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One World with Zain Asher
At Least 12 Killed In worst Strikes On Kyiv In Nine Months; Trump's Approval Rating Slumps As He Nears 100-Day Mark; Trump Welcomes Norway's Prime Minister To The White House; U.S. Ramps Up Pressure On Ukraine To Accept Peace Plan; Families Share Histories Of Loss, Sacrifice, Courage; Nigerian Scientists Working On More Resilient Seeds; Clerical Abuse Survivor Recalls "Magical" Friendship With Pope; Aired 12:00-1:00p ET
Aired April 24, 2025 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:00:26]
ZAIN ASHER, CNN ANCHOR: Russia launched its biggest attack on Kyiv in nine months, and Donald Trump certainly is not happy about that.
BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN ANCHOR: The second hour of ONE WORLD starts right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president has maintained that his frustration is growing and he needs to see this thing come to an
end.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GOLODRYGA: Vladimir stop, Trump's scathing message for Vladimir Putin.
ASHER: Also ahead, brand-new polling shows the president's approval rating is underwater.
Plus.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Why would the Nazis have been so possessed with finding a woman and her children?
DR. ELIE HONIG, HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR: Because every single person was supposed to be annihilated.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GOLODRYGA: One man's remarkable story of survival as we mark Holocaust Remembrance Day.
ASHER: And later, how many people can say they were actually friends with a pope. The man who spent birthdays and shared letters with Pope Francis
himself.
All right. Live from New York, I'm Zain Asher.
GOLODRYGA: And I'm Bianna Golodryga. You're watching the second hour of ONE WORLD.
Donald Trump issued a rare rebuke of Russian President Vladimir Putin after Moscow launched a deadly wave of strikes on Ukraine.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(EXPLOSION)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: The missiles and drones mostly targeted Ukraine's capital. At least 12 people were killed, dozens more injured, making it the deadliest assault
on Kyiv since last July.
GOLODRYGA: President Trump posted on his social media website, I am not happy with the Russian strikes on Kyiv. Not necessary and very bad timing.
Vladimir, Stop, 5,000 soldiers a week are dying. Let's get the peace deal done.
The Ukrainian President, meantime, says the new attacks were aimed at pressuring Washington. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was the target of President
Trump's criticism just Wednesday, cut short a trip to South Africa to return home.
At any moment now, Donald Trump is set to welcome Norway's Prime Minister to the White House.
ASHER: Yes. He will be listening for any comments the U.S. president might make as it pertains to Russia's deadly strikes on Kyiv.
And next up, both of these are actually scheduled to hold the bilateral meeting where the war in Ukraine is likely going to be one of the key
topics as of course will trade be as well.
GOLODRYGA: CNN's chief national security correspondent Alex Marquardt is standing by for all of us, along with Kevin Liptak, who is following the
story from the White House.
As we noted, a rare rebuke against Vladimir Putin from the President of the United States. But, Kevin, surely an embarrassment for President Trump as
well, who along with some of his top cabinet officials have been leveling their ire mostly at Ukraine to come to a deal. And here you have Vladimir
Putin striking at the Capitol just hours later.
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes. And it's clear that the President's frustration at this conflict is boiling over at his inability
to bring about an end to the war.
And you'll remember, he promised when he was a candidate that he would be able to resolve it within 24 hours, now he's essentially left to plead with
Vladimir Putin on his own social media platform to end his bombardment of Kyiv.
I think it's clear that the President is eager for this to end. Obviously, his own aides had sort of set an informal deadline of the 100-day mark of
his presidency to try and get some agreement for the war to end.
But, obviously, the president now feeling some ire towards Putin. Obviously, most of his focus has been on Zelenskyy over the course of this
conflict.
We just heard from him yesterday in the Oval Office say that Zelenskyy has been the harder one to deal with as this war has been unfolding, saying
that Zelenskyy is prolonging the conflict because he hasn't signed on to this American peace agreement, which would essentially force Ukraine to
seed some of the territory that it's lost to Russia over the course of this war in exchange for some very vague security guarantees and the explicit
promise that it would never join NATO, which obviously to Zelenskyy did not sound like a deal he could sign off on.
Now, the question I think is what the President can and is willing to do when it comes to Russia in order to pressure it to end its airstrikes,
whether it's new sanctions, you know, sectorial sanctions, secondary sanctions, which have not been ruled out. They still put those on the table
at the White House, but which President Trump has obviously been very reluctant to sign off on as this war has proceeded.
[12:05:13]
One of the things that I think is so striking about the president's comments today is, you know, we really have not heard a whole lot of
criticism from this White House directed towards Putin, really dating back to the president's first term.
He has had almost this fascination with the Russian leader, and so anytime he comes out and criticizes him, I think it's a moment to sort of set up
and take notice. But I think the question, of course, is what this all means for the war going forward.
