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Pope Francis to be Discharged from Gemelli Hospital; Trump Denies Signing Order Invoking Alien Enemies Act; Columbia University Changes Policies After Trump Withholds $400M; Hamas Claims Israeli Airstrike Kills Leader in Gaza; Israel Intercepts Projectiles from Iran-Backed Groups; Tesla Owners Sell Their Cars at Record Rate in Protest; U.S. Blocks Canadian Access to Shared-Border Library. Aired 5-6a ET

Aired March 23, 2025 - 05:00   ET

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

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[05:00:35]

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada, and all around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN Newsroom.

Pope Francis finally preparing to leave the hospital where he's been for six weeks. We're live in Rome with word of when he'll next address the faithful.

Trump says he didn't sign a wartime authorization for deportations. We'll tell you how his administration is trying to clarify those statements.

Plus, a difficult new chapter for one community. We go inside a library straddling the U.S.-Canada border, the latest victim of new U.S. policies.

ANNOUNCER: Live from Atlanta, this is CNN Newsroom with Kim Brunhuber.

BRUNHUBER: We start in Rome where the world will get to see Pope Francis in-person today for the first time since he was hospitalized for a respiratory infection on February 14th. I want to go straight to CNN's Senior International Correspondent, Ben Wedeman, who is live outside the hospital.

Ben, a relief for so many and a surprise as well. Take us through the latest on his condition and what happens next.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly the news that he's getting out of hospital is certainly a surprise to many of us who've been waiting now for weeks to hear that news. What's interesting, Kim, is that Friday afternoon at the regular briefing at the Vatican press office, journalists were told that there would be no updates over the weekend, that at the earliest we would hear the next medical update on Monday evening. However, yesterday morning, Saturday morning, it was announced that the Pope would be appearing in a balcony here at Rome's Gemelli Hospital during the Angelus prayers, which occur midday Rome time.

Then, later in the afternoon, journalists received another notification saying that in just two hours, the doctors who lead the medical team treating Pope Francis would be giving a medical briefing. And at that briefing, this is what we heard from one of those doctors.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR SERGIO ALFIERI, DOCTOR TREATING POPE FRANCIS: The Holy Father will be discharged tomorrow, as we said before, in a stable clinical condition with a prescription to partially continue drug therapy and convalescence and rest period at least two months.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WEDEMAN: So he's going to be stationary for two months, which is going to be difficult for a Pope who's been very active.

Now, here's one of the Italian newspapers, Corriere della Sera, saying, (foreign language) contentissimo, the Pope is returning very happy. According to the doctors we heard from yesterday, the Pope, for the last two weeks, his situation has been stable and he has been pushing them, urging them to let him return to his suite or apartment in the Casa Santa Marta in the Vatican.

Room 201 on the second floor, very modest, 90 square meters, about 270 square feet, where he will be continuing to receive treatment, even though he's overcome his double pneumonia. The doctors say he's going to need two months of rest. He's continuing to receive medicine for his condition and also is undergoing therapy as well.

But nonetheless, we are now waiting to see. It's about two hours from now that we expect him to appear on one of these balconies behind me, overlooking where we are expecting people to gather during that Angelus prayers. And sometime after that, he will return to the Vatican.

Kim?

BRUNHUBER: Contentissimo. I love that. Ben Wedeman in Rome. Thanks so much.

U.S. President Donald Trump spent Saturday night courting some of his key supporters by attending the NCAA Wrestling Championship in Philadelphia. He faced protesters outside the arena but received a warm welcome inside. The President has made a point to go to major events like these, including NASCAR's Daytona 500 and the Super Bowl.

As Trump ramps up his immigration crackdown, the U.S. is sending another warship to areas near the southern border. The military says the USS Spruance, a guided missile destroyer, will help combat maritime-related terrorism and illegal seaborne immigration, among other tasks. It will join the USS Gravely, which was deployed last weekend. [05:05:15]

While President Trump is dealing with growing legal troubles after invoking a law dating back 200 years, the aim was to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members, but he says he never signed the order and now the administration is offering a clarification.

