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Ukraine Agrees to a 30-Day Ceasefire with Russia; Duterte to Face Charges at The Hague; U.S. Education Department to Probe on Antisemitism Claims in Colleges, Universities; Opposition Prevails in Greenland's General Polls. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired March 12, 2025 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: 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.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We hope that they'll say yes, that they'll say yes to peace. The ball's now in their court.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: All eyes are now on Russia after Ukraine agrees to a U.S. proposal for a 30-day ceasefire.

As Donald Trump ramps up his trade war with sweeping new tariffs on steel and aluminum, the European Union is hitting back with measures of its own.

And former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is set to face charges of crimes against humanity at The Hague.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Rosemary Church.

CHURCH: Good to have you with us.

Russia is facing even more pressure to halt the war in Ukraine now that Kyiv has signed on to the 30-day ceasefire proposed by the U.S. Ukraine agreed to the plan during marathon negotiations with the American delegation in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.

Ahead of the talks, the U.S. Secretary of State said he'd be listening for possible concessions Ukraine would make in a peace deal. But there's no word on what Ukraine might be willing to give up. Still, a temporary ceasefire would be progress, and the onus is now on Russia to cooperate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) RUBIO: We'll take this offer now to the Russians. And we hope that they'll say yes, that they'll say yes to peace. The ball's now in their court.

But again, the President's objective here is, number one, above everything else, he wants the war to end. And I think today Ukraine has taken a concrete step in that regard. We hope the Russians will reciprocate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Back in Washington, the U.S. President welcomed the news and said he would speak to Russia's Vladimir Putin possibly as early as this week. Donald Trump also said he'd be willing to invite the Ukrainian President back to the White House, despite their explosive confrontation last month.

And CNN's Clare Sebastian is following this live for us from London. She joins us now. Good morning to you, Clare. So what more do we know about the U.S. proposal and what it took to reach this agreement?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rosemary, I think what's clear coming out of this is that Ukraine has calculated that prioritizing repairing its relationship with the U.S. is the best course of action.

I think, look, it's not 100 percent clear to what extent the personal relationship between President Trump and President Zelenskyy will have improved off the back of this. But at least they have the appearance, which I think very much matters in terms of messaging to Moscow, of appearing in lockstep with the U.S. in terms of their approach.

You can see in the statement, even before they get to the details of what exactly was agreed, the Ukrainian delegation, it says, reiterated the Ukrainian people's strong gratitude to President Trump. Obviously, gratitude was one of the key demands that led to that Oval Office spat some week and a half ago, the reason why it happened in the first place.

But I think in return for this, the Ukrainian delegation did manage to secure a lot of what they did want. Of course, restoring aid and intelligence from the U.S. was a key deliverable that we had been led to believe could happen as a result of this meeting.

They also got a mention in the statement, and this is a key point for President Zelenskyy, the idea of a return of prisoners of war as part of a ceasefire and the children forcibly transferred, it said, by Russia from Ukraine. So those are key elements for Ukraine.

I think it was also key that they included a line that the European partners should be involved in the peace process. This is also something that the Ukrainians have been pushing for. And I think, look, this did really offer Ukraine an opportunity to stand up there and counter the Russian propaganda line that it's Kyiv that's standing in the way of peace.

Take a listen to the presidential chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, who represented Ukraine at this meeting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDRIY YERMAK, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL CHIEF OF STAFF: I think from today's -- this joint statement, this expectation of the world, Russia needs to say very clearly, they want peace or not. They want to end this war, which they started or not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN: I mean, that's another way of saying the ball is in Russia's court, which is the refrain that we are hearing repeated by multiple different officials from around the world off the back of this meeting.

As you suggested, they did leave some very difficult questions for later. How on earth would you monitor a ceasefire along a thousand kilometers of front line?

[03:05:06]

This was a key concern, which led to the European and Ukrainian proposal of initially having a ceasefire just in the air. And in terms of maritime operations, they didn't talk about security guarantees.

