♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> john: welcome to "cbs evening news plus," i'm john dickerson. the change in immigration is one of the fastest moving parts of the first month of the trump

administration. speaking with the new chief of the u.s. border patrol in his first interview. haley ott is with european nato troops staging their largest live fire exercises of the year. just outside ukraine. and we travel to the arctic where this ice is thinning and the polar bears are struggling. our in-depth report on what we could face as the earth warms. those stories and more right after our news headlines. ♪ ♪ four black coffins were returned to israel today by hamas. two said to contain the remains of four year and 9-month-old siblings taken hostage with their mother shiri bibas more than 500 days ago. hamas is set to free six more living hostages on saturday. keith kellogg made with president zelenskyy in kyiv. zelenskyy called the meeting

kyiv, productive, a vague term but an upgrade from the recent exchange between the two sides. still, a press conference with the two men was abruptly canceled. after four decades in the senate, mitch mcconnell announced he will not run for reelection next year. the longest serving member and was one of the historically influential before turning over the reins to john thune last month. >> for the endurance of the senate. as an institution. ♪ ♪ we begin this evening with immigration. the u.s. border patrol says it apprehended just over 29,000 migrants in january. for illegally crossing the u.s.-mexico border. that's the lowest number since may 2020. so what is behind the drop in illegal crossings?

cbs's camilo montoya-galvez put that question to michael banks, the chief of the u.s. border control for his first interview. >> one of your main responsibilities of securing the border. what's the current state of the border and what does the data show? >> we want to gain operational control. in the prior administration, resources were depleted so right now we are trying to do is build back up our resources and capabilities on the border. we are moving in the right direction, we are moving well in the right direction, it's going to take some time for the border patrol to have our resources built back up where we can handle the border by ourselves. >> reporter: is there a legal way to seek asylum or is that no longer an option? >> at the border, in between the points of entry, no, you do not cross the border illegally and make an asylum claim. you can go to port of entry or one of the embassies in your country and make a claim for asylum. >> reporter: just not across the border.

the administration, specifically doge, have been making cuts to other federal agencies and the workforce, is that affecting your agency? >> it has not. border patrol -- we are not staffed at our congressional mandated staff. i can tell you last month we set a record for a recruitment goal of over 9,000 applicants that applied to the border patrol. >> reporter: you don't expect any cuts by doge to border patrol? >> hard to say what doge will or will not do, but i'd be surprised if doge felt that the u.s. border patrol was properly staffed. >> john: camillo joins us now. camillo, the people that are being apprehended, what's happening to them now? >> reporter: michael banks told us that his agency right

now as we speak, over the past seven days, that's a 94% drop from the same time when the agency was averaging about 4800 daily crossings. there has been a dramatic drop in terms of what's happening to them migrants that are still crossing illegally, well, the policy is to detain everyone who's entering the country unlawfully pending deportation to their home country or to nations like panama and costa rica which are now accepting deportees from africa and also asia. mike banks told us two people have been released from border control custody at the u.s.-mexico border since president trump took office, a striking number. >> john: thank you, camillo. advocates from those sickened by a toxic mass debris of 9/11 are calling on president trump to a immediately reverse cuts he made to the world trade center health program. the reductions made last week

were part of elon musk's part of department of government efficiency, or doge, which is cutting spinning eliminating jobs across the federal government. anthony gardner worked at the center, before he was fired. thank you for joining us. 20% of the staff was cut and i understand, what would the impact be on the 9/11 community? >> thank you for having me, john. yes, in the days and weeks ahead of the impacts can be significant. the clinics are operating where our responders and survivors get their care, but our program administers those contracts and those clinics and overseas and sets policy, approve certification so that those 9/11 responders have access to quality and timely care. so if that program staff is not whole, our responders and survivors are going to start to encounter delays with getting access to care. and that can be life and death for some people because let's say they are at the clinic and they get diagnosed with a stage

three breast cancer. well, the program team has to approve those cancer conditions in order to authorize that treatment. >> john: we talk to the department of health and human services. a spokesperson said in a statement, the world trade were not affected. patients are being seen by doctors and nurses at clinics. >> right, the clinics are operated, they are contractors of the federal health program. those are operating, but what's going to happen is in the weeks and months ahead, without the adequate program staff those members who are seeking treatment at those clinics, say mount sinai clinic here in new york, they are going to start to get delays because there is not the program staff on the back end to approve and authorize their medical certifications. >> john: last question. bipartisan support for this,