Now, this meeting today in the Oval Office will, I think, be significant. It's with the Prime Minister of Norway, but it's who he's bringing along
with him into that meeting, which I think is so notable.
It's this finance minister, Jen Stoltenberg, which, if the name sounds familiar, it's because he is the former Secretary-General of NATO. He was
in that role when Trump was in the White House the first time around. He's seen as something of a Trump whisperer when it comes to these issues of
European security, of the importance of the NATO alliance.
And so it will be interesting to see how that dynamic plays out. I think it's clear that Ukraine will be something of a centerpiece for these talks
when they sit down. And I think it remains to be seen whether they can be convincing to the president in the way so many European leaders have tried
and failed thus far to convince the president to keep this American assistance to Ukraine going, to keep it sustained as obviously, Zelenskyy,
continues to be under siege from Russia, how much they're able to accomplish that I think is an unknown, but it will be an important
conversation for them to have today.
ASHER: All right. Kevin Liptak, live for us there. Thank you so much.
Let's bring in Alexander Marquardt. So, Alex, what is Donald Trump's learning about how much he can actually trust Vladimir Putin and also, how
to negotiate with him?
ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: It's a terrific question because Trump and his other top officials, including Steve
Witkoff, who is the envoy to Putin, they keep insisting that Vladimir Putin wants peace and that he wants to end this war.
And if you talk to pretty much anybody else, intelligence officials, European officials, Ukrainian officials, they'll tell you that maybe Putin
wants peace, but he wants peace on his own terms.
And certainly he would be more than happy for the United States to walk away. He could continue his war as he sees fit. He thinks that he can
outlast Ukraine and the West.
And so we're at a really interesting moment here that is really being forced through because of this timeline that Trump has put on himself to
try to end this war as soon as possible, as soon as within 100 days of taking office, that 100 days is on Tuesday. This war will not be over by
Tuesday.
So what is the emphasis now? And what we've heard time and time again from the Trump administration is they just want the war to stop. So one question
that we have is, is the Trump administration barreling past this idea of a ceasefire, which they called for some five weeks ago, which Ukraine agreed
to and which Russia rejected? Are they simply going for an overall peace deal?
And we have a general sense of the pieces that are being put into place for what a peace deal could look like in America's eyes. And the biggest factor
is probably going to be this question of territorial concessions.
And the administration said something yesterday that is certain to scare the Ukrainians. JD Vance on his trip said that they're looking at freezing
the territorial lines, essentially where they are right now. And that would mean the U.S. essentially recognizing that Russia has taken over so much of
Eastern and Southern Ukraine.
The Ukrainians, I'm told, yesterday in meetings in London, they're coming around to this idea of agreeing to some kind of territorial concessions.
But what remains clear, Zain and Bianna, is that the Ukrainians are lagging far behind this Trump timeline. Ukrainians are not ready to talk about
exactly what kind of land they would give up. They are ready to come to the table and to start these discussions. But Trump's impatience is really
shining through here.
And last week, we heard Secretary of State Rubio talking about the need for an agreement in a matter of days.
One thing that is really making the Europeans, the Ukrainians nervous as well is Steve Witkoff is due to go to Russia tomorrow and meet with
Vladimir Putin. Now if Trump was really ticked off with Putin, he could cancel that trip to Moscow. But as far as we know right now, Witkoff is
indeed going.
And so the Europeans and Ukrainians are worried that Putin is going to essentially convince Witkoff of his position. We've heard Witkoff echoing
those Russian talking points in the past. Putin could be ready to freeze the conflict along the lines right now.
But clearly, that would not benefit the Ukrainians. And so we really are at this critical moment of discussions where the Ukrainians are not on the
same page in terms of the timeline that the Trump administration has set for itself.
[12:10:09]
ASHER: Alexander Marquardt, live for us there. Thank you so much.
GOLODRYGA: Meantime, the president's approval ratings are down on issues across the board, including on how he's handling these major foreign policy
issues.
Here we go, CNN's data analyst.
It's something, it's like Freudian. As soon as I see your name, we just get excited the, smiles at our face.
ASHER: You haven't even said anything, Harry. I'm like laughing. I laugh before you speak.
GOLODRYGA: Yes.
ASHER: Just seeing you, I'm like laughing.
GOLODRYGA: Because your approval ratings, unlike the presidents, go up and up and up and up. But run us through the numbers now, Harry.
HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: You're stealing my lines. We'll have a little bit fun on the end. OK, and I'll try and get you back.
But we'll jump into foreign policy first because that's what you mentioned. And I think this just tells it all, right? Trump's net approval rating on
foreign policy. Per Fox News, poll came out yesterday, get this, 14 points underwater. That is considerably worse than he was back at this point
during his first term in which he was only six points underwater.
And I looked at an IPSOS polls, separate pollster, but the trend line I think is something that we should take note of.