They didn't talk about what would happen to the occupied territories, which we know is a key demand of Russia. But I think it's clear that off the back of this, Ukraine is not just back where it was two weeks ago before that Oval Office meeting. It seems to have taken a step forward.

So, of course, it's a step forward fraught with uncertainty and one that does not immediately change the facts on the ground, which are pretty fragile for Ukraine at the moment.

CHURCH: And Clare, how is Russia responding to all this?

SEBASTIAN: So, this is the real wild card here. Rosemary, as we know, the refrain is that the ball is in Russia's court, but we don't exactly know what they will do yet. When we had a European proposal for a ceasefire, as I said, that encompassed aerial operations, maritime operations and attacks on energy infrastructure, they had roundly rejected it.

The foreign ministry spokeswoman said that this would only give Ukraine space to rearm and regroup. I think now that this is on the face of it a U.S. proposal and clearly Russia is keen to pursue this reset in relations with the U.S., it's a little less clear how they're going to react.

We've heard from the foreign ministry spokeswoman, she said on Tuesday that they wouldn't be ruling out contacts with the U.S. in the coming days. It's expected from the U.S. side that Steve Witkoff, the Middle East envoy who has been fairly instrumental in bringing about this reset with Russia, will travel to Russia in the coming days. Maria Zakharova, the foreign ministry spokeswoman, has quoted again on

the radio this morning by State T.V. saying that the Russian position will only be formed inside of Russia.

I don't think we see any evidence at this point that the overarching Russian position has changed, that they want a solution which involves them being able to keep the occupied regions, the whole of the four regions that they don't even fully occupy, a neutral Ukraine, disarming Ukraine.

So I think there's still a clear distance between the two sides and of course while Russia's words may be cryptic this morning, their actions are very much not. We see that attacks in recent days have escalated, they are retaking territory in Kursk, the region in Russia that Ukraine invaded some six months ago and was supposed to be a key bargaining chip when it comes to negotiations.

And look, overnight four people killed in a missile attack in Odessa, Ukraine says, another person killed in Kryvyi Rih, which is Ukraine's president's hometown. So I think, look, clearly the calculation from Moscow must be, if you look at the escalation in attacks, that putting more pressure on Ukraine militarily may lead them to make bigger concessions at the negotiating table. So that is where we stand right now.

CHURCH: Alright, our thanks to Claire Sebastian bringing us that update from London. I appreciate it.

Well earlier, we heard from one of the Russian president's fiercest critics, opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza, weighed in on whether he believes Vladimir Putin will accept the ceasefire.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR KARA-MURZA, RUSSIAN OPPOSITION ACTIVIST: I think it is very important to understand that we can only be talking about a temporary ceasefire at best because as long as Vladimir Putin is in power, as long as there is a regime in the Kremlin that disrespects the rights and freedoms of its own people, that tramples on its own laws and on its own constitution, it is never going to abide by the civilized norms of international behavior.

For as long as there is an authoritarian, belligerent, repressive regime in Russia -- Russia is going to continue to remain a threat both to its own citizens and to the outside world.

And so the best we can hope for under the Putin regime is a temporary ceasefire. And here it is very important to see what position the free world will be taking at the negotiating table.

And to me the most important aspect of these coming negotiations is that we should talk less about raw earth minerals and talk more about human lives. There are hundreds of thousands of lives that have been lost because of this war of aggression that the Putin regime launched against Ukraine. Unprovoked war of aggression. But there are tens of thousands of human lives that can still be saved

and these are the captives, the hostages of this war. I'm speaking about thousands of Ukrainian civilians who have been abducted by Russian forces during the three years of the full-scale invasion. I'm speaking about thousands of Ukrainian children who have been abducted to Russian territory.

That is an internationally recognized war crime. That is the reason the International Criminal Court has indicted Vladimir Putin as a war criminal and issued a warrant for his arrest.

And I'm speaking about Russian political prisoners who, just like I was a few months ago, are sitting in jails today for the only reason that they've spoken out against this dictatorship and this aggression against Ukraine.

