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CNN International: Zelenskyy Prepares For Talks With The U.S.; Trump Threatens Russia New Sanctions; U.S. Suspends Ukraine's Access To Satellite Imagery; Beijing Slams U.S. Tariffs; South Korean Fighters Jets Bombs Village By Mistake; Gene Hackman And Betsey Arakawa Cause Of Death Revealed; Unrest In Syria; South Carolina Inmate Executed By Firing Squad; Another SpaceX Starship Explodes On Test Flight. Aired 6-7p ET
Aired March 07, 2025 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[18:00:00]
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington.
Just ahead, Ukraine's president says, quote, "intense work" is underway with President Trump's team ahead of a summit next week, intended to discuss ending the war, and while President Trump continues to attack him and praise Russia, the Kremlin confirms it will not be included in those talks.
China's foreign minister criticizing Trump's America First foreign policy as a trade war with the U. S. takes a new turn. We're live in Beijing with the latest.
And their final moments, we're getting new details about the cause of death for actor Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy.
A SpaceX setback as yet another Starship explodes on a test flight. We're going to look at the implications for the company and for more broadly, safety. That conversation, and plenty more are coming up.
After a tumultuous seven days between the U.S. and Ukraine, both sides are hoping they can put their relationship, perhaps, back on solid footing as they prepare to meet in Saudi Arabia. Ukraine's president will travel to the country Monday, where he'll meet with the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.
President Zelenskyy's team will stay behind then for talks with the U.S., aimed at beginning discussions on finding an end to the conflict with Russia. Moscow confirms it will not, however, be present there.
It has been a day of mixed messages from the U.S. president when it comes to Russia. Earlier in the day, Trump posted this message on social media. Threatening, he said, new sanctions on Moscow for, quote, "pounding Ukraine in strikes overnight." However, by the afternoon, he was back to a more familiar and more consistent message of denigrating Ukraine, saying he's finding it difficult to deal with Kyiv while praising Russia, saying he believes it would be easier to engage with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Despite the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax, I've always had a good relationship with Putin. And you know, he wants to end the war. It wants to end it. And I think he's going to be more generous than he has to be. And that's pretty good. That means a lot of good things.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: In fact, it was Vladimir Putin that ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 after a partial invasion in 2014. Of course, that invasion has killed many tens of thousands of Ukrainians, including civilians. It does remain to be seen if President Trump follows through on any new sanctions against Russia. For now, he's only taking punitive action against Ukraine.
The U.S. has suspended the country's access now to satellite imagery. Ukraine relies on that imagery for tracking Russian troops and planning military operations to defend the country. It's the latest wedge in the U.S.-Ukraine relationship after the Trump administration scaled back intelligence sharing earlier this week.
Oren Liebermann joins me now. I mean, the satellite images are key. This allows or helps Ukraine pick targets, for instance, against Russian forces that continue to invade their country. How significant is this particular move?
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely significant, and it comes on top of what we've already seen. The Ukrainians relied on that for offensive operations. And to give you a sense of how much U.S. intelligence mattered to the Ukrainians, it was U.S. intel that allowed Ukraine to sink the Moskva, the Russian flagship in the Black Fleet, way back at the beginning of the war. They have consistently relied on U.S. intel for defensive and offensive operations.
Now, I think the idea is only to stop the offensive side of it, but intelligence works both ways, and it's critical to both help Ukraine hold its own territory and help Ukraine as they try to regain territory from the Russians.
[18:05:00]
The U.S. trying to put some pressure. It seems they're trying to sort of calibrate that pressure, but it is tremendous in its effect on top of stopping the flow of U.S. aid to Ukraine. Now, that won't hit the frontline immediately, but it will give it a couple weeks, give it a couple months and it absolutely will be felt in critical munitions, the anti-tank munitions that hold off Russian tanks, the artillery and that is crucial to just holding the frontline, this adds up, and it will add up quickly. An analyst from a think tank here said the effect will be crippling, and the holding of intelligence will only compound that.
SCIUTTO: You do have European nations trying to fill some of that gap, while acknowledging they can't fill all of it. Do we have a sense of any positive impact or how quickly Ukraine might feel some of that European help?
LIEBERMANN: So, the reason the Ukrainians don't feel the cutoff of Ukrainian aid -- of U.S. aid today is because the Ukrainians - the rest of Europe is still sending in aid. They send in about half of the foreign aid to Ukraine, but the lack of U.S. aid will hit.