were you surprised at this? >> yes, the world trade center health program's congressionally mandated. i think we thought given the sacred mission that we have to provide care and health care to our 9/11 heroes that the program would be insulated from that. i personally, as a 9/11 family member, my brother was killed on 9/11 and spent the last two decades plus working on a range of 9/11 issues, care very much, very committed to this community. along with everybody who works at that program. this is not a job for these people, this is a calling and a mission. we want to really just urge president trump to take a closer look at this. reverse these cuts, make the program whole, protect it from further cuts as well. >> john: anthony, thank you so much for coming in. >> thank you for having me. >> john: in romania, nato's holding its largest combat exercises of the year. the drills come as european leaders are expressing rising concern over the military

alliance's future. amid trump shifting u.s. foreign policy. cbs's haley ott reports 10,000 soldiers from non-european countries are preparing for a war they hope never comes. >> romania southeastern border, timely training amid growing tensions. >> we are about 10 miles from ukraine where 10,000 nato personnel are participating in the alliances biggest exercise this year to show its rapid response capabilities on europe's eastern front. the united states is not here. it never planned to be part of these drills. but it's still very much in focus after president trump appeared to blame ukraine for the war sparked by russia's invasion. admiral stewart is the commander of nato's allied joint force navels which is in charge of the exercise. his other job as a commander in the u.s. navy. he found himself facing questions about the presidents messaging. >> do you think it's an

unprovoked invasion? why are you disagreeing with the president? thank you. >> nato consists of 32 countries. it's nato's position that it was unprovoked. >> reporter: the united states is one of those countries. the rest, apart from canada, are in europe with a defensive alliance has been integral to maintaining peace since its creation over 75 years ago. even from across the ocean, that peace has benefited the u.s. in areas like global security, trade, and deterring threats from adversaries like russia. but now, with the white house seeming to question nato's utility, european nato members are nervous. are you in an awkward position now because of what president trump has been saying, because of what the trump administration is saying? >> there are discussions going on. at the national level. there have not been decisions made. i'm executing the orders.

>> reporter: orders to keep working with allies to prepare for the worst in hopes of preventing it. haley ott, cbs news, romania. >> john: now, here are three things to know. today, six new york prison workers have been indicted on second-degree murder charges and four others on lesser charges in the death of robert brooks. the inmate who was beaten while handcuffed. the december beating was captured on body cameras. here's a novel approach for getting workers back in the office. cameo, which makes celebrity video greetings, is offering employees $10,000 to give more than a cameo appearance at their chicago office. the ceo says he believes and perks, not punishment. the creative team behind the james bond movies has been shaken up, not stirred. his siblings barbara broccoli and michael wilson have overseen a series for a decade but they've now entered a new joint venture that gives amazon mgm creative control of 0o7.

coming up on "cbs evening news plus." >> the artic is an indicator for me of what's to come. it's nature's way of telling us we need to do something. >> john: we head north to where the polar bear faces an uncertain future. ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ >> john: a new global assessment shows the world's glaciers are melting faster in the last ten years compared to the previous decade. polar bears, which depend on the frozen sheets, are increasingly under threat. our in-depth report tonight comes from cbs's erin hassanzadeh. taking us to canada's western hudson bay. >> oh, there you go. >> they are putting on quite a show for us today. >> reporter: here on the edge of the arctic, the annual migration of these polar bears draws tourists, photographers. >> they are play fighting. >> reporter: and scientists like geoff york. buggies traverse the frozen terrain bringing tourists closer to something wild. >> what were you expecting? >> to see polar bears.

>> looks like we have a mom and a 2-year-old. >> reporter: they pass through churchill, manitoba looking to catch a ride out of the tiny town on hudson bays sea ice. after a summer of fasting on land, the bears need to get back to their frozen homes to hunt seals and bulk up. but this migration ritual is changing. >> the arctic is one of the fastest warming regions on the planet. >> reporter: climate researchers say the arctic is warming nearly four times faster than the rest of the globe according to weather data. climate scientist flavio lehner says it's melting the sea ice bears depend on. >> it's a complete transformation of the ecosystem. >> reporter: the western hudson bay polar bears are off the ice. it hurts the hunting and the ability to have healthy cubs that make it to adulthood.

cutting the population to half in 40 years. >> it's hard to find places other than places that have been deforested where you see such a stark change. >> reporter: what happens in the arctic trickles down to all of us. >> if the ice disappears, the arctic will warm faster and the planet will warm faster. >> reporter: think of the ice as the earth's air-conditioner. it reflects light and without it the sun is warmed and warms our oceans. scientists say to slow the melting, we need to significantly cut emissions from fossil fuels. >> the arctic's an indicator for me of what's likely to come to all of us. it's nature's way of telling us we need to do something. >> reporter: a change that even the kings of the arctic are helpless to stop. erin hassanzadeh, cbs news. >> john: coming up next, an assessment of the diplomatic shifts taking place to end the war in ukraine. that's in tonight's interview.