For many of them this will be the last chance to survive. If anything, whatever else this agreement does, it has to save those human lives that can still be saved today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Kara-Murza had been sentenced to 25 years in a Russian penal colony before being released last August in a prisoner exchange between the U.S. and Russia.

[03:10:05]

A 25 percent tariff on all steel and aluminum imports into the U.S. imposed by the Trump administration is now in effect. And already there's been swift reaction from the European Union which announced it would impose duties on $28 billion worth of U.S. goods following what it called unjustified tariffs.

This all comes just hours after the U.S. President backed off his threat to double the tariff rate on steel and aluminum to 50 percent for Canada in an escalation of a trade war between the two countries. That reversal from Donald Trump came after Ontario agreed to suspend a 25 percent surcharge on electricity to U.S. customers in three states.

Ontario's Premier now says he will meet with the U.S. Commerce Secretary and Canada's Finance Minister to renegotiate a free trade treaty.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOUG FORD, ONTARIO PREMIER: They understand how serious we are about the electricity and the tariffs and rather than going back-and-forth and having threats to each other, we have both agreed, let cooler heads prevail, we need to sit down and move this forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Still all the uncertainty surrounding tariffs and fears of a recession have rattled investors and the U.S. markets with all three major indices closing another day in the red. President Trump now says he doesn't see a recession at all this year,

just days after refusing to rule out that possibility. His comments though doing little to calm the markets.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny is following developments from the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF U.S. NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: President Trump trying to strike an upbeat message on Tuesday about the economy, saying in no uncertain terms he is not concerned about a looming recession.

Of course that is at odds with what he said just a couple days ago when he left unanswered that question which really has roiled financial markets for the rest of the week.

Now the President is simply trying to embrace the market uncertainty, the market chaos. He said stocks go up, stocks go down, the economy he said is strong.

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: We have the greatest economy in history. This economy in my opinion is going to blow it away. I think this country is going to boom.

ZELENY: But even as the President was speaking in the final hours of trading on Tuesday, it was clear the stock roller coaster continued with more uncertainty about the trade wars. The President threatened a 50 percent tariff on some goods coming from Canada in retaliation for Canada threatening a 25 percent tariffs on electricity for Minnesota, for Michigan and New York.

Once Canada backed off on that, Trump said he too would back off on his tariff at least in part, but going ahead with more on Wednesday for steel and aluminum. The bottom line to all of this, it's created a market uncertainty across the board even as stocks continue to fall.

Now the President said he does believe there is going to be some short term pain, acknowledged that will happen. The question, how short term and how much pain there actually will be.

But the President made clear there was one stock in particular on his mind on Tuesday when he made the extraordinary step of walking out to the White House South Lawn to stroll down the driveway with Elon Musk looking at his cars, his Tesla cars.

Of course, the President has talked against electric vehicles. He said there should not be mandates. He's even taking down some charging stations.

But he bought a Tesla, he said at full price with his own money to send the signal that that was a good stock. So certainly a very curious split-screen message as the stocks were going down. Trump was talking up one stock in particular, Elon Musk's Tesla.

Jeff Zeleny, CNN, the White House. (END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Another victory for President Trump on Tuesday as House Republicans narrowly passed a bill that would fund the federal government through September.

It was a high-stakes gamble by House Speaker Mike Johnson, who got a late push Tuesday from the President and Vice President, as well as members of Donald Trump's Cabinet, all pressing lawmakers to support the bill.

Now, the Senate has less than three days to get it approved or face a potential government shutdown. At least eight Senate Democrats have to side with Republicans to pass the bill, which includes none of the concessions the Democrats want.

Well the Trump administration is making the first move in its plan to eliminate the Department of Education, cutting nearly half of its 4,100 employees Tuesday. Security guards locked the doors to the department as employees were informed that the offices were closing for unspecified security reasons. Hundreds will be laid off in addition to those who took voluntary buyouts.