CNN's Alayna Treene has more.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, the president is really triggering a potential legal headache for his administration in trying to distance himself, what is shaping up to be one of the hardest- fought legal battles of Donald Trump's term thus far.

Now, a reporter asked the president on Friday, before he departed for New Jersey, about a question posed by the federal judge at the center of this case, Judge James Boasberg, who essentially was seeking answers in a hearing Friday about why the administration signed this proclamation in what seemed like the dead of night and then hurried these migrants onto a plane to be deported to El Salvador.

This is how the President responded.

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DONALD TRUMP (R), U.S. PRESIDENT: We want to get criminals out of our country, number one. And I don't know when it was signed because I didn't sign it, other people handled it, but Marco Rubio has done a great job and he wanted them out and we go along with that. We want to get criminals out of our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Now, as you heard there, the President is arguing that he couldn't answer the question because he wasn't the one who signed the proclamation. He also brought up, unprompted, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, trying to suggest that he's the one who's calling the shots here.

However, when it comes to this issue of signature or no signature, if you look at the proclamation, it's on the White House's website, it's very clear that it's issued by the president of the United States, but even further than that, it's actually filed on the National Register, and you could see it, the President's very recognizable signature there at the bottom.

Now, the White House, a couple hours later after that exchange, tried to clarify what the president was saying. They wrote this. They said, quote, "President Trump was obviously referring to the original Alien Enemies Act that was signed back in 1798. The recent executive order was personally signed by President Trump invoking the Alien Enemies Act that designated Tren de Aragua as a foreign terrorist organization in order to apprehend and deport these heinous criminals.

Now, Tren de Aragua, of course, is the Venezuelan gang that they are using to really justify the form of this usage of this wartime authority, this wartime law.

Now, what the White House is trying to say here is that Trump did not sign the actual 1798 law. However, that wasn't the reporter's question. All to say, if you take a step back, we are now seeing this legal battle play out for a whole week now. There's still a lot of questions we know that the judge is trying to get answered.

This is not the end of this fight. Alayna Treene, CNN, Bridgewater, New Jersey.

BRUNHUBER: Congressional Democrats are feeling the pressure as they faced frustrated Americans at town halls. Democratic lawmakers were met with eruptions of anger from voters across the country this week. Many constituents have coupled their fury over President Trump's actions with the lack of response from their Democratic leaders. During a California town hall, Congressman Ro Khanna was met with a voter worried about health care as she battles breast cancer.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am so frightened.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I love you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is Congress going to do for us? What are you going to do for us? And what can we do?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Republican leaders told their party's House members not to hold town hall meetings during this week's congressional recess.

Columbia University is making dramatic changes to its policies regarding protests, curriculum, and disciplinary procedures. And they appear to be concessions to U.S. President Donald Trump. And they come after he ordered his administration to withhold $400 million in federal funds, CNN's Gloria Pazmino explains.

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GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. It's a remarkable concession from Columbia University, one of the country's most elite educational institutions, essentially conforming to Trump administration demands after the administration said it would cut more than $400 million in federal funding for what they say is the university's failure to address anti-Semitic violence and harassment on its campus.

So what we're seeing here is the university responding to some of these demands, and they're doing so by changing its policies significantly, including putting specific rules in place about how students will be allowed to protest and how those protests will be policed.

Now, this is all a part of the long fallout we are seeing. After protests last year, the Columbia University campus became sort of the epicenter for these protests against the Israel-Hamas war. Protests at Columbia led to several disruptions, including the cancellation of in- person classes, the disruption of graduation ceremonies, and ended with a significant standoff between student protesters who barricaded themselves inside of a building and members of the NYPD and university officials who for days struggled to keep the protests under control.

[05:10:26]

Now, here's how the university is changing its rules. They are hiring additional police officers who will have the power to arrest protesters. The university is going to require university I.D. in order to participate in demonstrations. No face coverings will be allowed at the protests. Protests will not be allowed in or around academic buildings. And there will be new anti-discrimination policies.

One of the most controversial changes is that the university will be appointing a senior vice provost who will be in charge of overseeing the Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African studies department.

