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Trump, White House Officials Try to Distance Themselves from Breach; Ukraine's Allies Meet for "Coalition of the Willing" Summit; Gaza Protesters: Hamas Does Not Represent U.S.; Trump to Impose 25 Percent Tariff on Imported Vehicles, Auto Parts; Bringing Uganda's Gorillas back from the Brink; Some Boycott U.S. Products Abroad to Protest Trump Administration. Aired 9-10a ET

Aired March 27, 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)

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST, CONNECT THE WORLD: Well, a lot of action in Paris this hour, that is Germany's show, speaking now, Zelenskyy and the U.K.'s

Keir Starmer just wrapped up, and we expect France's President Macron to speak in the next few minutes after a summit there on the Ukraine war.

It is 02:00 p.m. in Paris. It's 05:00 p.m. here in Abu Dhabi. I'm Becky Anderson, this is "Connect the World" from our Middle East programming

headquarters. Also coming up as the Trump Administration continues to downplay the intelligence breach on Signal. The president points a finger

of blame at the app itself.

And a surge of protests in Gaza against Hamas, even as the Israeli Prime Minister threatens to keep the enclave under partial occupation. The stock

market in New York opens in about 30 minutes from now. The U.S. President's latest tariff announcement sure to be on investor's minds.

He has teased a 25 percent levy on imported vehicles and car parts, which experts say will raise the cost of all cars sold in the United States,

across the board. What it is doing first is dragging down the stocks of automakers around the world in the markets that have closed already and are

still open in Europe.

And we will look at what is the effect on these U.S. markets about 30 minutes from now. The futures indicating a very mixed open and whether

another of Mr. Trump's pauses on tariffs might kick in on before -- on or before April the second, as in previous rounds. More on that coming up, of

course, 09:30 New York time.

Well, the White House calls it a hoax. The U.S. President called it a witch hunt, familiar words, familiar tropes from the Trump Administration, as the

president and his allies try to defend, deflect and frankly downplay the impact of the intelligence breach being called Signalgate.

That is the accidental sharing of U.S. attack plans against Houthi rebels in Yemen, with "The Atlantic's" Editor-in Chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, on the

unsecured Signal app. President Trump suggesting the app itself could be at fault.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I don't know that Signal works. I think Signal could be defective, to be honest with you, and

I think that's what we have to because you use Signal, and we use Signal, and everybody uses Signal, but it could be a defective platform, and we're

going to have to find that out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Well, "The Atlantic" published full text from that group chat after top White House officials repeatedly insisted that the information

wasn't classified, as you saw yesterday on this program, the texts reveal specific information about attack plans, including times and types of

aircraft.

Well, Democrats, perhaps unsurprisingly, are outraged with some demanding resignations after Intel officials denied wrongdoing in both the House and

Senate hearings over the past 48 hours or so. The Republican response overall is muted. We've got Katie Bo Lillis with the very latest from

Washington.

And I want to just bring your attention to this. Katie Bo, the White House Press Secretary, has called this a hoax. Mr. Waltz, the National Security

Adviser has this to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But how did a Trump hating Editor of "The Atlantic" end up on your Signal chat?

MIKE WALTZ, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: You know, Laura (ph), I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but of all the people out there, somehow this guy who

has lied about the president, who has lied to Gold Star families, lied to their attorneys, and gone to Russia hoax, gone to just all kinds of links

to lie and smear the President the United States.

And he's the one that somehow gets on somebody's contact and then gets sucked into this group.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Well, he says he doesn't want to go down a conspiracy sort of rabbit hole, but he is there. I mean, do these deflections both his and the

White House press spokespersons deflections even makes sense at this point? Can you make sense of what we're hearing?

KATIE BO LILLIS, CNN REPORTER: Well, look, they're certainly contradictory. They've said lots of different things and offered lots of different

explanations for how "The Atlantic" Editor-in-Chief wound up on this text thread.

[09:05:00]

Waltz in that same Fox interview suggested that maybe he'd hacked himself into the Signal account, or to the end of the Signal thread. He also

suggested, well, maybe his name was just under the wrong contact in his contact list. So that's two very, very different possibilities.

And in the end of the day, Waltz has accepted responsibility publicly for Goldberg winding up on this chat. And more to the point there's the issue

of Goldberg being granted access to this incredibly sensitive private conversation in between top members of Trump's National Security cabinet.