When we were in January, his net approval rating on foreign policy was plus two. You don't have to be a mathematical genius when you go from plus two
to minus 14, you're going down. Folks do not like the way that Trump is handling foreign policy.
Now, of course, it's not just about a narrow topic like foreign policy. It's about his overall approval rating. And I think this to me is so
fascinating because we have been talking throughout this time of Trump's term, the second term that he was running ahead of his first term numbers.
That might not be the case anymore.
Take a look. According to Fox, his overall net approval rating was minus three in April of 2017. Look where it is now. It's actually worse. It's
minus 11 points.
How about the Pew Research Center? Basically the same. It was minus 22, 22 points underwater back at this point April in 2017. Now at minus 19 points.
He is way, way, way underwater. You need scuba gear to get as far underwater as Donald Trump is at this particular point.
And I think it's notable to put Trump in a historic context, right? Compare him to other presidents, not just compare to himself. And if we look
through history, presidents with net negative approval ratings at this point in the presidency, well, there are two guys on the screen. They may
be good looking guys, but the exact same guy, which Trump in 2017 and Trump in 2025.
Every single other president at this point in their term had a net positive approval rating. Donald Trump is in an island all by himself.
But the bottom line is if I were on an island by myself, I could think of two people no better to join me on that island than you two.
ASHER: Oh, Harry. Can you do the -- you went down. Like he literally dropped.
ENTEN: Here.
ASHER: Almost like a dog.
ENTEN: I do more exercise on this show than I do in my regular life.
ASHER: Do your squats, Harry. Do your squats.
GOLODRYGA: Let's hope our -- let's hope our husbands weren't listening to you saying you'd like to be on an island.
ENTEN: Hopefully my girlfriend wasn't watching either. She's actually in the room over there, but my voice travels so far that she might be able to
hear me, but I walked by her desk before this and she wasn't there. So I don't think so.
ASHER: She's watching right now. I'm sure she's watching right now.
GOLODRYGA: It's all plutonic, brother Harry.
ENTEN: I don't know if she -- you know, maybe I'll play this clip back for her. Maybe not. I think not, not. I'm going to go with not.
ASHER: I want her to like us, so please don't.
ENTEN: I don't worry. She loves everybody. Don't worry. She's sweetheart.
GOLODRYGA: We can just all get together on this island in Manhattan and I'll go out for dinner one night too. That would be fun.
ENTEN: I like that. That's six people. I think we can do it.
GOLODRYGA: Perfect.
ASHER: Oh, yes. With the other halves included.
ENTEN: So you just made a plan?
GOLODRYGA: Yes.
ASHER: OK.
ENTEN: Perfect. Exactly.
GOLODRYGA: Put it on the corporate card.
ENTEN: Of course, the green card.
GOLODRYGA: Thank you. Thanks, Harry.
ENTEN: Bye, ladies.
ASHER: Thanks, Harry. Bye.
All right. The Prime Minister of Norway has actually just arrived at the White House. Let's take a look and see pictures here for moments ago.
Everything from trade is going to be discussed here along with NATO, along with National Security and of course the war in Ukraine is going to be a
major topic.
I want to bring in CNN's political and national security analyst David Sanger.
So, David, what's interesting here about this meeting is that in early April, Norway was, of course, one of the countries that got hit pretty hard
with tariffs. They had initially a 15 percent tariff hit on them before the 90-day pause.
Just talk to us about how much trade is going to be discussed here because it is important to note that Norway is not part of the E.U. So this is very
different from the Giorgia Meloni negotiations that we saw last week.
DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: It is. And I'm sure the Norwegians are going to want to talk about trade. I suspect the
president probably isn't. I think he sees in Norway an opportunity to have a conversation with a country that isn't part of Europe, as you say or the
European Union.
And, of course, you've heard the president's view of the European Union in recent times. He said they were invented to screw the United States. I
think that was his exact phrase.
[12:15:11]
What will be really interesting is not as much the prime minister, but the finance minister who is sitting there is Jen Stolberg, who, of course, was
the Secretary General for NATO.
Interestingly, his successor is kicking around Washington today and meeting with Secretary Rubio and Secretary Hegseth and the National Security
Advisor, Mike Waltz. But I don't think he's seeing the president, as we're told.
And it's been the NATO position so far that if you are going to strike a deal with Ukraine, it's got to be a deal that recognizes that Ukraine was
the victim of aggression here and that you shouldn't be rewarding aggression. That was the Stolberg position. And it's been Secretary General
Guterres says, his successor's position. I wonder if that'll come up.
GOLODRYGA: Yes. And you still have the president consistently say that he thinks he can turn Vladimir Putin and get him on his side to end the war,
despite what we see, the facts portray, that Putin is nowhere near ending this war, given what we saw last night as yet another example.