[03:14:58]

Meantime, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency told his staff he will eliminate all environmental justice officers which protect communities disproportionately affected by pollution. The move is in accordance with Trump's executive order targeting diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

Well staff of the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, had been ordered by email to shred or destroy classified and personnel documents. Now, that directive is being challenged as part of a lawsuit against the dismantling of the independent humanitarian agency.

In a court filing, the Trump administration says that personnel records had not been destroyed, but they have to explain by today which documents were and were not destroyed. USAID also sent a separate email to the staff on Tuesday about collecting their personal belongings from the now-closed offices.

Accused of crimes against humanity and bound for The Hague. We'll have reaction to the arrest of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.

Plus, five years on since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, we will look back at how it changed the world, as well as the new challenges to health care in the U.S.

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[03:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CHURCH: Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has been put on a plane to The Hague after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for alleged crimes against humanity. The fiery populist leader has been investigated by the ICC over his deadly crackdown on drugs.

His daughter, Sara, who is the Philippine Vice President, told "The Philippine Star" newspaper that this amounts to oppression and persecution.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARA DUTERTE, PHILIPPINE VICE PRESIDENT: There is no legal basis at all to turn over or going to worse the President -- Former President to ICC.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Duterte critics held a demonstration and vigil to show their support for his arrest and to honor those killed in his war on drugs.

CNN's Mike Valerio takes a closer look at Duterte's time in power and has a reaction to his arrest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte was never far from a cheering crowd. The self-styled strongman remains hugely popular with large parts of the public, despite his willingness to have people killed.

RODRIGO DUTERTE, THEN-PHILIPPINE PRESIDENT: But in Davao, I used to do it personally. Just to show to the guys that if I can do it, why can't you?

VALERIO (voice-over): Tuesday night, it was Duterte's detractors who were cheering, sending him off at the airport on his way to The Hague to be prosecuted for crimes against humanity.

While mayor of Davao City, Duterte boasted of killing suspects himself. When he became president, Duterte took his war on drugs to the entire country, giving police and hired gunmen license to kill those who didn't cooperate.

DUTERTE: Resistance is violent thereby placing your life in jeopardy, shoot and shoot him dead.

VALERIO (voice-over): Police data shows at least 6,000 people were killed like this during his time in office. Rights groups say the toll was much higher.

The victims, mostly young men from the country's most impoverished areas. Their families told their slain sons deserved to die. Llore Pasco lost her two boys to the frenzy of violence.

LLORE PASCO, VICTIM'S MOTHER (through translator): This is only the start of our fight. Our justice has not yet been achieved because there's still a lot of things that will happen. But we will not stop fighting.

VALERIO (voice-over): Tuesday's arrest came as a shock to the former president's supporters and seemingly to Duterte himself.

DUTERTE: What is the law and what is the crime that I committed?

VALERIO (voice-over): Duterte had appeared to enjoy the protection of his successor, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and that of the vice president, Sara Duterte, his own daughter.

But Marcos allowed Interpol officials to move on Duterte as he returned from a visit to Hong Kong, an act that has empowered the International Criminal Court to prosecute a former president and may give some solace to the families of the thousands killed without so much as a charge against them.

Mike Valerio, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: It's been five years since the World Health Organization declared the spread of COVID-19 had reached pandemic status. The new normal and unprecedented became buzzwords heard all too often during the historic event, which changed the world at a tragic cost.

Since 2020, more than 700 million cases of the virus have been reported around the world, according to non-profit health news outlet KFF. More than 103 million of those were recorded here in the U.S., or nearly one in every nine cases.

But the true impact of the virus is even more grim. More than 7 million people died from the coronavirus as healthcare systems around the world became overwhelmed. And while many people across the globe have been able to move on with their lives, there are still some who struggle with processing the events and losses of the pandemic five years on.

[03:25:00]

Dr. Ashish Jha is dean of the Brown University School of Public Health and a former White House COVID-19 response coordinator. He joins me now from Newton, Massachusetts. A pleasure to have you with us, doctor.

DR. ASHISH JHA, DEAN BROWN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Thanks so much for having me back, Rosemary.