But also, just set that aside, the issue that is really alarming to national security officials, both current and former that we have spoken to

in the course of reporting this story is not that Goldberg was included, although that's bad enough. It's that this conversation was happening on

Signal at all.

Signal is a commercial platform. It is not approved for conversations that include classified information. There are some concerns that depending on

what device you're using it on, that it could be vulnerable to foreign hackers. And the kinds of information that was being discussed here.

Look Trump Administration officials bending over backwards yesterday to say, nothing classified in here, no classified information shared at all.

Even current U.S. defense officials who we spoke to yesterday, who CNN spoke to yesterday say that just doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

The kind of information that was shared, particularly by Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, involving the kinds of weapons that were used, the

timing and sequencing of these attacks, two hours before the attacks actually really began got underway. That kind of information is always

highly classified because of the potential risk to American service members.

ANDERSON: Yeah --

LILLIS: Remember, very important remember is that Houthi rebels have anti- aircraft capabilities.

ANDERSON: And this is at the heart of this, you know, the vulnerabilities to classified information here. So, this does beg the question, and it's a

very simple one, if they don't admit and accept culpability, they being these Trump officials. Can they fix this going forward?

LILLIS: You know, look, I think what you heard from Democrats on Capitol Hill yesterday was that their concern here, among other things, is a

question about the judgment and the seriousness with which senior national security officials in the Trump Administration are taking the question of

protecting classified information, of protecting American troops.

And really the seriousness of conducting lethal operations overseas. You know, this is the operation that the U.S. military conducted here was, by

all accounts, successful, right? But that kind of operation involves killing people. It's one of the most serious decisions that the American

government can make, whether or not to use lethal force overseas. It does involve risk for American service members. It has deep foreign policy

consequences.

And one of the sorts of persistent themes that we heard from Democratic lawmakers was there an appropriate amount of sobriety being brought to this

decision-making process when you are not only discussing this on Signal, but you're discussing it with fire emojis and fist emojis and American flag

emojis, which is sort of the other big feature of this, of this chat chain that we saw.

So, I think that's another theme that you will continue to hear from Capitol Hill and across Washington.

ANDERSON: Yeah. And if by success, they believe that the Red Sea is now open and secure, they're not right, because these strikes haven't yet

secured these waterways. But I get your point. Thank you. Katie Bo, it's good to have you.

Let's connect you to Paris folks, where a major summit of Ukraine's allies has been taking place, amongst those joining the French and Ukrainian

leaders for the what's known as coalition of the willing, are the Head of the European Commission, the British Prime Minister and the Secretary

General of NATO.

They have been discussing ways to increase support for Kyiv and are looking at what role they might play if a peace deal is reached with Russia. That's

an if at this point. We expect to hear from Ukraine's President in the next hour. Earlier, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said sanctions against Moscow must stay

in place as long as Russia is occupying Ukrainian territory.

He has said some choice words about the rhetoric by Donald Trump's special envoy on Ukraine, Steve Witkoff. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE: I think that Witkoff often cites the Kremlin narrative. I agree with you, and I think that this does not get

as close to peace.

[09:10:00]

I think. This, sadly, will weaken the pressure of the U.S. on the Russian Federation, and we can do little more than try to restore the flow of

information. I have spoken with President Trump more than once. We are trying to share real and truthful information, since Witkoff declarations

disturb us a lot, since we are fighting Putin and we do not want him to receive support.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Joining us now is CNN Global Affairs Analyst and regular guests on this show these days, Kim Dozier. It's good to have you, Kim once again.

The British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said just a few moments ago that now was not the time to lift sanctions against Russia, speaking after the

meeting with Ukrainian officials.

Germany's Chancellor also saying that lifting sanctions would be, and I quote him here, a grave mistake. We have also heard yesterday in a

statement from the European Commission that now is not the time for partial or full sanctions to be lifted on any bank involved in any sort of trade

from Russia. Perhaps no surprise here, but this is not going to sit well with the Kremlin, of course.

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Absolutely. But this is Europe preparing to go it alone, against Russia and in support of Ukraine, after

all the different comments they've heard out of Washington, D.C., from the disastrous Zelenskyy, Trump Oval Office meeting to a number of Witkoff's

public comments.