David, I'd like to link tariffs and the war in Ukraine together, which you kind of do in your really thoughtful piece of "The New York Times" this
morning, which details Trump blinking and blinking again as it relates to China and the tariffs laid out.
You say, in private, some Trump officials concede that they did not accurately predict China's reaction. Mr. Trump seemed to expect China to be
among the first to come begging for relief, given the size of its exports to the United States.
And then you go on to say other powers are clearly watching the Chinese approach in taking notes, including Mr. Xi's friend, Vladimir Putin.
How is this factoring into what we're seeing from the Kremlin in terms of its desire or lack thereof in bringing this war to an end?
SANGER: Well, it's been really interesting to watch that Putin's approach has been to make no concessions so far, whatsoever. You haven't heard a
single one from him. All that you have seen him do is pocket what the administration has given him already, which is no NATO entry for Ukraine
and the territorial concessions that you were just discussing.
And, you know, I believe the territorial concessions are probably inevitable, because I don't see a way that Ukraine can take that back. But
it's not clear to me why the administration is giving those away upfront before there's been a negotiation.
In fact, Putin has been approaching this the way the Chinese are approaching the tariff conversation, which is they're not really engaging.
And maybe they will, once Steve Witkoff is there. I think this is his third visit.
But it's not clear to me that Putin sees any reason right now to do anything but hang back and wait for more preemptive concessions, which has
essentially been the Chinese strategy on tariffs.
ASHER: And just in terms of what Donald Trump is learning about negotiating with the Chinese because -- sorry, with the Russians, I mean, because he
obviously posted on Truth Social, saying Vladimir stop. Obviously, we got the overnight attacks, barrage of missiles on Kyiv.
Just talk to us about the fact that this is something that Volodymyr Zelenskyy really tried to raise during that visit to the White House, where
he tried to tell JD Vance and Donald Trump, listen, Vladimir Putin cannot be trusted.
You have to listen to me. And, of course, they didn't listen. They instead talked over him and tried to humiliate him at the White House.
Just give us a sense of, you know, whether this is turning -- whether this is a significant shift in how President Trump is viewing negotiating with
Vladimir Putin.
SANGER: Well, first of all, it's the most mild thing, Vladimir, stop. He didn't say you just kill civilians for no purpose as we're trying to move
toward a ceasefire.
The second thing is, if you're Putin, what are you doing looking at what the president is saying on Truth Social, or looking at what he is doing in
the State Department, the Justice Department, where he has dismantled or neutralized the offices that were tracking Russian war crimes, including
the huge killings at Bucha at the beginning of the war, but others along the way.
And the result is that it's clear this administration is not interested in pursuing any of the war crime prosecutions that were being talked about so
much during the Biden administration. So if you're Putin, you'd rather take a bad tweet than the prospect that the United States and its allies might
try to seek prosecutions.
[12:20:07]
GOLODRYGA: On the issue of concession after concession being offered to Russia, there had been reporting that the Trump administration was
contemplating lifting the sanctions on Nord Stream 2, and that is the oil, the gas pipeline, the natural gas pipeline connecting Russia to Europe.
Give us a sense of what, if in fact the United States does decide to do that, the implications that has, especially since Donald Trump himself had
always criticized Angela Merkel for signing up to the Nord Stream 2 deal and greenlighting it as well. What message would that send?
SANGER: Well, let's remind everybody how Nord Stream 2 got started. It got started around 2015, roughly about a year after Russia invaded Crimea. And
that's when Chancellor Merkel signed the agreement and said, well, for everything else he's done, Vladimir Putin is a reliable supplier. Think
about that. It doesn't say that she approves of his efforts at repression in Russia itself or his territorial grab.
But the message it sent was, you don't really pay a penalty for invading another country's -- going over another country's borders. And I think if
you turn Nord Stream 2 back on, that's the message the U.S. would send again.
Now, the big interesting question would be, let's say the U.S. turns it on, would the Europeans then start buying gas running through that pipeline?
Well, because right now, the way this is headed, Europe would remain in a position of having sanctions on Russia and continuing to help the
Ukrainians. Hard to imagine they would be buying that gas, but maybe they would.
ASHER: And, David, just in terms of tariffs, because this week, we have seen so many different headlines when it comes to tariffs. The latest being
that the reciprocal tariffs that Donald Trump had initially paused for 90 days are likely going to be back in play. And that if countries do not
negotiate with the U.S. fast enough that these reciprocal tariffs would actually come at a higher rate.
So obviously that is going to be a topic of discussion for Norway. OK. I'm being told, David, we have to leave you there.
I'm being told that President Trump is actually speaking in a cabinet meeting with the Prime Minister of Norway. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: But they have to get to the table. We're waiting a long time to have to get him to the table. And I
think we're going to get peace. We want to save 5,000 young people. I used to say 2,500. I now say 5,000.
