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CNN International: Rwanda-Backed Rebels Claim they've Taken City of Goma; Stocks in Focus after Tech Sell-Off Sparked by DeepSeek; Top Democrats: "Will have Devastating Consequences"; Trump: Chinese AI "A Wake- Up Call" to Silicon Valley; Musk Aligns Himself with Germany's Far-Right AFD Party. Aired 9-9:45a ET

Aired January 28, 2025 - 09:00   ET

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


[09:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ELENI GIOKOS, CNN HOST, CONNECT THE WORLD: This is the scene in Gaza. It's 06:00 p.m. in Abu Dhabi. I'm Eleni Giokos, and this is "Connect the World".

Coming up on the show, U.S. tech investors in shock after China's DeepSeek suns the world with its AI capability, growing unrest in the Democratic

Republic of Congo, as rebels say they've captured a key city.

The warnings of a crisis for non-profits as the Trump Administration orders federal funding to be suspended immediately. Right, let's check in on the

stock markets. They're set to open about 30 minutes from now. We saw blood on the markets yesterday. Of course, all that news coming through from the

new AI model that was built in China.

DeepSeek rattling the U.S. tech space, a big downward trend yesterday. And we can see that the futures are showing a slight uptick today. NASDAQ up

more 0.2 percent S&P also basically flat, but to the positive, and DOW also set for a flat start. Will bring you an update on those numbers in about 30

minutes.

And we begin with the rapidly deteriorating situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Thousands of panicked civilians are fleeing Goma after

M23 rebels backed by Rwanda, claimed to have captured the key city. Goma is considered the hub of a mineral rich region in the eastern parts of the

country.

Now, M23 rebels are among some 100-armed group who've been vying to get a foothold there. Meanwhile, about 1500 kilometers from Goma in the Capital

City of Kinshasa. Videos posted on social media show protests as well as fires set near several embassies earlier today, a government minister said,

order has since been restored.

We've got CNN's Salma Abdelaziz, following the latest developments for us from London, and looking at these images coming out of Kinshasa and also

Goma. Really, really remarkable. Frankly, Salma, what do we know about the current situation in the capital city and in terms of the status of the

protests?

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. Let's begin with Goma, because, of course, this is where it's all taking place. Social media video

that we've been able to geolocate shows that potentially, some of those battles are still ongoing for Goma. Now, the M23 rebels have claimed

control of the city.

They have been advancing on it in recent weeks. That fight has forced some 400,000 people to flee, and more than a dozen peacekeepers, rather, have

been killed in these battles, a reminder that the M23 rebel group is accused of huge human rights violations, of atrocities that include rape,

looting and killing.

So, you can understand the sense of panic in families that is setting in Goma. Now, what is all this about? Why has this fighting taken place? Well,

the answer may lie in your cell phone, Eleni. This part of the DRC of the Democratic Republic of Congo is rich in minerals that are used to build

electronics, including your phone.

That's why rights groups are warning that the M23's larger goal here is to set up an enterprise so that it can continue to illegally mine these

precious minerals, again, that are used for electronic resources. Who backs M23, who provides the arms, the support, the money for this group?

Well, the United Nations says it is none other than the neighboring country of Rwanda. In fact, a U.N. report published last year says that Rwanda,

through M23 was able to acquire illegally, 150 tons of these precious minerals used in our phones. That's why some rights groups are calling it

blood phones, this trade now there is one sign of hope, one sign of progress.

Kenya has been able to arrange a meeting between the governments of the DRC and Rwanda in a hope that some diplomatic solution can be found.

GIOKOS: Yeah, a really important point there. This has been one of the longest and protracted wars globally, frankly, and Eastern DRC has been

plagued by violence for decades. About 7 million people have been displaced in terms of the next step for Goma.

And as you say, aid agencies as well as humanitarian organizations on the ground trying to alleviate some of the conditions that are frankly

worsening as this has now reached a big point of tension.

ABDELAZIZ: Absolutely. And you have to remember again, 400,000 people have fled just in the last few weeks due to this fighting, some of these

families have been displaced more than once.

