment to help fund Ukraine's reconstruction.

And President Trump says Volodymyr Zelenskyy will travel to Washington on Friday to sign that deal. Ukraine rejected an earlier version of it, a source tells CNN Kyiv was expected to provide everything while the U.S. had no security obligation to Ukraine.

But the Ukrainian official says everything unacceptable has now been taken out of the text, and it spells out more clearly U.S. contributions to Ukraine's peace and security. Here's President Trump.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I hear that he's coming on Friday. Certainly it's OK with me if he'd like to, and he would like to sign it together with me, and I understand that's a big deal for a big deal. It's a very big deal. It could be a trillion dollar deal. It could be whatever, but it's rare earths and other things.

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CHURCH: So, what does Ukraine get in exchange? Here's Donald Trump, grossly overstating the amount of U.S. military aid sent to Kyiv.

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TRUMP: $350 billion and lots of equipment and military equipment, and the right to fight on, and originally the right to fight.

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CHURCH: More now, from CNN's Chief International Security Correspondent Nick Paton Walsh in Kyiv.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Increasingly positive signs that a deal will be signed between the United States and Ukraine in the coming days. A Ukrainian official saying that, in their perception, the United States and Ukraine have agreed terms for a deal over Ukraine's rare earth minerals and natural resources being used to pay back what the Trump administration says is debt over aid from the United States to Ukraine to help it defend itself after Russia's invasion.

Now, the deal apparently may end up being signed later this week in Washington. The official is saying that the White House has proposed a meeting on Friday between President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President Donald Trump.

When asked about this, Trump said that he'd heard Zelensky was coming to see him on Friday. Said he was OK with that, and also suggested that Zelenskyy would like to sign the deal during that meeting.

That's not a full throated embrace of the deal by Trump or an official announcement from the White House that indeed they've agreed terms. But it's certainly significant progress after a week of intense acrimony between Trump and Zelenskyy in which Trump called Zelenskyy a dictator. Zelenskyy suggested that Trump was living in a disinformation circle, and the relationship really appeared to be in free fall.

In terms of the deal's content, well, we understand from Ukrainian official that some of the thornier items have been removed.

Indeed, we were told on Monday that it wouldn't have security guarantees in it that the Ukrainians had sought as the Americans had resisted. It appears, according to the Ukrainian official we spoke to today, that some language pertaining to Ukrainian security may have been put back in.

But this does seem to be a framework agreement talks about Ukrainian reconstruction, but may leave some of the uglier details for further discussions.

But what's really going to be important is whether or not Trump does indeed meet Zelenskyy on Friday, and how they get along, because it's their personal acrimony that's hung over bids by European leaders to try and get Trump to embrace the idea of Ukraine support more fully, and indeed to try and assist any European role in peacekeeping forces here.

It's been a break neck fortnight of the United States getting closer to Russia in separate negotiations of acrimony between Ukraine and U.S. presidents, and now it seems potentially this deal looking in better shape than it has for quite some time.

If the two presidents meet on Friday and do heal that relationship, that will be an enormous relief for Ukrainians here, who are desperately concerned that their main financial and military backer may be significantly less invested, and potentially relief too, for Europeans, who have been in something of a scramble since the role in the United States, not only in Ukraine security, but that of Europe as a whole, has been in doubt over the last fortnight.

Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Kyiv, Ukraine.

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CHURCH: Still to come, Catholics fill the Vatican with prayers for Pope Francis, who has now been in the hospital for nearly two weeks.

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[02:18:21]

CHURCH: Priests, nuns and faithful Catholics are offering prayers and support for Pope Francis, who continues to battle double pneumonia in hospital. The Vatican just announced that the Pope had a peaceful night and is resting.

Earlier, a spokesperson says the 88-year-old pope is in critical but stable condition with no new acute respiratory episodes on Tuesday. The Vatican did not reveal the results of a scheduled C.T. scan, but say Pope Francis is mobile and continues to work despite the severity of his illness.

Back here in the United States, the source says the Trump administration is set to issue a memo directing Federal agencies to prepare for large scale layoffs. The memo is also expected to order agencies to submit reorganization plans within the next two weeks. It comes as the White House confirms presidential adviser Elon Musk will be attending Mr. Trump's first official cabinet meeting.