We have -- Mr. Prime Minister, we have about 5,000 young people a week that are dying in that ridiculous war. And, you know, I started out because I
didn't like all the money that we were paying. And then I realized how many people were dying. And that's by far the more important element right now.
I'm saying we can save thousands of people. I don't -- I don't like that it takes long at all. But I think they both want to make peace. I do believe
so. There's a lot of hatred there. There's a lot of very bad blood. A lot of distrust. But I think we're going to -- I hope we're going to get there
for the sake of a lot of young people that are dying.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, do you have a deadline for when the argument --
TRUMP: I have my own deadline. I have my own deadline. And we want it to be fast. And the Prime Minister is helping us. He wants it to be fast, too.
And I think everybody in this, you know, in this time in NATO, they want to see this thing happen. So we have a deadline. And after that, we have a --
we're going to have a very much different attitude. But I think it has a very good chance of getting done.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, why can't Norway be able to prove that they're an important ally to the U.S.? What can Norway do?
TRUMP: Just keep doing what they're doing. We have a very good relationship with Norway. Great leader, great people. I know many of the people in
Norway. And it's truly -- it's an incredible country.
So all they have to do is keep doing what they're doing. I think is probably the best answer I can give.
Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The former Secretary General of NATO is here.
TRUMP: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stoltenberg. How important is the NATO defense allies, Mr. President? Is it sacrosanct from your perspective?
TRUMP: Well, it's a very interesting question. It's certainly very important for Europe. And I think without us, it wouldn't be as nearly as
powerful.
And as the former Secretary General, who did a great job, can tell you we played. I played when I was there, a very big role in making sure that NATO
is funded by the 28th -- at that time, they had 28 countries, including us, because many of the countries weren't paid. And they ended up being paid,
you would say.
And the Secretary General was very, very nice about it, as far as I was concerned. The President's went in. They made a speech, and they left. And
that kept going on.
[12:25:08]
And, you know, in the meantime, they had no money. And the United States was paying far more than its fair share. You could say that they were
paying. I actually said sometimes it looked like 100 percent, and it was unfair. And the two of us worked very well together and we took care of the
situation.
(CROSSTALK)
Yes, please. Go ahead.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Norwegian statistics that are showing that the U.S. actually has a trade surplus with the Norway? Are you going to be
looking into that and see which other countries are actually in a trade surplus?
TRUMP: Yes. Well, with the United States, almost everybody has a surplus. It's really an amazing -- it's an amazing phenomenon. No. There's a surplus
of a couple of billion dollars I think you have with us.
I congratulate you. That's very good. We've got to get a little bit of that for ourselves, maybe. But they do have a surplus. Norway has a surplus.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, in the current situation, analysts have pointed out that the U.S. actually mean allies. Do you consider Norway as a
possible ally in this place?
TRUMP: I think Norway's always been an ally. They've been somebody we've been very close to, very friendly with. Maybe more so now with me than
other people. But I think Norway's always been a great ally.
Yes. Norway's been a friend.
JONAS GAHR STORE, PRIME MINISTER OF NORWAY: That's a very strange question, actually, because the U.S. is our indeed ally. And we built on a
relationship with which we will talk about now, Mr. President.
TRUMP: Yes.
STORE: It's of high relevance. And I'm very happy that we have Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense.
TRUMP: Right.
STORE: So this is a very strong time.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But it was a question about ally and the tariff situation specifically.
STORE: Tariffs?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
TRUMP: Oh. Well, that's we're talking about a little bit different subject, then we're talking about a different type of ally.
No. In this case, he would be very much inclined to be an ally of Norway, because he wants to make the best business deal possible in Norway. And the
Norwegians are great business people. They're great traders. They're great. Very smart nation, very well-managed nation.
Has been for a long time, and in particular now, with this leadership. But we'll be talking about trade and other things. And I think we're going to
come to a conclusion very quickly.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Prime Minister, I was wondering whether you think the goal of Trump for (INAUDIBLE) Ukraine and otherwise deserves to be
nominated for another (INAUDIBLE).
STORE: Well, I salute President Trump for having been taking very important steps to get this conflict towards and with both parties to serve. We need
to have a ceasefire and save lives and move towards something which is more secure for Europe, for the people concerned.
And that -- on that, we work together. And I look forward to, you know, going to some details, because we are at a critical moment.
On that price, you know, that is the committee taking care of that, which is completely working on its own terms, and I cannot comment on that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, a question --
TRUMP: But thank you very much for that question. I like that question. Yes, please.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A question on China. Can you clarify with whom the U.S. is speaking with China? They're saying it's fake news that trade talks were
happening.
TRUMP: Well, they had a meeting this morning, so I can't tell you. It doesn't matter who they is. We may reveal it later, but they had meetings
this morning. And we've been meeting with China.
And so I think you have Jeff as usual. I think you have your reporting wrong.