CHURCH: Of course. So, Tuesday marked five years since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic. You and I spoke many times during the height of that pandemic. How has COVID changed us socially and medically, do you think, and what all have we learned?

JHA: Well, it's a big question. It's been five years.

We've learned a lot and a lot has changed.

I mean, first of all, it was a devastating pandemic. The official death toll around the world is about 7 million. I think most of us estimate that probably 25 to 30 million people around the world died.

Well over a million Americans died of this virus, so very devastating.

We learned a few things. We learned that science can act quickly. We built vaccines very quickly. We built treatments very quickly.

We also learned that our societies are fragile and they can be polarized and divided very aggressively and quite easily by bad actors, and we've got to guard against that for the future. So, a lot of lessons learned about how to do better in the future.

CHURCH: And what more are we learning about the long-term effects of COVID?

JHA: Yes, so COVID, thankfully, at this point in the outbreak or in the pandemic, as it were, though the pandemic is largely behind us now, really only poses a threat for the most vulnerable, high-risk, elderly, immunocompromised people.

For everybody else, I think it is now not much more than a nuisance. In terms of long COVID, thankfully, the incidence of long COVID has declined, meaning new infections are not really leading to long COVID very often, but there's still millions of people in America and around the world who are suffering from long COVID, and we've not done enough to develop treatments and take care of them more effectively.

CHURCH: And Dr. Jha, how well-positioned are most countries for the next pandemic, given what has been learned from the COVID-19 pandemic?

JHA: Yes, well, one thing I will say is there's a view out there that somehow, you know, this was a once-in-a-hundred-year pandemic and we can wait another hundred years. Chances are we're going to face another health crisis like this much sooner than that.

I think we are better prepared than we were five years ago. Our scientific infrastructure is better prepared, though what is happening in the United States worries me about dismantling of that.

But preparation is not a one-and-done deal. Every country needs to be focused right now on how do they strengthen their surveillance, testing, treatment, infrastructure, so when the next crisis hits, they're better prepared.

CHURCH: And while we have you with us, I do want to ask about the deadly measles outbreak in Texas and the skepticism surrounding vaccines in that state and others. How much worse could this measles outbreak get if some parents continue to fail to vaccinate their children against measles and other diseases?

JHA: Yes, so it's an important reminder that measles is the most contagious virus known to man and it can be quite deadly, can be very dangerous for even healthy children and unfortunately years of undermining confidence in vaccines has led us here and now we have the person who's done the most undermined vaccine confidence as our health secretary, so it's a very precarious moment.

I'm very worried about not just the kids of parents who have chosen not to get their kids vaccinated, but kids who are immunocompromised, undergoing cancer therapy, who can't get the vaccine. Others who are immunocompromised, who live in those communities.

So this is really going to end up being a problem for a lot more people and I worry that until we can get vaccine confidence up, we're going to be struggling with this virus.

CHURCH: Dry Ashish Jha, thank you so much for talking with us. I appreciate it.

JHA: Thank you so much for having me back.

CHURCH: And we'll be right back.

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[03:30:00]

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CHURCH: Welcome back to "CNN Newsroom." I'm Rosemary Church. I want to check today's top stories for you.

U.S. President Donald Trump's 25 percent tariff on all steel and aluminum imports is now in effect. The move marks the first time in President Trump's second term that a tariff has been applied to all countries. There's been swift reaction from the European Union, which announced it would now impose duties on $28 billion worth of U.S. goods.

The Trump administration is slashing about half of the Department of Education's workforce. The doors to the department were locked and the offices were closed late Tuesday, senior agency officials say the roughly 1,300 employees notified of their layoff will be terminated in 90 days. It's the first step in the plan to eliminate the Education Department.

[03:35:05]

After hours of negotiations, Ukraine has agreed to a U.S. proposal for a 30-day ceasefire, and the onus is now on Russia to decide whether it will comply. The temporary truce would halt fighting by land, air and sea, and the U.S. has vowed to immediately resume intelligence-sharing and security assistance to Ukraine.