Now, Europe is very quickly waking up to a new reality that perhaps they cannot simply rely on the U.S. as a crucial part of NATO as the, quote, "arsenal of democracy" that it used to be. And because of that, they're looking to their own defense companies, their own arms manufacturers. And frankly, we're seeing that effect. The European arms manufacturers stocks are going up because they know they're going to have to be relied on more heavily and they're going to get more purchases because Europe just doesn't know how or how much it can rely on the U.S.
SCIUTTO: Yes. And listen, at some point, U.S. military suppliers are going to get fewer buy orders as well.
LIEBERMANN: Of course. That's the flip side of that.
SCIUTTO: It'll be interesting to see how they communicate that to the White House. Oren Liebermann, thanks so much.
All of this is coming after a whirlwind week for global diplomacy, as well as major policy swings, including with U.S. allies. Jeff Zeleny is here to unpack it all. I mean, we talked about the military piece of this as relates to Ukraine and Europe. You have an entire trade piece as well with these tariffs quite punishing tariffs including against U.S. allies. Every day, one might say, you don't know what you're going to hear out of that building behind you, as relates to tariffs.
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF U.S. NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: There's no question about it. And I mean, the stock market and the financial markets overall, the dollar, all those were very good indicators of the uncertainty, really, that has been a through line really every day here on the seventh week of the Trump presidency on the tariff specifically.
Of course, tariffs have long been a tool for presidents. They've been a threatening tool for this president. You'll remember a month ago, he suspended the Mexico and Canada tariffs, this week he imposed them, took the autos out the next day, delayed them by another month the next day, all the while the market is wondering what exactly is the trade policy here.
So, perhaps this uncertainty is part of the strategy, but it certainly has left many people wondering what exactly all this whiplash has been for, Jim.
SCIUTTO: Jeff, is there any word from the White House that it will pull back these tariffs entirely? I mean, you listen to the president himself, he says no. He says whatever breaks he's given now, it seems primarily to aid U.S. carmakers. Come April, he plans to hit Canada harshly once again. I mean, it seems to me that the world should be preparing for this to be the norm. The concessions are just exceptions.
ZELENY: I think you're right. There's no doubt about that. The uncertainty over will he or won't he is part of the -- what all business leaders are building in. But it is that uncertainty that really, yes, they were happy to have the reprieve when you talk to business leaders and officials, they were certainly happy to have the one-month reprieve, but it's difficult to plan if you are a business. It's difficult to sort of think beyond the next deadline of tariffs, which is the 2nd of April.
The president insists he will go forward with these reciprocal tariffs, which extend well beyond Canada and Mexico. However, when you read some of the tea leaves from some economic advisors, like Howard Lutnick, for example, his commerce secretary. He has expressed, he's like, well, the president can always make a decision and can always delay. So, he's a bit of a calming whisperer to the markets, if you will.
The president says he will go forward with them. We shall see. I think any tariff now is simply a threat until it is signed and it becomes official.
SCIUTTO: And you have the leaders of some of our allies saying they see the relationship -- the trading relationship has fundamentally changed. They're -- well, they're locking in for this being a long haul. Jeff Zeleny at the White House, thanks so much.
ZELENY: Sure.
[18:10:00]
SCIUTTO: Well, Trump's policy swings have, as Jeff was saying there, wreaked havoc on the stock market. More on that in just a moment. But so far, the job market largely holding steady. U.S. jobs increased for the 50th month in a row. Not all good news. The employment -- unemployment rate ticked up slightly.
Most DOGE job cuts are expected to show up only later and it may take a while before the government layoffs take effect and the private sector starts feeling the heat. Trump reacted to criticism by saying that government jobs would be replaced by manufacturing jobs. He didn't make clear how.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: No, I think the labor market's going to be fantastic, but it's going to have high-paying manufacturing jobs as opposed to government jobs. We had too many people in government. You can't just do that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: Joining me now is Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter. Let me just start with the president's claim there that people who are being fired by the many thousands from U.S. government agencies, from Veterans Affairs to USAID, are they going to turn into manufacturing jobs? Where does he base, if anything, on what does he base, if anything, that claim that these are going to be new manufacturing jobs out there?
JULIA POLLAK, CHIEF ECONOMIST, ZIPRECRUITER: Well, clearly, he believes that the tariffs that he has opposed will spur investments in the United States and bring jobs here. Over the past few years, Investment in manufacturing facilities has increased more than 60 percent and many of those factories will be coming online over the next five to 10 years. So, many analysts do expect that manufacturing employment will turn around and start growing after being very sluggish and flat over the last few years.
SCIUTTO: Let's look at the various economic indicators. Obviously, the market has taken some significant hits in recent days, but we've also seen other measures. U.S. Consumer Sentiment declined in February for the second consecutive month down by a steep 10 percent from January. When you look at the collection of indicators, not just the stock market, but also economic indicators, where do they point?