Thank you very much. We'll see you. We'll see you inside. Thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GOLODRYGA: All right. We've just been listening to the President of the United States as he was meeting at the White House with the Prime Minister
of Norway, taking a few reporters' questions.
Obviously, the two main issues, the war in Ukraine and tariffs on the war in Ukraine. President Trump, again, insisting that he thinks President
Putin will listen to him to stop the strikes on Kyiv. We saw additional strikes just last night.
And as it relates to tariffs, he said that his negotiations and discussions with Norway were productive and that Norway is a close ally.
Also asked at the end there by Jeff Mason about reporting from China, saying that any reports suggesting that the two sides were close to
reaching a trade deal was, quote, fake news. The president denied that as well in saying they're just been talks earlier today.
And also worth noting that Jens Stoltenberg was in the room. He is now Norway's finance minister. He was previously Secretary General of NATO.
And prior to that, he was also Prime Minister of Norway, so a man who has worn many hats. And who knows Trump well?
[12:30:02]
All right. We'll be right back with more after this short break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(SIREN)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: Siren sounding across Israel for Holocaust Remembrance Day. People paused whatever they were doing. Stopped whatever they were doing to honor
the six million Jews murdered by Nazi Germany during World War II.
Families forever scarred by those horrors.
GOLODRYGA: I'm always haunted by that moment. Every year when you just see the entire country pause and reflect on those lives lost.
Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at the Yad Vashem Memorial in Jerusalem.
And Holocaust survivors were also honored today in the annual march of the living through Auschwitz, Birkenau, the most notorious of the Nazi death
camps.
ASHER: Honoring the victims of the Holocaust is very, very personal for our senior legal analyst, Elie Honig, who bears the name of his paternal
grandfather Polish Jew who lost most of his family to the Holocaust. Eliezer Honig barely survived the Nazi concentration camps.
GOLODRYGA: Yes. There's also a third man who shares their unusual name and his family also shares much of the heartbreak and horrors of the Holocaust.
CNN's Elie Honig has the story of Dr. Elie Honig.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HONIG: At this point, you are declared a fugitive.
DR. ELIE HONIG: I declared a fugitive.
HONIG: A fugitive from who exactly?
DR. ELIE HONIG: From the Germans who got occupied.
[12:35:04]
HONIG (voice-over): At just 20 days old, in November of 1942, Elie Honig was a fugitive from the Nazis, along with his mother and two sisters.
HONIG: Why would the Nazis have been so possessed with finding a woman and her three children?
DR. ELIE HONIG: Because every single person was supposed to be annihilated.
HONIG: I've lived my whole life thinking I was the only Elie Honig. And then I met Dr. Elie Honig, an 82-year-old Holocaust survivor.
DR. ELIE HONIG: Well, my grandson called me up and said, do you know an Elie Honig? I said, I heard the name, but no idea who he is. Why not try to
contact you? And we've been talking ever since.
HONIG (VOICE-OVER): Dr. Honig initially thought we might be related. We aren't, but we bonded over a shared connection to the Holocaust.
I was named after my grandfather. His Hebrew name was Eliezer Honig, a Nazi concentration camp survivor and a man I never met.
Dr. Honig was born in Nazi-occupied France during the Holocaust. Most of his family were murdered by the Nazis, including his father.
HONIG: How many of your family members ended up at Auschwitz?
DR. ELIE HONIG: Ten and nine perished there.
HONIG (VOICE-OVER): Honig was already being hunted by the Nazis before he was born, but he, his sisters and his mother, lived, because one woman made
it her mission to help them survive.
DR. ELIE HONIG: She swore to herself that she would do whatever she could to save us, and she listened to her entire family.
HONIG (VOICE-OVER): Madeleine Counord was a Christian woman who taught kindergarten to Dr. Honig's older sisters. Shortly after he was born,
Counord directed her 12-year-old niece to sneak Honig and his mother out of the hospital and into hiding.
DR. ELIE HONIG: I was carried in a bag, literally in a bag. I was 20 days old. Well, you know, a newborn, practically. They placed me in a house
where there was another newborn, so that if there was any crying, there wouldn't be any suspicion.
And then they took me from there to (INAUDIBLE) and I was in an orphanage run by Dr. Jigong (ph). I don't know where. I don't have more information.
I wish I did, but I don't know.
HONIG (VOICE-OVER): In order to protect him, Honig was given a French alias, Michel (ph). His mother and sisters were hidden in different
locations from him, so the entire family was separated for the duration of the war.
HONIG: How long a period of time did this network of your French Christian neighbors protect you as a newborn?
DR. ELIE HONIG: I would say 19 months.
HONIG: If any of the French Christian neighbors who helped you and your family survive had been caught harboring you, helping you by the Nazis,
what would have happened to them?