Joining me now from London is Carl Bildt, former Swedish Prime Minister and co-chair of the European Council on Foreign Relations. Appreciate you being with us, sir.

CARL BILDT, FORMER SWEDISH PRIME MINISTER AND CURRENT CO-CHAIRMAN, EUROPEAN COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: Good morning. CHURCH: So, Ukraine has accepted this 30-day ceasefire proposal, and now the pause in U.S. military aid and inter-intel will be lifted. So now we wait to see if Russia's President Putin agrees to the terms, and President Trump says he will call him soon. How likely is it, do you think, that President Putin will accept this ceasefire and uphold his end of the deal?

BILDT: Well, I don't think Putin is particularly happy with this, because now Ukraine has showed that it is committed to some sort of peace negotiation, whatever that's going to result in.

Putin's inclination is to increase the military pressure on Ukraine in this particular situation. He doesn't want a ceasefire, but I guess that he will not have much of a choice.

My guess is that he will try to put some further conditions on an acceptance of this particular proposal. So I think we'll have some days of diplomatic drama ahead of us in that respect.

CHURCH: And of course, it has to be said that Russia hasn't had a great track record of sticking to the terms of ceasefires in the past, has it? So how can the U.S. be sure this time will be any different?

BILDT: No, we can't be certain of that. I think the intention here is more that Ukraine demonstrates that it is committed to a ceasefire and to some sort of political process.

The question is, is Putin ready to accept that? And I think it is a logical step to try to have a ceasefire, 30 days. Well, 30 days could be feasible. If there's going to be a longer ceasefire, I think it's got to be more complicated because then you need some arrangements to really monitor compliance with it as well.

But let's see how Putin reacts to this. I think I was trying to look at the Moscow media this morning and they are very neutral. They haven't got any guidance from the Kremlin, evidently, how to treat this particular situation.

CHURCH: Interesting. And by agreeing to this 30-day ceasefire, of course, Ukraine is showing that it's not the obstacle to peace, while also getting its relationship with the U.S. back on track. But is the U.S. still expecting more from the victim in this war than from the aggressor?

BILDT: So far, that has distinctly been the case. I mean, the American position has been that Ukraine should give up on its territorial integrity. Ukraine should give up on NATO membership. So the U.S. has made fairly significant concessions, even before the start of any talks.

And that's been remarkable. That's sort of playing Moscow's hand so far. Now it's a slightly different game. We'll see.

But the critical thing is, of course, when the real talk starts, when Putin is going to put his conditions on the table, and then we'll see how Washington reacts to that. CHURCH: And what do you think Ukraine will end up giving up, given

that Kursk was its own territorial bargaining chip? That was the only one. And now, of course, we're seeing Russia slowly take that land away.

BILDT: Yes, but that is a minor aspect of it. I mean, what the Russians are demanding is, of course, very significant territorial concessions of Ukraine.

I doubt that Ukraine will be ready to do that, unless there is some dramatic development that we are not yet aware of. Then, of course, what Moscow also wants, but perhaps even more important, is to have very significant limits on the sovereignty of Ukraine, in military, primarily military, but also in political terms.

And that's got to be the critical thing, to see if the Americans are ready to even talk with the Russians about that. I don't think they should. But we have learned that Washington is a slightly unpredictable place these days.

CHURCH: And what is your overall sense of where this is all going?

BILDT: Well, I think we are heading into a fairly prolonged phase. Whether there will be a ceasefire first, whether it will hold is one question.

Then it will be a question if the Americans, the White House team, is ready to accept the Russian demands on limits to the sovereignty of Ukraine. I don't think they should even talk with the Russians about that, because that should be talks between Russia and Ukraine.

And Ukraine is likely to say no to that. But we'll see. There's much to come.

[03:40:10]

CHURCH: Carl Bildt, many thanks for joining us. I appreciate it.

BILDT: Thank you.