POLLAK: They point to a continuation of the problems that we saw in the back half of 2024, with hiring slowing down and the economy being held back by tremendous uncertainty. The sources of uncertainty before were inflation and high interest rates. The hope among many businesses was that uncertainty would be resolved in 2025 and that interest rates would come back down.
Of course, there is still fear about persistent inflation and high interest rates today. We saw that in the job numbers with the large job loss among restaurants. That is a direct consequence of inflation, very high input costs, and also of high interest rates, especially with those smaller businesses, disproportionately using credit cards for financing. And so, there's still this long hangover. Now, of course, that uncertainty is only being compounded by uncertainty around policy.
SCIUTTO: Yes. Before we go inflation, of course, has been a chief concern among Americans going back years now. And when we look at the latest numbers, there's certainly been no immediate relief and some -- it seems some of the momentum seems to be in the opposite direction, right, for prices going up, particularly with the impact of tariffs. Do you see that as the most likely outcome here that the prices don't come down that, if anything, they might continue to rise?
POLLAK: So, I think the jobs report suggests that there isn't that much more inflationary pressure in this economy, and that actually prices could continue to come down. Perhaps our current estimates are too pessimistic. Housing inflation has eased and indicators that typically lead the feds measures. So, I'm still holding out hope that inflation will come back down to the feds 2 percent and that the fed will be able to cut rates at least twice and maybe three times. That is the news that businesses are hoping for. And that will finally spur hiring again.
SCIUTTO: We'll see, as we noted there in the graphic we just put up on the screen, 62 percent of Americans say they feel Trump is not yet doing enough to address inflation. Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter, thanks so much.
POLLAK: Thank you.
SCIUTTO: Well, U.S. stocks welcomed today's jobs. The Dow rallied Friday up 220 points. It was, though, a rare bright spot in a difficult week. The three major indices were all down. The S&P 500 post its worst week in six months. Analysts blamed President Trump's volatile policy shifts creating a stock market roller coaster.
The president was focused on a different investment on Friday. Bitcoin. Trump hosted the first White House crypto summit. Ahead of the gathering, he announced a new digital asset stockpile, including a strategic Bitcoin reserve.
[18:15:00]
Coming up, China taking a swipe at President Trump's foreign policy. We're going to take you to Beijing to explain.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCIUTTO: China's foreign minister strongly criticized President Trump's America First foreign policy days after his country. was hit with new tariffs. Wang Yi said what the world needs is more cooperation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WANG YI, CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): There are more than 190 countries in the world, should everyone stress my country first and obsess over a position of strength? The law of the jungle would reign again. Smaller and weaker countries would bear the brunt first, and international norms and order would take a body blow.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: Wang was speaking on the sidelines of Beijing's annual Two Sessions political gathering. He also accused Washington of having a two-faced approach, saying, no country should fantasize that it can suppress China on the one hand and develop good relations with China on the other.
Simone McCarthy is live in Beijing. And, Simone, good to have you. You were at the National People's Congress in Beijing. I wonder, as you listen to the Chinese speakers here, do they see an opportunity here, as the U.S., at least in terms of national security terms, seems to retreat from the foreign stage even as it's imposing more tariffs?
SIMONE MCCARTHY, CNN SENIOR NEWS DESK REPORTER ON CHINA: Well, Jim, certainly China does see an opportunity. They're looking at this retreat of America's first leadership and they're thinking about these models that Xi Jinping has put forward in recent years. Xi wants to have different values on the global system. He has a security initiative of its own, a civilizations initiative of its own, which might perform some values related to human rights and things of that nature.
So, China certainly has looked to have more influence in the United Nations on the global stage. It may see opportunities in America First. But at the same time, China is also looking at a lot of headwinds. They're really concerned about this potential rising trade threat with the United States. And we really saw that this week as well in terms of how China was steering its economy.
It's overwhelming top priority this year was boosting domestic consumption, and that's something where the Chinese economy has been incredibly reliant on exports. And if those exports are going to come under more trade pressures from the United States, it's going to need to rely on its 1.4 billion people to really boost consumption. And those people have had weak consumer confidence. There's questions about the future of the Chinese economy.
[18:20:00]
And so, the fact that there's that level of emphasis right now from the Chinese government, I mean, certainly, Jim, analysts are saying, well, is China really doing enough? And there's a debate about that. But the fact that that is a top priority, that really does show that China is bracing for this. They may be open minded about, OK, well, if the U.S. is stepping back, what does that mean for our position on the global stage? How can China present itself as a global leader? That is absolutely the case.
But they're also concerned about what's to come down the track with the uncertainty from the Trump administration.