Now, the question is how the student body and the rest of the faculty will react to the changes in policy. The university is currently in the middle of spring break, but students are expected to return next week.

In the meantime, we are getting the first public signal of support. The board of trustees issued a letter this week to the academic community saying that they were standing behind the decision to change these rules.

They said in part, quote, "We have and continue to support Interim President Armstrong's approach." The trustees also wrote, "We are grateful for her principled and courageous leadership during this unprecedented time and for the steps she has and is taking to strengthen our institution.

So the board of trustees has an incredible amount of power at the university. They're in charge of picking the president. They oversee the budget and the endowment, and they also oversee university operations and their properties. So this is very much a public signaling that at least from this letter, we can assume that the board is fully behind these changes.

The question is whether or not this is going to be enough for the Trump administration and whether or not the funding will, in fact, be restored.

Gloria Pazmino, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: A few hours ago, a Turkish court ruled that Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu would be jailed ahead of his trial on charges related to corruption. That's according to CNN Turk. His detention isn't connected to separate terrorism charges. Four of his aides who are facing charges will also be imprisoned. Now, the detention of Imamoglu, a key political rival to Turkish

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has sparked days of protests. His party calls the charges politically motivated and vows to bring an end to Erdogan's decades-long tenure.

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OZGUR OZEL, LEADER, REPUBLICAN PEOPLE'S PARTY (CHP) (through translator): We will come tomorrow. We will choose. We will go down in history. We know who will be going. We are running to the ballot boxes to determine the name of the candidate that will unseat him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: All right, still ahead, how failing ceasefires are fueling tension in the Middle East. We'll bring you the latest next.

Plus, Ukraine's capital gets a deadly reminder about the reality of war just as diplomats prepare to talk ceasefire.

And many drivers are turning away from Tesla. They're blaming Elon Musk's involvement with Donald Trump. We'll have that story later this hour. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Ukraine's capital has been taking Russian drone fire just hours before new ceasefire talks are set to begin. Officials say three people were killed in a massive overnight attack which left eight others injured. A residential high-rise caught on fire during the strikes, while the debris from drones hit by Ukraine's air defenses rained down on the city.

Now, that's happening as negotiators are preparing for more talks on a partial ceasefire in Saudi Arabia. Sources tell CNN that U.S. diplomats will meet with Ukrainians in the coming hours before sitting down with Russians on Monday. More meetings are possible after that. The diplomats will focus on a proposed ceasefire on energy targets and in the Black Sea. But a U.S. special envoy says there's one bigger issue hanging over future talks.

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STEVE WITKOFF, U.S. SPECIAL ENVOY: The elephant in the room is there are constitutional issues within Ukraine as to what they can concede to with regard to giving up territory. The Russians are de facto in control of these territories.

TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS HOST: Yes.

WITKOFF: The question is will they be -- will the world acknowledge that those are Russian territories? Will it end up -- can Zelenskyy survive politically if he acknowledges this? This is the central issue in the conflict. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: The fragile truce between Israel and Hezbollah is being tested as Israel ramps up its military operations in the Middle East. The Israeli military has targeted the militant group's infrastructure with deadly airstrikes across Lebanon. This comes as hundreds have already been reported dead amid Israel's renewed offensive in Gaza.

Now, Israel says it has intercepted a missile launched from Yemen. CNN International Producer Sebastian Shukla joins us now from Berlin.

Sebastian, bring us up to speed. What's the latest?

SEBASTIAN SHUKLA, CNN INTERNATIONAL PRODUCER: Yeah, Kim, it's been a tricky week for those various ceasefire that was -- been in place in various different parts between Lebanon and also in Gaza. And last night and yesterday we saw the very shaky truce that had existed between Israel and its northern neighbor, Lebanon, which saw a series of two airstrikes conducted by the IDF, which were on command centers and ammunition depot. The IDF said, you know, those assets inside Lebanon.

[05:20:00]

We've also seen scores of people killed, seven Lebanese media had reported, as well as 40 injured. What we don't know yet is -- and both sides are trading blames at each other -- is what started this flare- up. We know that around 7 a.m. yesterday, Israeli media reported that projectiles had fired, had been fired from southern Lebanon towards those communities in Israel's north.