That show he doesn't have a deep grounding in the Russia-U.S. relationship, in the history of it and the things that have gone wrong, and he's come

into it with successful negotiations from the Middle East peace talks. So, one European official I spoke to said it's as if he's got a certain amount

of arrogance, that he thinks that he can deal with Vladimir Putin without understanding Russia, and that's just never going to work.

So, the Europeans have to figure out, how are we going to arm Ukraine to keep them in this fight, if the U.S. pulls everything out again, from

logistics to most importantly, the intelligence support.

ANDERSON: And the reason we're talking about sanctions very specifically, as we've just heard from some of the key leaders here, out of Europe, about

the fact that sanctions won't be lifted at this point. The Russians in this latest partial ceasefire deal on the maritime assets that said they would

get on with that ceasefire, where the Europeans to lift sanctions on certain banks doing agricultural trade.

So here is where we are getting an answer from the Europeans. Here's how Russia has responded to the work that the allies of Ukraine are doing at

this point. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARIA ZAKHAROVA, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESWOMAN: A couple of words on what the West calls a peace mission. In fact, it's de facto a military

intervention in Ukraine under the guise of a peace keeping mission. London and Paris continue to hatch a plan of military intervention in Ukraine. All

of this is disguised under some.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: This is about putting boots on the ground as peacekeepers. What do you make of that reaction from Kremlin?

DOZIER: Well, Moscow is trying to preserve the ability to come back later and try again to take over Ukraine, at least that is the belief of many

Ukrainians and European officials I've spoken to, and some Americans as well. So, if you've got NATO country peace keeping troops on the ground, it

makes it a lot harder to do that.

That's why Zelenskyy wants them there. That's why the Europeans want them there as a guarantor of this peace deal. But I've had contacts, confidants

close to Trump, tell me that the Trump Administration at the highest levels understands that Moscow doesn't want this.

Then again, you see people like Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, talk about their understanding of Russia's

future goals. So, there's a certain amount of tension inside the Trump Administration, and Moscow is trying to strengthen the hand of those

officials that it believes it has on its side.

And Europe is saying, you know, we don't care what gets discussed down in Riyadh. We are doing what we need to do to try to make sure Russia doesn't

gobble up Ukraine in two or three years from now, after some sort of peace deal is done at the White House.

ANDERSON: President Trump insists that he remains determined to end the bloodshed in Ukraine.

[09:15:00]

And as you and I talk, by the way, we are just waiting for President Macron to come to the stage, and if and when he does, we may just break into that.

But, you know, he boasted, this is Donald Trump at the beginning of his presidency, or just before that, he could end this conflict in 24 hours.

Of course, he wrote back on that somewhat, but he's still got a very ambitious timeline. He wants it to be, you know, like soon quick. Is he

getting a gut check, a sort of reality check at this point, do you think?

DOZIER: Well, I understand one of the reasons the U.S. Administration held the talks down in Saudi Arabia is specifically to ice the Europeans out.

So, I think the Trump Administration is going to move forward on its talks and trying to do a bilateral sort of deal between Russia and Ukraine and

not cooperate with Europe.

But of course, what Russia is trying to do is use the White House, use Trump's desire for speedy negotiations, to use the U.S. as a club against

Europe to get some of these punishing sanctions lifted. We'll have to see how this sort of Jujitsu of using playing, trying to play one off the

other, is going to work.

There is a possibility that if Ukraine manages to make itself look willing to make compromises, while Moscow isn't that Trump may eventually get

impatient with Moscow, but that hasn't happened in the past, and so far, it hasn't happened this time around.

ANDERSON: I'm just going to leave the Russia-Ukraine file as it were, just for a moment, and we are well aware, and have been made increasingly aware

by the Trump Administration, how they feel about the Europeans, not least through the Russia-Ukraine file, but also through the publishing of the

Signal chat.

Pete Hegseth, describing the Europeans as pathetic. JD Vance suggesting that they are free loaders. This Signal app group chat that was flushed out

by Jeffrey Goldberg of "The Atlantic", now being called Signalgate. President Trump continues to brush this off his administration, calling

this a hoax.

He's calling a witch hunt at this point. Don Bacon, the Republican Congressman, telling politico, quote, the White House is in denial that

this was not classified or sensitive data. And Republican Senator Roger Wicker, Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, no less, is seeking an

expedited inspector general's investigation.

Now we know how the Trump Administration feels about the sort of you know, the infrastructure that is authority and government and government process

in the States. Be that, as it may, do you think the Trump Administration and Pentagon will ultimately comply?