SCIUTTO: Beyond boosting domestic consumption, there seems to be a deliberate effort by China to boost its technological industry and technological developments and listen, they've had some wins. I mean, you think in A.I., the advances by Alibaba and DeepSeek are things that are gaining notice around the world. That is a central part of its plan, too, is it not?
MCCARTHY: Oh, absolutely. And we saw a huge focus on that this year as well. I mean, one of the things that I'll really point out is, I was here at this time last year, and they're just -- the mood was different. There wasn't this kind of optimism that we see now, this confidence that's being projected by Chinese officials. And this optimism, which I think is really linked to that success of, you know, these domestic tech platforms like DeepSeek. We've also seen China's EV maker BYD going toe to toe with Tesla. And so, there is a lot of confidence that.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping wants to transform China's economy. He wants to really industrial -- and not just have an industrial supply chain, but have that really be infused with high-tech, with A.I., with robotics, with all these things. So, this year, we've seen China put out an A.I. focused tech fund. They're going to boost investment for innovation.
And you know, they're also doing something, Jim, which I think is very surprising, is that they're really trying to unleash the private sector and really bring them into the fight here. And as you know, in recent years, Xi Jinping had a huge tech huge crackdown on that tech sector. And so, that's, again, something that we can really see that they're trying to put China's economy on this war footing as these economic tensions with the United States heat up.
SCIUTTO: Final question, Donald Trump is fond of saying he has a very good relationship with Xi Jinping. He -- like he does with Vladimir Putin, he talks that up, says, this is someone I can deal with. I admire him, et cetera. Does Xi Jinping ever say that about Donald Trump?
MCCARTHY: Well, Chinese leaders take a very different approach than American leaders. They're certainly not giving free handed comments to the media. There's a huge level of control and choreography that goes into any kind of statements that are coming out of China. So, no, we certainly don't see that kind of language.
But on the other hand, Jim, I think we can definitely say that China is very interested in gauging on that leader-to-leader level. They really want to be able to cooperate with the United States. They say we want this win-win model. And so, I think right now, when they see that these frictions are rearing their head, they're concerned about what's coming down the track, not just tariffs, but the potential for more tech restrictions, which could put more pressure on those ambitions that we were just talking about.
So, I think that it's very fair to say that China's foreign policy establishment thinks that having that leader-to-leader diplomacy between the two of them would be the right way to protect China's interests going forward.
SCIUTTO: Simone McCarthy in Beijing, thanks so much. Well, two South Korean fighter jets accidentally bombed a village near the North Korean border this week during a live fire drill, injuring almost 30 people. Kristie Lu Stout has the details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Live fire bombs have fallen on civilians in a joint U.S.-South Korean military exercise gone wrong. On Thursday, South Korean fighter jets accidentally bombed a civilian district northeast of Seoul, injuring more than a dozen people, this according to the South Korean military.
A footage from local media shows the aftermath. We see several homes damaged by the accidental bombings, with shards of glass and debris strewn across the floor. Now, the blast destroyed two residential buildings, a truck, and part of a church. The incident took place just after 10:00 a.m. local time during military drills in Pocheon.
Now, eight NK82 bombs were, quote, "abnormally dropped" from two KF-16 fighter jets and landed outside the designated firing range. South Korea's defense ministry said it was caused by a pilot inputting the wrong bombing coordinates.
For years now, residents in the area have protested about the potential danger from nearby military exercises. And after the accidental bombing, the mayor of Pocheon is speaking out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BAEK YOUNG-HYUN, MAYOR OF POCHEON, SOUTH KOREA: I call on the government and military to come up with clear measures to prevent a reoccurrence of any further damage to civilian districts.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STOUT: The South Korean Air Force tells CNN that the fighter jets were involved in live fire drills with the South Korean army and the U.S. military, and it's all related to the annual joint drills called Freedom Shield that are due to officially begin from March the 10th to the 20th.
[18:25:00]
Now, the South Korean military now says all live fire drills will be suspended from now until the investigation is complete. South Korea's Air Force says it will provide compensation to the victims. It has also apologized for the accidental bombings.
Kristie Lu Stout, CNN, Hong Kong.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCIUTTO: It seems like it could have been a lot worse. I'm going to have a check of the international headlines and more news right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCIUTTO: Welcome back to CNN Newsroom. I'm Jim Sciutto. And here are more international headlines we are watching today. CNN has learned that two federal prosecutors who worked on the case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams have been placed on leave. This comes after eight prosecutors resigned last month in protest after they were told to drop the case. Adams has pleaded not guilty to federal bribery charges. The Justice Department has asked the judge to dismiss the indictment.