DR. ELIE HONIG: They would have been brought to concentration camps. They want to survive. I think of the bravery of all of them. And I ask myself
many times over the years, what would I have done had I been in their place? I don't have an answer. I don't know what I would have done.
I just think to myself, I hope I would have done an honorable thing, but I cannot.
HONIG (VOICE-OVER): Because of their bravery, Dr. Honig survived and went on to lead a beautiful life, becoming a celebrated physics professor.
He also married, had four children, and now he has five grandchildren.
HONIG: Is there anything that you hope future generations would take from your story or from the story of the people who saved you?
DR. ELIE HONIG: I would like them to recognize how difficult it is, but how important it is to rise above a crowd, to do what's right, to do what you
know in your heart is right, even though it is difficult.
How do you act honorably? How do you pass that down so that you can look yourself in the mirror and said, I did the right thing?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GOLODRYGA: Wow. Time now for The Exchange and our Elie Honig is with us live from Washington, D.C.
And, Elie, it's such a beautiful thing to see this story, which I knew about you had told me about finding another Elie Honig and the connection
between the two of you and working on this project a while ago and seeing it now all come together and the two of you together and you obviously on
our air and a completely different role from that that we've gotten to know you.
And how has this experience impacted you?
HONIG: Well, Bianna, it's really been life affirming for me. I mean, this is a man, first of all, the coincidence of there being another Elie Honig
out there, something I never knew until, as he said, he reached out to me. Actually, his grandson prompted him to reach out to me.
But to hear this man's life story, and I keep thinking about the French Christian neighbors who saved him, Madeleine Counord. We saw her photo
there. She's long deceased, her family.
I mean, Dr. Honig talks about how a 12-year-old girl, Madeleine Counord's niece, snuck him and his mother through Nazi-occupied territory with Dr.
Honig, who was a baby in a bag and brought him to safety in the home of other French Christian neighbors
[12:40:09]
And because of, not just the generosity, but the bravery, the courage of those people, they would have been murdered if they had been caught. But
because of their bravery, Dr. Honig has now lived 82 years old. He has a beautiful large family. You saw the photo there. I got to meet them.
He has impacted hundreds, if not thousands of students' lives. He's a very popular physics professor at the University of Toronto. And so we do think
today about the horrors of the Holocaust. And there were many. But stories like this are important too that give us reason for hope.
ASHER: Elie, so today is Yom Hashoah in Israel and it's Holocaust Remembrance Day. And, you know, I'm just curious your thoughts on how
people who are not Jewish should really be honoring those who lost their lives 80 or so years ago and really sharing in the spirit of remembrance.
How can all of us participate in their memory, do you think?
HONIG: Well, thank you for that question, Zain. I think the best thing I can ask for is that people just watch and listen and understand the
history, understand what happened to the Jewish people.
And I do think one of the aspects of this story that really stuck out to me that I think is so important is he was not saved by other Jews. He was
saved by Christians, by his neighbors who did not have to do that.
So there are plenty of non-Jews who did not just the right thing, but the brave thing, the almost impossibly difficult thing when they saved Dr.
Honig, his mother and his two sisters.
So this is a moment I think not just for Jewish people to remember the Holocaust but really for all of us.
GOLODRYGA: Yes. And they're called the Righteous Among the Nations.
HONIG: Yes.
GOLODRYGA: And those are the non-Jews that sacrificed their lives and risked being killed to do the right thing and to protect Jews that were
being targeted during the Holocaust as Dr. Elie Honig was describing happened to him in France.
And it's so touching to go to Yad Vashem, which I just went to for the first time recently in Israel and to see how they are memorialized to and
how the Righteous Among the Nations are really honored. All of these people, we know Schindler's List and that was obviously Oskar Schindler
being among the most prominent of names. But so many names we don't know but who no doubt saved countless lives, Elie.
HONIG: For sure. And I should say Dr. Honig who is a very smart, very driven man, made his mission to get Madeleine Counord added to that very
list, Bianna, the Righteous Among Nations at Yad Vashem. And so she is now among that very select group, as well as her family members.
And, you know, I asked Dr. Honig how he thinks back on these folks and he says, look I understand I owe everything to them.
I actually also spoke with Dr. Honig's grandson who's 16 and he made this brilliant statement to me. He said, I know that my existence is due to the
bravery of these people and he said, it's like the theory where if a butterfly flaps its wings and that impacts the world beyond.
You know, there's -- Bianna, I'm sure you know and I think it goes beyond the Jewish religion. There's an aphorism that he who saves one soul saves
the whole universe. And I think this is a perfect example of that.
GOLODRYGA: No doubt. Revenge honestly in so many of these cases --
HONIG: Right.
GOLODRYGA: -- is just the fact that families survive. They thrive. They grow and Dr. Honig has kids.
ASHER: Still sharing his grandkids.