DOZIER: So, I think what's going to happen is the Trump Administration doesn't want to fire anyone, because that would be handing Donald Trump's

Nemesis Jeffrey Goldberg and "The Atlantic" ahead on a platter. So, they're going to resist everything to do that, while quietly behind the scenes.

They're going to have hard conversations about the fact that they've gotten too comfortable using Signal on their phones, like most journalists and

diplomats in D.C. and abroad, for expediency, you know, the mistakes that were made were human error, not a problem with the Signal app itself.

Mike Waltz inadvertently invited a journalist into the chat who was listed in the address book under initials rather than the full name, and then Pete

Hegseth, who obviously got so comfortable using this device and thinking of it as secure, put too many details in there.

Now on the detail of was this information classified or not? Just to get down into the granular. This is how the intelligence and top-secret world

works. Pete Hegseth has what's called declassification authority over all of the information that rises out of the Pentagon.

So just the physical act of him typing this information into an unclassified chat on an unclassified app can be argued to have thereby

automatically unclassified it. That isn't going to wash behind closed doors with the intelligence committees on Capitol Hill.

It wouldn't wash for a normal government employee if they were getting investigated by the FBI for a spill of classified information. But again, I

go back to because Trump hates "The Atlantic". They just want it to go away.

ANDERSON: Fascinating. It's good to have you, Kim. Thank you very much indeed.

[09:20:00]

Kim Dozier, in the House. Folks coming up, civilians in northern Gaza protest against Hamas for the second day in a row. Will those protests have

any impact on their lives and on this war? That is coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANDERSON: Well hundreds of Palestinians in Northern Gaza here protesting an end to the war. The people are fed up, yes, with Israel, but also with

Hamas.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MOHAMMED ATALLAH, GAZA RESIDENT: Our demand is that Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people. This chaos that they have created is

enough. What Israel has wanted for years has been presented to them on a silver platter by Hamas, which is the extermination of the Palestinian

people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Well, on Wednesday, the Israeli Prime Minister threatened to keep parts of Gaza under occupation unless Hamas frees all hostages. Some of

those hostages were being released as part of a ceasefire deal, but the deal fell apart completely after Israel restarted its bombing campaign in

the enclave earlier this month.

Well, Muhammad Shehada is a Gazan Researcher, Writer and Human Rights Activist. He is based in Denmark. He has been following this process, the

movement, very closely. And Muhammad, thank you for joining us.

MUHAMMAD SHEHADA, VISITING FELLOW OF EUROPEAN COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: Thanks --

ANDERSON: Let's start with how these protests came together and why now? What's your understanding?

SHEHADA: So, the protests started spontaneously. It's a call for coming from very disparate, and deeply hammered impoverished people that they

basically want to live. It's a basic call to have a normal life in the genocidal war that's unfolding in Gaza and in Hamas' rule over Gaza that

Israel loses a -- to perpetuate the war indefinitely and perpetuate its illegal occupation and blockade over Gaza.

That's how it started. It is drawing a lot of genuine grievances, but are fairly representative of how the general population feels, or at least the

vast majority of them, that they feel a deal of resentment towards Hamas being in government, that they want to have an elected representative

government in Gaza.

But at the same time, you have Hamas had agreed to this already and agreed to end the war months and months ago. Israel is standing in the way of

this, and even if those demonstrators managed to hypothetically topple Hamas. Israel is unlikely to conceive or accept any form of alternative

Palestinian governance in the war, withdraw the idea from Gaza, or in the blockade, or even stop the idea of depopulating Gaza and sending Gazans to

the Sinai desert.

[09:25:00]

ANDERSON: It's important to have you on and to discuss this, because these grievances as you rightly point out, are genuine. People are tired, and as

you have pointed out, we may not be seeing more than hundreds, possibly thousands of people demonstrating, but there is a sense that those who are

demonstrating reflect a much wider point of view from Palestinians who are demonstrating against Hamas.

You have also pointed out that Israel has been quick to jump on these Hamas, anti-Hamas demonstrations. I just want to play for our audience what

Israel's Defense Minister had to say, stand by.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ISRAEL KATZ, ISRAELI DEFENSE MINISTER: Hamas is endangering your lives and will cause you to lose your homes and more and more territory that will be

added to the Israeli defense system. Learn from the residents of Beit Lahia, as they did you too will demand the removal of Hamas from Gaza and

the immediate release of all Israeli hostages. This is the only way to stop the war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: And Benjamin Netanyahu also mentioning the protests in the Knesset yesterday. What impact will these very serious and senior Israeli

voices have?