>> john: the diplomatic dispute between president trump and ukrainian president zelenskyy regarding negotiations with russia upended national protocols and rattled u.s. allies in europe. "the economist" magazine captures it this way. the administration of trump and putin together for the cover of its european edition titled "europe's worst nightmare." for the interview, we turn to council on foreign relations senior fellow charlies kupchan. good to be with you again. if it's possible to give an assessment of a continent's worldview, what's your thinking right now? >> the word that comes to my mind is meltdown. the last ten days have basically been completely meltdown.

i was at the conference this past weekend. j.d. vance gives a speech where he where he more or less endorses the far right alternative for germany party that has links to neo-nazis. he then launches what i think is probably a needed effort to open a channel of communication to putin and have rubio, the secretary of state, meet the russian foreign minister. but there is no apparent strategy. there is no game plan. then, as you put it, over the last couple days, trump has been launching one insult after another at zelenskyy at a time where he needs to fashion a working relationship with him and strengthen zelenskyy's leverage when it comes to negotiations with russia. >> john: charles, if president trump is getting ready to cut a deal with russia -- putin, what would that look like and be the worst-case scenario for ukraine? >> we don't actually know what trump has in mind because there

is no game plan. nobody has actually articulated what it is that trump is aiming for. i think there's two different outcomes, one's acceptable and one is not. the acceptable outcome is the 80% of ukraine that is still controlled by ukrainians emerges as a free, sovereign, independent country that's charting a course into the european union and the west. trump may hold the line. he may be willing to throw ukraine under the bus to let putin have his way, which is to pull ukraine back into russia's sphere of influence. he won't have the ukrainians on board for that, he won't have the europeans on board for that, he may have putin onboard for that. let's see see how this plays out. >> john: charles, what could the europeans do to push back against president trump? do they have any cards they could play? >> they do, they do.

i think that trump does not want to go down in history as the president who lost ukraine. as a consequence, it's in his political interest to forge a deal that gets buy-in from the ukrainians and buy in from european allies. they are not going to sign of on a deal that leaves ukraine a ward of russia. if trump wants to win here and i think he does, an end to the war that leaves ukraine standing, he has to doing homework now with the ukrainians, the europeans to forge a consensus on what the deal looks like. >> john: 20 seconds left, the national security advisor said zelenskyy has to take a good hard look and seal the deal about billions in mineral rights for the united states. what your reaction to that? >> you know, ukraine's trying to stay afloat. ukraine will need billions of dollars in reconstruction assistance.

the last thing we need to do now is to tell them we'll support them only if we are going to start draining their coffers. it makes no sense. >> john: charlies kupchan, thank you so much. i guess what i'm looking for from you is, i mean, i know how the fire affected me, and there's always a constant fear that who's to say something like that won't happen again? that's fair. we committed to underground, 10,000 miles of electric line. you look back at where we were 10 years ago and we are in a completely different place today, and it's because of how we need to care for our communities and our customers. i hope that's true. [joe] that's my commitment. [ambient noise]

♪ ♪ >> john: on this day in 1939, 20,000 people attended a nazi rally at madison square garden.

months earlier, nazis in germany killed 100 million citizens and sent 30 million more to concentration camps. at the garden, american flags hung next to nazi flags the crowd roared. then a man rushed the stage. down with hitler, he yelled. brown shirts swarmed him. the crowd applauded him. his name was isadore greenbaum, a 28-year-old plumbers assistant from brooklyn. one person amongst thousands who believed he was not a person. they talked so much against my religion and there was so much persecution, i lost my head and felt it was my duty to talk. a duty to show moral courage and personal cost. nazism was not just a political position but a genocidal movement. don't you realize that innocent

people might have been killed? the judge asked. do you realize plenty jewish people might be killed with their persecution. nazis would systematically kill millions of jews. he served in the navy and worked as a fisherman in california. he died in 1997 remembered as a man who didn't shrink of the flurry of submissive straight arm salutes, but held up his palm to say stop. as for the man he interrupted on stage, "the new york times" obituary said he died poor and obscure. unheralded and unsung. that's tonight "cbs evening news plus." thank you for joining us, i am john dickerson. good night. ♪ ♪ right now on cbs news bay area, a san francisco treasure targeted by the trump administration. >> to see it sort of denigrated in some way is painful. >> we introduce you to the bay

area leaders who are firing back. >> this is unnecessary fear mongering. who can forget this? cars submerged, homes ruined when the floodwaters rushed in. >> when it comes all at one time, you got to be prepared. >> a milestone in the crucial work to protect people and their neighborhoods. awake during a three-hour surgery, meet the 15-year-old who stepped up to a huge challenge. >> if you can do this awake, it would really help them out and he was like okay. the kid was great. and the nba all-star game having a lasting impact on bay area boys and girls. >> i've never even imagined i would like go to the all-star game or high five steph curry. that's wild. >> the big assist for the group that's serving our community every day. from cbs news bay