CHURCH: Dozens of top Western military officials met in Paris, without the U.S., to show their support for Ukraine amid the unpredictability from Washington. French President Emmanuel Macron attended the extraordinary meeting of 34 army chiefs, including NATO and E.U. members, plus Japan and Australia. The talks were focused on assessing security guarantees for Ukraine, including potential European peacekeepers.

According to Reuters, one military official said the U.S. was not invited to show that Europe and other allies of Ukraine could take on responsibilities as the Trump administration has distanced the U.S. from its long-standing partners.

Ahead of the meeting, the French defense minister said it was important for Ukraine to have a strong army for security guarantees. He said Europe would refuse any form of demilitarization of Ukraine, which is one of Russia's demands.

Well the White House is trying to remove a legal U.S. resident for participating in pro-Palestinian protests. Coming up, why other activists fear they will be next.

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[03:45:00]

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CHURCH: In the coming hours, a prominent Palestinian activist's case will head to court days after he was arrested and his green card revoked.

The Trump administration will have to explain why it wants to deport Mahmoud Khalil. Khalil was arrested Saturday by immigration officials in New York and sent to an ICE facility in Louisiana. He is a recent graduate of Columbia University and helped lead protests there calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

The Trump administration claims he supports Hamas and terrorism, but has not offered any evidence. Protesters are denouncing Khalil's detention, saying it's a blatant crackdown on free speech. The White House says it's using Homeland Security intelligence to identify more international students who participated in pro-Palestinian protests across college campuses last year.

The U.S. Education Secretary says those protests were attacks on Jewish students and faculty on those campuses. The U.S. Department of Education is now investigating 60 colleges and universities for alleged violations relating to what it calls, quote, "anti-Semitic harassment and discrimination."

The Trump administration is also threatening to defund those schools. Pro-Palestinian protesters on school campuses have repeatedly said there is nothing anti-Semitic about calling for an end to the war in Gaza.

Panama says it will issue temporary permits for some migrants recently deported from the United States. On Tuesday, dozens of U.S. deportees in the process of repatriation were transferred to a Panama City shelter, according to a local non-profit.

The migrants, who were initially housed in a shelter within the infamous Darien Gap jungle, sought this assistance after being unable to pay for the hotel where they were sent.

Other deportees, many of them from Cameroon and Afghanistan, were not as fortunate. And confusion remains as they seek refuge without even the most basic of necessities.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN: I don't have any money because I never had a plan of coming to Panama. They just dropped me in Panama and the Panama government took me and also left me in one petrol station open at a car park. I don't know. I don't have anything.

UNKNOWN: You're just forcing us, like you're just dumping us to do something somewhere else. In a country that does not even respect the right and you're telling us they cannot give us asylum.

UNKNOWN: I don't have more money. I cannot go anywhere. I'm here. I don't have any plan for now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: The journey home, if they can or even want to return, is not a straightforward one for many migrants deported from the U.S. CNN sat down with a Venezuelan migrant who says he was nearly driven to suicide during his detention at Guantanamo Bay. In his first on-camera interview, he has a warning for others who, like him, are chasing what he says is the improbable American dream.

Our Gustavo Valdes reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GUSTAVO VALDES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A family reunion eight years in the making.

And one Jose Daniel Simancas Rodriguez thought would never happen. I had completely given up.

JOSE DANIEL SIMANCAS RODRIGUEZ, VENEZUELAN DEPORTEE (through translator): I thought I would never see my mother or children again.

VALDES (voice-over): Simancas is one of the millions of Venezuelans who left their country looking for a better future. After six years in Ecuador, the 30-year-old decided to go to the United States in 2022, embarking on a long and dangerous journey.

SIMANCAS (through translator): I spent six days without food. I saw dead people along the way.

[03:50:09]

VALDES (voice-over): He surrendered to immigration authorities after entering the U.S. illegally in 2024. He requested asylum. It was then that these tattoos got him in trouble.

SIMANCAS (through translator): They said the stars meant I was a member of Tren de Aragua. I told them I didn't know that.

VALDES (voice-over): Tren de Aragua is a criminal organization of Venezuelan origin that gained attention in the U.S. after a series of high-profile events. The Trump administration designated it an international terrorist organization.