[09:05:00]

These are people who were already in displacement camps around Goma, and then they were forced to flee yet again, unsure of where to find safety,

the hospitals in Goma have been overwhelmed. We've heard reports of field tents being set up to treat the wounded.

Human Rights Watch says many of those who are being wounded are simply civilians who are caught in the crossfire. Much of the country has already

been ravaged, as you mentioned, by years of conflict, but this threatens to potentially widen escalate that conflict. We're already seeing the

consequences of it today in Kinshasa, where both the embassies of France, Belgium and the United States all saw huge demonstrations with people

setting fires outside.

Those protesters are angry because they believe the West is not only intervening in Africa's affairs, it's intervening on behalf of Rwanda,

which, of course, they see as backing these M23 rebels. But again, this complex conflict has the potential to spiral out. That's why aid agencies

are, yet again, appealing for calm in the United Nations, has called on M23 to withdraw from Goma and for diplomatic solutions to be found.

GIOKOS: Right. Salma Abdelaziz, thank you so much. Well, we're keeping a close watch on Wall Street, and that is because U.S. tech stocks dropped

sharply on Monday after Chinese tech startup DeepSeek rattling the global markets. DeepSeeks, are one claims to be a cheaper, more efficient version

of ChatGPT, built on a fraction of OpenAI's budget and using far fewer chips.

American chip maker Nvidia, viewed as powering the AI Gold Rush, lost nearly $600 billion in market value on Monday after that claim of

advancement in Chinese artificial intelligence. -- part U.S. President Donald Trump used the DeepSeek claim as a message for the U.S. AI industry.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: If it's fact and if it's true, and nobody really knows if it is, but I view that as a

positive, because you'll be doing that too, so you won't be spending as much and you'll get the same result hopefully.

The release of DeepSeek AI from a Chinese company, should be a wake-up call for our industries that we need to be laser focused on competing to win,

because we have the greatest scientists in the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GIOKOS: Right. A wake-up call, the message from President Donald Trump. And here's another look to see where Wall Street futures stand at the moment,

largely flat open. And as you can see, not the blood bath that we saw yesterday, NASDAQ, S&P with a slight positive bias.

And as you can see, DOW Jones slightly lower. Karen Hao has covered AI and China for "The Wall Street Journal". She was also Senior Editor for MIT's

Technology Review and the first journalist to profile OpenAI. She joins us now live from Cebu in the Philippines, for a little bit more insight into

what has absolutely rattled, I think, the entire AI industry. And the question is, has America lost its dominance? Has it been threatened by

DeepSeek?

KAREN HAO, FORMER FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT OF AI & CHINA FOR "THE WALL STREET JOURNAL": Hi, Eleni, thank you so much for having me. So, I don't think

that the story here is really about the U.S. be in decline in AI leadership. I think the really big story here is the fact that there are

some significant lessons to be learned from the fact that DeepSeek has shown that AI development does not need the significant costs that a lot of

Silicon Valley has tried to convince the public that it needs.

It does not need, the sheer amount of computer chips and the massive data centers that they've really tried to convince the public to build and kind

of green light. And it doesn't mean the kind of environmental consequences or the community consequences that come from this massive infrastructure

build out.

And so, I think really the key point here is that there is a different way to develop AI in the future, and DeepSeek has shown that the current way is

actually not one we should be investing much in.

GIOKOS: Yeah, and it's a really good point, because it does come down to innovation. You know, there's a lot of talk about, because we've seen a lot

of tech restrictions, U.S. tech restrictions on China that this has forced the industry there to innovate further, that frankly, when you restrict a

country, something happens locally, and you start to see huge breakthroughs. Do you think that is the case in terms of DeepSeek being

able to crack this code?

HAO: Yeah, I think there are two things that have sort of happened that allowed DeepSeek to emerge, to understand a little bit of like the context

of the Chinese AI ecosystem and how it's evolved in the last few years. The first one is that there has been a lot of upskilling of the tech workforce

in China over the last few years.