A court in South Korea has cancelled President Yoon Suk Yeol's arrest warrant, paving the way for his release from a detention center. He still faces trial, however, on insurrection charges over his brief declaration of martial law. Separately, the constitutional court is expected to rule on his impeachment in the coming weeks.
And a slow-moving storm is whipping Australia's eastern coast with wind and rain. Alfred is a rare southerly storm. It struck a barrier island as a tropical cyclone, though it's lost a little bit of steam as it bears down on Brisbane. The storm is moving extremely slowly. It was originally expected to hit on Thursday.
We've been learning more about the death of Oscar winning actor Gene Hackman and his wife. The chief medical examiner in charge of the case has revealed the 95-year-old actor died of natural causes and had suffered from a variety of illnesses. An update was also given about Hackman's wife, the pianist, Betsy Arakawa. Doctors say she died of a rare respiratory disease. [18:30:00]
Veronica Miracle is in Santa Fe, New Mexico. And, you know, of course, there'd been lots of speculation, questions about foul play, et cetera. Now, it seems they're saying that this was a sickness and natural causes, but also days apart, right, between when the wife and when Hackman died?
VERONICA MIRACLE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jim, this is turning out to be what appears to be just a horrible tragedy. The medical examiner said that Betsy Arakawa suffered from Hantavirus. She died suddenly from that disease. It's a rare disease that humans can get from contact with rodent feces and urine. So, she had Hantavirus. And they say that on February 11th, she was last seen on surveillance video at a local CVS, in a grocery store. She had some unopened e-mails from that day, but her last contact with the world was February 11th. Without being able to pinpoint the exact time of her death, they believe that's the last day that she died because of the Hantavirus.
Now, on the other hand, Gene Hackman, data from his pacemaker shows activity all the way up until February 18th. And they believe that he was alive during that time those days with his wife's body inside the house. He had advanced Alzheimer's. Here's what the medical examiner had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. HEATHER JARRELL, CHIEF MEDICAL INVESTIGATOR, NM OFFICE OF THE MEDICAL INVESTIGATOR: I did see evidence of very poor kidney function and I think he died as a result of his heart disease and with Alzheimer's being that contributing factor. He was in an advanced state of Alzheimer's and it's quite possible that he was not aware that she was deceased.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MIRACLE: And, Jim, Betsy Arakawa was 30 years younger than Gene. So, she was his caretaker. And when she suddenly died, it appears that there was no one to care for him. Their bodies were discovered by maintenance workers days later. Jim.
SCIUTTO: A sad story. Truly, Veronica Miracle, thanks so much.
MIRACLE: Yes.
SCIUTTO: In Syria, hundreds now reported killed in fighting there.
It's the worst outbreak of fighting since Bashar al-Assad was ousted from power. What this could mean for Syria's future and the Middle East, ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:35:00]
SCIUTTO: Syria's transitional government is warning supporters of ousted President Bashar al-Assad, quote, do not become fuel for a lost war. Two straight days of clashes between security forces and Assad supporters have now killed hundreds of people. Open gunfire you can hear there. That is according to a Syria monitoring group. CNN has not independently verified those numbers.
However, it is the worst violence in Syria since the Assad regime collapsed and a transitional government led by rebels seized power in December. Syrian forces have deployed to several coastal towns and villages to try to regain control. The clashes have also set off competing protests by pro and antigovernment demonstrators as the country is still struggling to emerge from 14 years of civil war, as well as half a century under Assad and his father.
Firas Maksad is managing director for the Middle East and North Africa at the Eurasia Group, and he joins me now. Good to have you back.
FIRAS MAKSAD, MANAGING DIRECTOR FOR MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA, EURASIA GROUP: Good to be with you, Jim.
SCIUTTO: I wonder if we should look at these clashes as a reminder that the transition from decades of brutal Assad rule to whatever follows now, given, you know, a large part of the country controlled by a group that used to be Al-Qaeda affiliated, right, that any idea you had that this was going to be a peaceful turnover to something all warm and fuzzy was just never going to be the case?
MAKSAD: Yes, absolutely so. In fact, it's been about three months since the Assad regime collapsed. I said himself fled to Russia, and it's been somewhat of a honeymoon period, really, for those of us who watch Syria very closely, it's kind of the calm before the storm.
This is not the first incident. In fact, there have different parts of Syria that are trying to achieve some degree of autonomy. We've got the Druze down in the south, kind of an offshoot of Islam. We've got the Kurds up in the northeast supported by U.S. forces there. And then, we have the Alawites, kind of an offshoot of Shiite Islam in that coastal area, which we saw flare up in the past two days.