Hezbollah are denying any involvement in that whatsoever. They're saying that this is just a pretext for the IDF to continue larger, more nationwide airstrikes against Lebanon.

But, Kim, on Tuesday we also saw the situation in Gaza and that ceasefire come to a halt, which had been in place since January. And it came to a grinding halt, because since then Israel has ramped up its operations from Tuesday. And according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, 634 people have been killed, with over 1,000 people injured and with people and bodies still remaining under the rubble.

Israel and Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, has vowed that there will be increased military strength until Hamas comes back to the negotiating table and, importantly for Israel, returns the bodies, both dead and alive, of those remaining Israeli hostages taken on October 7th.

So, in all, it's a very shaky situation at the moment. And Israel last night also are showing their intelligence prowess still with Gaza when it comes to rooting out Hamas officials.

Salah al-Bardawil, who was the Hamas Political Leader, was also killed in his tent last night, according to the IDF, Kim.

BRUNHUBER: All right, I appreciate that. Sebastian Shukla in Berlin, thanks so much.

For more on this, I want to bring in, from New York, Yaakov Katz. He's a Senior Columnist for the Jerusalem Post, as well as a fellow with the Jewish People Policy Institute.

Good to see you again. So, we heard there about all the growing unrest and tension in the region. I want to start on Israel's attacks in Lebanon. Is that country being dragged back into war here?

YAAKOV KATZ, SENIOR COLUMNIST, JERUSALEM POST: Well, I think, Kim, that what we're seeing or what we saw in Lebanon on Saturday was the fact that after a few rockets were fired by Hezbollah into Israel, Israel is basically saying we have a zero-tolerance policy.

In other words, even at a small infraction or violation of the very delicate ceasefire, Israel will retaliate with great force. Basically, an important message to send to Hezbollah, as well to the rest of the Lebanese people, that this will not be tolerated and that if provoked, the path back to a larger confrontation is a very short path.

This is one of the main lessons, I think, of what happened on October 7th. Israel will no longer fall back into a policy of one that's called containment. In other words, seeing that its enemies are growing, seeing that they're amassing weapons and even allowing them to attack occasionally, now, if you attack even once, the response will be swift and will be fierce, and hopefully that message will have been received.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, although Hezbollah has denied launching those rockets. Now, the Houthis, another Iranian ally, have again started firing missiles at Israel. So, the attacks from Lebanon and from Yemen, they both seem tied to Israel resuming the war in Gaza. What role is Iran playing in all of this, do you think?

KATZ: Well, we know, Kim, and we've seen this, unfortunately, for the last 18 months, how much Iran is the puppeteer in everything bad that's happening pretty much in the Middle East today, right? The Houthis in Yemen, they are a proxy of the Iranians. I mean, we look at Yemen as an example. Such a poor country, no resources, barely food for people to eat, but somehow there is a terrorist militant organization there that has long-range ballistic missiles that can fly thousands of miles and strike inside another country. Where did they get this from? They got them from Iran.

Hezbollah in Lebanon, a country that has also been shattered after so much war, poor country, economy in tatters, also because of the fact that it's allowed this terrorist group Hezbollah to take over the country. Hezbollah is another proxy of the Iranians. And, of course, Israelis know this well, Hamas in Gaza.

So, Iran is really much pulling the strings from behind the scenes. And also, we've seen over the last year, Kim, and we've spoken about this in the past, Iran attacking Israel directly on two different occasions in 2024 with long-range ballistic missiles. So, I think that Iran very much is the source of a lot of what we're seeing. And hopefully, with the efforts now underway by the Trump administration to maybe bring them into a nuclear deal, this would have to include also getting them to rein in their terrorist proxies.

BRUNHUBER: All right. I want to turn to the growing war again in Gaza. And you mentioned Donald Trump there. When the ceasefire was agreed, Donald Trump took credit for that. Do you think he bears any blame now for its collapse?

[05:25:14]

KATZ: Well, I don't know if it's blame necessarily, but there's no question that, unlike the -- during the period of the Biden administration, there is zero daylight, it seems, between the Trump administration and the Israeli government at the moment.