[09:10:00]

There have been a lot of AI researchers that have graduated from top universities in China and those researchers used to go work in the U.S.,

but due to challenges of now immigrating to the U.S., challenges of getting visas into the U.S., challenges of getting admission to U.S. universities,

much of that talent now stays in China.

And so there has been a leveling up increase in quality of the talent. And then on top of that, you have a lot of restrictions that the U.S. has tried

to place on China in terms of its access to computational resources. And the talent is an important piece of this. Because if there weren't the

talent to kind of then be creative and figure out workarounds.

GIOKOS: Yeah.

HAO: I don't think we would have seen DeepSeek happen. But because there was that base of talent to start thinking, how do we just engineer new

methods of getting around these restrictions, DeepSeek then happened.

GIOKOS: Yeah, OK, so you know this DeepSeek shock, basically coming in days after that $500 billion announcement on the Stargate project, right? And

there was so much excitement, and President Trump sees this as was sort of one of the big plans in the AI industry. Do you think it derails those

plans for U.S. companies? Do you think they're going to be thinking differently about how they can be doing it better?

HAO: It's interesting. I feel a bit pessimistic in the short term about the way that American companies or the U.S. government is going to respond --

GIOKOS: Yeah.

HAO: I think that DeepSeek really illustrates a lesson that should be learned. But whether or not you know the U.S. government or U.S. companies

take that lesson, is sort of a different story. I -- very likely U.S. companies are going to start implementing the same efficiency gains, the

same techniques that DeepSeek kind of was able to create to achieve the same efficiency gains.

But that is not going to necessarily make Stargate unnecessary. I think there's already, I'm already seeing a lot of chatter from the AI industry

that they're just planning on taking the efficiency gains and then trying to supercharge it with the Stargate investment of $500 billion worth of

data centers.

GIOKOS: Yeah.

HAO: And unfortunately, I do not actually think that, that is the right lesson or the right approach, but that is sort of the moment that we're in

right now with the current political administration and the business incentives within Silicon Valley.

GIOKOS: Yeah. So, Karen, this morning, I woke up to one of your threads on X, and it was absolutely brilliant. And you explained the ramifications of

the industry as a whole, and you also talk about depleting of resources and how they could, you know, result in the increase of water prices, increase

our dependence on coal and fossil fuels.

Do you believe that DeepSeek innovation could remove these threads as we're trying to build even more data centers and we require so much more energy?

HAO: It absolutely shows that, that is possible. So, the reason why there are so many negative externalities to the way that AI is being developed

right now is because Silicon Valley has really bet on a particular model of AI development, which is to just throw more money at the thing and make AI

models bigger.

There's this philosophy that bigger is better, and bigger AI models need bigger data centers to develop, and data centers have their physical

infrastructure. When they enter towns, they take up land, they take up resources. They need to be powered by energy, which we've seen now that a

lot of that energy is being drawn from the extension of coal and gas plants, because that is the only source that can surge energy capacity to

meet the demands of the energy that increases air pollution in those communities.

The data centers also need to be run on drinking water, because the drinking water is what cools the data centers and is at the water quality

level that is required, and so that's what hikes up the drinking prices.

And actually, it has a direct tie in to the previous story about the DRC and the tumultuous fighting that is happening within the country over

resources, minerals being extracted to enter the electronic supply chain. Data centers also use those minerals and a dramatic expansion of data

centers.

GIOKOS: Yeah.

HAO: Whether in the U.S. or elsewhere, is going to tap into that same supply chain and exacerbate that violence and instability. And so that is

all.

GIOKOS: Yeah.

HAO: Those are all negative externalities that Silicon Valley has really tried to convince people is necessary, a necessary trade off that if we

make it, we will get to the other side and somehow end up with a technology that is beneficial and will wipe away all of those concerns.

But this is a false trade off, that's what DeepSeek has shown, which is that you actually don't need large, extraordinarily, massive data centers

to achieve the same progress.