We're also learning more about the actual head of DOGE. The White House finally revealed that Amy Gleason, a career government employee, is acting administrator of the department.

Now, it's unclear how long she's been in that role, but she could possibly take the heat for the confusing mass e-mails sent to government workers, demanding their reply with what they did during the week or face termination. Here's the president addressing the matter.

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[02:20:02]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you clarify, hopefully, once and for all, what your expectations are with this e-mail to federal employees? What are you going to use that information for? And do you see it as voluntary, like OPM has said or mandatory?

TRUMP: Well, it's somewhat voluntary, but it's also if you don't answer, I guess you get fired.

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CHURCH: DOGE's actions have now prompted 21 government employees assisting the department to resign in protest. They released this statement saying, in part, and I'm quoting here, we will not use our skills as technologists to compromise core government systems, jeopardize American sensitive data or dismantle critical public services.

Well, Donald Trump is now offering a path to U.S. citizenship, but only for those who can pay a very high price.

On Tuesday, he announced the U.S. will sell a gold card to wealthy foreigners, giving them the right to live and work in the United States in exchange for $5 million.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick says potential buyers would be vetted to make sure they are, "wonderful world class global citizens."

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would a Russian oligarch be eligible for a gold card?

TRUMP: Yes, possibly. Hey, I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people. It's possible.

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CHURCH: The administration says the gold card would replace the government's immigrant investor visa program and will go on sale in about two weeks.

Well, as the Trump administration ramps up migrant deportations, the new U.S. Defense Secretary is on a visit to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, where a plan to house migrants in tents is now on hold. We'll have the details.

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[02:26:45]

CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. The Trump administration is pushing forward with its crackdown on undocumented immigrants, the U.S. Homeland Security Department says certain migrants will now face criminal penalties if they do not register themselves in a new database. The registry appears to target people who are not already on the federal government's radar.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced on Tuesday that 118 people were arrested in a mainly Latino area near Houston, Texas. Authorities say the operation targeted criminals and illegal immigrants.

Meanwhile, a second flight carrying migrants has landed in Costa Rica, where 65 people will be processed. This is part of a deal between the U.S. and Costa Rican governments to repatriate migrants to their countries of origin, which include China, Russia, Nepal and Vietnam.

And the new U.S. Defense Secretary has arrived in Guantanamo Bay Cuba for a briefing on the operation to transfer migrants to the U.S. Naval base. This is Pete Hegseth's first visit to Guantanamo as Pentagon chief.

Last week, more than 170 migrants being held there were flown to Venezuela.

Raul Reyes is an attorney, immigration analyst and CNN opinion writer. He joins me now. Appreciate you being with us.

RAUL REYES, ATTORNEY: Hello, hello, hello.

CHURCH: So, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth arrived at Guantanamo as the Trump administration scraps plans to send migrants there due to poor conditions. What is the purpose of his visit, then? And how would you describe the current state of the U.S. immigration system under Trump so far?

REYES: Well, for me, you know the -- what we're seeing with Pete Hegseth visiting Guantanamo Bay, it's to send a strong message that the Trump administration is planning, obviously a more restrictive policy towards immigrants that they really are going to crack down.

But what we're seeing writ large is where the -- where the reality of Trump's rhetoric meets conditions on the ground. It's an extremely challenging, difficult proposition to send people to Guantanamo Bay. It costs $13 million a year for one detainee in Guantanamo Bay, 13 million a year for one person, as compared to $57,000 a year per person within the continental U.S.

So, these are enormous numbers that's -- that will be required to keep people there. And I think we're seeing the Trump administration may be backing away from that, because it's just not a sustainable policy.

So, for now we are -- the reality is sitting in and there's going to be legal challenges to Trump's policy, and there does seem to be a bit of confusion between what's coming from Washington versus how things are playing out on the field.

CHURCH: Yes, those numbers are certainly extraordinary, and we are learning that ICE detention facilities are reaching capacity. So, what is the plan given the Trump administration is pushing for more arrests?

REYES: Right, that's a very significant challenge that that the administration is facing. ICE has capacity to hold about 30,000 people in any given day, and right now, they are at 109 percent of capacity.

[02:30:13]

They are beyond full. And yet, the president is pushing -- pushing, pushing for more deportations. And we know this, there's so much pressure on Homeland Security and ICE.