Earlier, you played some of the remarks by Steve Witkoff, the special envoy. He's also working on the Russia-Ukraine track, but of course also on the Hamas-Israel track. And he said in that same interview with Tucker Carlson that he -- that they are giving Israel the backing for its position right now on trying to use military pressure to get Hamas to ease up its demands and to release the rest of the 24 living hostages, as well as the 35 bodies that they were still holding on to ever since October 7th.

So Israel and the Trump administration do seem to be completely aligned here. The question is, how long will this go on for? And will there come a point that Donald Trump will say, OK, I've lost my patience. I no longer am interested in this conflict.

Bibi Netanyahu, wrap this up, get this over with, whatever the price might be, whether it's declaring an end to the war or, God forbid, and I hope this never happens, leaving those hostages who are waiting for us to bring them home behind in Gaza.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, so much on the line with that. We'll have to leave it there. Yaakov Katz in New York, thank you so much.

KATZ: Thank you.

BRUNHUBER: The FBI is now involved in the attacks targeting Tesla showrooms and vehicles. In the polls ahead, how Elon Musk's turn to big government is costing one of his biggest businesses.

Plus, polls show Canadians are furious with Donald Trump's trade war and vow to annex their country. They'll soon have a chance to vote for the party they believe will best protect them.

That and more coming up. Stay with us.

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[05:30:19]

BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. Here are some stories we're watching today. The Pope is set to be

released from the hospital after weeks of treatment for double pneumonia. The head of the Pope's Care team made the announcement Saturday, clarifying that Pope Francis will continue his recovery process at the Vatican. The press office says Pope Francis is expected to address worshippers in the coming hours for Angelus prayers.

Israel is responding to missile fire from its neighbors following the collapse of a ceasefire agreement with Hamas Tuesday. Earlier, the Israeli military says it intercepted a missile launched from Yemen, this as Hamas claims one of its political leaders was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza today. The Palestinian Health Ministry says hundreds have been killed in the enclave since Tuesday.

U.S. President Donald Trump's team is trying to clarify his statement that he didn't sign an order authorizing the use of a 200-year-old law to deport migrants. On Friday, Trump said he didn't sign the proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. Well, now the White House says he was referring to the original act signed in 1798, when he made that statement, not the order he signed on Thursday.

The FBI has issued a public alert about attacks on Tesla vehicles and showrooms. Cars have been spray painted and even set on fire. President Donald Trump, who's aligned himself with Tesla CEO Elon Musk, suggested those responsible could be sent to prison in El Salvador.

CNN's Julia Vargas Jones reports on the growing backlash against Musk and his brand.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE ROMER, SELLING HIS TESLA: Password incorrect. Of course it's incorrect.

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Rolling his Model Y back to factory settings, Joe Romer is a Tesla owner no more.

A week ago, while covering a protest at a Tesla service center, we found Romer as he drove past the picket line.

ROMER: I'm in the process of getting my car repaired so that I can sell it.

JONES: Today, he says a weight is lifted.

ROMER: I feel better because I was getting to the point where this was being embarrassing driving this car because of Elon Musk and the things he's doing right now, and that just I find annoying and not acceptable.

JONES: Even though he's selling for less than a third of what he originally paid four years ago, Romer is not alone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From our hub as I were picking up eight Teslas today. JONES: In 2025, thousands of Americans are breaking up with the

automaker. Tesla cars for model year 2017 or newer made-up 1.4% of all vehicles traded in through mid-March. That's more than triple the rate from this time last year, according to Edmund's data shared with Reuters. And some Tesla drivers are hiding in plain sight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And then I just took my finger and I just pulled it off. It makes me feel like I'm doing something.

JONES: Masking a Tesla costs almost nothing. But in the week Romer waited to sell, he got $800 less for the car.

BRIAN MOODY, KELLEY BLUE BOOK SENIOR STAFF EDITOR: There's always going to be opportunity to either do the right thing, or at least signal that you're doing the right thing. But for most people, the average consumer, taking the hit on the depreciation of a relatively expensive electric car by selling it just to prove a point is not something that they're in the business of doing.