[09:15:00]

So why are we actually taking this approach that is so costly when we could actually get the same exact gains in technology development for far more

minimal harms?

GIOKOS: Yeah, it's a brilliant point, Karen. And thank you so much for your insights today. Karen Hao for us. Well, not all AI startups are as

successful as DeepSeek. A French language artificial intelligence chatbot named Lucy has been taken offline after giving bonkers answers to some

basic questions.

Lucy said there is such a thing as cow's eggs, quote, edible eggs produced by cows, a healthy and nutritious food. Lucy incorrectly said the answer to

this mathematical equation was 17 instead of 25 and the chatbot said, quote, the square root of goat is one. Lucy's developers say it remains an

academic research project in its early stages, and it was released prematurely.

All right. Moving on now, for the first time in more than a year, hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians are back in Northern Gaza, and they

returned -- Monday after Hamas agreed to release a female civilian hostage, ending the Israeli military's blockade of the north.

While many are expressing joy at being back and vowing never to be forcibly removed again, but finding very little remains of their lives they left

behind. Jeremy Diamond reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Well masses of people tracking up Gaza's coastal road are not being forced to flee, they are

returning home. The Palestinian people are going back to their homes, this man shouts, announcing his joy to anyone who will listen.

It's a great happiness. We feel like we can fly. After being displaced for months on end. Tens of thousands of Palestinians are finally returning to

Northern Gaza, shielded by the guarantees of a six-week ceasefire. This river of humanity flows for miles and miles, underscoring the magnitude of

the last 15 months of war.

For many, like Ayat al Masri (ph), their journey began in Southern Gaza, taking down their tents. They hope forever. I'm taking these four bags and

going back to my house, Ayat (ph) says. I don't know if it is still standing or not, but I'm going back to Beit Hanoun. People quickly crowd

around the few busses heading north.

Babies and belongings hoisted with urgency. Others carry what they can, taking their chances on foot. Trudging through this uneven coastal road,

young and old alike are determined to push past fatigue and return home. For the first of many that moment came shortly after 07:00 a.m. crossing an

abandoned Israeli checkpoint where mass Hamas militants now stand watch.

Israel agreed to open the road to Northern Gaza only after resolving a two- day dispute with Hamas over the fate of an Israeli hostage, Arbel Yehud. Hamas now set to release her alongside the captive Israeli soldier, Agam

Berger and a third hostage on Thursday. Back in Gaza, this is what most are returning to.

Bombed out buildings and heaps of rubble now line the streets, even amid the destruction, there is joy as family members separated by war reunite.

Thank God. Matas (ph) says as he kisses his mother and embraces his daughter, he hasn't seen them in 10 months. Amid the reunions, there are

also tears as people set foot on the land they call home once again.

I'm crying right now out of happiness, this man says, I don't want anything except to enter my homeland. The enormity of the destruction in Gaza,

prompting President Trump to call for moving Palestinians out of Gaza.

TRUMP: I'd like Egypt to take people and I'd like Jordan to take people. I can -- you're talking about probably a million and a half people and we

just clean out that whole thing.

DIAMOND (voice-over): Among those who camped out for days near the checkpoint to Northern Gaza, waiting for it to open, Trump's idea is

quickly rejected. We say to Trump, no and a million and one knows, we will stay here. We will stay in Gaza, he says, even if it is a pile of rubble.

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Tel Aviv.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GIOKOS: Well, you're watching "Connect the World". There is more news straight ahead. Stay with CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:20:00]

GIOKOS: The Trump Administration has put a pause on all federal loans and grants, catching many recipients off that funding off guard. It is a move

that could impact trillions of dollars in federal assistance to communities across the country, and could be devastating to charities and other

organizations that rely on government loans and grants.

It does not stop direct payments to individuals for health care or welfare. Now the pause goes into effect later today. Alayna Treene joins us now from

Washington to unpack this moving story. Alayna, great to have you with us. Who's impacted by this move, and do we know the reason behind this decision

by the Trump Administration?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, who's impacted is potentially millions of Americans who rely on this type of funding, as you

said, Eleni, that this new directive from the White House budget office could potentially impact trillions of dollars in federal loans and grants.