SHEHADA: It actually impedes and undermines the potential of these demonstrations that are organic and spontaneous, as we mentioned. So, once

you have Israel going on and explicitly threatening, Palestinians say, do our bidding. Do achieve what Israel has failed to accomplish over 16 months

of unprecedented warfare, trouble Hamas, or else you will lose your homes, lives or land.

This undermines the message of the demonstrations, because it becomes easier for Hamas to smear the demonstrators as basically driven by an

Israeli agenda. People will be very reluctant to show up and take part, lest they be called Israeli collaborators. There's also the element of the

air strikes continuing on Gaza indiscriminately up until this moment.

That undermines the ability for people to show up when Israel bombs the very areas that protesters are planning to take to the street in. There's

also the element of basically Israel suddenly blessing the Palestinians right to freedom of expression when it's against Hamas, while at the same

time detaining naming and Palestinians who express similar opposition against the occupation.

ANDERSON: Right.

SHEHADA: And lastly, there is the element of fear about Israel continuing its threat and even plan to de populate Gaza, ethnically cleansing the

entire Gaza Strip, which plays into Hamas' hands to portray themselves -- capable of at least challenging the Israeli attempt to empty out the Gaza

Strip.

ANDERSON: Right. Muhammad, we're looking at images once again, and these are Gazans demonstrating against Hamas. Is there a sense from those who are

protesting? And there will be many who say these are brave Palestinians protesting Hamas. Is there a sense that the group is weakened, vulnerable

now to as a result of the Israel's near 20 months assault.

And that there is now the potential, as far as Palestinians in Gaza are concerned, for a change in governance there.

SHEHADA: Yes, absolutely so in terms of weakening Hamas, Hamas is now at a stage where it has lost ability, capacity, or will, to threaten Israel

substantially for the next maybe decade. But if Gaza's reconstruction goes smoothly, if the war ends, but as long as Israel continues to pummel Gaza

to the ground and wipe it out systematically, this actually strengthens Hamas.

It creates a rallying around the flag effect. It creates an infinite recruitment pool for Hamas to challenge the indefinite presence of Israeli

soldiers and troops in the Gaza Strip. Hamas' moment of genuine moment of reckoning will start when the bombardment stops.

And it will start at the ballot boxes when Palestinians are given the choice to choose their own representative government. But in terms of the

popular sentiment, the sentiment is there already, even inside Hamas itself, there are many who want Hamas to step down from government.

And there is been an agreement that Egypt has been pushing for, in light or as part of the ceasefire that Israel, that Netanyahu's torpedoed, which

would have allowed Hamas to step down and hand over authority in Gaza to an independent technocratic Administrative Committee that would be part of the

Palestinian Authority and allow them to return to Gaza later on, once Israel's veto is lifted.

[09:30:00]

ANDERSON: Yeah, it's good to have you, sir, your insight analysis is very important. Thank you. Still to come here on CNN, President Trump announces

new tariffs on auto imports. We are following global reaction just as these markets. In New York are about to begin their trading day. That is the

bell, more on that after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANDERSON: Well, markets in New York opened about three minutes ago. Let's take a look and see how the data, NASDAQ and the S&P are doing in the first

few minutes of trade, and they are mixed to lower, lower, lower or lower. But let's call that a sort of mixed start to the day, even though you

aren't seeing any green arrows, because that's the sense of investor sentiment, quite frankly.

There is some real concern still about what President Trump will do ahead of what he is calling Liberation Day, and that is April the second, when

these next levies are set to go into place. And analysts are warning U.S. car buyers, to prepare for some serious sticker shock.

The president announcing 25 percent tariffs on imported vehicles and auto parts. It is a move that will significantly raise the cost of producing all

cars sold there, even those built in American factories. The White House claims the levies are needed to strengthen America's manufacturing

industry, and because of unfair trade practices and U.S. national security concerns.

All this set to take effect, of course, April the third, a day after liberation, day after tariffs hit a wide variety of other goods produced by

America's trading partners. Right, CNN's Anna Stewart, following this story for us, good to have you here. Analysts warning consumers to brace

themselves, at least in the U.S., for price increases set to come fast, just how fast and by how much?

ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're looking at a considerable price increase for U.S. consumers, and this could take really only a few weeks.

It depends on stock levels for car manufacturers, this is one of the most interconnected sorts of global sectors in the world.

[09:35:00]

The Trump Administration, of course, is very aware of this, but is interesting to consider that, yes, this will impact U.S. branded U.S. made

cars. You're looking at stock prices here for General Motors, Stellantis, which makes cheap Ford, GM, down more than 8 percent today.

And that's because they are very reliant on car parts from around the world, particularly Canada and Mexico. So, we are going to see a big

increase in prices. In fact, some analysts today putting those thousands of dollars a car, I think the Anderson Economic Group said that for vehicles

built in the U.S., the cost could be between 3,500 and $12,000 a car.

This is a huge cost increase. This, of course, feeds into inflation. This is not what President Trump wants. It will impact international car makers

as well, but it will even punish those that have factories in the United States, like Volkswagen or BMW, because they too rely on car parts from

elsewhere and Becky, of course, it takes many, many years to shift that.

So even as we see a car manufacturer like the South Korean won last week, Hyundai investing or committing to invest a lot of money in a steel

manufacturing facility, it will take years for that to come on board. And in the meantime, who is getting hit? Not just economies around the world,

but U.S. consumers.

ANDERSON: Yeah, what's been the reaction to President Trump's escalating global trade war?

STEWART: We've had a lot of reaction, Becky, you won't be surprised to hear that plenty of stock market reaction in Asia, Europe and of course, we're

now seeing the U.S. car stocks down, really across the board, more so for those that are more impacted. And we actually can show you the countries

that will be most impacted by this, Mexico, Japan, Canada, South Korea, all up there.

And we are now getting responses from pretty much all of them. Mexico's President due to speak soon. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called it

a direct attack on Canada. The EU Commission President, interesting kind of said the EU will continue to seek negotiated solutions.

They have actually delayed half of their retaliatory tariffs from a few weeks ago. They're hoping, clearly, to have some sort of negotiation.

Germany's Trade Minister, though much stronger, Becky, unsurprising, given Germany, of course, is such a bigger automaker.

What counts now is to have a firm response to these tariffs from the EU. It needs to be clear that we will not take this lying down. And of course,

President Trump really doesn't like retaliation. So, what are we going to see? Is it going to see, is it going to be negotiation or escalation?

ANDERSON: Amazing, isn't it? Where are we at the back end of the first quarter of 2025 not somewhere we expected to be, although we knew it would

be unpredictable. I'm not sure investors necessarily expected this. Anyway, good stuff. Thank you. I want to get to some news developing out of Egypt

for you.

At least four people are dead after a tourist submarine sank off the coast in the Red Sea just hours ago. Now, this submarine was about a kilometer

from shore on what was a routine underwater excursion, as we understand it, to inspect the massive coral reef there near the resort City of Hurghada.

The Russian Embassy says all 45 tourists on board were Russian Nationals. We will continue to follow this story and bring you the very latest as we

get it here at CNN. Let's get you up to speed on some of the other stories that are on our radar right now. And crews in South Korea battling

wildfires that have killed at least 26 people and injured dozens more.

The fires fueled by strong winds and dry weather, burnt more than 17,000 hectares of land, destroying dozens of buildings, including a 1300-year-old

Buddhist temple. Well, Sudan's Army Chief is back in the nation's capital, proclaiming Khartoum is now free. His forces control most of the city.

It marks a major turning point in the two-year civil war between the army and the paramilitary rapid support forces. A search is underway for four

U.S. soldiers who were missing during a training mission in Lithuania. Soldiers were reported missing on Tuesday after their vehicle was found

submerged in a body of water in a training area close to Lithuania's border with Belarus.

Well, you up to speed, coming up. Let's see how Uganda's endangered mounting guerrillas are facing new threats from their human neighbors, and

what is being done about it? That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:40:00]

ANDERSON: Well, throughout this week on "Call to Earth", we are looking at Uganda, following a woman who has helped save one of the planet's most

iconic species from extinction. And today we see how disease transmission from humans has become one of the biggest threats to mountain gorillas in

the wild, and what is being done to prevent it?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka first came to Bwindi and penetrable National Park.