GOLODRYGA: Yes. And this is such a beautiful story, Elie. I'm so glad that you were finally able to meet the other Elie Honig. I hope this is the
start of a beautiful relationship and friendship between the two of you.
HONIG: We're connected forever. Thank you both. I appreciate it.
ASHER: That's great. Of course. Thank you for that piece, Elie.
GOLODRYGA: And we'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:45:14]
ASHER: Nigerian agriculture is under pressure. And Africa's most populous country, with more than 200 million people and counting, food security is
certainly a concern.
GOLODRYGA: But a potential game changer has emerged, seed engineering.
In today's Inside Africa, we meet the scientists, farmers and governors coming together to develop new seeds to better handle climate change,
pests, and disease.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In Nigeria, seed engineering has emerged as vital when it comes to food security.
Here in Jos and across the country, potato farming has faced significant challenges. A fungal disease known as late blight can cause widespread
damage. And traditional low yield potato varieties meant making money at market was fraught with risk.
For Dr. Christian Nwadili, at the National Root Crops Research Institute, solving this problem has become a vocation.
CHRISTIAN NWADILI, CHIEF RESEARCH OFFICER, NATIONAL ROOT CROPS RESEARCH INSTITUTE: The way we did it is that each of these tables, you can see
table one, table two, table three and so on each of these tables is of a single variety.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Crossbreeding starts with identifying suitable parents. One might have strong natural resistance to pests, the other might
produce a better taste.
The seeds inherit genes from both parents and researchers test them in controlled environments where only the strongest survive.
NWADILI: We have introduced three different resistance genes from white potatoes into it and you can see there's no blight on any of them.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dr. Nwadili and his colleagues partnered with the African Agriculture Technology Foundation, the AATF. After years of
development, they've created several potato varieties with impressive results.
Together, they plan to release the new varieties to farmers in 2025.
JEAN BAPTISTE TIGNEGRE, AFRICAN AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGY: This new variety that (INAUDIBLE) resistance to this disease, it is expected that a lot of
farmers will come back to the growing of this new potato variety and they will also generate income that will help them improve their livelihood.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These bioengineered potatoes reduce reliance on chemical insecticides and have been shown to improve yields by up to 300
percent.
The AATF says they are committed to keeping the seeds affordable as more Nigerians work the fields and apply their trade in the agriculture sector
and as food insecurity becomes a greater threat, minor innovations can have a major impact.
CALEB MUTFWANG, GOVERNOR OF PLATEAU STATE: The success of that tissue culture lab is going to be a game changer in the farming of potatoes,
because it will help us to be able to produce quality potatoes that we can market anywhere in the world.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:50:51]
GOLODRYGA: Pope Francis took vital steps on sexual abuse within the church, but it didn't happen overnight.
Juan Carlos Cruz was abused as a teenager in Chile by a priest. Pope Francis initially dismissed the claims, calling them slander, that later
apologized before ordering every bishop in Chile to offer their resignation. From that moment on, Cruz and the Pope became close friends.
Over the years, Cruz has kept letters sent by the Pope, along with pictures. Cruz says the pair forged a, quote, magical friendship.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JUAN CARLOS CRUZ, CLERICAL SEXUAL ABUSE VICTIM FROM CHILE: He came down and he greeted me and said, Juan Carlos, how are you? I'm so glad I can meet
you.
And so we went to this room where we spent three and a half hours talking. And the first thing he said to me was, first of all, before we start, I
want to say sorry for what happened to you.
I mean, in the name of the church, I want to really say sorry.
And also sorry for what I said in Chile because I made it worse for you. So I really apologize.
And I said, thank you, Holy Father. You've -- thank you for being sincere. Thank you for being so good to me and to us.
And when he knew that I was hurt because the Cardinal had said that, you know, I was gay and I could have liked the abuse. And he said to me, look,
God created you this way. God loves you this way and you're fine.
And I love you the way you are and you should love yourself. And that was incredible too.
Ever since he later appointed me as his advisor and appointed me to the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. And this friendship
developed. And I started seeing him every month, twice a month, and he called me on the phone.
And, you know, we spent our birthdays together.
He and I developed this click, this friendship, and it was just magical.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: What a powerful story. Cruz hopes the church will follow Pope Francis' examples and values, noting a lot more still needs to be done, of
course, to root out abuses.
GOLODRYGA: That is a must-watch interview. I hope so many people get to see that openness, right? And the forgiveness.
ASHER: And the humility.
GOLODRYGA: Yes.
ASHER: Right, because he asked for forgiveness and he admitted what he did wrong and he apologized for it. And he ended up developing a friendship.
GOLODRYGA: So powerful.
ASHER: Right.
GOLODRYGA: Well, that does it for this edition of ONE WORLD. I'm Bianna Golodryga.
[12:55:55]
ASHER: I'm Zain Asher. Appreciate you watching. "AMANPOUR" is up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