This is probably the most serious challenge to the new regime's control. It certainly doesn't help that there's an overlay also of regional and also international competing interests over Syria now. So, you have ethnic and communal divisions, but you also have regional and international overlay trying to compete for influence in Syria.
SCIUTTO: Yes. All the ingredients to a civil war, right. I wonder how much support -- I mean, could this -- could we see this as a potential comeback for Assad forces or is it more -- something more likely to be isolated?
MAKSAD: Yes, I don't think that a comeback for the Assad regime or forces loyalty is on the cards. I think, really, the big danger of facing Syria right now is one of disintegration so that you don't have a central authority that's strong enough in Damascus to project power into the provinces. And so, the Druze down south, the Alawites by the coast, the Kurds up north, all of them right now are trying to negotiate a new accommodation with the government in Damascus, whether it's going to be some kind of a decentralized system or a federal system or an autonomy as we have perhaps with the Kurds in Northern Iraq.
So, this is now being negotiated live by fire in the coast. And depending on the outcome of this battle, we'll know what kind of control -- what degree of control Damascus will have over these various provinces. At this point, it seems like this insurrection is unlikely to be successful.
SCIUTTO: As you know Israel has been striking across Syria really sense that the fall of the Assad regime and then actually carried out numerous exercises prior to the fall of the Assad regime. Is Israel a stabilizing or destabilizing force in Syria?
MAKSAD: Yes. Well, you know, Jim, I was talking about these various forces that are pulling Syria apart right now. It's not only Israel. There are really three main powers competing in the Levant, all of them non-Arab, by the way, competing for influence over what is Arab territory and Arab land. You've got Iran, you've got Israel, and you've got Turkey.
Now, when it comes to Israel, there's the danger of overreach. Israel has concerns in Syria that this regime, these forces, HTS, that have been backed by Turkey, that they will, in fact, consolidate power and then that will allow the Turks to project power onto Israel's border. Obviously, Turkey is a very powerful country. It's a member of NATO, second largest army in NATO after the United States. And so, Israel's looking at this map and thinking, I don't want the Turks on my doorsteps.
The Turks also have concerns of their own. They see Israel projecting power into Southern Syria, occupying more land, landing a decisive victory against Hezbollah in Lebanon, therefore, Iran-backed forces on the retreat. And so, the Turks, too, are playing a game here at some point, even allowing weapons and money shipments to Hezbollah in Lebanon and want to maintain a thorn in Israel's side.
[18:40:00]
And that's the kind of dangerous game that's unfolding right now in the Levant that can pull Syria apart, but also undermine neighboring countries in the process.
SCIUTTO: What happens if President Trump removes U.S. forces aiding Kurdish forces there? This is something he considered and attempted to do in his first term, and there's more talk of it now. What would happen then?
MAKSAD: You know, that is absolutely key, and it's a great question. The instinct of President Trump is to withdraw from Syria in the first term. After a phone call with the Turkish president, he essentially pulled the plug on U.S. Forces in Syria, only to reverse course later on. It's very clear from whether it's Lindsey -- Senator Lindsey Graham or others who've been to Israel lately that the Israelis want to continue to see American forces supporting the Kurds. In Syria, only if this is a thorn -- only if because this is a thorn in Turkish -- Turkey side.
The Turks, on the other hand, have now a peace process with the Kurds. They're in the process of papering over their differences with Abdullah Ocalan, really a historic peace agreement. So, the messaging coming out of Turkey is that we've worked it out with the Kurds, and therefore, the United States should feel free to leave Syria.
So, it would be a game changer if, in fact, America withdraws. And we have to keep in mind, in all this volatile mix, there's still the remnants of Islamic State, the terrorist group that have attacked the United States, and that's the primary reason why U.S. forces need to remain in Syria.
SCIUTTO: Yes, and of course, the Kurds longtime ally of the U.S. would, I'm sure, consider themselves abandoned once again. Firas Maksad, thanks so much.
MAKSAD: Thank you.
SCIUTTO: We do have breaking news just into CNN, and that is that a man convicted of double murder in South Carolina was executed by a firing squad just a short time ago. To be clear, he chose a firing squad as a method of death, though a very extremely rare one, over two other approved ones, lethal injection and the electric chair. A witness to that execution spoke a short time ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEFFREY COLLINS, REPORTER, ASSOCIATED PRESS AND WITNESS TO EXECUTION: My name is Jeffrey Collins. I'm with the Associated Press. That's J-E- F-F-R-E-Y C-O-L-L-I-N-S. And what I'll do is I'll just kind of walk you through what I saw today.