Scientists knew little about the transmission of disease between humans and mountain gorillas. Even legendary conservationists like Dian Fossey and

David Attenborough were often seen in close contact with the animals. But it's a different story now.

DR. GLADYS KALEMA-ZIKUSOKA, FOUNDER & CEO OF CONSERVATION THROUGH PUBLIC HEALTH: When I worked as a first veterinarian for the wildlife authority,

within nine months of the job, they called me and said the gorillas are losing hair and developing wide scale skin. I asked a human doctor friend

of mine in Kampala. I asked her, what is the most common skin disease in people? And she said to me, it's scabies.

WEIR (voice-over): The scabies had spread to a small gorilla family, and despite quick treatment from Gladys, one of the babies died.

KALEMA-ZIKUSOKA: It was a very severe infestation, and this made me realize at that point in time that you couldn't protect the gorillas without

improving the health of their human neighbors. Just like the baboons interact with the people, so do the gorillas. They go to people's banana

plantations to eat the banana plants.

And they often find dirty clothing and scarecrows, and that's how they picked up the scabies, not by touching a person.

WEIR (voice-over): That moment was a turning point. Gladys realized that to save the gorillas, she had to improve the health of the people living

alongside them, and in 2003 she founded conservation through public health. It would promote a One Health Philosophy, protecting the gorillas by first

ensuring the well-being of the local communities.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can make each other sick, but we're not making each other sick because you're clean.

WEIR (voice-over): Compared to many of Africa's other iconic national parks. Bwindi is small, at 321 square kilometers, it is less than 2 percent

the size of the Serengeti in Tanzania or Kruger in South Africa. Unlike larger parks, Bwindi has farmlands and villages pressing right up against

the forest, making human gorilla encounters inevitable.

JOSHUA MASEREKA, COMMUNITY CONSERVATION WARDEN OF UGANDA WILDLIFE AUTHORITY: People here have lived with this animal for centuries. They were

born and they found themselves co existing with the mountain gorillas. We have a hard-edge boundary between the park and the communities that you

have a parker boundary here, and then next to it, you have a garden, and this is presenting a very big challenge to conservation.

WEIR (voice-over): In order to improve hygiene in the community, Gladys set up a network of village health and conservation teams to educate families

on a range of topics that help prevent the spread of diseases.

[09:45:00]

KALEMA-ZIKUSOKA: We reach about 10,000 households around Bwindi. We developed a whole set of indicators that they should have to show that they

have good health and hygiene. Anything to avoid human wildlife conflict. This is the fastness.

WEIR (voice-over): Back in the forest, rangers collect dung samples from each of the habituated gorilla's groups once a month.

KALEMA-ZIKUSOKA: It's always good for us to know which particular gorilla passed which each fecal sample is more useful than.

WEIR (voice-over): These samples are then delivered to the conservation through public health field lab, where they can be analyzed for any

abnormalities in the gorilla's health.

KALEMA-ZIKUSOKA: When we came across the nightness, the sample look normal. We are seeing here parasite egg that could be part of their normal gut

micro flora. So, it doesn't look, I don't see anything that's alarming. This particular -- looks fairly healthy -- so we are pleased about that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: Let us know what you are doing to answer the call with a hashtag "Call to Earth".

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANDERSON: Well, this news just into CNN, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, as the health department, effectively is expected to fire

10,000 people in a major overhaul of health agencies. The department saying that it is restructuring in accordance with Elon Musk's DOGE initiative.

It says the cuts will save $1.8 billion a year combined with previous cuts. The downsizing will reduce about 20,000 employees across federal health

agencies. Nearly two dozen new measles cases in Kansas could be linked to outbreaks in three other states, health officials say.

The measles outbreak in Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma has infected 379 people so far. Physicians there also say they are seeing patients with

vitamin A toxicity. They believe that is because U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. once suggested mega doses of vitamin A to ward off

measles.

[09:50:00]

Health experts say only the vaccine can do that. Our Anderson Cooper spoke with a former CDC official who recently resigned from the organization. He

says leadership at the U.S. Health Department is not doing what it needs to do amid this measles outbreak. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Career infectious disease experts spending hours searching for data to try to support Kennedy's preferred

measles treatment. You went on to say all this misdirection is a waste of federal dollars that will do nothing to control the outbreak. It could also

cost lives. Do you think the country is prepared for this growing measles outbreak or another pandemic?