JONES: Protests continue at dealerships across the country, and some Tesla properties have become targets. Torched with Molotov cocktails, shot at, and defaced. And all this comes as Tesla faces new headaches, including potential import tariff woes and recalls after Cybertruck panels have been reportedly falling off. The stock price has also plunged. That has liberals cheering.

GOV. TIM WALTZ (D), FORMER VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They've got that little stock app. I added Tesla to it to give me a little boost during the day.

JONES: And the Trump administration taking unprecedented steps to defend the company. On Thursday, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced charges against three people accused of destroying Tesla property in Oregon, Colorado and South Carolina. If convicted, each faces a minimum of five years and up to 20 behind bars. And on Friday, President Trump comparing attacks on Tesla facilities to the January 6th insurrection.

TRUMP: Well, I view these people as terrorists just like others. These are -- when I looked at those showrooms burning and those cars, not one or two, like 7, 8, 10, burning, exploding all over the place, these are terrorists. You didn't have that on January 6th.

JONES: All of that going too far for Romer.

[05:35:00]

ROMER: It is done.

JONES: How do you feel?

ROMER: Better.

JONES: Better?

ROMER: Happy. JONES: And protests like this one in Pasadena, California, are mostly very peaceful. They're saying Tesla tyrant, impeach Elon Musk. They're saying mostly that Musk has an outsized role in government and that they don't agree with it. He wasn't elected. Trying to send a message vote to Tesla to try to hit them where it hurts in their pocketbook and also to the Trump administration.

Now, it remains to be seen if that message will be heard or if the administration will just double down.

Julia Vargas Jones, CNN, Pasadena, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: All right, still to come, the U.S. and Canada share a library right on the border that represents decades of friendship and trust between the neighboring countries. Well, now, the White House is looking to sever that tie, the puzzled and frustrated reactions ahead. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: In just a few hours, Canada's new Prime Minister is expected to trigger a snap federal election. Mark Carney recently replaced Justin Trudeau as prime minister and as leader of Canada's Liberal Party. The voting will likely take place in hundreds of constituencies at the end of April. That's according to sources.

Now, polls show Carney's party has rebounded in popular support as U.S. President Donald Trump imposes a catastrophic trade war. He's also vowing to turn Canada into the, quote, "51st state," which polls show most Canadians and major Canadian political parties flat-out reject. Carney hopes to remain as prime minister against the Conservative Party, and he's promising to protect Canada against what many in Canada call its newly unreliable southern neighbor.

The U.S. government is taking a stand against what it calls illicit cross-border activity from Canada by cracking down on an unlikely target, a library that sits smack on the border between the state of Vermont and the Canadian province of Quebec.

[05:40:05]

For decades, Canadians have been able to freely enter the library's main entrance, which is located on the U.S. side, but the Trump administration has declared those long days of casual friendship are over.

Anna Guber with CNN Affiliate WPTZ has the baffled reaction of the Canadian and American neighbors.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULINE LUSSIER, STANSTEAD, CANADA RESIDENT: We're friends.

CHRIS BLAIS, DERBY LINE, VERMONT RESIDENT: We are friends. LUSSIER: Gosh.

BLAIS: We are friends.

ANNA GUBER, REPORTER, WPTZ (voice-over): Chris Blais has lived in Derby Line, Vermont, for 50 years, while Pauline Lussier has lived just minutes away over the U.S.-Canada border in Stanstead, Quebec, for 25. But the moment the two strangers from different countries stepped inside the Haskell Free Library on Friday, they say they only saw each other as neighbors, united in their love for the historical landmark.

LUSSIER: Are you from U.S.? No. No. Never, never, never.

BLAIS: No.

LUSSIER: We never questioned anybody.

BLAIS: We're neighbors.

LUSSIER: We're neighbors.

BLAIS: We're neighbors.

GUBER: While the two women say it doesn't matter where they come from, U.S. Border Patrol says otherwise. Because the library straddles the border between Derby Line and Stanstead, the U.S. has given Canadians very specific instructions to enter.