We know this because in just the last few weeks, we've seen the Acting Head of ICE and two top immigration officials reassigned because the president is not happy with the pace of deportations. And think of it this way, what the president and the top people in the administration are asking of immigration agents and homeland security personnel is to basically, defy -- defy math.

There are a limited number of agents, there are limited number of beds to house migrants, and there's only so far they can go without a massive infusion from -- of cash from our Congress. And just keep in mind that we are at a stage of the United States where Congress is considering scaling back social service programs for Americans, cutting foreign aid, so we come back again to the enormous financial costs of these type of very stringent policies.

CHURCH: And Raul, how are these migrants being treated in some of these facilities and particularly, those being sent to other countries like Panama?

REYES: Right. Well, you know what, to be fair, ICE facilities, no matter who has been president, whether it's been Obama, Biden, and now Trump, ICE facilities have been notorious for inhumane conditions, poor treatment of asylum seekers, refugees, and families. It is normal for countries to accept detainees back to their countries.

What's abnormal right now is that we are seeing places like Panama and Costa Rica accepting migrants back -- accepting migrants from other countries, from countries like China and Iraq and Afghanistan. And that's not a really sustainable long-term policy because these countries are accepting some migrants for now under threat of tariffs from the United States. But it's, at some point, there will be a question of how many more people can they absorb before they reach their breaking point.

And let's put it this way, if the United States, the wealthiest country in the world has trouble absorbing thousands and thousands of migrants, how could we possibly expect countries like Panama and Costa Rica to accept that? We can't outsource this problem, we cannot. And I -- for me, I'm afraid what often gets lost in this whole debate is no matter what your political affiliation or where you stand on these policies, it is a fact that going forward, we will see a tremendous amount of human suffering, of human rights abuses every -- as we have seen in the past, and just a lot of heartbreak for many people who are really just seeking asylum, hoping to restart their lives in the United States.

CHURCH: And Raul, are these migrants who are being detained really the worst of the worst as President Trump insists?

REYES: That's what President Trump insists. That's what his defense secretary and homeland security secretary have said. But we know from CNN reporting, from New York Times reporting, other outlets that, for example, about 150 migrants were sent to Guantanamo last week. Of that group, one-third had no criminal record whatsoever and that's a pattern we've seen with the Trump Administration, where people are getting caught up in what they call collateral arrests.

They are people who may be in the United States without lawful status, but they are far from, you know, dangerous criminals or traffickers or anything like that. What people should keep in mind is that when the Trump Administration focuses so much on basically prioritizing everyone in the country who is here without legal status, it deprioritizes the most hardened criminals and that makes the United States less safe for everyone.

CHURCH: Raul Reyes, many thanks for joining us. Appreciate it.

REYES: Thank you.

CHURCH: And we'll be right back.

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[02:38:40]

CHURCH: A scary close call at Chicago's Midway Airport on Tuesday as a private jet entered a runway without authorization and forced a Southwest Airlines plane to abort its landing. According to Flightradar24, the planes came as close as about 2,000 feet or about 624 meters to each other. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the incident.

This comes amid a string of safety incidents in recent weeks, including the deadly mid-air collision in Washington and the Medevac jet crash in Philadelphia.

Well, Jeff Bezos' space company, Blue Origin, launched its 10th crewed suborbital flight on Tuesday. The six astronauts in the 'New Shepard' vehicle got to experience a few minutes of weightlessness and see the earth against the darkness of space. The booster landed safely, along with the capsule, with all three parachutes deploying after one failed on an uncrewed mission earlier this month.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.

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CHURCH: Crew members on Tuesday's flight named themselves the 'Perfect 10' in a nod to Blue Origin's 10th human flight.

[02:40:00]

Well, after 45 days, the world's largest religious festival has come to a close today in Northern India. More than 620 million people, nearly a third of the country's population have attended the Maha Kumbh Mela. Hindu devotees bathe in the River Ganges to purify their sins and get closer to spiritual liberation. This year's festivities, however, have been marred by two separate deadly crowd crushes, as well as reports of unsafe levels of water contamination.

I want to thank you so much for joining us this hour. I'm Rosemary Church. "World Sport" is coming up next. Then I'll be back in about 15 minutes with more "CNN Newsroom." Do stay with us.

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