And is going to be effective starting tonight at 05:00 p.m. Eastern time. Now I'm told as well that these different outside organizations that rely

on this type of funding will then have until February 10 to submit reports to the Office of Management and Budget to see if they can consider maybe

changing how this operates.

But look, it was made clear in this internal memo. I should say it's only two pages, so there's a lot of questions people have about how this is

going to be implemented. But in this memo, the Acting Director of the Budget Office said that, essentially, a lot of these different

organizations who receive this type of funding don't necessarily align with the Trump Administration's views, calling it a waste of taxpayer dollars.

I want to read for you exactly what they wrote. They said, quote, the use of federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism and green

new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day to day lives of those we serve.

Now, to be clear, and you mentioned this a little bit, Eleni, is this does not impact Social Security or Medicare benefits, which I think was a

question a lot of people had. It also does not impact the direct assistance that individuals are getting from some of these grants and loans.

However, all other organizations are in jeopardy who rely on this type of funding that includes grants and loans issued to research bodies,

charities, university and community projects. And again, here, it's hard to overstate just the size and scope of this order.

But many people on Capitol Hill and top Democrats are really raising the alarm about whether or not the president actually has the authority to do

this. This is what we heard from Senator Chuck Schumer yesterday in a statement. He said, quote, Congress approved these investments, and they

are not optional; they are the law.

Kind of pointing to just how this is the latest move by the Trump Administration to exert control over federal funding at times that has

already been appropriated by Congress. Now we do know that White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is going to be briefing.

[09:25:00]

It will be her first White House press briefing later today. I imagine she'll get a lot of questions on this.

GIOKOS: All right. Alayna Treene, great to have you with us. Thank you. And thousands of Afghans who put themselves at risk by helping U.S. forces in

Afghanistan have had critical American aid withdrawn. The Trump Administration last week ordered a freeze on foreign aid and halted flights

that were bringing refugees to the United States.

Sources told CNN many Afghans who were granted special visas to enter the U.S., including translators who worked for the United States military --

can no longer get there. The freeze could also expose them to retaliation from the Taliban government, asked on Monday about Afghans who had worked

for the U.S. Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, told reporters, quote, we stand by our allies.

And still ahead, the Chinese startup that stunned the world of artificial intelligence. Just ahead, how DeepSeeks AI model could transform the

industry. That's all coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GIOKOS: Welcome back. I'm Eleni Giokos in Abu Dhabi, and you're watching "Connect the World". These are your headlines. U.S. Immigration authorities

say nearly 1200 people were arrested Monday in a drive to remove undocumented immigrants. That's the most in one day since President Donald

Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration began last week.

Hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have returned to Northern Gaza. They arrive in Hamas Monday after Hamas agreed to release a female

civilian hostage who was expected to be freed last week, and the next hostage prisoner exchange, Israel's military then lifted its blockade.

Chinese startup DeepSeek rattled the world's tech markets. The company claims its R1 artificial intelligence is replicating that ChatGPT at a

fraction of the cost. Tech giants like Microsoft, Google and Meta all took big hits yesterday. Chip maker Nvidia took the biggest hit, losing nearly

$600 billion in market value. That is the largest one-day loss for a single stock in history.

[09:30:00]

All right, markets are about to start trade in New York. Let's take you live to the New York Stock Exchange. Right, that is the sound of the

opening bell in New York. It was bloodbath yesterday, specifically after Nvidia lost around 17 percent it is set to rebound slightly today.

We are starting to see signs of a rebound across the board. Futures were showing pretty much flat with a positive bias. Let's check in now on those

opening numbers, S&P 500, up a quarter of a percent. NASDAQ, still firmly in the red, down 3 percent DOW JONES, flat with a bit of positive buys.

But you've got to remember these tech stocks are really trying to look at what their future means. Now that you've got DeepSeek in the game, and what

it means for the ultimate valuations. Who better to tell us more about this. We've got CNN's Anna Stewart joining us from London.