Simancas was also accused of reentering the United States illegally, even though he says he never crossed before. After nine months in detention, he was told they were going to Miami. He says it didn't take him long to figure out they were in Guantanamo Bay once they landed and were rushed to the detention facility.

SIMANCAS (through translator): You feel fear from the moment you step on the bus because it's as if they blindfold you. They might as well have placed a bag over our head because all the windows in the bus were blacked out and you don't know where you're going.

They take you to a room and I only got a pillow and a bed sheet, no mattress. I spent at least 10 days with no mattress.

VALDES (voice-over): He was not allowed to talk to other detainees, but he says they found a way to communicate.

SIMANCAS (through translator): We started to scream. We laid on the floor and screamed through the gap between the door and the floor because it was the only way to be heard.

We couldn't see each other. We could only shout.

VALDES (voice-over): Harsh conditions, he says, made him contemplate taking his own life.

SIMANCAS (through translator): That is the torture, the confinement. You are not alive. You are there and not alive, where you don't know if it's day or night. You don't really know the time.

VALDES (voice-over): U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities declined to comment on these allegations, citing pending litigation.

Jose Daniel Simancas Rodriguez was among the more than 170 Venezuelans deported to their country in February 20. The emotional return to his five children is the start of a healing process, he says, hasn't been easy because he says that he and the other deportees suffer from insomnia and fear of leaving their homes.

SIMANCAS (through translator): If their intention was to keep us from returning to the U.S., they've succeeded. If they wanted to traumatize us, they've succeeded.

VALDES (voice-over): Now he warns others seeking the American dream that it's a dream that doesn't exist.

Gustavo Valdez, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: And we'll be right back.

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[03:55:00]

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CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. Greenland's pro-business opposition party has won Tuesday's general election, unseating the ruling coalition in Parliament. That vote is in the international spotlight because U.S. President Donald Trump put it there. He is promising that the U.S. will one day own the Danish territory, but what Greenland really wants is its own independence.

And CNN's Fred Pleitgen has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A high-stakes vote in the high north. People lining up in Greenland's polling stations for an election they feel is decisive and could determine whether they will seek independence from Denmark soon, as President Trump wants.

UNKNOWN: We don't want to be a part of the U.S.A. for obvious reasons like health care and Trump.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): But President Trump does very much want Greenland to become part of the U.S.

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: And I also have a message tonight for the incredible people of Greenland. We need Greenland for national security and even international security, and we're working with everybody involved to try and get it.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): Fewer than 60,000 people live in Greenland, a semi-autonomous region of Denmark. But underneath the vast Arctic ice shield lie vast quantities of oil, gas and rare earths.

And global warming is causing that ice to melt fast.

Greenland also hosts a radar for America's missile defense shield. President Trump saying its strategic location between America and Europe means the U.S. must have it.

Trump even deploying his son Don Jr. on something of a fact-finding mission in January, with a documentary film showing him speaking to some local folks, most of them wearing MAGA hats.

UNKNOWN: So you like the U.S.?

UNKNOWN: I like the U.S.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): Even putting his dad on speakerphone.

UNKNOWN: You're right.

UNKNOWN: You guys like that, right?

PLEITGEN (voice-over): But most here don't actually seem to like it that much. None of the major political parties favor joining the U.S., and threats from the Trump administration against Denmark, an important U.S. ally, including a reportedly fiery phone call between the president and Denmark's prime minister, caused a stern rebuke from Copenhagen.

METTE FREDERIKSEN, DANISH PRIME MINISTER: Greenland is today a part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It's a part of our territory, and it's not for sale. The chairman, the leader of Greenland, has been very clear that they are not for sale.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): Both the Danes and the Greenlanders making clear Greenland's future will be decided at the ballot box, and not in the White House.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Berlin.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: And thanks for spending your day with me. I'm Rosemary Church. "Connecting Africa" is up next, then stay tuned for "Early Start" with Rahel Solomon.

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