KEVIN GRIFFIS, FORMER CDC DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS: Well, what I know is that right now that the leadership at HHS isn't doing what it needs to do

everything it can to control this problem. It is a complicated situation, and it's important that we spend all of our time thinking about what are

the best ways to be able to interdict the situation and curb the outbreak.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Well, CNN Medical Correspondent Meg Terrell or Tirrell, sorry, joins me now live. Hello, Meg, good to have you. How quickly are these

cases growing?

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah.

ANDERSON: And are doctors particularly worried about this toxicity issue? Just explain.

TIRRELL: Yeah, they're extremely worried about it. The cases are growing especially fast in Texas, really, where the epicenter of this measles

outbreak is. So now it's up to 327 in Texas. But of course, we know that cases have spread to nearby New Mexico, where there are 43 cases, and also

to Oklahoma, which is reporting 9 cases.

And most recently now Kansas, is saying the 23 cases it's identified there are most likely or probably linked to this same outbreak. So, this outbreak

has now grown potentially to 4 states. Separately, we also learned yesterday that there is an outbreak of measles in Ohio, of 10 cases.

They said that the first case had contact with someone who traveled internationally, and so it sounds like that's its own independent outbreak,

Becky. And what's really concerning about this is you mentioned vitamin A, and this ties into what doctors are really worried about around

misinformation around measles being spread by the highest echelons of the U.S. government.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Health Secretary, who has said that vitamin A is a good thing to use for measles, and has even suggested it could be used

preventively. And doctors say that's very dangerous. The only thing that works to prevent measles is the vaccine. And what we're seeing is

vaccination rates dropping in a lot of these places, so that allows measles to spread.

And really concerningly, the idea that folks should be using vitamin A on their own, without the supervision of doctors. vitamin A can be used for

severe measles cases, but under doctor supervision. But we have heard from Covenant Children's Hospital in Lubbock, Texas, near the outbreak's

epicenter, that several patients have been found to have abnormal liver function on routine lab tests, which is a probable sign they've taken too

much vitamin A, Becky. So, it's concerning all around.

ANDERSON: Absolutely and these cuts that we have just been reporting on at the Department of Health and Human Services, this can't be good timing with

this outbreak going on. That doesn't matter, though, with Trump's focus on government cuts, of course, they will, it seems continue.

TIRRELL: They will. And specifically, to the CDC, which, of course, oversees outbreak response. We're just learning this morning its workforce

will be cut by 2400 employees. They say they're working on focusing on returning its core mission to preparing for and responding to epidemics and

outbreaks.

But of course, that's a huge number of people who work at the CDC. That's on top of 3500 cuts at the FDA, 1200 at the NIH and 300 at CMS.

Importantly, they say CMS is the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and they say those shouldn't be affected by the reorganization.

And at FDA, they say the reduction won't affect drug, medical device or food reviewers or inspectors, Becky, but this is a massive reduction.

10,000 employees being fired afresh, and that's on top of 10,000 who have already taken voluntary retirement or buyouts or that fork in the road

thing. So that's a quarter of the health department's employees being eliminated here.

Wow, that's remarkable. Thank you. So, it's good to have you. Right, President Trump sending his Vice President, JD Vance and the second lady,

his wife, on a visit to Greenland this week that many see as controversial. The president has repeatedly said, of course, that he wants the U.S. to

take control of the autonomous Danish territory.

It is policies like these and the growing trade war with U.S. allies and foes allies, that have led many people around the world to boycott American

products, sharing and organizing their efforts on social media.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: USA Boycott supermarket edition, and we're on to Cathedral City cheese that is British made, but Canadian owned.

[09:55:00]

So, win, win. And then pilgrims' choice, good old Ireland is responsible for these ones.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Instead of coke, I've bought no sugar cola made in Australia from at least 99 percent Australian ingredients, and I bought it

from Aldi. So, some of the profits will go to Germany.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't want to be spending my money at the moment on USA brands, whether it be the clothes that I wear, the food that I buy in

the shop, but most importantly, the makeup that I buy for my makeup kit. As a professional makeup artist here in the U.K., I just really want to

support U.K. based brands and European as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Right. We're going to keep an eye on that trip to Greenland by the Vance's. That is tomorrow. That's it for this hour. I'll be back

straight after this short break with the second hour of the show. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

END