So, the curtain opened, it was about, looking at my notes, around -- it was about 6:01, maybe a little bit after that. And the curtain opened. Brad Sigmon was strapped into the chair. Unlike other death executions I've seen, he was in a black jumpsuit, had black Crocs like shoes on. He was completely strapped in. It looked like there was a harness over him. There was a strap over his head. There was -- his ankles were shackled. He had a covering over his mouth that, you know, was from about here down.
When the curtain opened, he looked towards his attorney who was on the front row of the witness. They kind of exchanged -- they had an exchange. I couldn't tell because his mouth was covered what they were mouthing back and forth to each other, but it looked like he was just saying he was OK to his attorney. Sigmon did.
At that point, they had -- the attorney came out and read the final statement. When the final statement was read -- well, let me be back at one step. He had a target over his heart when the curtain opened. It was already there. It was a little rectangle white paper or I'm assuming it was paper, it could have been cloth. They had a bullseye on it. It had one outer ring and one inner ring on it. It was red. The bullseye was red. So, he came out, read his final statement. At that point, the -- when that was finished, they -- the -- a prison employee got a hood, put the hood over Sigmon's head, then that prison employee walked from the chair 15 feet over to where there's a brick wall. And at that point, there's a black shade, like one of those shades that you pull down and it rolls up. So, that -- there's a black shade there.
The prison employee lifted up the shade. And then from that point, it was a little less than two minutes of nothing at that moment. I mean, you could see Brad Sigmon took several pretty deep breaths and then suddenly the shots rang out at, I believe Christie said it was 6:05 and 50 seconds.
At that point, you did see a small red stain on Sigmon's chest. It was a regularly shaped but oval, if that makes sense. I mean, like it wasn't like a circle, it was a noble shape. I saw it looked like he may have taken a couple of -- his chest rose and fell about two times immediately after the shots. You could see a tiny piece of like tissue or something that was coming out of that.
[18:45:00]
At that point, also his arm tensed up when he got shot. There's kind of brief moment of tensing. After that, the doctor was in there fairly quickly. Less than a minute after the shots came, I couldn't see exactly what the doctor did because my viewpoint was blocked from him -- his back. But he did an examination for about 90 seconds, and then he walked back towards the other side of the room, walked from left to right as my viewing. And then, that's when the prison employee announced 6:08 is the time of death.
And the only other thing I might add is when the -- they came out after the shoot, they pulled the shade back down. I'm going to let Anna go next and see if she wants to add anything. Go ahead, Anna.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: Good lord, a description of quite a harrowing moment there. I will have more news right after the break.
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SCIUTTO: Elon Musk's SpaceX must now carry out a mishap investigation in FAA after its latest Starship rocket launch, which we carried live on the air yesterday, ended like this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What a Deerfield Beach, whoa.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: Perhaps exciting to see, but also dangerous. Debris raining down from the skies. Seen over Florida and the Caribbean after the unmanned spacecraft exploded less than 10 minutes after liftoff from Texas. Here's another look at that moment of the explosion. This one there, captured by a telescope.
This is the second time since January the mega rocket has burst into flames during a test flight. The falling debris forced temporary ground stops at airports across Florida. Hundreds of flights were delayed or diverted. I suppose you can understand why.
Tariq Malik, editor-in-chief of Space.com, joins me now. I have a very basic question, and I had some friends sitting in planes in Miami as flights were held as the debris came down. Is there a safety issue here with these rockets blowing up not far from populated areas and areas where there's, you know, lots of planes taking off?
TARIQ MALIK, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, SPACE.COM: Well, you know, I think that the safety concerns are definitely valid. It's why they held those flights in the first place. Now, SpaceX and the FAA said that they had I guess a preexisting or prepared emergency plans for this type of a thing. And of course, we've seen it happen before. This is the second time back in January, a very similar issue happened where the upper stage failed again creating, again, this cloud of debris over the Caribbean, over parts of the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos.
So, I think that definitely you don't want your planes going through there and space debris is a concern for these flights overall.
SCIUTTO: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a law that protects companies such as SpaceX and Blue Origin, we should note, from legal liability if crew members or passengers are injured or killed during missions.
[18:50:00]
But I wonder, is there enough oversight, right, of these things to make sure that folks living around, and I get it, space is hard. It always has been hard. There have always been accidents, but of course, you want to have regulations so people don't get hurt.
MALIK: Yes. You know, right now, this vehicle, this Starship vehicle is kind of a new and untested vehicle, NASA has contracted it for to land their astronauts on the moon, et cetera, but they need to make sure that the vehicle itself is safe.