(On camera): Where crews are standing over there is Canada. And if anyone from Canada wants to come to the library, they must walk along this sidewalk. They cannot step off of the sidewalk. And they must enter through this front door here, or the door on the side that leads to the Opera House.

(Voice-over): But now the Trump administration is changing the rules, issuing an order that Canadians can no longer enter the library through these designated entrances on the Vermont side of the border.

LUSSIER: There's no word. I can't believe what these people are doing. They don't know what they're doing. What about our feelings? What about the people? They don't care.

GUBER: While a physical line runs through the building to represent the two sides of the U.S.-Canadian border, Chris and Pauline say they've never felt a divide until now.

LUSSIER: It doesn't have to be this way.

BLAIS: This is a choice. This is a choice. And it's a poor choice. It's an uneducated choice.

LUSSIER: I'm shaking all over, and I can't believe it's happening, due to one person.

GUBER: But Stanstead and library officials say they're fighting back with a loophole.

SONIA DE PAOLI, LIBRARY BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEMBER: We do have a back door, or a door, in the other side of the building on the Canadian side. And so we'll be using that door.

GUBER: Ensuring people from both sides of the border, like Chris and Pauline, can continue coming together.

LUSSIER: Where are you from? Where are you from?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm from Derby, Vermont.

GUBER: Forging friendships in the space they love.

DE PAOLI: All my children have been in here.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: All right. I want to bring in Jody Stone, who's the mayor of Stanstead in the Canadian province of Quebec. Thank you so much for being here with us.

So, listen, I have to say, I was born in Quebec, and I have to admit, I'd never actually heard of that library before all this controversy. Are you surprised to be at the center of this political firestorm?

JODY STONE, STANSTEAD, CANADA MAYOR: You know, it's been a little shocking. It was surprising that Stanstead has taken a big focal point in this discussion.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, absolutely. And we saw there, I mean, the emotion between the two people, the Canadian and the American, in that piece there. I mean, this library has been a symbol of cross-border cooperation for more than 100 years. Just explain how -- how linked the two communities are.

STONE: Well, to be quite honest, if there wasn't a border, you wouldn't tell the difference between the two communities, because the buildings, there's several buildings that straddle the border. So, honestly, if that border wasn't there, it would be the same community. That's how tied we are. We drink the same water. We use the same sewer plant. You know, our fire services cross freely when needed. That's how intertwined our communities are and have been for many, many years.

BRUNHUBER: So the controversy seemed to start in February when Homeland Security Secretary Christy Noem used the library as a prop to repeat Donald Trump's threat to make Canada the 51st state. I mean, what did you make of that moment?

STONE: Well, I was very disappointed. I would have thought that someone of her stature, of her level, wouldn't have mocked Canada in that way. I think it angered many people from Stanstead and Derby Line alike. You know, I think we deserve a little bit more respect.

BRUNHUBER: Now, U.S. Customs and Border Protection explained the new rules in a statement by saying this area has witnessed a continued rise in illicit cross-border activity. Is that true?

STONE: Well, not to my knowledge.

[05:45:02]

We've met with the Border Patrol on several occasions. They had concerns of control. They wanted to be able to control the front entrance. But not that there was any issues, any more issues than in the past. They keep referring to issues that happened many years ago. So, to my knowledge, there isn't an issue. It's just a question of control.

BRUNHUBER: Now, since this has all happened, you've received international attention from around the world. I mean, take me through what you've seen in terms of the support that you've got since this all happened.

STONE: Well, I've received emails from, like you said, around the world, Africa, Germany, Belgium, you know, literally places I would have never thought even would have heard of Stanstead.

But yeah, since -- since we've cried out and said that we needed some help trying to get the entrance on the Canadian side, we've even gotten even more support. We've got people saying that they're going to come and visit Stanstead this summer to come and encourage and to support our community. So it's been very, very humbling to know that we have so many people on our side.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, it's possible that this library could become a new symbol of overcoming, you know, cynical political efforts to divide us.

Stanstead Mayor Jody Stone, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

STONE: Thank you very much.

BRUNHUBER: All right. President Donald Trump took to Truth Social on Saturday calling for a, quote, "full-throated" apology from the governor of Maine, Janet Mills. He said she failed to comply with his order banning transgender women from competing in women's sports. He also demanded she never again challenge the federal government's stance on the issue.