Anna, always good to see you. What a day roller coaster ride I want to talk about OpenAI, you know, they need so much more investment. We're talking

about billions of dollars. And then DeepSeek comes in and says, well, we can do this for $6 million and we can use older chips that have been

created by Nvidia. Explain this.

ANNA STEWART, CNN REPORTER: Yes, it costs hardly anything. No wonder investors yesterday were so worried. I slightly wondered whether it was a

sort of sell now, think later process. But looking at the NASDAQ Stam again today, maybe not OpenAI, let's just compare the numbers. They spent $100

million in creating GPT4.

By comparison, DeepSeek says it spent $5.6 million to make its latest model. This is our one, the one that has taken the world by storm in the

last 24 hours. It's not alone. Open AI met is also making huge spending plans. It plans to spend 56 sorry, $65 billion this year on AI projects.

Now, part of this comes down to the chips that we're looking at. There's a lot of attention, of course, and Nvidia, which saw huge losses yesterday.

Open AI said it used many, many, many thousands of extremely highly advanced Nvidia chips. DeepSeek says it only used 2000 chips for its latest

models.

And this is the big question, is it possible to make some of these AI models, both training and inference models and a fraction of the price, and

also not using a company like Nvidia, which is, frankly, had almost some monopoly on AI models and is used by all of the big, big training data.

GIOKOS: Yeah.

STEWART: OpenAI has a bigger workforce. It has more researchers, you could argue that is why also needs so much more money, but also Eleni, perhaps we

should be just a little bit skeptical. Is it true that DeepSeek didn't need that many Nvidia chips, due to curbs from the U.S. was able to achieve get

round those curbs another way?

I think today we're seeing a little bit of skepticism in the market as to whether all of its claims are true. But on the face of it, it's kind of

extraordinary.

GIOKOS: It is indeed. And I think you hit the nail on the head that it's is still using Nvidia chips, even though the older version, it still needs

Nvidia. And you've got Nvidia rebounding slightly after that dramatic drop yesterday. I think everyone's going to be looking at the valuations of

these companies, seeing the investment.

We heard that $500 billion planned investments in the U.S. for AI. Trump saying the AI industry in the U.S. has to wake up. So, what does it mean

for the industry going forward?

STEWART: I mean, yesterday was humiliating, a trillion dollars wiped off some of the biggest tech companies in the world, most of them, of course,

in the United States. And it is embarrassing, frankly, for the new Trump Administration, both in terms of, as you say, they've just, you know,

launched or announced a half trillion-dollar private sector project to build more data centers, so the U.S. will remain ahead of China.

The question now is, of course, is it too late? Also, did the curbs on U.S. chips going to China actually work? Now, those were created both by

President Trump and President Biden in the last two administrations. Did they work? This is what Trump had to say about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: If it's fact and if it's true, and nobody really knows if it is, but I view that as a positive, because you'll be doing that too, so you won't

be spending as much, and you'll get the same result hopefully. The release of DeepSeek AI from a Chinese company, should be a wake-up call for our

industries that we need to be laser focused on competing to win, because we have the greatest scientists in the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEWART: Is the America First policy and the curb on chips actually potentially what pushed a company like DeepSeek in China to innovate around

it, Eleni.

GIOKOS: That's what happens sanctions. And actually, it does create a lot of innovation in those -- countries.

[09:35:00]

So, I think this is the result of what we've been seeing. Anna, good to have you on. Thank you so much for that insight. After disappointing 17

months in Saudi Arabia, Brazilian footballer Neymar has left Al Hilal. We have details on where he might be heading next coming up on "World Sport".