Part of that is ensuring that it can get to orbit, and I think until now, SpaceX seemed to have been doing quite well with their flights. The first six of them, you know, managed to get all the way to the Indian Ocean where they threw the booster, the spacecraft into the sea. The debris concerns though are very real and the liability ones are something that will have to be worked out. We have seen actually an uptick on the regulation and the political side where they're trying to see like what are the impacts overall. Now, this is a very large vehicle. So, it is very concerning when they've seen this repeat failure.
SCIUTTO: Yes, biggest ever, if I have that right, bigger even than the Saturn V that took men to the moon.
MALIK: That's right. That's right. SCIUTTO: The intention of this -- the plan for this, right, is to take people to the moon, perhaps beyond. Is it, are these setbacks -- do they set back the schedule for those planned missions?
MALIK: I think the frustration is very real because NASA doesn't need just one of these rockets to land its astronauts on the moon. SpaceX has said that they're going to have to launch multiple rockets, 12 or so, maybe more just to get one trip to the moon, because they have to refuel it overall. They also have to demonstrate that they can refuel these rockets overall in space over and over again. And Elon Musk has said that he wants these rockets to fly, people and spacecraft to Mars.
In order to do that, you have to get to orbit first. And SpaceX hasn't done that. They've gotten to orbital speed, but they haven't orbited the entire planet with one of these despite the last year or so of tests.
SCIUTTO: Tariq Malik, thanks so much for walking us all through it.
MALIK: Thank you.
SCIUTTO: Back here on Earth, another one of Musk's companies, Tesla, is finding itself at the center of controversy. Drivers say they're being targeted. Because of Musk's role in slashing the U.S. federal government. McKenna Ewen has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MCKENNA EWEN, CNN DIGITAL PRODUCER (voice-over): Some Tesla owners say they're being targeted as the public turns on company CEO and government hatchet man Elon Musk.
STEVEN MINNICK, TESLA OWNER: I'm getting like Nazi salutes from Subarus and stuff. I had guys going like this out of windows and middle fingers. It's crazy.
EWEN (voice-over): Steven Minnick, who's owned his cyber truck since last April, caught this on camera.
MINNICK: People came up and used their finger and drew male fallacies all over and some rather pornographic words, I guess, you know, I actually had to look up a couple because I didn't know what they meant.
EWEN (voice-over): Some owners who no longer want to be associated with Musk are selling their Teslas.
JENNIFER VARGAS, FORMER TESLA OWNER: It was entirely because of the way he was behaving in public and the extremism that he was portraying.
EWEN (voice-over): Jennifer Vargas purchased hers in August of last year. She got rid of it six months later.
VARGAS: And I love the car. I like everything about it, but it was just his name being attached to it that became the issue.
DAVID NATHAN, FORMER TESLA OWNER: I felt liberated getting rid of it. You know, I think many of us feel that we are voiceless, powerless, unable to really make an impact on what's going on in the country right now, and getting rid of my car was a pretty easy thing to do.
EWEN (voice-over): David Nathan dumped his Tesla before President Trump's inauguration. This month, he joined a protest outside a showroom in Boston.
NATHAN: I was not expecting that I'd be protesting what car I drove or Musk, the person who made the car.
EWEN (voice-over): Tesla shares have tumbled more than 30 percent since Trump took office and Musk began wielding power. Investors worry Musk is damaging the Tesla brand.
DAN IVES, WEDBUSH SECURITIES: It's been a disaster so far this year. After a historic run, post-Trump winning presidency, this has been, I think, a white-knuckle moment for Tesla shareholders.
EWEN (voice-over): But does this signal long-term problems for the company?
IVES: When you're selling mass market, politics is never good. Musk knows that, but he's not someone that's going to back away because of it. I mean, the benefit of the ages continues to be Trump. Having a front row seat at the White House, what that means for autonomous and a broader vision, I think that's a huge part of the value of Tesla going forward.
EWEN (voice-over): Tesla owner Steven Minnick says he has no plans to part ways with his Cybertruck, despite the likelihood of continuing attacks.
MINNICK: I'm a nice guy. I don't deserve this kind of vitriol. If you're mad, go protest whatever you're protesting. Keep your hands to yourselves.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCIUTTO: Finally, from the White House to the World Cup, as the U.S, Mexico, and Canada prepare to host the biggest tournament in football, soccer as they call it here in the U.S., tournament, President Donald Trump is setting up a new task force to oversee preparations in U.S. cities.
[18:55:00]
It will be chaired by, who? The president himself, Vice President J. D. Vance serving as vice chair. More than 8 million visitors are expected to travel to the U.S. when the tournament kicks off next June. The new task force will also help with planning for the Club World Cup, which takes place in the U.S. this summer.
I can't wait to go. Thanks so much for your company today and this week. I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington. Hope you have a great weekend. Please do stay with CNN.
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