Now, the remarks come after Trump and Mills got into a remarkable and tense standoff at the National Governors Association Winter Summit. Trump threatened to pull the state's funding over the issue. Maine's governor retorted, see you in court.

All right. Imagine teaching a robot to roll over and fetch. That's what a Swedish startup is hoping to do. Coming up, why the company believes it can make artificial intelligence man's next best friend.

Stay with us.

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[05:51:22]

BRUNHUBER: A significant piece of Jurassic history has been hiding in plain sight in Australian high school. Biloela State High School has been displaying this slab of rock for 20 years. Researchers say it contains 66 fossilized footprints left in the Callide Basin in central Queensland around 200 million years ago.

According to experts, the footprints are from 47 individual dinosaurs making one of the highest concentrations of dinosaur footprints per square meter ever documented in Australia. Someone uncovered the rock at Callide Min and gave it to the school.

Man's best friend is getting an AI upgrade. CNN's Anna Stewart reports on a Swedish company that's using technology to teach a new dog old tricks.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNA STEWART, CNN REPORTER (voice-over): You may have seen robots that walk like dogs, but how about robots that think like dogs? The Swedish start-up IntuiCell aims to make artificial intelligence more animal- like. Their robot dog Luna is one of the first to use physical agentic AI.

Unlike generative AI, which essentially does pattern matching to generate content or make predictions, the physical agentic AI used to create Luna can make decisions and take action towards specific goals, just like humans and many animals. The company says this means Luna can learn like a real dog.

Rather than using a generative AI model and data sets to teach Luna how to walk, IntuiCell will hire a dog trainer. The way Luna learns is based on how neurons interact and process information.

VIKTOR LUTHMAN, INTUICELL CEO: In a sense, we're not talking about today's AI versus tomorrow's AI. I see this as the difference between machine learning and biological intelligence. What we want to show is that machines can have genuine digital intelligence to learn new things and to solve problems that they've never seen before, just like humans and animals can.

STEWART: Luthman says their breakthrough is based on more than 30 years of research into how the brain works that the company translated into their software. He hopes that next, human-like robots can venture into unpredictable environments such as space, deep-sea exploration or disaster response. One possibility is sending intelligent robots like Luna to Mars.

LUTHMAN: If you want to send a robot to Mars to build habitats for future generations, you can't do it with pre-trained models. It's impossible to train them on everything that might happen while they're there. They need to be able to figure things out and to experiment in that environment. So this is the technology that will allow any agent to do such exploration.

STEWART: Luna has now learned to stand on its feet. IntuiCell says the robot dog is able to perceive, process and improve by interacting with the world.

Anna Stewart, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Iconic landmarks around the world turned out their lights on Saturday to mark Earth Hour. The global event began in Sydney back in 2007 with the World Wide Fund for Nature seeking to raise awareness around climate change. Now, originally it encouraged households to switch off their lights in solidarity with the movement.

Now, as many famous monuments join the annual Hour of Darkness, the mission has expanded to highlight the alarming rate of environmental loss across the planet. Underscoring the significance of this year's display, the World Meteorological Association reports 2024 was likely the first year to exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, marking it the warmest in 175 years.

[05:55:21]

For Hong Kong's Rugby Sevens, it's all about the atmosphere. So can the event keep its traditional party spirit in a new high-tech home? Well, each spring since 1982 for one weekend, Hong Kong Stadium has hosted the Asian financial hub's biggest and wildest party.

Now, it's moving across the harbor to a new 50,000-seat stadium in Kowloon. Players arriving for the tournament, which starts on Friday, say they're impressed with the stadium's rugby facilities.

Meanwhile, designers have tried to amplify the old South Stand, where fans in costume, fueled often by alcohol, have traditionally provided revelry. And this weekend will provide the first glimpse of how it'll play out in the new era.

All right, that wraps this hour of CNN Newsroom. I'm Kim Brunhuber.

For viewers in North America, CNN This Morning is next. And for the rest of the world, it's Culinary Journeys.

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