Stay with CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GIOKOS: The chairman of the world Holocaust Remembrance center accuses Elon Musk of insulting victims of Nazism. The tech billionaire said Germany

should stop atoning for crimes committed by the Nazis in the past. Musk made the comments at the election campaign launch for Germany's far right

AFD party.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELON MUSK, TECH BILLIONAIRE: I think there's like, frankly, too much of a focus on past guilt, and we need to move beyond that -- children should not

be guilty of the sins of their parents, or even, let -- alone their parents, their great grandparents, maybe even, and we should be optimistic

and excited about a future for Germany.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GIOKOS: Well, just last week, Musk faced criticism for a gesture that some say mirrored a Nazi salute during a speech in Washington, D.C. CNN's Fred

Pleitgen reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Elon Musk, larger than life, the virtual guest of honor at the far-right

alternative for Germany's election campaign kickoff of -- Some AFD members have been accused of using Nazi rhetoric, Musk calling for more German

nationalism.

MUSK: I think there's like, frankly, too much of a focus on pass guilt, and we need to move beyond that. It's OK to be proud to be German and not to

lose that in some sort of multiculturalism that dilutes everything.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): Music to the ears of AFD supporters.

MUSK: You know, go, go, go --

PLEITGEN (voice-over): Musk speaking even before the party's main candidate, Alice Weidel, who makes no secret on immigration, the AFD sees

eye to eye with the Trump Administration. Weidel, telling me just how important Musk's support is.

ALICE WEIDEL, AFD CANDIDATE FOR GERMAN CHANCELLOR: I'm incredibly happy that he could made it, and I wish him and Donald Trump, JD Vance, all the

best, you got blessings.

PLEITGEN: What would you do if you became the chancellor, immediately?

WEIDEL: Well, closing our borders, controlling them, and then sending out all the illegals and also these people who do crimes, they have to leave

our country.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): Germany has taken in millions of refugees in recent years, mostly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

[09:40:00]

But after a string of high-profile crimes like a recent stabbing by an Afghan asylum seeker, killing a two-year-old boy and a man trying to stop

the rampage, many Germans have soured to the migrant influx. Musk inserting himself into German politics, calling German Chancellor Olaf Scholz an

incompetent fool, and saying only the AFD can save Germany.

PLEITGEN: Well Germany's established parties have said that they will not cooperate with the AFD. The party is currently riding a high in the polls

and could soon be one of the strongest political forces in Germany.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): Outside the venue, Musk also a lightning rod for those protesting against the AFD. I understand what happened in 1933, this

man says where many people didn't want to see it, and I don't want my children to ask me, dad, where were you when the Nazis started again?

The AFD rejects accusations of being right wing extremists. And the party leaders say, like it or not, AFD is on the rise, with Elon Musk fueling

their ascent. Fred Pleitgen, CNN -- Germany.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GIOKOS: Right. Moving on now, looking at the world of sports after scoring just one goal in 17 months. Neymar and his Saudi club parted company on

Monday. The Brazilians nearly $100 million transfer in August 2023 was heralded as a coup for the Saudi League, but injuries took their toll

during his time as Al Hilal.

And there is plenty of speculation where is headed too, next. Perhaps someone who might know the answer to that question. We've got Amanda Davies

joining us, Amanda.

AMANDA DAVIES, CNN WORLD SPORT: Well, I have to say, Eleni, fans in Brazil are getting quite excited that their country's record goals scorer might be

heading back to his roots.

GIOKOS: Yeah.

DAVIES: I can tell you I have been in touch with his team. The deal is not done yet, but his contract with Al Hilal has been terminated by mutual

consent. It hasn't worked as people in Saudi Arabia, the SPL or team Neymar had hoped. And so that means the path is clear for him, potentially to

return to Santos, his boyhood club, the club where he made his name.

He joined at 11 years of age. He's talked about what it means to him, and when I sat down with him at the Globe Soccer Awards in Dubai a month ago,

he talked about the fact he needs to be playing football.

He wants to be putting in the effort to be feeling love to give his best for his country, with high hopes of leading them over the line, potentially

at that World Cup in 2026. So fascinating, one to watch, but we've got plenty more coming up in "World Sport" in just a couple of minutes as well.

GIOKOS: Yeah. Right. Fantastic. I'll see you after the break, Amanda. And I'll be back at the top of the hour. Stay with CNN.

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